With a degree in IT & Economics, Ivano Ginevro, Business Development at LeadFabric, has spent most of his career in sales in the IT/Software business. This brings him 35+ years’ experience with companies like Informix (now IBM), Netsize (now Thales) and CA Technology (now Broadcom) in various BDR, Sales & Management roles, operating on EMEA level and comfortable in 4 languages (Dutch, French, English, Italian), which makes him a real cosmopolitan.
Being a Business Development Representative (BDR) is tough work. Convincing potential customers isn’t always easy, and they often end up juggling multiple tasks and priorities, such as following up with leads, attending meetings, and updating their CRM. To be a good BDR is to be good at not only seeing opportunity but developing it into fruition.
Having said all that, we were grateful to catch up with our own BDR expert, Ivano. We asked him about his thoughts on the market as he sees it, how he overcomes some BDR-specific challenges, and where the discipline is heading in the future.
What are some of the critical needs of
today’s market?
Ivano: In my experience, there are three critical needs for the market today that I see over and over: Integration, change management, and account-based management.
The velocity of the martech and salestech market is overwhelming for many customers, with new solutions appearing almost daily and features changing even quicker. So, being able to integrate with existing solutions is essential.
Of course, with new solutions and integrations comes a new way of working, which is why change management is important. As a tech-based BDR, it’s our responsibility to help integrate technology and guide customers on how those solutions fit in with their goals and business — and re-engineering them if necessary.
Finally, many customers are still struggling with the concept of account-based management, and most traditional marketing agencies can’t seem to help them either. They simply skim over the deep understanding required for sales and marketing to work with the complex decision processes of buying committees.
What makes a good BDR today?
Ivano: Understanding where the market is and where it’s going will help BDRs not only find success but give it to their prospects, too. In reality, we are no longer selling software, but turn-key solutions that can transform a company.
Whether through operational marketing for development of messaging, or running the technology we implemented for customers who haven’t invested in setting up dedicated internal teams, a good BDR is there to find the obstacles customers face and give customers a way forward.
What is typically lacking for EMEA tech stacks?
Lead generation that doesn’t relegate leads into a “one-size-fits-all” funnel or tools that simply avoid over-engineering interactions are still lacking today.
That’s why we’re starting to notice a lot of traction for conversational marketing tools like chatbots, as they can significantly increase lead generation while retaining a humanistic element.
What are the main challenges you encounter
as a BDR?
Ivano: It’s my job to identify the right prospects and assign the tools, tech, and processes that will generate opportunity. However, explaining complex technical products is challenging, especially in the marketing space.
That’s where the support of vendors comes in, with well-structured product updates, sales stories addressing objections and concerns, cases, and training. Obviously, following up on complex and long sales cycles will always be a concern, but that’s where sales outreach solutions come into play.
It all comes down to equipping BDR professionals to help overcome these challenges and succeed in generating new business opportunities and revenue. On that front, vendors and the companies we help grow play a vital role in our shared success.
What’s the role you expect 6sense to take, based upon your market feedback?
Ivano: As an ABM tool, I see great potential. The concept of ABM is still developing in EMEA, but I expect it to grow exponentially over the coming years. It would be a great addition to the stack of most of our customers. It has all the tools needed to help customers now, helping them to identify what customers want and engage them at the right time in the right way.
Given the recent buzz with the general public over ChatGPT, we could witness a boom for tools relying on artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to collect and analyze data on buyer behavior, intent, and engagement signals.
What’s does the future hold for BDRs?
Overall, I expect tools will help myself and my colleagues by leveraging data and analytics to identify and engage with potential customers more effectively, with the goal of increasing revenue and accelerating growth.
To that end, I foresee three main technological developments that are already contributing to BDR success:
Predictive analytics: The ability to predict what customers will do and identify their personas based on this is immensely important to engaging known and unknown customers.
We can already see this with 6sense’s platform using predictive analytics to identify potential customers and the difference it has made. As time goes on, we’ll begin to understand customer motivations, feelings, and impulses to help us make the right moves, every time.
Sales intelligence: Passing on knowledge to the sales team is one way of empowering them to bring in more revenue for the company. This is where sales intelligence comes in, helping teams know what content customers engage with, the channels they prefer.
I expect the future will place more emphasis on this critical aspect, bringing in more detail and more actionable points.
Marketing analytics: You can’t improve your approach without knowing what works and what doesn’t. We already have detailed marketing analytics with 6sense’s platform. It provides marketing teams with insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns, and what they can do to make them even better.
The future of BDRs is entwined with greater marketing analytics to help support what we do and boost our future efforts.
Develop your BDRs
BDRs have become vital for organizations. With more insights and technology evolving every day, it’s essential to stay in the loop and in the know.
If you would like to find out how you can evolve your own BDR processes, contact LeadFabric today for a free consultation.
About LeadFabric
Founded in 2008, LeadFabric has for long pioneered the alignment between sales and marketing teams with their buyers’ ever-evolving needs and expectations.
The company is one of the most experienced and highly certified Marketing Technology services providers and consultancies in Europe, leveraging partnerships with premier platforms including (but not limited to) Adobe Marketo, Oracle Eloqua, Outreach, Drift, and more. With a multi-cultural DNA, LeadFabric has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, France, Taiwan. To learn more, visit https://leadfabric.com/.
