I was a guest on the demandDrive podcast. Click below for more information.

https://www.demanddrive.com/podcast/importance-of-coaching-for-sdrs

5 Questions with Davidson Hang

🧑‍🏫 The Importance of Coaching for SDRs

A lot of managers think they’re good coaches. But very few are actually impacting the success of their team from a coaching perspective.

Why? What’s holding managers back from adding an effective coaching cadence to their responsibilities? Davidson helps shed some light on the differences between coaching and managing and where most teams fall short.

Managing and Coaching SDRs are two distinct, equally important, roles.

We all know what managing looks like – reinforcing core skills, ensuring reps update their CRM, reviewing pipeline…the things that make the sales development engine hum.

Coaching, however, looks a bit different. And while managers are often tasked with coaching, the responsibilities of a coach go beyond just making the engine hum.

🎓 They’re developing internal learning material (courses, workshops, training programs)

🧠 They’re helping reps upskill and improve upon core competencies

📈 They’re offering up time for professional development

In short, they’re looking to improve on the existing engine. How much faster can it go? Where can you tighten up inefficiencies? What parts do you need to ensure it keeps running?

Our guest, Davidson Hang of Udemy, knows a thing or two about effective coaching.

He’s mentored SDRs and helped them land AE positions. He’s interviewed hundreds of top sales reps. And he works with leaders every day to transform & scale their organizations through access to digital coaching.

Tune in to learn about the value of coaching, where it differs from managing, and how to unlock the potential of your SDR team.

 

Biggest Takeaways

🎭 Interpersonal skills. Office politics. Call it what you like, but how you’re perceived in the workplace is a huge determining factor in your overall success. Coaches are a great resource to lean on when working on building out your personal brand/persona. Nobody wants to work with someone they don’t like or respect.

🧠 Some great advice from Kyle Coleman @ Clari: “Be easy to root for.” Coaches can help prepare you mentally to be the type of person people like and want to help.

👀 We have blind spots. And that normally materializes in thinking that issues you face are always outside of you/your control. But the common theme with those issues is you. Not that you’re flawed in a way that causes bad things to happen, but that you might be blind to the ways in which you’re negatively impacting your life.

Coaching helps you realize that you can/should be 100% responsible for the things in your life. And once you realize that, you can start to make the changes required to improve them.

📢 Coaching is confronting. No matter what school of thought your coach takes, at the end of the day they’re telling you what you need to change about yourself/your habits. And they can do that because they have an unbiased, 30,000-foot view whereas you’re just the “fish in a fishbowl.”

👍 Convinced that you need a coach, or that you should be a better one for your reps? Davidson lays out some great resources to leverage:

• Look for people on LinkedIn that inspire you, or you want to be like one day. Connect and talk with them! Be proactive about reaching out to people.

  • Take the plunge and be vulnerable. You do that every day as an SDR anyways – why not do it for your own personal development?

• Talk with your cross-functional peers. Have coffee chats about what they do on a daily basis. Your internal resources are an untapped wealth of knowledge for you. It’s a great career development hack.

  • The higher up they are, the nicer they are. Coffee chats with your CRO or VP of Sales might sound intimidating, but they’re usually happy to help someone who has career & growth aspirations on their (indirect) team.

coaching