SDR >>> Harvard

Today at a Glance:

• WELCOME 👋

• Why you’re here 👀

• Who we are 👾

• Explaining why I think the SDR role is awesome using some clips from Harry Potter, the Acquired Podcast, and a TED Talk 🏋️

• What this distro is going to be used for 👑

WELCOME

If you’re reading this you’re probably in some type of sales role and you’ve probably had a conversation with either myself (Andrew Wilkins) or my business partner (Braydon Young).

Seeing as I’ve only ever posted on here once before, I wanted to take a quick second to explain why you are on this distro, who I am, and what we are going to be using it for.

Why Are You Here?

First off, the reason you are getting this email is most likely because either Braydon or I (or both of us) really enjoyed our conversation with you and think you embody the traits of a TopSDR. Whether you are actively looking for a new role, are starting to explore a change, or even if you’re completely satisfied in your current job we are always trying to connect with the best sales development reps out there.

Who Are We?

My name is Andrew Wilkins and I run TopSDRs alongside my business partner Braydon Young.

I absolutely love the SDR role. I think it is the best gateway to entrepreneurship, company leadership roles, and honestly just a prosperous life in general (Howard Schultz founder of Starbucks would agree!).

For context, I graduated from Harvard in 2019 and worked at Barclays for 2.5 years before quitting to become an SDR at a 15-person startup. After a year of hammering the phones, adding 200+ ppl/week on LinkedIn, and writing ridiculously personalized emails, I was hired by the co-founder of Flexport as the first employee at his new startup. While there I helped build out the sales team and learned a ton about hiring, training etc.

Across all of these experiences, I genuinely think my experience as an SDR was the most valuable of them all (including 4 years at Harvard 😂 ).

The thing is, being an SDR teaches you real skills. Anyone can sit in a classroom and write an essay or sit behind a desk until 2:00 AM crunching numbers in a spreadsheet. Yes, those things are hard in their own way, I’m not denying that, but being an SDR requires really putting yourself out there. The other things I mentioned have safety nets built in. Your professor is there to read your essay drafts, your associate will help you sort out any #REF! errors that may be popping up. In short: you may stumble a bit, but nobody is going to let you fall flat on your face.

The same cannot be said as an SDR. Being an SDR reminds me of this scene in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire when they enter the maze. The music stops. The mentors are gone. Nothing is left but a daunting maze filled with viscous magical beings wanting to kill you…or in an SDR’s case: objections, gatekeepers, and UNSUBSCRIBE messages. Being an SDR teaches you what you’re made of. It forces you to check your ego at the door and to learn how to keep pushing forward despite failing 95% of the time. It gives you no choice but to be honest with yourself about whether what you are doing is actually working or not. Anything that sounds good, but doesn’t work is quickly weeded out. There is no room for BS. Very simply, being an SDR teaches the skills necessary for a successful career in business. It lets you get up close and personal with rejection and in doing so shows you that rejection isn’t as scary as you may have once thought. And why does this matter? How does this lead to a more prosperous life overall? Well, more often than not, the most successful people are also the people who have failed the most (good TED Talk on that HERE). So if you can learn to fail and keep going over and over and over again there is no limit to what you’ll be able to accomplish. And THAT is why I love the SDR role.

What Is This For?

This is a distro intended to do two things:

1. Share available opportunities at growing companies with our network of top-tier SDRs

   —> we currently have four available. 3 that start part-time (2 hours per day) with the goal of going full-time within 90 days and one straight to full time. I’ll send another note next week with more info on those, but feel free to email me [email protected] if you want more info before that

2. Share success stories and learnings from reps who have gone on to get huge promotions to team lead, AE etc.

Thanks for your time today and have a great Friday!