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Your AE Should Still Be Hunting
If you've got a BDR setting appointments and an outside sales rep closing deals, here's a question that comes up constantly with MSPs: Should your AE also be generating their own pipeline? In a perfect world, here's the ideal setup: your setter fills a third to half of the AE's calendar, and the AE fills the rest themselves. Why not just have marketing and the BDR handle it all? Multiple reasons. BDRs turn over—it's often an entry-level role with higher volatility, and you don't want your pipeline to have that same volatility. Different channels work at different times, and you need consistency when one isn't performing. But here's the bigger reason most people overlook: when your outside rep is hunting, they're doing R&D for your entire business. They're hearing objections, questions, what competitive offers look like, what prospects say at the beginning of the cycle. Sales is a massive source of research and development if you just listen. Plus, I want my reps to stay hungry—Andy Grove said "success leads to complacency, only the paranoid survive." If appointments just show up on their calendar, they'll complain about lead quality and take it for granted. This episode breaks down why consistency, redundancy, hunger, and real-world intel make this approach essential for building a sales machine that doesn't rely on any single channel or person.
Transcript
If you've got an SDR or BDR, ISR... whatever you want to call it... somebody making outbound calls and setting appointments for you and trying to create some conversations that lead to opportunities... out there working, right? And they're making their dials, they're, you know, doing their targeting. And you have an outside sales rep or an AE that is is selling. One question that comes up a lot, especially with MSPs, is: "You know, should I... should I have my outside sales rep or my AE also generating pipeline?"
In a perfect world, here's the ideal setup: You've got an outside sales rep who is getting some opportunities put onto their calendar by the business, right? So your your your rep, your your setter, the person that's that's, you know, setting the the appointments... in a perfect world, they're able to set up, you know, a third to a half of the calendar for the outside sales rep. You know, so the the outside sales rep has some opportunities. The company through marketing or or through the BDR is creating some volume that goes on their calendar. And and that's that really is ideal. Like you don't want to have nothing. Like I I want the the, you know, the marketing and the calls to create some of those opportunities.
But, I want my outside sales rep to remain hungry. I want them to fill at least half of their calendar if not more. It creates consistency in pipeline. And for a number of reasons. BDRs turn over, right? Like it's a... you know, there are... in in a lot of organizations like it's it's a high-turnover role. But it is... tends to be a more entry-level role into sales and the the natural byproduct of that is that there's more turnover. What you don't want is your pipeline having the same degree of volatility that you may have in an entry-level sales role.
You also may have different channels working at different times. Say you're running some some Google ads. Say you're running some, you know, outbound calling. Say you're running some social media stuff. Like you... if you've got three or four different angles for leads to to be following up on and generating some pipeline, what you may have is some of those channels working better at some times, other channels working at other times. And what I what I don't want on the outside sales reps' calendar is a ton of volatility based on the various... like the performance of those various channels. So, I want consistency. And having multiple people and multiple channels responsible for filling the calendar allows you to have, net-net, consistency when one isn't working the other is.
The other thing is you're going to reduce risk, right? Like the... if you have redundancy... if you have one person that's setting appointments and generating some pipeline and you have another person that's generating some pipeline, what you have is some redundancy if there is, you know, if there are any changes in staffing, if there's any changes in the market, if there's any changes anywhere else. You've got multiple channels working at the same time. So you've got consistency and redundancy.
Now, a few reasons that I want the the outside rep producing their own pipeline, you know, are kind of obvious. Like, one: I want 'em to stay hungry, right? Like I want them to to not kind of get complacent with the the calendar getting filled that like without them having to do anything. Andy Grove, you know, the uh, I think I think Intel CEO said, "Success leads to complacency. Complacency leads to failure. Only the paranoid survive." And it's something that I've always had in the back of my head. What I don't want is I don't want a complacent rep, right? Like I don't want somebody that's like, "Yeah, these these appointments are just showing up on my calendar." They and they don't... they aren't as hungry. They don't appreciate the leads as much, right? Like if they're not out there generating their own pipeline, I promise you you're gonna hear a whole bunch of: "Well, you know, the leads just aren't very good. They're not qualified. They're not this. They're not that." Like... like they're going to a to a restaurant and ordering appointments off of a menu and they're like, "Oh well, you know, I want I want I want this one and I don't want that one and I want..." Like if they're out there hunting and they understand the work that's involved in generating some pipeline, they will not take it for for granted, right? And that's... and that's true.
But training is not irrelevant. It's actually what makes it... the the volume that you're putting in and the effort that you're putting in lead to better results. Because it won't automatically. In the swimming example that he used got here, the coaching, the swim training, like whatever it is... That is where alignment comes in. That is where you make sure that the effort you're putting in and the distance that you're getting actually gets you what you want.
And then the other reason though is... and this one is like I think overlooked a lot... is: When your outside sales rep is out there hunting, they are getting research and development. They are learning what are the objections. They are learning what the questions are. They are learning what maybe other introductory offers look and feel like. They're they're hearing what prospects are saying at the very beginning of the cycle. And I think sales is a huge source of research and development for companies, right? Like if we just listened to more sales calls and we just listened to more prospecting calls, we would... or marketing would be better, our product would be better. Like the whole business fundamentally would be better because sales is leading the charge and having a lot of those conversations and getting all the context that's necessary.
And and if an outside sales rep is generating their pipeline, they're getting that context. They're hearing all the the nuance and the messaging and they can adjust. It's going to help them close more and it's going to help them bring that feedback into their into their process and elsewhere in the business. And I I think that that's immensely valuable.
So, rule of thumb? Yeah. If you have somebody that's that's generating pipeline with outbound calls, uh, turn them loose. Like light it up. And, you know, if they can if if they can fill a whole calendar like an outside sales reps' calendar, then go hire another sales... outside sales rep. Now you've got two. And and and that person can fill 50% of two people's calendars and we can ask those two people to then go fill the other half of their pipeline. And we work together collectively and, net-net, whole bunch more sales, whole bunch more intel, uh, better mindset, better accountability, better ownership, and less laziness and everything else that goes into it. So that's my take. I hope it helps. Adios.
