Sales Development Representative Training Outline

Troy Buckholdt

July 8, 2021

Are you looking to start your career as a sales development representative, aka SDR, or entry-level tech sales rep? One of the best ways to go about doing this is by getting sales development representative training.

Getting this relevant SDR training is what will allow you to differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other applicants who have some form of sales experience or just recently graduated college.

By getting this training you can even start your career as a sales development representative without experience or a degree. This is because companies highly value candidates who took the initiative to learn sales development and acquire the valuable skills that they’ll be using on a day-day basis.

Different Ways Acquire Sales Development Representative Training

There are multiple ways you can go about getting sales development representative training, but some are better than others. Here are the three main ways you can learn sales development.

Learn Sales Development Through Self- Education

The first way to learn sales development is by teaching yourself. This is normally done by learning from a variety of different resources.

You can learn sales development by piecing together books, articles, blogs, videos, courses, etc. This is what I did when I started my career in sales development at 18 years old without a degree or experience. This was very difficult since you have to figure out everything on your own and often waste a lot of time learning the wrong material. The reason I chose this route was there wasn’t really another good option at the time for someone looking to break into tech sales without a degree at 18 years old.

The biggest benefit of this method is that it’s nearly free other than the cost of the books. The biggest negative to self-education is that it takes substantially more time and is much harder to get the right SDR training than other methods.

Learn Sales Development Through a Bootcamp

The second way to learn sales development is by going through a Bootcamp. This is typically done in-person full-time or online very intensely for a couple of weeks or months. An example of this kind of Bootcamp for coding is General Assembly.

The way people learn through a Bootcamp is normally by having an in-person instructor teach classes to a group at a specific time each day. This normally looks similar to how a college class could be set up. Much of their time is spent learning the right information from an experienced instructor. This makes it a very efficient method for learning the basics.

The biggest benefit of a Bootcamp is that you are in a physical classroom with the instructor and other students. The biggest negative is that there is little flexibility requiring you to commit full-time and learn on their schedule. It’s also by far the most expensive option which could cost $5,000- $20,000.

Learn Sales Development Through an Online Course

The last way to learn sales development is through an online course. This is done online normally at the student’s own pace.

The way people learn through an online course is by watching/reading a series of information compiled together. The majority of the learning happens at the students’ own pace along with the guidance of an instructor and other students. This is the sales development training we put students through at CourseCareers

The biggest benefit to an online course is that you have all of the benefits of a Bootcamp along with additional flexibility and a much lower price. The biggest negative is that you don’t have a physical classroom to attend.

We only charge $499 for our entire course which is much less expensive than other options. It’s also lower cost than self-education when you consider the opportunity cost since we are able to get students jobs much more quickly than someone trying to self-educate. This means that students are able to land positions months quicker. At an average of $60,000 a year salary, this means starting your career 3 months sooner makes you an additional $15,000.

What You’ll Learn During Sales Development Representative Training

After starting my career in sales development at 18 years old, I was able to put together this in-depth course that teaches students everything they need to learn to land their first position as a sales development representative without experience or a degree.

The way I structured this course is by splitting it into five different sections starting with the fundamentals and working up to more advanced sales skills, then finally wrapping it up by teaching you how you can get your foot in the door with an internship and transition into a full-time SDR making $60,000 in your first year on average.

Here’s the outline of what we teach our students.

Sales Basics

People Skills. We start by teaching you the basics of how to deal with people since this is absolutely essential for being a successful sales development representative.

Sales Terminology. We then move on to teaching you all of the different sales terms you will be using as an SDR. This helps you have better flowing sales conversations and understand what your team is talking about during internal meetings.

Organizational Structure. At the core of being a successful sales development rep is being able to figure out how organizations are structured so you can target the correct person who has the ability to make a decision or influence a decision. We teach what an organizational structure is and how to identify the correct people.

Ideal Customer Profile. It’s very important to know what type of companies are a good fit to purchase your product or service. This is where an ICP comes into play. We teach you how to correctly put together an ideal customer profile to always be targeting the companies most likely to buy your product or service.

Buyer Persona. In the last section of sales basics we teach you about buyer personas. This helps you identify who the correct person at an organization is to target when reaching out. This is incredibly important since you don’t want to waste your effort trying to get in contact with someone who can’t make a decision or doesn’t care about what you’re selling.

Sales Process

Sales Cycle. A sales cycle is the core of making any sale. It’s the journey you take as a salesperson to get someone to go from knowing nothing about you to ultimately buying your product or service. We teach exactly what a sales cycle is and how to use different sales cycles.

Prospecting. As a sales development representative your main job is going to be prospecting which is finding new companies to buy what you’re selling. You can’t be a successful SDR without knowing how to prospect successfully.

Sales Cadence. The way you go about prospecting as an SDR is where a sales cadence comes in. It gives you a framework for how you can reach out to people at your ideal companies to get an initial conversation going.

Sales Methodology. Once you’ve had an initial conversion with a prospect you’re going to need to use some sort of sales methodology to build up the interest around your product and ultimately turn that prospect into a customer. This is where sales methodologies such as SPIN or Sandler become essential.

Sales Technology

CRM. The core technology you’ll be using as an SDR to keep track of all of your prospecting efforts is a CRM. We teach you the basics of two of the most widely used CRMs which allow you be qualified to work at the majority of companies hiring SDRs.

Sales Engagement. Sales engagement software is used to improve the productivity of your prospecting efforts. It allows you to be more efficient with your time and be more effective with your messaging. We teach you how to use the most popular sales engagement softwares on the market, making you up to date with the latest technologies.

Sales Data. As a sales development representative, you’re going to need tons of data to do your job. You need to know which companies to target, which contacts, and the exact contact information of each buyer persona. If you want to stand out with your outreach, then you might even want to find personalized relevant information about the company or contact before reaching out. We teach you the most widely used sales data platforms to give you all the information you need to be successful.

Sales Skills

Research Steps. A very large amount of your time is going to be spent doing research. This could even be your entire job as an SDR intern. This means you need to know exactly how to perform the best research to identify the correct companies based on your Ideal Customer Profile and contacts based on your Buyer persona. We teach you everything you need to know about performing great research.

Outreach Strategy. There are multiple types of strategies when performing your outreach. We teach you all the different methods and how to execute each one properly.

Messaging. Your messaging as an SDR will play a huge part in determining your success. We teach you how to develop a hypothesis of need to use the best possible messaging to intrigue your prospects.

Cold Call Outreach. You can’t expect to be a successful SDR without knowing how to cold call. We teach you everything you need to know about cold calling companies from the ground up.

Cold Email Outreach. Just like cold calling you need to know how to send great cold emails that get responses. We give you the specific framework top SDRs are using to write great cold emails every day.

LinkedIn Outreach. LinkedIn has become one of the best platforms for sales development reps to connect with their prospects. Nearly all professionals have a LinkedIn profile and many of the decision-makers you’re going after are active on LinkedIn. We teach you how to use LinkedIn to enhance your outreach and generate meetings.

Discovery Qualification. Once you’ve gotten in touch with your prospect and set up a meeting, the next step is to do discovery. This is where you learn more about the needs of your prospect and how your solution can solve their problems. We teach you how to execute a great discovery call and qualify if the prospect is a good fit for your solution.

Internship Prep

LinkedIn Profile. Once you’ve gone through our sales development representative training, then we help get you job-ready. We start by giving you guidance on creating and improving your LinkedIn Profile.

Resume. We also help teach you how to create an SDR resume that recruiters and hiring managers want to see.

Google & Social Media Presence. Don’t look bad on the internet! We show you how to clean up your google and social media accounts to give yourself a professional image.

Interview Outreach. We personally give you 1 on 1 guidance when applying to our partner companies or any company of your choosing as an SDR intern.

Interview Practice. We make sure you’re ready for your SDR interview by teaching you common sales development interview questions and the best way to respond to them.

Internship Success. In this last part of our course, we teach you how to transition from an intern into a permanent SDR where you should make $60,000 in your first year on average.