At Sales Empowerment Group, we love using a good sports metaphor in our blog posts. So, when we heard Tom Thibodeau, the current New York Knicks coach and former Chicago Bulls coach, was named NBA Coach of the Year, it got us thinking about, well, you guessed it...
Private Equity and BDR Teams.
Wait, what? What's the connection between these seemingly random subjects? Let's dive in.
Derrick Rose: Consistency at the Point Guard Position
When Tom Thibodeau was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, he had an All-Star point guard named Derrick Rose.
Then, when Tom Thibodeau became the head coach in Minnesota, guess who he brought with him.
And again in New York.
The Knicks hadn't made the playoffs since 2013. Things were getting so bad in the Big Apple that even Disney Pixar was making fun of the Knicks.
But after just one season, Tom Thibodeau and Derrick Rose took New York back to the playoffs. And Thibodeau was named NBA Coach of the Year.
But what does this have to do with Private Equity and BDR Teams?
Let's say a private equity firm has 10 portfolio companies. And one of those companies has a great BDR team. They're setting a ton of meetings and, as a result, the revenue team crushes their yearly sales quota.
The ultimate goal is to replicate this BDR success at the other nine portfolio companies. But how do you do this, when there are so many moving parts.
For example:
- You can't clone the VP of Sales
- Or the BDR Manager
- Or the BDR(s)
And the whole BDR team building process at this one company might have taken 1-3 years to get up and running at an effective level. Sure, there can be some best practices and lessons shared amongst the portfolio companies, but each company, each new BDR Team is starting from scratch.
Which begs the question, is there any way to do the hiring equivalent of saying, "We're hiring Tom Thibodeau. He's bringing Derrick Rose. And we're going to end this playoff sales drought."
Enter Sales Empowerment Group
We have one main BDR "Farm System" model that's easy to replicate amongst multiple portfolio companies. What we do is hire, train, and manage the BDR team for a company. What this looks like in action.
Hire
We meet with your team to determine your ideal candidates. Figuring out questions like:
- How much experience are you looking for?
- Any industry experience necessary?
- Location?
- How many reps are you looking to bring on board?
Train
You don't have to develop a training program. We put the BDRs through our proven sales training, growing their confidence both in the skills of the job (cold calling, prospecting, research) and the specifics of your company/product/service.
Manage
Whether here in our offices (Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Mount Pleasant) or working remote (this started in March of 2020 in response to COVID), our BDRs have a specific manager who they report to. This is our version of a Tom Thibodeau - part manager, part coach.
The BDRs also have access to Slack/Microsoft Teams so they can communicate with your Account Executives, Managers, VP of Sales, etc. And they setup their job title/profile on LinkedIn to be at your company to minimize any prospecting confusion.
Don't want to mix up our sports metaphors here, but like Major League Baseball, companies eventually call up the reps from our Farm System to your "roster." And begin their All-Star campaign in the major leagues.
Repeating a System that works... and doing this quickly
Our BDR "Farm System" gives Private Equity firms more control over all these different variables. Since the hiring, training, and managing is all done by SEG, you can implement this at multiple companies at once, accelerating growth at each organization. And it doesn't take 1-3 years to get up and running.
To learn more about our work in the Private Equity space, check out our case studies for Indigo Wild and PANOS Brands who both signed on and have the same Private Equity firm. We also built a BDR team for Decurtis Corporation who heard about us through their Private Equity firm. Also please feel free to reach out to us via email or by contacting us at 312-283-4653 to setup a call.