A great account list is the starting point to success. 

Yet 99% of SDR teams don’t get this right. 

The ones that do though…FLY! 

Simply put, there is no point in having your team do 100 calls, add 50 people to a sequence, or personalise 25 emails if they have ‘bad-fit’ accounts on their list. 

No matter how good they are at calling or writing you just won’t win. At least you won’t win as much as you could. 

In this newsletter, I’ll give you my 3-step framework for making sure you have a great list. 

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Protect your list: 

There are three types of account lists you will come across: 

1. Allocated lists - given to reps by rev ops, leaders, marketing etc. 

2. Self-sourced lists - reps must find all their own accounts. 

3. Mixture of the above - some self-sourced and some allocated. 

It doesn’t matter whether your accounts are allocated or self-sourced. What matters is whether they have earned the right to be worked by you or your team. 

Too often we just take lists given to us and work them only to complain they were ‘‘rubbish’’. 

Instead, we should be fine tooth combing EVERY account before it makes it to our list. 

My rule for this is simple: it MUST be an ICP account. 

My definition for ICP is the account must hit 3 things: 

1. The right account metrics - industry, headcount, geography etc 

2. The right persona metrics - job titles, department, tenure etc 

3. 2x ‘‘timing’’ triggers - headcount growth, new person to role, funding etc.

Most reps only look at things like ‘right industry’ or ‘right job title’. It MUST be a combination of the 3 things above to qualify as ICP and therefore be worthy of your time. 

Reminder - your time is precious. Use it wisely.

Step 2: Maximise the list: 

Now you have a list of ICP accounts only. That’s a great start but you can do better. 

This is how you’ll beat 99% of other reps or teams and is really simple; MAXIMISE your resources: 

Here are 4 ways you can: 

1. SDR // AE Partnerships - Most AEs don’t know how to work with SDRs. It’s critical that AEs don’t just allocate accounts to SDRs at random. This is a huge mistake that will kill SDR’s time if the accounts are not checked (they rarely are by AEs). It’s not their fault they’ve just never been taught. Here’s a mini guide you can steal to help get this relationship going: 

SDR//AE Collaboration 101 

2. Marketing Campaigns - Can you run campaigns with marketing on your list? Are marketing only focused on ICP accounts? Working with Marketing on set lists determined by sales will have a huge impact on how many inbounds you get that are actually closeable. 

3. Customer Success - Ask CS for referrals from existing customers but do the hard work. Here’s how I do it; I add the entire customer list to Sales Nav and save it. Then I check for mutual connections. If you have a budget to do this fast buy UserGems. 

4. C-Suite // Leadership - Choose 3 people at your 3 top accounts and pre-write an email to each. Send email and email address to your leader // c-suite to send from their email. Repeat every week. It works.

Step 3: Prioritise the List: 

The final step in the trifecta to setting yourself up for success before you’ve sent 1 email or made 1 cold call = PRIORITISATION. 

With so much happening, you need a way to prioritise your list of accounts. 

The best way to do it is to make sure you set up triggers // data sources to automatically come to you for each of your accounts. 

The way I do it is to add all my accounts to my book of business in LinkedIn then I make saved searches for ‘triggers’. This includes things like people new role, headcount growth etc. 

When there are updates I get ALL the notifications. As soon as I do I prioritise that account for outreach. 

Why? Because triggers show accounts are MORE likely to be in the market so I am optimising my process to make sure I spend more time on them and prioritise them. 

Now you’re ready for messaging. 

Quick Summary: 

• Protect your list (it should be ICP only) 

• Maximise your list (leverage every resource possible) 

• Prioritise in real-time → Get notifications to come to you. 

This Week’s Action Step: 

Start by protecting your list. Audit your accounts. Which ones should be there and which shouldn’t? Remove the ones that aren’t ICP. 

If this is helpful, share it with your team - so please share it! 

Good luck!! 

Leader Spotlight:

Delighted to introduce all of you to Olivia Segsworth, Biz Dev Lead @Truelayer.

Her Journey into SDR Leadership:

She joined Truelayer almost 3 years ago as the company’s first SDR (inbound). After a few months, Olivia was asked to build Outbound pipeline (who isn’t). She smashed it and the company decided to hire more reps. As the team grew they needed a leader dedicated to them and upstepped Olivia. She’s now Biz Dev Lead for the company as it continues to grow! 4 promotions in 3 years ain’t bad going! 

3 top outbound tips: 

• Multithread ALWAYS - drip feed introductions to relevant team members who could be of interest to your leads. For example, offer them a workshop with one of your team or make an intro to senior leadership. 

• Align with marketing - let them know the exact accounts that aren’t converting and let them work those accounts from a different angle. 

• Friday afternoons are a SWEET SPOT. If you aren’t calling on Fridays you’re missing out. 

3 tips for finding great accounts: 

• Always make time to create account lists on ‘timely’ news. For example, if your competitor is having challenges that’s a great time to target their customers. 

• Understand your partnership ecosystem. Who can your partners recommend or introduce to you? 

• Reassess whether you’ve segmented the market correctly on a quarterly basis. This goes out of date fast so don’t rely on it to always be perfect. 

Great tips this week. 

Thanks, Olivia! 

PS. If you want to connect on Linkedin with Olivia, please do!

Weekly Send-Off:

Naturally, I hope you all have an incredible weekend. I’m now in Bordeaux at a 3-day wedding (wish me luck). 

Until next Friday at 1.05pm, au revoir from me, Bridge and Isaac 🙂  

PS. My number is +447814904622. If you need me, Whatsapp me.