How CB Insights uses Outreach to help WFH SDRs stay on track

It's been several weeks of working from our kitchen tables, guest bedrooms, and (very) cozy apartments, and some of us have settled into a new daily rhythm that works, while others are still trying to figure it out, and that's ok.

When the going gets tough, the tough turn to their community for support and advice. At least, we do. We reached out to our friends and customers to share their best practices for #remotelyfe processes selling in a COVID-19 world. James Semmonella, Sales and Business Development Manager at CB Insights, tells us how he is leveraging Outreach, staying motivated, and motivating his sales development team while working remotely.

What Outreach features are you leaning on to manage your sales team while working from home?

The Team Performance Dashboard, which highlights top-and middle-of-the-funnel activity (from the SDR productivity standpoint), has become paramount in managing the team remotely. It allows us to stay on top of all activities that we believe drive more opportunities for the business, and ensures the SDRs are continuing to produce and stay on top of their leads and accounts. In particular, the Active Prospects and Prospects Added fields are the ones we are paying the closest attention to.

Prospects Added allows us to see if our SDRs are constantly adding to the top of the funnel, which to me is the most simple "input = output" metric that drives meetings. The more you add to the top, the more that comes out the bottom. Without that feature, or knowing that information, it would be very difficult to understand who is consistently increasing their ability to drive more outputs and setting themselves up for success.

The Active Prospects field plays a large role here as well, helping me understand how many leads or contacts our SDRs have in Sequences at a time. We require that every SDR have a minimum number of prospects who are being contacted in some way. That number, of course, differs from SDR to SDR and business to business, but I highly recommend having minimums for both Active Prospects and Prospects Added.

The other metrics you can see on Outreach's Team Reports dashboard are your more typical ones, like calls and emails, which we monitor closely. Again, we have minimum requirements here to ensure the prospects in the funnel are receiving multiple touch points.

Finally, there is one simple tool that we have been leveraging more so now that we are remote: Snippets. Quite often, our team shares templates with each other for different personas, ICP's, industries, etc; however, with the growing number of similar objections during this time, shorter Snippets have played a big role. We recently created some language around handling objections related specifically to the virus and prospects not being in the office, as well as initial messaging strategies. This couldn't be done without the Snippets function.

To sum up, the Team Reports functionality has single handedly enabled us to understand the whole picture of our reps' productivity, and Snippets have allowed us to share shorter outreach strategies across the whole team.

How are you staying healthy and motivated?

Still trying to figure that one out! A lot of walks outside, home-cooked meals, and keeping my days similar to my typical days in the office as much as possible: waking up at the same time, getting dressed for work, etc. helps. And, of course, at the end of the day we still have goals to meet. It's all about mindset and having a willingness to do whatever it takes to get it done.

And how are you motivating your team?

We have morning standups, via video, where each SDR sets a goal for themselves for that day. Then in the next morning's standup, we report back to hold everyone accountable. We also share tips during these standups and any success stories that SDRs had the previous day.

Also, we send a daily recap at the end of each day that shows how the team as a whole did in terms of activity, meetings booked, meetings occurred, and shouting out any specific wins as well. This creates transparency into how everyone is doing and it highlights those who are standing out.

Lastly, we implemented daily and weekly competitions around the metrics we are paying closer attention to during this remote time. For example, we have a daily SDR MVP award--nominated by the SDR managers--for a rep who is exemplifying what needs to be done, going above and beyond, and truly standing out.

P.S. Check out our other blog articles on managing a remote sales team, selling in a COVID-19 world, the Outreach Career Board for open sales positions, and our favorite podcast episodes right now.