8 ways to make 2023 your best year
I'm back!
Hey hey. I’m finally back!
Welcome to the new subscribers!
We just crossed 2k subscribers on the newsletter and almost 500 subscribers on YouTube.
So thank you so much for being part of this.
Not writing this newsletter from France anymore. Now, I’m writing from Mexico City, we just moved back here 3 weeks ago with my wife.
You may be wondering, why did I disappear for 2 months?
I got overwhelmed by this international move and my new role: Founding BDR at Castor.
So that’s why it took me 2 months to send another newsletter.
I’ll share more on this new role in the next newsletter, including how I found the job, my process, etc. (Now, I’m selling to a new buyer persona: data leaders)
Because that’s my first newsletter of 2023, let’s talk about some updates and how to have your best year.
Really excited to be back!
Quick update on the podcast and the rest:
In December, I published a podcast episode with Brad, Top Enterprise SDR at Cognism and I got great feedback from you, so I decided to do more. I already recorded 5 episodes with top SDRs from different industries and I’m really excited about those episodes.
Here are my goals for 2023:
Create the best content for SDRs: career: from getting started in tech sales to getting your promotion, enterprise prospecting, the future of SDRs, etc.
Interview top SDRs from different industries, not only SDRs that sell to sales or marketing leaders.
Launch my first product or service for SDR Game, don’t know what yet but we will see this year
[Need your help]
Feel free to share: what do you want me to create? Or stop doing? Want live events? More tactical tips?
What questions do you want me to ask top SDRs? What do you want to know about them or their processes? Let me know.
8 ways to make 2023 your best year
This piece contains 8 actionable tips to help you crush the year ahead—segmented into career, mindset, and prospecting.
3 categories: prospecting, mindset, and career.
Career
#1 Get on a team and a company that’s growing
I talked about this on the podcast: Happily Ambitious, the best move you can do instead of focusing on a specific role is to choose the right company.
You’ll grow with the company.
Set yourself up for success by getting on the right team where you can learn, build connections, and have opportunities to get promoted or work on exciting projects.
That’s the best move you can for your career.
#2 Self-development
If you think about this for your career. It'll help you speed up your learning curve and career.
Take ownership of your learning. Because the onboarding and training at your company are not enough if you want to grow.
How much do you spend per month on self-development?
What podcasts are you listening to? How often?
What you can do today?
Start listening to 30 Minutes to President's Club or to my podcast SDR Game.
Then take notes, and apply ASAP what you learned.
On my side, I spend between 100 and 200 euros per month: buying 1 book, and being part of Pavilion to learn on top of all the training I get at my roles.
#3 Talk to your peers
Talk with top performers from other companies that sell to the same buyer personas but who are not your competitors and you’ll find new ways or ideas to prospect.
For me: At Castor, I’m talking with SDRs from companies selling to the same buyer personas: Snowflake, Databricks, Looker, Fivetran, dbt, etc.
To learn about their process, what works for them, and what doesn't.
Their favorite books, favorite podcasts, etc.
Today: Add 5 SDRs from other companies and ask them if you can have a quick chat with them.
Bonus for this: you might get extra meetings with this, that’s how I booked my first meeting at Castor.
#4 Find mentors
Find someone ahead of you in your career.
Talk to someone who has already done the job but not 20 years ago.
You can have a mentor in career development, 1 in prospecting, 1 in closing, 1 in management, etc.
Depending on what you want to achieve in your career.
What can you do today? Reach out to 5 people in the job that you want to have. Example: SDR manager, SDR director, VP of sales, etc.
Mindset
#5 Know your numbers
In Q4, before the layoff at Chili Piper, we did a workshop on knowing your numbers with my team. At the end of the month, they had their best month ever.
I think this one is the one thing that’ll help you crush your year.
It’s knowing how many phone calls you need to make to get 1 meeting and then, to hit your quota.
I talked about this in these 2 newsletters already: How to hit your quota in Q4 easily and Goal setting: A guide to setting and achieving goals for SDRs
I also made a spreadsheet to help you with this: you can grab the spreadsheet here to hit your quota in March, and recorded a video to show you on you can use it, watch the video.
Prospecting
#6 Study your ICP & Buyer personas
The 1 thing that helps me perform as an SDR: be customer obsessed.
I use different things to do that:
Read G2 Reviews
Watch sales calls
Join their communities
Subscribe to newsletters
Listen to the same podcasts
Follow the influencers they follow
The goal with that is to learn:
the words they use
the problems they face and that our product solves.
What they care about
Their metrics, etc
To use it when I talk to prospects via email, LinkedIn, or on the phone.
Generally, I've never done the job of my prospects, so at least I need to understand their worlds and show it to them.
#7 Spend time with your company's top performers or AEs
Your top performers are a great resource to learn.
What you can do with them?
Talk with them.
Shadow them.
Study their process
Listen to their calls or recordings.
Spend 30 min with them per week and absorb as much as possible information.
Today: Reach out to your top performers and ask them for a 30 min chat.
Don't have a huge team or a top performer? Reach out to a top SDR from another company.
#8 Test your messaging & A/B tests
Something that I’m focusing on right now at Castor, because I’m new to the data industry, I need to figure out what resonates with our buyer personas.
Was trying things that at my previous roles worked but here don’t work.
So now I’m testing what I read on LinkedIn from Josh Braun, the team at Lavender, Christian Krause,
, or lately.🎧 New Podcast
#15: Data-driven SDR leader: how to use data from a leader & rep perspective, and how to choose the right accounts - Amanda Wilde, Senior Manager, Enterprise Sales Development at Loopio
#14: How to stand out with your resume & LinkedIn profile, and get your next job as an SDR - Jack Knight, Sr. Global BDR Manager at Fourth
#13: Top Enterprise SDR: time management, enterprise prospecting, cold calling, being relevant vs personalizing, top-down approach, and tips & tricks - Brad Norgate, Senior Enterprise SDR at Cognism
#12: How to coach, train, and mentor your SDR team to drive results in 2022 - Elric Legloire, David Bentham (Cognism), and Jared Robin (RevGenius)
#11: How to stand out from other applicants and get hired as an SDR, tips, resources, and 1 tip to ignore - , Director of Sales at Barley.
#10: Lessons of hiring 1000+ sales reps, Recruiting and hiring SDRs: the Cognism step-by-step process - David Bentham, Director, Sales Development @ Cognism
That's all for this Sunday.
And you? What are you doing this year, to make it your best year? Let me know by replying to this email or DM me on LinkedIn.
Quick Reminder: If you like my emails please do “add to address book” or reply.
See you next week.
Happy prospecting,
Elric
PS: Here're the 3 last issues if you miss them:
If you want to read the previous ones, you can here.