{"id":5360,"date":"2018-12-06T14:49:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T13:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=5360"},"modified":"2025-01-21T10:25:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:25:48","slug":"woodpecker-business-development-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/woodpecker-business-development-team\/","title":{"rendered":"A day in the Life of a SaaS Business Development Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

A business<\/span> development team is a crucial element of a SaaS<\/span> company<\/span>. It plays an important role in business<\/span> growth and revenue generation. Let\u2019s take a look at the backstage of their job.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve prepared this post in collaboration with Yurii Veremchuk<\/a>, the Head of Woodpecker Business Development Team, who shared some first-hand insights into the day-to-day work of his team and the challenges they face, described the tools that improve their efficiency, and gave his advice for B2B<\/span> sales<\/span> newbies.<\/p>\n

How does a typical day in a SaaS business development team look like?<\/h2>\n

The key to smooth and effective workflow is a clearly established process. It should be quantifiable in order to measure and analyze the results. It\u2019s important to know what you\u2019re trying to achieve by your actions. Always have the overall goal in mind. Set up a timeframe for the implementation of your ideas.<\/p>\n

Plan your next steps in detail and make sure all your team members are on the same page and understand what and when needs to be done as well as the main goal from the business<\/span> growth perspective. The employees feel more engaged when they see the impact their work has from a bigger picture view.<\/p>\n

Treat the process as a work in progress and be ready to improve it over time. Technology development, business<\/span> growth, new trends – all that has an impact on your workflow.<\/p>\n

In Woodpecker<\/span> we devote the first hour of our working time entirely to answering emails we received overnight from the prospects who live in different time zones. Reply time plays a key role in outbound sales<\/span>. We need to strike while the iron is hot and turn prospects’ attention into a business<\/span> dialog.<\/p>\n

After that, we gather together for a short weekly meeting. The way we manage our projects in the outbound team has the elements of SCRUM methodology. We set the goals for the upcoming week that are in line with the annual targets for the team and company<\/span>. We portion bigger projects into smaller chunks. Approaching complex tasks with small steps is more effective for us.<\/p>\n

We also discuss last week’s achievements, draw conclusions from every little success or mistake, and give each other constructive feedback. If the goal for last week was not achieved we try to identify the reason and look for ways of improvement.<\/p>\n

A very important element of our workflow is writing down all the tasks on colorful sticky notes attached to a whiteboard. Each sticky note represents one task. Each task is assigned to an individual team member. Once the task is finished, it\u2019s moved to the \u201ccompleted\u201d section.<\/p>\n

How do you share work in the team?<\/h2>\n

The team consists of 4 persons: 3 BDRs and the Head. What does BDR stand for? It’s short for Business Development Representative. BDRs’ tasks include doing the research, prospecting, personalization or co-building the sales<\/span> strategy. In Woodpecker<\/span> each member of the team is assigned to his own set of tasks within a process they specialize in.<\/p>\n

Team leader oversees the work and coordinates the most demanding project. We put a lot of effort into lead generation. We try to make it as effective as possible, so we focus mainly on reaching out to prospects who match our ICP.<\/p>\n

Team leader discusses the best strategy with an SDR. Together they create a customer journey matrix and determine the best way to reach out to that specific group of prospects.<\/p>\n

What is your role as the Head of Business Development?<\/h4>\n

I make sure that every team member has the possibility to develop their skills and achieve their own professional goals. During individual meetings, we discuss their priorities and professional aspirations.<\/p>\n

Also, my role is to inform the team about business<\/span> growth plans on a company<\/span> level and long-term sales<\/span> strategy. I provide the team with a broader context for the upcoming projects and initiatives.<\/p>\n

Who are your target prospects?<\/h2>\n

Our ideal customers are SaaS<\/span> companies<\/span>, lead generation agencies, software houses, fast-growing start-ups, and consulting companies<\/span>. We\u2019ve noticed that they benefit the most from using a cold-email<\/span> outbound approach.<\/p>\n

We focus on generating worldwide interest, but we mainly target the prospects from Central and Western Europe, USA and Canada. The size of a company<\/span> doesn\u2019t really matter for us. We have solo entrepreneurs as well as companies<\/span> with 500+ customers onboard.<\/p>\n

Higher position usually implicates the decision-making power, so we typically reach out to Head of Sales<\/span>, Business<\/span> Development leaders, VP of sales<\/span>, Heads of Growth or CEOs of small startups. They are most aware of the pain points and needs of their team as well as have the necessary resources.<\/p>\n

Tips on creating the Ideal Customer Profile based on our experience<\/h4>\n

When you try to define your Ideal Customer Profile, think about the companies<\/span>, which are most likely to succeed using your product or service. If they can achieve their desired results thanks to the solution you offer, they will become your loyal customers. Only when they feel that your product adds value to the development of their company<\/span>, they will stay with you for a long time. Once you define your Ideal Customer Profile, you will be able to target your outbound email<\/span> campaigns at the right prospects with better results from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious how we made the first attempt at defining our ICP, go ahead and read this post >><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the end of the story, though. You need to keep your ICP up to date as your company<\/span> develops. The ICP evolves with it. Your client base grows and becomes more diversified. Make sure to organize regular meetings with team leaders in order to rework your ICP according to the changes in your customer base.<\/p>\n

Thoroughly analyze customer data. Sales<\/span> team plays a crucial role in this process, but only in cooperation with the marketing team, customer success team and even the product development team, it\u2019s possible to get a full picture of the traits and characteristics of your ICP. In Woodpecker<\/span>, we put substantial effort into getting as much information about our customers as possible in order to draw conclusions and target look-alike companies<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Learn about our data-driven approach to keeping our Ideal Customer Profile up-to-date >><\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve gone beyond internal discussions and, in order to gather first-hand data, we scheduled interviews with some of our best customers. We\u2019ve learned a lot about their business<\/span> priorities and experience with using Woodpecker<\/span>. There were 65 interviews in total. The conclusions we drew let us validate or invalidate the hypotheses we had about our ICP. Additionally, we\u2019ve deepened our relationships with the customers and let them meet people behind Woodpecker<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Read how we made that happen and what we have learned >><\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a SaaS startup that has just kicked off and you only have a vague idea of who your ideal customers may be, analyze the types of companies targeted by your competitors. Start from there and rework your Ideal Customer Profile with time.<\/p>\n

Where do you look for new prospects? What B2B sales prospecting tools do you use?<\/h2>\n

Creating a contact list that is rich in valuable, up-to-date information is a very time-consuming and, let\u2019s be honest, mundane task. Plus, to keep the pipeline full, you constantly need to look for fresh prospects. Fortunately, technology comes to rescue. Prospect list building tools save hours of our time by automating the process, so we can focus our attention on planning out the campaigns and polishing up the strategy.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve tried out around 11 B2B sales prospecting tools so far including SellHack<\/a>, FindThatLead<\/a>, Quickreach.io<\/a>, and UpLead<\/a> among them. We assess their functionalities and post the reviews on Woodpecker blog<\/a>. Finding well-targeted prospects to contact is crucial for starting valuable business dialogs. We hope our reviews will help other companies chose the most suitable prospect list building solution tailored to the needs of their business.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we research Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter to find the decision-makers working in companies that meet our criteria to whom we direct the messages. We use the data gathered to personalize cold emails and follow-ups with customized snippets.<\/p>\n

What other tools does the business development team use on a daily basis?<\/h2>\n

Cloud tools help us improve and speed up many processes for better efficiency.<\/p>\n

We use Google docs to draft email copies and other content, like internal procedures and playbooks. It\u2019s a good solution for teams because docs can be co-edited in real-time instead of exchanging emails with attachments back and forth.<\/p>\n

Slack is the main communicator for our team members, but also for the whole company. We use various channels in order to organize the conversations and not to lose track of things. Each team has its own channel to discuss current projects and ad hoc topics. There are also some company-wide channels for announcements or general discussions.<\/p>\n

Basecamp helps us structure the projects and divide the tasks on a company level. We use it when we cooperate with other teams on some projects. Let’s say we\u2019re working on a new project and need the marketing team\u2019s assistance in creating an email copy for a new campaign. We assign the task to a copywriter in Basecamp with a short description, so both parties are on the same page.<\/p>\n

We use Zoom for webinars, demos or video meetings with the customers.<\/p>\n

And of course, quite obviously, we use Woodpecker to send cold email campaigns to the prospects. It\u2019s the heart of our operations.<\/p>\n

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