- Andy's Newsletter
- Posts
- Adam Robinson spoke to 30 founders over the past six weeks about their BDR teams.
Adam Robinson spoke to 30 founders over the past six weeks about their BDR teams.
Andy Mewborn
September 28, 2023
Good morning to everyone who sends memes to stay in touch cause they got nothing to talk about sorry ☠️
Today’s edition is brought to you by Distribute - LEAD PAGES that even your grandma could build, fast.
😱 ANDY REACTS
Canada's Population Party: More Poutine, Please!
Guess who's back at it again y’all?
Zuck!
And he's all in on the metaverse express.
Coming soon to your reality... or should I say virtual reality?
The Quest 3 VR headset.
Dropping Oct 10.
And Zuck's wishing on every star in the galaxy it’ll overshadow Apple's goggles.
Price tag?
A neat $499.
Meta’s subtle way of saying, “Come on in, the metaverse is fine!”
And wait, there's more!
Meta's also flaunting some ChatGPT-esque AI goodies.
Oh, you think you've seen it all?
Try chatting with Jane Austen about Mr. Darcy.
Or vibing with Snoop Dogg about... well, anything!
Stickers, editing, and celeb chatbots.
It's like a digital carnival!
And Zuck’s playing the ringmaster.
So, tech titans and marketing magicians,
Remember:
In the ever-evolving world of digital,
Stay ready to dive into new realms.
Virtual or real, it’s all about the experience!
P.S. I'm just waiting for the day when my chatbot can SALSA dance off against Snoop Dogg's. Bring it, Zuck!
☠️ ANDY’S DEADLY DOODLES
Why adult when you can moo?
🌮TODAY’S FEATURED TEMPLATE
Nick Cegelski’s Exec-to-Exec Email Template
💀 Issue #100-and-something 💀
I’ve spoken to 30 founders over the past six weeks about their BDR teams.
I’ve spoken to 30 founders over the past six weeks about their BDR teams.
Here are the 7 most controversial (and surprising) things I learned:
1. 2023 finally broke the old BDR playbook
- Cold email, cadences & data are a fraction as effective as last year
- Inboxes are completely ruined as everybody sends the same crap to the same people (mine included)
2. Leaders are struggling with whether to keep underperforming but “profitable-ish” teams
- Profitability aside, there are negative cultural consequences of having teams who are pushing so hard and getting so little back
3. 1H23 created headwinds for ACV, making the calculation even harder.
- Companies are downsizing, purchasing less seats
- What used to be expansion revenue is now often contraction
- CFOs are telling vendors “cut software costs 30% across the board” on renewal
4. Many founders (like me) have eliminated BDR teams and pipeline generation hasn’t slowed
- This is a weird dynamic, but it happens sometimes in business
- We went from 14 to 4 salespeople and our growth rate accelerated
- We kept one BDR who is working low-hanging fruit (closed lost, missed demos, churns, etc)
- Great teams are lean, flooded with activity, and super happy
5. There are still channels that are working great… It’s just the “new playbook”.
- The future of selling is making yourself (or your team) an influencer
- Founder brand content is creating TONS of leads for our new B2B product
- Other founders are telling me the same thing
6. The “new playbook” is producing warmer leads with way fewer people (good), at the cost of losing predictability (bad).
- We're generating 25% fewer leads but a team of 66% fewer reps, and those reps are senior, motivated, amazing, etc, and we are closing 25% more ARR.
- I’m betting that this is the way of the future
- These types of super-lean businesses won’t even require VCs
- The problem is that this “founder brand” driven model can’t easily be modeled
- When the time comes to sell, this probably adversely affects enterprise value
7. Pipeline is everybody’s biggest problem, except for generative AI companies
- I can’t tell you how many times I heard this one, “My board/investors won’t let me do my job because they're fixated on pipeline”
- People are in desperate need of as many sources of high-intent, warm leads as possible
BDR used to be creating that pipeline…
In 1H23, it has failed, it is broken
My biggest takeaway from the last six weeks:
The Predictable Revenue model is dead.
Building an assembly line of BDRs who do the exact same thing that 100,000 other B2B SaaS companies do is not going to work anymore.
Start focusing on creating content that cuts through the noise.
Use that and other high-velocity demand gen tactics to power a super-lean, super fast inbound sales engine that will grow profitably and sustainably.
The next generation of unicorns won’t get built the way Salesforce did.
They’ll get built the “new way”.
⚰️ KILLER TOOLS
🪦 MUY BUENO MEME
What’s inside?
🍪 DEADLY DELIGHTS (FREE!)
Get the "10-10-1" in your inbox ☞ TRY IT
That’s a wrap for today amigos. Eat your tacos and see you tomorrow! If you want more, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@andymewborn) or LinkedIn.
What did you think of today’s edition? (anonymous)
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ So f**cking fuego
🌶️🌶️🌶️ Meh, keep digging
🌶️ Snoozefest
A RECENT REVIEW
ummmmm ok why am I just finding out about this masterpiece?
