Hello, all first-time readers! Welcome to the Zohort story 🙂
Zohort is a digital SaaS sales platform that helps people transition from non-SaaS to SaaS sales, also known as software sales or tech sales. This happens through a 6-week intense training program wherein you go through “B2B SaaS sales fundamentals”. Once you graduate from the program, you get into the placement process at Zohort’s partner companies.
All firsts are very special to kick start the series of Zohort stories. We have Abhinandan Pandey, our first-ever Zohort graduate, working with Alma Base as an SDR. Let’s dive into the details of the first Zohort story with Richa Bahl, Co-Founder of Zohort.
Abhinandan’s life before SaaS.
Abhinandan doesn’t come from a SaaS background; He used to work in the gaming industry in the content marketing team.
- At that time, he was exploring SaaS and looking for a way to break into the industry as an SDR.
- He joined the Zohort program hoping to transition his career as a software sales specialist, and here he is today, working with Almabase as an SDR.
Abhinandan’s point of view on SaaS sales or SDR profile.
“The SDRs profile depends on its sales processes and the company.”
Some companies are very inbound heavy, while others focus on outbound cold calls. There are quite a few opportunities that mix both and give the most exposure to channels you use to reach prospective customers.
As an SDR, you might have to make 80-100 calls in a day, while on the other hand, you might use LinkedIn and Email outreach as equally important channels to reach prospective customers.
So, essentially to give a brief understanding, Abhinandan said you should have a creative mind and know who you’re selling, who you’re talking to, and be able to build out emails that the person will not just throw away or delete. You should be able to strike a conversation when you call somebody. You must be able to call them and strive for a conversation that catches their attention.
The most important thing in this role is discipline and the ability to brush off wins and losses; you can get carried away easily that you hit a quota last month and next month, not hit it just because you think that you hit it last month, you’ll do it again; you get demotivated, that you don’t hit, so as easily you should brush off your losses, you should also brush off your wins and be disciplined and consistent.
Abhinandan’s day-to-day life and a key area where he focused.
Abhinandan usually starts his day with a bit of prospecting and a cup of coffee:
- He spends about an hour or two just looking up new accounts, seeing who to reach out to next, and figuring out what sort of message he should have, what sort of personalization he should add to the emails, and he makes notes of that.
- Then he starts going over his inbox to see what responses he got from the previous day or any email he sent out in the past. Sketching up a previous outreach and planning the next, he has call blocks and calendar blocks for the right time to call them, and to do that, send out and complete the task on the CRM, like sending out emails.
What kind of opportunities are there in SaaS sales?
According to Abhinandan, when you have enough experience, normally, an SDR moves on to either an SDR manager or an AE role, a closing revenue, not setting meetings, so it’s a different world. In contrast, an SDR manager role is more like you want to enable the SDR team and help them hit their quota and help them to manage their pipeline for the pipeline.
It’s like a different career path if you want to go like a VP or CRO. AE path is better if you want to be the people manager more quickly than the VPR manager. You can also go into other roles like marketing or customer success. SDRs are usually the industry’s talent pool, so moving on to any role is easy. But typically, the two paths are either an AE or SDR manager.
Point of view about the industry in terms of opportunity pool.
According to him, it’s great; the economic condition is not good; even then, the SaaS is in a good place and will only keep rising. It’s going to be like that for at least the next 10-15 years, and he dont see that changing.
Abhinandan’s experience with Zohort?
“It was good; it was really good, especially the assignment. And it was quite practical, not just theoretical within there was a theory side is going to build your so both are necessary to get a job, so you’re tested for your aptitude for the industry, you’re tested for your hard skills like writing emails and being able to call. It was nice to have a peer group around you who are also shooting for the same role having the same ideas, and improving that way. Overall experience was great. Kartik and Rahul were amazing teachers; their energy was infectious”. As Abhinandan states.
Advice from Abhinandan for freshers looking to start their careers in SaaS.
Having clarity is the most important part. Knowing what you want will enable you to get what you want because you will also discover. How clear are you about the role that you want? If that is not clear, it’s also not safe for them.
He suggests if an SDR role is what you’re looking for, then reach out to current SDRs, reach out to him or reach out to anyone any company you are targeting, message their SDRs, connect with them, chat with them, understand what their goal was when they got into the role were, how they are doing now, and see if that something that you want. Foresee yourself in that position by talking to these people and thinking, will I be happy if I put myself in that position?
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