The sales development job is one of the hardest in SaaS. It can be tedious and chock-full of rejections.
But with any difficult job, knowing that your hard work is being appreciated goes a long way. This is what BDR appreciation week is all about! Taking the time to give back to our XDRs.
Now how do we do this successfully when we’re 100% remote? Below is a list of ideas to help your team show appreciation to your BDRs during appreciation week.
1. A Shoutout On LinkedIn and Gift Nomination
One of the easiest ways to show your appreciation to BDRs/SDRsis to give them a public shout. We may not have gongs or bells in the office anymore, but we all have an enormous platform to give our XDRs the recognition they deserve.
Post on LinkedIn, tag your top BDRs, and share how they make a difference to your prospects and organization. If you use #bdrappreciationweek on your post, you will also be able to nominate up to 3 BDRs for one of the dozens of first-come-first-serve gifts from Alyce and 6sense.
You don’t have to stop at a public post. Another amazing way to show appreciation on LinkedIn is to take the time to write reviews for your XDRs. Their peers, recruiters, and prospects all read these reviews, and it may help their career enormously in the long run.
2. Cameo
A celebrity showing through Cameo can be SO fun. But also consider being a cameo yourself to your team!
Last year during BDR appreciation week, multiple executive leaders from throughout the org made the time and effort to reach out and celebrate the 6sense BDR team. Our VP of Engineering hosted a lunch at SalesForce Park and our CMO hosted dinner.
The most important thing here isn’t necessarily the free food (though we all love free food), but it’s the effort from leaders to make time to talk to their BDR team. Leaders can answer questions about their career trajectory, share whether they were themselves a BDR at some point and their experiences, and connect with BDRs, especially those that have joined after quarantine.
So, stop by the next BDR Zoom huddle! A simple direct thank you goes a long way.
3. Team Events
Without happy hours at the establishment down the street and other fun in-person activities (lots of karaoke in 6sense’s case), organizing fun team events for BDR appreciation week has its challenges.
For team events, I’d lean on your XDRs for suggestions. They may enjoy a Zoom happy hour, made special by company-sponsored food & drinks, or some other kind of group remote activity (arts and crafts, anyone?)
4. A Voice at All-Hands
Whether your team has a sales all-hands or company-wide meeting, give your XDRs an opportunity to present. This can be sharing their team’s most successful outbound messaging or sharing how they brought in a particularly important logo.
Done well, this could be a win-win for the entire team. The BDR org gets more eyes on their work, and the org can learn from BDRs how outbound is changing and how prospects are responding to the company’s product/service, competitive messaging, and value prop.
5. Building the Best Working Environment Long-Term
Though 6sense is organizing BDR appreciation week to highlight XDRs, we believe true XDR appreciation goes far beyond this week. After all, your team culture will outlast any celebratory event!
Strong XDR teams have a few key overlapping characteristics:
- A collaborative, generous, energizing, fair, and feedback-driven culture.
- A clear path forward in an XDRs career within the org.
- The adequate operational, people, and technological resources for XDRs to be successful in their role.
No team is perfect, and taking this time to reflect on where the XDR team can improve can pay dividends in the long run.
