Employee Spotlight With Natalie Archer: SDR to AE in 1 Year

“I believe success is achieved by ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”

— Zig Ziglar, American author, salesman, and motivational speaker

We’d have to agree with Zig on this one—it takes a lot of determination to be successful. That being said, it takes a lot of other things too, like passion, grit, and perseverance to name a few. Success in the sales world is no exception. We sat down with one of Abstrakt’s very own, Natalie Archer, to learn more about how she went from a Sales Development Representative (SDR) to an Account Executive (AE) in just one year. Read more about her personal success story below.

Natalie obviously did something right in her role to move up so quickly, but what was it exactly? First, let’s define what her two roles entailed. An SDR is an inside sales representative who uses different prospecting strategies to engage with leads and schedule appointments for AEs. An AE then takes that appointment and delivers a more detailed, refined sales pitch to try and close a deal.

As an SDR, Natalie was scheduling pitches for AEs so that Abstrakt could acquire new customers. Her role as an SDR certainly prepared her for a role as an AE, but the hard work and determination were still there. Straight from the A Player herself, here’s how she did it:

An SDR talks a lot. They spend hours every day cold calling prospects and engaging with leads to set appointments. For many, this day-to-day process becomes mechanical and unilateral, but the reality is that you can’t treat lead generation as a one-way street. In order to turn the best leads into warm leads, you have to understand who the prospect is, what their goal is, and how your service can impact them in a substantial way.

For Natalie, active listening was one of the biggest things that set her apart as an SDR. She understood that each prospect’s needs were unique and that they each needed a business growth strategy tailored to their company. If your sales pitch sounds like a sales pitch, chances are you’re doing it wrong. Have a conversation with your prospects, listen closely, and find a unique way to make your services sound like a must-have for that particular prospect.

As an SDR, you get told “no” a lot—it’s part of the job. Someone new in the role might especially hear rejections a lot. Allowing yourself to learn and grow from failure is what sets a good SDR apart from a great one. A great SDR sees mistakes as a chance to learn and stays hungry for their next opportunity.

In the SDR role, Natalie was determined to be successful and kept her eye on the prize. It can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day work sometimes, but the end goal kept her focused. She wanted to deliver quality leads to the AEs, so she embraced failure as a chance to learn and celebrated her successes along the way.

While the goals of an SDR and an AE are completely different, they’re still both sales roles. And there are plenty of lessons learned as an SDR that directly apply to being an AE. Think of it as a pyramid, with the SDR role being the foundation, and all other roles building up from that experience. For Natalie, her transition between roles was nearly seamless based on what she had applied from her previous SDR position:

To be an Account Executive, you need to be prepared to go in depth with clients. An SDR position prepared Natalie by giving her the tools she needed to be confident in pitching to prospects, and with a strong foundation she was able to take off quickly as an AE. The knowledge she had acquired over the past year by listening, remaining determined, and having a consistent process quickly made her a standout SDR. Instead of treating each job separately, she saw a clear plan for growth for herself and used the knowledge she was gaining to work toward the next step in her career.

No one ever said being an SDR was easy, but the rewards are worth it and the potential for growth is huge if you’re determined enough to get there.

We feel lucky to have had a front-row seat to watch Natalie’s journey, but we have a feeling she won’t be our last success story. We’re in the business of growth—not just growing businesses, but growing people, too. We hope you can use these tips in your own journey and set yourself up for success and career growth.

Interested in sales jobs in our St. Louis office? Check out open positions here.

Or, if you’re interested in speaking with an Account Executive at Abstrakt about our B2B lead generation services, book a meeting.