Welcome to the Sales Development Organization at GitLab! We are a team designed to drive results for customers through both inbound and outbound strategies. Our structure is designed to maximize efficiency, responsiveness, and creativity in our outreach efforts.
1. Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) - Inbound Focused
Key Attributes:
Our Inbound-focused SDRs are known for their swift response times, ensuring global coverage and alignment with marketing initiatives. They operate with defined and prescriptive inbound processes, utilizing round-robin assignment rules. Additionally, the SDR team serves as a talent incubator for our Business Development Representatives (BDRs).
2. Business Development Representatives (BDRs) - Outbound Focused
Key Attributes:
Our Outbound-focused BDRs excel in strategic account planning, research, and delivering targeted and creative messaging. They work closely with Sales Account Executives (SAEs), Account Executives (AEs), and Sales Leadership. The BDR team
Please follow the table below to quickly find the most relevant place for what you’re looking for. You can also use the searching method explained here to increase your searching capabilities.
Our handbook page has contributions from a diverse team. To help you efficienctly find answers, we highly suggest that you cmnd+F this page as a best searching practice.
Try searching for as many permutations of what you’re looking for. For example, if you want to find information on lead scoring search for keywords like score, scoring, lead, leads, scoring. Remember that information retrieval is a core GitLab value, and a skill that will make a big difference in your careers.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for please reach out to a member of the Sales Dev Ops team and we’ll help you find it, or update the handbook to include it!
| Page | What you’ll find |
|---|---|
| How-Tos Page | Quick information on finding your leads and accounts, actioning your inbound/outbound pipeline, creating Sales Accepted Opportunities (SAOs), and any other main process that you’ll work with on your day-to-day. |
| RoE, FAQ and KPIs Page | Answers to the most common questions around career progression, rules of engagement, general expectations from the role, opportunity credit, ramping periods, lead routing and compensation. |
| Tanuki Tech Page | Anything related to your ongoing enablement as part of the Sales Dev team. |
| The Sales Dev Knowledge Vault | Information and knowledge that can help to improve your skills. Includes managerial-level processes, manager or team member onboarding, and tool walkthroughs. |
| What is your role and ask? | How will the Sales Dev Org help |
|---|---|
| I am Field Marketer, and want to have people invited to my event | We typically work with the FM process outlined on the issue template called FM-BDR-Collaboration-Template that can be found here, but are always eager to collaborate in making your events more succesful, if your ask is not covered in the template linked above, please write to us on the #sales_dev_global slack channel and we’ll jump in to assist. |
| I am an Account Executive, and want to nominate accounts for outbounding efforts | Our end-to-end outbound process is here. The easiest way to automate your workflow is to find the field BDR Prospecting Status on the SFDC Account record, and select the Queued option from there. The BDR team will then pick it up and research it for their outbound pipeline. |
| I am an Account Executive, and want to check the state of accounts, or quality of prospects, in my territory | Our BDR team uses a set of 1:1 dashboards that consolidate all relevant resources in one place. Our BDR team typically uses these on 1:1s with the Sales team to facilitate better account and territory planning. |
| I am a Field Marketer, or Account Executive, and want to suggest that the SDR or BDR team uses my messaging for reaching out to prospects or clients | We have a quick process for creating new sequences on Outreach, our messaging tool. Even though the BDR or SDR are the ones typically creating these requests, we always welcome collaboration with other teams so feel free to log your own request directly if you’d like. |
| I am a Sales Manager, and want to gauge the quality and progress of the SAOs provided to my team. | We have a robust set of pipeline progression dashboards that break down results in a lot of granularity. We also have a structured path for handing off opportunities from the SDR/BDR teams to the AE team that you can use to measure adherance to qualification criteria and next steps. |
| Channel | Slack Handle |
|---|---|
| Main Channel - (Global VP - JB Larramendy) | #sales_dev_global |
| Announcements - (SDR Ops/Enablement - Chris Wang) | #sales_dev_fyi |
| All - AMER (Manager - Brian Tabbert) | #amer_sales_dev |
| SDR AMER (Manager - Josh Downey) | #sdr_amer_inbound |
| BDR COMM AMER MM (Manager - Christie Park) | #bdr_amer_comm |
| BDR ENTG AMER WEST & LATAM (Manager - Charlotte Platt) | #bdr_entg_amer_west_latam |
| BDR ENTG AMER EAST (Manager - Shamit Paul) | #bdr_entg_amer_east |
| BDR PUBSEC (Manager - Josh Downey) | #bdr_amer_pubsec |
| All - EMEA (Manager - Elsje Smart) | #sdr_emea |
| SDR EMEA - (Manager - Jonathan Rivat) | #sdr_emea_apac_inbound |
| BDR COMM EMEA MM - (Manager - Fintan Harrington) | #bdr_comm_emea_mm |
| BDR ENTG EMEA DACH - (Manager - Christopher Allenfort) | #bdr_entg_emea_dach |
| BDR ENTG EMEA NEUR META - (Manager - Miguel Nunes) | #bdr_entg_emea_neur_meta |
| BDR ENTG EMEA SEUR - (Manager - Tati Fernandez) | #bdr_entg_emea_seur |
| SDR APJ - (Manager - Robin Falkowski) | #apj_sales_dev |
| BDR ENTG APJ - (Manager - Robin Falkowski) | #apj_sales_dev |
| BDR EGC META NL - (Manager - Carolina Marco Bellver) | #bdr_emea-egc-meta-nl |
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Sales Development Issues | The list of all issues we curently have on our project. |
| Sales Dev Ops Issue Board | The main Kanban board we use to manage our operational projects, look here to see what we have in the pipeline. |
| Sequence Creation Board | The board we manage all new, and in-flight, sequences and messaging campaigns. |
| FM Collaboration Board | The board we use to communicate with the Field Marketing team to help support their events. |
| PTO Requests Board | The board we use to submit and manage Paid Time Off (PTO) requests. |
| Sales Systems Issues | This is the Sales Systems issue list, we collaborate closely with them. |
| Marketing Operations Issues | This is the Marketing Operation’s team space, we also work closely with them too. |
| Name/Link | Description |
|---|---|
| 1:1 Dashboards - Leads: PUBSEC | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the PUBSEC segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Leads: COMM APJ | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the APJ Commercial segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboard - Leads: ENTG APJ | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the APJ Enterprise segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Leads: ENTG EMEA | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the ENTG EMEA segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Leads: ENTG AMER/LATAM | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the ENTG AMER/LATAM segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Leads: COMM EMEA | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the COMM EMEA segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Leads: COMM AMER | 1:1 dashboard for leads in the COMM AMER segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: EMEA COMM | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the EMEA COMM segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: AMER COMM | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the AMER COMM segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: ENG AMER/LATAM | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the ENG AMER/LATAM segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: COMM APJ | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the Commercial APJ segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: ENTG APJ | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the ENTG APJ segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: ENTG EMEA | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the ENTG EMEA segment. |
| 1:1 Dashboards - Accounts: PUBSEC | 1:1 dashboard for accounts in the PUBSEC segment. |
| Action Needed: SDR Global | Dashboard outlining items where immediate action is needed in the SDR team. |
| Action Needed: PubSec Global | Dashboard outlining items where immediate action is needed in the PubSec team. |
| Action Needed: APJ BDR | Dashboard outlining items where immediate action is needed for APJ BDR. |
| Action Needed: EMEA BDR | Dashboard outlining items where immediate action is needed for EMEA BDR. |
| Action Needed: AMER BDR | Dashboard outlining items where immediate action is needed for AMER BDR. |
| Action Needed: SDR Global | Dashboard outlining items where immediate action is needed for SDR Global. |
| High Level Results Dashboard | The dashboard we use to glance at our bottom-line results. |
| Pipeline Progression Dashboard | The dashboard we use to measure the progress, or lack of thereof, of opportunities sourced by our org. |
| Global Sales Dev Results Dashboard | A more granular dashboard that breaks down attainment further. |
| Regional Sales Dev Results Dashboard | A regional dashboard that breaks down attainment into teams. |
| Last Q’s attainment Dashboard | A bird’s-eye view of last Quarter’s attainment per region. |
| 6Sense 6QA Automation Dashboard | This dashboard visualizes all the accounts that were automatically imported to SFDC via our 6Sense Automation. |
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Sales Development Issues | The list of all issues we curently have on our project. |
| Sales Dev Ops Issue Board | The main Kanban board we use to manage our operational projects, look here to see what we have in the pipeline. |
| Sequence Creation Board | The board we manage all new, and in-flight, sequences and messaging campaigns. |
| FM Collaboration Board | The board we use to communicate with the Field Marketing team to help support their events. |
| PTO Requests Board | The board we use to submit and manage Paid Time Off (PTO) requests. |
| Sales Systems Issues | This is the Sales Systems issue list, we collaborate closely with them. |
| Marketing Operations Issues | This is the Marketing Operation’s team space, we also work closely with them too. |
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| GitLab LevelUp Training channel | Access to GitLab LevelUp Training channel for additional learning resources. |
| Sales handbook page | Main handbook page for Sales, providing essential information and resources. |
| Go to Market page | Resources related to Go-to-Market strategy for Sales. |
| Sales Dev Tools and Manager Resources | Tools and resources specifically designed for Sales Development teams and managers. |
| Sales Development Org job family/levels | Overview of job families and levels within the Sales Development Org. |
| Territory Alignment | Guidance on territory alignment for BDRs and SDRs. |
| Enterprise BDR Outbound Process Framework | Framework for the outbound process followed by the Enterprise BDR team. |
| Sales Development Enablement Videos | Playlist of enablement videos and how-tos for BDRs and SDRs. |
| Outreach sequence naming convention | Document outlining the naming convention for Outreach sequences. |
| Lead Lifecycle Handbook Page | Handbook page detailing different lead statuses and managing the lead lifecycle. |
| Marketing Resource Links | GitLab whitepapers, ebooks, webcasts, analyst reports, and more for Sales & Sales Development education. |
| Marketing Events + Gated Content Assets + Webcasts | Resources for BDRs and SDRs to understand marketing assets consumed by prospects. |
| GitLab Buyer Personas | Resource to help GitLab sellers better understand our buyers and audiences. |
| Sales handbook page | GitLab Sales team handbook. |
| Sales resources page | Link to the Sales quick reference guide with links to learn more about the various sales teams & initiatives. |
| Weekly sales enablement | Weekly sessions for sales enablement, open to BDRs/lSDRs every Thursday. |
| Sales Training handbook page | Link to GitLab sales training resources. |
| Command of the Message | “Command of the Message” training and the GitLab value framework. |
| Most commonly used sales resources | Sales resources page. |
| Flash Field newsletter | Learn more about the sales weekly newsletter. |
| GitLab Values | The guiding principles we try to live up to each day. |
Inbound leads get automatically imported to SFDC by the Sales Operations team, you can find links to their handbook pages on our main page.
To find and access your leads, please:
Leads tab.You will find the lead views below. These views are split per use-case for your convenience. The KPIs for managing these leads are thoroughly outlined in our SLAs page.
| View | Description |
|---|---|
| S1 - High Priority View | These are leads that are marked as High Priority because of some high Propensity To Purchase indication. |
| S1 View | These are your net new leads that have scored high enough to reach MQL status. |
| S2 View | This is a view of your existing leads that also have an associated phone call so you can easily reference your callable pipeline. |
| S3 View | Qualifying leads. These are leads that you are actively qualifying in a back and forth conversation either by email or through phone calls. Each lead needs to either be active in a follow-up sequence, have an active task, or have a future meeting scheduled which can be seen in a future “last activity” date. |
| View | Description |
|---|---|
| FY25 B1 - My Leads, Action Needed | Includes any leads that we have committed to follow up on ASAP. These are our highest converting leads and are a mix between High Priority and MQL’s PTP is now part of our scoring so there may be leads in there that have MQLd due to PTP so you’ll have to click into the lead to see more. High Priority leads belong to a High Priority campaign - you can find which one at the bottom of the page in the campaigns section. |
| FY25 B2 - AWA leads w/ LIM | Includes leads in your name and that match to your Actively Working Accounts. It’s best to sort these by Last Interesting Moment Date and consider the Lead Classification Score when deciding which to sequence. We do not surface leads that were sequenced in the last 14 days. |
| FY25 B3 - Change Owner AWA’s (Clone) | These leads are now in your name automatically (not leads you’ve necessarily chosen and moved into your name, the old B3 view had to be cloned which is no longer needed). This view however allows you to see leads that may not have been moved into your name because at the time, they did not meet criteria. These could be bc: the leads were in lead statuses of: Accepted, MQL, or Qualifying when you moved the account into Actively Working since leads with those statuses should stay with the owner. Leads that were in disqualified or ineligible are also not moved into your name. This view will allow you to get eyes on any leads that are not in your name. You then can review any LIM dates and decide to put leads into your name if no one is reaching out. Keep sorted by LIM Date. |
| FY25 B4 - My HT Leads W/ Phone | This view should be used when either you do not have enough daily call tasks in Outreach to hit your daily KPI or when your team wants to do a call blitz etc. It allows you to easily pull into Outreach and create additional call tasks for your leads currently in high touch sequences. |
| FY25 B5 - My Qualifying Leads | These are leads in qualifying status which means some sort of two-way engagement happened between you two. Please review this section of our handbook for best converting follow-up practices. |
| FY25 B6 - 6QA imported leads | You can find any leads in your ownership related to accounts that have just hit 6QA status in this view. 6QA means the account has been shown to have high intent signals and has similar signs to other accounts that have purchased from us. We have brought in appropriate titles from ZoomInfo so that when you move the 6QA account into Actively Working, you have some leads all ready for sequencing. |
| FY25 B7 - BDR Prospecting Last 7 Days | This view will surface leads that you created or refreshed from ZoomInfo or Cognism. (Please note that there is also a contacts view you will need to check should the person already be a contact in our system) |
| View | Description |
|---|---|
| B1 View | Includes MQL’s, Hot contacts that require quick follow up |
| B2 View | Contacts related to Actively working accounts that you can choose to sequence - *give 48 hrs |
| B3 View | Active HT sequenced leads that have a phone number - to help with call downs |
| B4 View | Qualifying leads. Contacts that you are actively qualifying in a back and forth conversation either on email or through phone calls. Each contact in this status needs to either be active in a follow up sequence, have an active task or have a future meeting scheduled which can be seen in a future “last activity” date. |
| View | Description |
|---|---|
| B1 - My BDR Assigned accounts (clone) | Customize to show accounts where you are the BDR assigned. Use to mass update ‘BDR Strategy’ and ‘BDR Prospecting Status’. |
| B2 - My Actively Working accounts (clone) | Customize to show “Actively Working” accounts where you are the BDR assigned. |
| B3 - My Actively Working accounts (clone) | Customize to show “Actively Working” accounts where you are the BDR assigned. |
| B4 - BDR Recycle Date Past due (Clone) | Show AWA accounts where the Recycle Date is in the past two weeks. |
| B5 - Mvd to “WorkedinFY” this week (Clone) | Show Worked in FY accounts with a recent Recycle Date. |
As part of your SDR responsibilities, you are expected to perform due diligence on each lead you receive. This includes checking the database for duplicate records, as well as referencing against our RoE.
Find Duplicates on the top of the lead’s record.Domain and Last Name if the data you have seems incomplete.Matched Account Info section on the lead record.
Customer, please press the Convert button at the top of the lead page and match this lead to the existing account.Lead Status to Recycle and Recycle Reasons to Evaluating.BDR Prospecting Status is Actively Working and, if so, reroute the lead to the team mentioned on the BDR Assigned field.Actively Working, check for duplicate leads or contacts and merge if necessary while keeping the oldest Initial Source.Company Address fields on the lead record do not match your research online of the company, please update the Admin Company Override fields that are found in the Lead/Contact Review Admin section. As a further fail-safe step, you’ll be asked to verify that this due diligence is done prior to converting this person to a new account.MQL status, assign both leads to the owner with the earliest MQL Date.
Accepted or Qualifying status, assign the new MQL to the owner of the accepted/qualifying leads.Actively Working accounts must assign back to SDR team or chatter mktgops support.For leads that connect to companies that operate in the Financial Services (AMER only) and Telecommunications (EMEA only) industries. We have a seperate routing process that supercedes all of our current Rules of Engagement.
Only named TELCO/FinServe accounts are rolling up to the TELCO/FinServe territories. If a new account is a subsidiary of an existing carved company, it will need to be assigned to the AE owning the ultimate account. If it is a totally separate entity then it can be allocated to the regional AE. If a lead comes in that is related to a TELCO/FinServe account, it must be assigned to the BDR assigned on the account.
In this video, a member of the Marketing Ops team goes over the Company address fields and how they are used for Accounting Routing and Opp assignment.
If you need to do edits to the database by merging leads together for any of the above steps, please reference the videos below for an explanation.
| How to Merge Leads Together |
| How to Merge a Lead and a Contact Together |
If you’d like the assistance of another person or team, you can use SFDC chatter on the lead record. Please reference the guide below:
| Problem | Who to Chatter |
|---|---|
| A SMB/MM Contact Request and the account is a customer | Chatter the Account Owner and inform them of the context of the message. |
| A BDR receives an MQL Lead that is not from an Actively Working Account | Chatter @mktops |
| If you feel a lead has been misrouted | Chatter @mktops |
| There is a Duplicate Account | Chatter Sales Support and ask them to merge the accounts. |
| An Opp has moved into Stage 1 but has Incorrect Data | Chatter your manager who will then reach out to someone in Sales Dev Operations. |
| Unclear Territory Assignment | Chatter an AE from each of the potential territories. |
| Requesting SAO Credit on an Opp | Chatter Sales Dev Ops or the Director of Commercial Sales Development. |
| Account is in Restricted Status | Chatter the SAE and ask permission to reach out. |
Lastly, Every so often you may be assigned a lead that has no value to GitLab and is not worth keeping within our database. Qualities that define these types of leads include:
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| Identify leads with no value to GitLab | Look for leads with characteristics such as incoherent or obviously forged information, or email addresses from temporary domains that self-terminate. |
| Verify lead removal necessity | Ensure that the leads meet the criteria for removal and are unlikely to provide any value to GitLab. |
| Add leads to the SPAM DELETION Salesforce campaign | Add the identified leads to the SPAM DELETION campaign in Salesforce. Make sure to be 100% certain about the removal, as this process is irreversible. |
| Note campaign membership, not status | Remember that only campaign membership matters for this process, so the campaign member status used when adding to the campaign does not affect the removal process. |
| Understand the permanence of lead removal | Realize that leads removed through this process cannot be recovered by MktgOps, making the removal permanent. Exercise caution when initiating lead removals. |
| Be aware of the removal schedule and exceptions | Note that the removal process occurs daily at 12:05 am PDT via Marketo. For unscheduled removals, request assistance in the mktgops Slack channel but minimize requests. |
| Request email domain blocking if necessary | If you observe multiple leads with the same domain, create an issue with Marketing Ops to add the domain to a block list, preventing future occurrences. |
1. Determining High-touch or Low-touch sequence usage:
Before calling any Lead or Contact, BDRs must ensure that the Do Not Call box is unchecked. If you speak to any anyone, including prospects and existing contacts, who ask you not to call them again, you must check this box. However, please do not delete the number as we need to know which number requested not to be called again. For any individuals who are opted-in to email, you may ask them if they wish to be called. If they express a desire to be called, you are then permitted to uncheck the Do Not Call box if it was previously checked. Also, if an individual expresses independently via email a wish to be called, you may uncheck the Do Not Call box. This email must be present in SFDC as proof of your authority to uncheck this box. You cannot send email requests to individuals not opted-in to email asking whether they would like to be called.
Our cold-calling best practices typically consist of 4 elements. A pattern interrupt, an elevator pitch and, if required, objection/trap-setting questions and Up-Front Contracts.
To be effective, these need to be customized to the individuals we call as per the logic below:
An unsubscribe link must be included on every email sent by a BDR, including responses to a prospect or contact. Please reach out to the Privacy Team via #privacy-team-help for the recommended language that should appear at the bottom of each outbound email.
Leads with certain criteria will be automatically labeled as Do Not Call and or Do Not Email shortly after loading into our database. It’s understandable this can be frustrating for certain territories. Please keep in mind, the criteria behind this automation has been set in order to follow local law. Please see the Internal GitLab handbook for more information on the triggers.
Outreach.io is a tool used to automate emails in the form of sequences. Users can track open rates, click-through rates, response rates for various templates, and update sequences based on these metrics. Outreach.io also helps to track sales activities such as calls. All emails/calls/tasks that are made through Outreach.io are automatically logged in Salesforce with a corresponding disposition. See below for a list of current call dispositions, what they mean, and scenarios on when to use each of them.
Import to Outreach.Edit Steps. Go through each step you want to edit, paying especial attention to manual variables.MQL, Inquiry, or Raw to Accepted status, marking that you are actively working on this lead.Accepted to Qualifying. Manage these leads from your S3 and B5 lead views.Recycle so that this lead is back in Marketing recycle and isn’t stuck in your My Qualifying view. If you have spoken to the lead by phone and are qualifying them, manually change the status from Accepted to Qualifying.Follow up Ruleset Sequences.Unresponsive or Recycle in seven days if there is still no response.Status = Inquiry to Inquiry Queue. To resolve this, add your leads to an Outreach sequence. Note: The scheduled clean up runs daily at 10:30 PM EST/EDT.Ways to organize similar sequences and snippets
A method of distinguishing sequences and snippets from others. Use tags to help narrow down which sequences you should be using in a particular situation
Content created for BDRS and SDRs to use to create hyper-personalized sequences, one-off emails, or to use for reaching out to prospects via LinkedIn.
Common Snippet Examples
In an effort to better iterate, and refresh, our outreach content and workflows, we have a structured process for BDRs to create/measure new Outreach sequences.
Please log an issue here by selecting the template BDR_Sequence_Creation_Request.
The issue description will walk you through all the next steps.
This process aims to:
Implement Measurement Clarity and Decision Velocity
By dogfooding GitLab we have a structured and simplified cadence of quantifying sequence creation in terms of value and results without limiting agency.
Maintain Equal Contributions in a Shared Reality By maintaing a Single Source of Truth (SSoT) we give the best possible forum for cross-functional collaboration with specific guidelines
Ramping BDRs Ramping BDRs should only be using OB sequences from the Good and Testing collections. A ramping BDR can only create a Sequence Creation Request if there is no sequences that fit their needs or strategy in our current library.
For SDRS and BDRS that want to sequence leads in their qualifying views we created this video to help you create a workflow around this follow up sequence.
The same video also showcases the Auto Follow Up to Book a Meeting Sequence SDRs and BDRs can use when a prospect responds to one of their sequences.
For guiding prospects to web-direct, we also have a sequence that you should use to ensure that you streamline their buyer’s journey.
For more personal events, such as Executive Roundtables, there many be more detailed Last Event Notes that have an ask to include the people who interacted with the prospect at the event. For these situations we have a specialized white glove sequence.
The goal of this sequence is to reach out to the prospect quickly and to include our SAEs/AEs in the conversation.
You must change your email signature in Terminus in order for your signature to save. If you only change your signature in Outreach or Gmail your signature will revert back within 24 hours.
Steps to change your signature
BDR outbound lead generation is done by prospecting to companies and individuals who could be a great fit for our product. Prospecting is the process of finding and developing new business through searching for potential customers with the end goal of moving these people through the sales funnel until they eventually convert into customers.
BDRs will work closely with their dedicated SAE or AE to choose which accounts move into “Actively Working”. Together they will build a strategy for those companies. It is crucial that outreach is very intentional and strategic. When reaching out, we want BDRs to offer value and become a trusted advisor, ensuring a positive impression is left whether there is current demand or not.
The FO Outbound process is split in four phases, which should be followed on a weekly basis to ensure a steady outbound pipeline in alignment with our internal KPIs.
1A. Create a set of achievable objectives
These goals should be based on what you know you can achieve when focusing on First Order accounts. It is particularly important to know your equation so you can map your activities to specific outcomes and goals in a predictable way.
The main objective you should be focusing at is to measure and plan what activity is required to achieve or increase the amount of First Order meetings.
1B. Map your objectives to your data
Research your territory to identify the true First Order (FO) accounts, ensuring no other subsidiaries have licenses, verifying there hasn’t been a lost renewal in the past 180 days, and confirming there are no open opportunities. The goal here is to vet your TAM (Total Addresable Market) so that you can start matching cohorts of accounts with the objectives that you’ve outlined in the previous step. Indicatively, you can export these accounts to a Google Sheet, or other SSoT of your preference, for tracking since these accounts will be marked as Actively Working at a future step further down the process.
Utilizing these accounts, create an outreach strategy and plan for the upcoming month and quarter. This strategy should include considerations such as the number of accounts to include in sequences per week and per month, the quantity of prospects from these accounts to add into sequences weekly, whether you intend to target specific personas, if you plan to employ targeted messaging, whether sequences will be used for high-priority targets, and the messaging approach you will implement. As previously mentioned, knowing your equation is important for your planning here. Please refer to the sheet linked above to determine your exact metrics.
During your research phase for accounts to include in your sequences, thoroughly investigate and document pertinent information, which may include:
This comprehensive research will provide valuable insights for crafting effective outreach strategies further down the funnel. Regarding account research, in addition to our B2B database toolstack, we also use 6Sense to pre-qualify the accounts that should be considered for our pipelines since 6Sense scores accounts based on their market and profile fit.
There are two ways utilize 6Sense:
The dashboard will now display the top actively working accounts in your name. Do note that these are only accounts that we currently have on our database, while you can find greenfield accounts by visiting the SaaS platform (instructions in section 2B). Section 3 below explains how you can review and utilize this data.
Navigate to 6Sense through Okta On the left-hand bar, click on the Segments tab You will find all of the relevant resources for BDRs and SDRs on the first 5 folders. These folders can be used as per the table below. (In each folder you will find a saved template that can be cloned and edited for your individual territories.)
| Folder | Usage |
|---|---|
| 1. AWA’d Accounts | These segments will display the top accounts in your current actively working list according to 6Sense intent data. By manually investigating each of those accounts you will be able to uncover further prospect engagement data, and adjust your strategy in converting this account. This report has the same functionality as the SFDC dashboard outlined in step 2A. |
| 2. Non-AWA Greenfield Accounts | These segments will display the top accounts in your territory that we do not have on our SFDC database. These accounts should be manually investigated and considered for adding to your outbound pipeline. Note that we have approx. 15% of our TAM on our SFDC database, while these reports are an automated way to identify great accounts from the other 85% of the TAM in your territory. Please note that the Sales Dev Ops team is here to work with you to generate these reports, as the particularities of our Sales Territories require some editing with the filters. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us so we help you work through these. |
| 3. Non-AWA SFDC Accounts | These segments display the accounts that currently hold on our database that display high 6sense intent scores, but are not part of your actively working list. |
After choosing the type of report you’d like to work, please follow the steps below:
No matter how efficiently we’re trying to use our toolchain, these tools are still prone to error, and manual research is required to best shortlist the prospecting lists that cross-referencing will provide.Manual research will also provide additional context that can be used to hyper-personalize your outreach to your prospects.
For each account that you want to investigate, start with SFDC to make sure that there are no duplicate accounts. The report templates in 6Sense should exclude existing customers or accounts actively prospected, but we cannot automatically exclude accounts that have a different naming or domain on salesforce (ie. GitLab and GTLB)
The importance of diligent manual research will lead to the below efficiencies:
β Better use of time in the long-run by making sure accounts are indeed within your segment and territory, or are not duplicates.
β Avoiding unecessary RoE conflicts by making sure there are no hidden parent accounts that would cause SAO ownership to be re-assigned to other segments in the future.
1. To double-check the account on Salesforce:
2. To hyper-personalize your messaging:
Please follow the steps below to understand how to research the data provided on 6Sense, and to cross-reference this data with our internal knowledge base so that you create your account strategy accordingly.
Exporting Accounts and Leads to SFDC, and adding to your Outbound Pipeline.
After having manually shortlisted the accounts that are applicable to your campaign, the next step is to determine the relevant prospects per account and export them to SFDC. It is important to add accounts to your outbound pipeline so that AEs and other SDRs/BDRs know this is an account that is already being touched, and to avoid confusion or multiple people approaching the same prospects. Before moving an account into “Actively Working Status”, make sure there have been no MQLs or opportunities created from that account within the past 30 days, and there are no leads from that account in Qualifying status with activity in the last 30 days or with a future task date set. If you are not sure, double-check with the related AE, SDR or BDR.
To determine which prospects to enroll per account, please follow the steps below:
You should explore the specific personas you intend to target, such as: VPs, Directors, Developers, Security, Architecture, DevOps, DevSecOps, Procurement Officers, and IT Buyers.
Determine the number of prospects you plan to add to sequences, with a minimum of 25 per day. Utilize LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo or Cognism to identify these personas within your target companies.
In Step 7, compile the selected prospects and create LinkedIn Sales Navigator lists for each persona. Save these lists for future use.
To export to CRM, please follow the guidelines below:
To fill in the BDR fields, please follow the guidelines below:
Use the format found on this template Copy-Paste the Structure to the BDR Account Research field and populate accordingly. Populate the BDR Next Step Date to be at the end of the account’s sequence length (typically one month out)
To review your current pipeline, along with any leads with next steps, please refer to your segments dashboards by going to SFDC > Dashboards and searching for Watch and Help.
Team specific variants of these dashboard components will also be found on your team’s dashboard. These dashboards will give you a bird’s eye view of what actions are required from to maintain a clean pipeline, in terms of: i. Accounts with BDR fields past due ii. Prospects with sequence steps past due iii. Prospects that have been moved to Qualifying status but have not had any outreach since.
Qualification criteria is a minimum set of characteristics that a lead must have in order to be passed to sales and become a Sales Accepted Opportunity (SAO), these are split into Inbound and Outbound Criteria.
As an SDR or BDR, you will work to connect with inbound/outbound leads that you get a response from to obtain the applicable information required. This information is tracked on the qualification criteria on the LEAD, CONTACT, and OPPORTUNITY objects in Salesforce. In order to obtain an SAO, you will need to have the required information filled out on the opportunity including documented 2-way communication on the Contacts in the Opportunity. Professional Services opportunities are not credited to sales development, these need to be passed straight to the account AEs for them to qualify.
When do I create an Opportunity?
You have scheduled time with AE/SAE to speak with the prospect: If you are scheduling time with an AE/SAE to speak to the prospect based on a qualifying conversation you have had with the prospect, an opportunity needs to be created and placed in stage 0. On the opportunity, all “required qualification” fields need to be filled in.
You have obtained a commitment/willigness from a prospect to discuss further. If you have a meaningful two-way communication with a prospect, but have not had the required qualification criteria to move to the Sales team, you can create an opportunity under your name so that you better track your warm conversations. These opportunities may also be used for better collaboration with your team, as they can be reviewed and brain-stormed upon during team meetings.
Who owns the opportunity at this point?
You have scheduled time with AE/SAE to speak with the prospect. When you have entered the qualification criteria onto the opportunity, and have received calendar confirmation from all parties for the intro call with sales, you will change ownership to the AE/SAE. After you have saved opp owner, you will add yourself to the BDR/SDR field. The opportunity will remain in stage 0.
You have obtained a commitment/willigness from a prospect to discuss further. At this point, the opportunity will be in your ownership but you can not have yourself listed in the Business Development Representative or Sales Development Representative field. There is a validation rule that will not allow the opp owner and the SDR/BDR representative field to be the same member.
When will it be credited as an SAO?
After the AE/SAL meets with the prospect to verify and supplement qualification criteria, they will move the opportunity into Stage 1 Discovery. The AE/SAL is expected to move the opportunity into the correct stage within 48 hours of the meeting reflected in the “Next Step” date field.
If an opportunity has incorrect data after it has moved into Stage 1 - Discovery, please Chatter your manager about the required changes, they will then Chatter someone from Sales Dev Operations (Ramona, Panos, Ed) once final changes are agreed upon. No one else from Sales Dev can edit opportunities once they are in Stage 1, so please try and ensure you have all the information on the opportunity before you ask the AE/SAL to accept it.
If the opportunity is for a new group of users in a Large account where sales is working on a large “central” opportunity, then your opportunity should be merged to that opportunity for you to get credit for the users you have brought to the deal. See under Stage 8 in the Sales Go To Market Handbook.
Creating Opportunities:
Identify and Relate Communications: Identify relevant two-way communications with the prospect, such as email exchanges, call records, or LI messages. Ensure that these are properly logged in SFDC associated with the person, company, and opportunity records as needed. To do this:
related to.related toSelect specific activity records highlighting your involvement and press related toVerify Sales Organization RoE: On ZoomInfo, or other established sources if needed, verify the parent/child segmentation and the HQ of the company or ultimate user.
Overriding Incorrect Account Assignments**
Lead/Contact Review Admin section in Salesforce to input correct information.Company Address fields (ie: Company Address: Street), please tick the Company Address Checked checkbox on the lead level. If this step is not completed, then you will receive a message to remind you on Salesforce when you try to convert the lead.If unsuccessful, communicate with the Sales Dev Director for assistance in updating account records.
Schedule IQM: For booking meetings, use Outreach Meetings to expedite the experience for prospects.
AE Review: Expect AEs to verify that they reviewed the opportunity beforehand.
Attending the IQM: Please make sure that both AE and SDR show up on time or up to 5 minutes beforehand with Cameras on.
Debrief: Have a goal for the AE and SDR to debrief within 24 hours regarding the opportunity being flipped or being disqualified.
IQM Notes: SDR adds IQM notes to the Initiative section in the opportunity Title.
Rebooking no-shows: The SDR’s responsibility lies only in rebooking no-shows using the Outreach rebook sequences.
To submit a trial extension ticket for a prospect you will navigate to this internal request form and fill it out the form using the “GitLab L&R internal request for global customers” option and then select extend a gitlab.com trial. Keep in mind it only works for SaaS and not self-managed.
You are also able to downgrade a Trial from Ultimate to Premium through the internal request form. You just have to choose “Change existing GitLab.com Trial plan”
In an effort to increase transparency as well as consistency in terms of credit attribution for opportunities sourced by the Sales Development organization, we will conduct on a monthly basis a full audit of all opportunities giving credit to either a Sales Development or a Business Development Representative. Please do note that SDRs/BDRs that are on their ramping quarter are exempt from being auditors.
Participating and completing the audit on time is mandatory.
Guiding principles:
Mandatory SLA: Audit and XDR response must be completed by the first day of the following month. Rulings will be completed by the management team by the end of the second day. Invitations and pairing will be sent to the entire Sales Dev team the first week of the month. It is the responsibility of the team member to find a backfill to do their audit if they are unable to complete the audit within set timelines.
Examples: web directs. AE-created. Partner generated (for now), Opp w/no value, duplicate opp
Each month you will be assigned one of your peers to Audit. We will share a report with all the S1 opportunities created that month. SDRs will audit SDRs and BDRs will audit BDRs. We will do our best to pair people from the same segment however it is possible that you end up auditing someone from another segment.
Once you’ve audited an opp, you will create a task by logging a call, choose “other” as type, and write “#Audited” in the subject line. If an opp needs more research, write “#Audited - Pending Review” and add this opp into the Audit Review spreadsheet.
Audit Process Video Walkthrough
| Action | Rationale | Coaching Opportunity |
|---|---|---|
| Opp creator | Our standard is to get to credited for creating opportunities that meet the qualification criteria. | When you set up a conversation with an AE, you should create the opportunity. If we see that an opp was created by an AE but has the SQS = Sales Dev Generated, there will need to be evidence of meaningful engagement by the Sales Dev rep prior to the opp being created. |
| For Web Direct opportunities, check timestamp and for two way meaningful engagement prior to the purchase | Web Direct opportunities are people that bought directly from the store themselves without necessarily having being influenced by us. | Explain that our role in this company is to directly influence purchasing decisions through positive and purposeful interactions with prospects. Requesting credit when we have not added specific value to a prospect’s journey diminishes the credibility of our team. |
| Check to see whether opportunity qualification fields are populated. | Marketing and Sales are expected to collaborate to move prospects down the funnel based on specific qualifiers. When it comes to Stage-0 opportunities these are the opportunity qualification fields. | It’s common that individuals do not fill these fields in the name of agility. This however does not create accountability in progressing these prospects down the funnel in a predictable manner. |
| Check the date of opportunity creation. | Creation of the opportunity should occur when you’re engaged with the prospect and have begun the qualification process. There will sometimes be a child or related opp that needs to be created based on needs discovered during the IQM with AE. Should that be the case, the created child/related opp should have the IQM activity as a related task on it. | Explain that creating opps as soon as engagement occurs will lead to better management of a BDRs/SDRs pipeline. |
| Check to see if there is a contact associated to the opp and that there’s meaningful engagement prior to the opp being created. | Our standard process requires that we work specific leads and that we convert the main contact person to a contact/opportunity upon qualification. | Explain that this best practice will help with measuring and moving an opportunity further down the pipeline because of accurately being able to communicate the decision-making team from the prospect’s side. |
| If activity shows up on the record, and the activity is a connected call with notes, verify that the activity matches in Outreach. | Activities on SFDC can be edited freely and therefore questioned by our audit team. | Explain that Outreach is a SSoT that can be used as irrefutable proof of outreach. Even if other systems fail, Outreach is always used as the last back-up. |
| If activity matches, check that activity happened in accordance with our Actively Working Rules Of Engagement (RoE). | Team members from both Sales and Marketing are expected to contribute pipeline only within their assigned territory. | Explain that making sure that being aligned to the RoE will not create any contigencies when measuring pipeline. |
Directors, Ops and JB will select random opps each month to audit and ensure audit process is being followed
Our cold-calling best practices typically consist of 4 elements. A pattern interrupt, an elevator pitch and, if required, objection/trap-setting questions and Up-Front Contracts.
To be effective, these need to be customized to the individuals we call as per the logic below:
You can find three examples of our cold call scripts in the description of the BDR 101 Level Up Course
The main documentation may be found here and the library of resources here.
Typically used for scheduled calls and Up-Front Contracts. UFCs can also be used as a defense mechanism when cold calling does not go as planned. For cold-calling, UFCs are used when the prospect can commit to 15’ at the time of the call. If they commit to a 15’ for a later time, UFCs are used to open the call and set the agenda then.
Explore the main documentation here.
The questions below are suggestions to be used while doing a discovery call, in order to identify the decision making process, and to meet the outbound accepted SAO as per the guidelines here.
The table below shows the Command of the Message Email Writing Checklist.
It aims to outline the structure of the emails we write to prospects. Emails should be written in each person’s language and tone and make sure to include the CoM frameworks as per the outline below. You can find additional resources here.
| Subject Line | |
|---|---|
| Personalized | - Use Prospect’s name, Company name, or colleague’s name. - Relate to their situation: Use recent company initiatives, technologies they use, Projects they have planned etc. |
| Curiosity and Urgency | - Provide an image of their future situation: Guide the reader to imagine how their situation could change. - Use compelling events to give a clear image of where they are currently. |
| CoM | - Proof Points: Quote Case Studies or other customers. - How We Do it Better: Make use of our defensible differentiators. |
| Opening Line | |
| Avoid cliches | - Stand out: Avoid losing email real-estate with cliche phrases like “just following up” or “hope all is well”. - Brand yourself: Demonstrate that you have an understanding of the reader’s current situation and a clear idea of his required solutions. |
| CoM | - Before Scenarios: Paint a clear image of their current situation and how that is causing them professional or personal pain. - After Scenarios/PBOs: Tie the current situation with a clear image of a future situation that’s beneficial for the business and the individual. |
| Main Body | |
| Addressing Questions and Information provided | - No Free Consulting: Answer questions just enough to give a narrative to your email and tie into the CTA. - No Transactional Answers: Don’t make the reader feel like he’s interacting with an online form, a robot, or a sleazy salesman that doesn’t care. |
| CoM | - Discovery Questions: determine which discovery questions tie into their current situation, questions asked or information provided. - Trap-Setting Questions: if competitor technology or objections come up, use trap-setting questions to guide the reader into understanding our differentiators. |
| CTA | |
| Clear Next Step, Agenda and benefit | - Valuable: phrase your CTA in a way that’s clearly valuable to the reader and his specific situation. - Defined: outline what will happen in the next step and how long will it take |
| CoM | - Measurable: present metrics or PBOs that will be covered in the next step |
Additionally, you can use the matrix below as a quick-cheet to determine what datapoints can be used for personalization.
| Location | Information |
|---|---|
| - Have they recently been promoted? - What are the specific responsibilities stated on their page you are trying to help them with? | |
| Company strategy from website | - What are the company’s strategic initiatives? (become more agile?, improve internal business systems?, focus on speed to market on delivery? Streamlining expenditure?) |
| Google search name of contact | - Do they have any blogs? - Have they featured in any articles? - Have they any personal achievements celebrated? - Do they have any side projects? |
| Keyword search company | - “COMPANY” AND (“Agile” OR “digital transformation” OR “DevOps” OR “business process improvement” OR “Cloud” OR “digital strategy”) |
| Leadership Focus | - Find articles of leadership through boolean searches and ask propose how we can help them achieve these goals |
| Company News | - Celebrate company achievements |
| Check support tickets | - Are they experiencing issues that upgrading deployment options could help resolve? |
| Mutual Contacts | - Do you have mutual contacts on LinkedIn you can talk about? |
| Use cases on website | - Do they have the same customers as us? How do they help them? |
| Speak to a user of the tool to create personalized message to decision maker | - Speak to someone who uses out tools every day to uncover pain-points (performance degradation at peak times) and take that information to a decision maker |
Video Walkthrough of how to make changes to the GitLab Handbook for the Sales Development org
One of our Values is being handbook first.
In order to align the SDR organization more closely to this ideal, below are suggested steps. Please remember that the Handbook is a living document, and you are strongly encouraged to make improvements and add changes. This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to net new solutions that should be shared so the whole organization has access to that process. (aka The DevOps ideal of turning “Localized Discoveries” into “Global Knowledge”.)
Steps:
From FY24Q4 onwards, we will pilot automatic triggers through Outreach.
As a first iteration, we will be automatically enrolling leads that indicate a high Propensity to Purchase (PTP) score to a full High Touch outreach sequence. The filters applicable for this trigger are:
We have an additional process where leads that [were automatically moved to disqualify lead status because of a wrong email]https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/marketing/marketing-operations/-/issues/7718(), BUT have a phone number associated to them, will automatically be enrolled to a sequence.
When a territory moves from one BDR to another but the previous BDR remains with the same team (ex: moves from one MM territory to another) the BDR vacating the territory will have the chance to temporarily retain ownership of accounts with which they have generated ongoing engagement (subject to manager approval). At the time of the holdover, an issue will be created that will be reviewed in 30 days to verify account ownership. This includes:
The end-user account determines the BDR/SDR alignment: If you are the SDR assigned to the 3rd party lead, please gather the information in point 1 and pass the lead to the correctly assigned BDR (the BDR assigned to the end-user account) who will complete points 2-6
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| Gather billing and end-user details from the reseller | - Billing company name/address: - Billing company contact/email address: - End-user company name/address: - End-user contact/email address: - Snippet in outreach |
| Create a new lead record with end-user details | - Ensure that all notes are copied over to the new LEAD as this is the LEAD that will be converted. |
| Converting the new lead | - Name opp to reflect reseller involvement as shown here: “End-user account name via reseller account name” - Convert original reseller lead to a contact associated with the reseller account - If an account does not already exist for the reseller, create one when converting the lead to a contact - Assign the record to the same account owner - Do NOT create a new opportunity with this lead. |
| Attach activity to the opportunity | - On the reseller contact, go to the activity and link each activity related to your opportunity to the opp. - Activity History > click edit to the left of the activity > choose ‘opportunity’ from the ‘related to’ dropdown > find the new opportunity > save |
| Update the opportunity | - Change the business type to new business and stage to pending acceptance. - Under contacts, add the reseller contact, role as reseller, and primary contact. - Under partners, add the reseller account as VAR/Reseller |
The purpose of the BDR-AE outbound handoff process is three fold.
To make sure that the hand-offs maximize internal efficiencies, it is required that:
BDR steps after discovery call
BDR steps before discovery call
Organizing a shared demo makes it more simple for us to offer spontaneously a demonstration of GitLab, which should result in a easier handover of opps, and ease to create opps. As BDRs, we arranged the execution of this demo by creating a zoom webinar, and configuring the whole event so that the administrative side is automated.
| Define the criteria that qualifies an opportunity as eligible to go to a shared demo. | |
| SAL/AE is involved only | The SAL can invite his/her/their customers or contacts in order to add value to their ongoing discussion, if the AE/SAL finds it relevant. This is in the context of a conversation with the prospect/customer. |
| SAL/AE and BDR are involved | The BDR schedules a discovery meeting with the SAL (whether it is a prospect or customer) that generates a qualified opportunity. Once the opportunity is created, the SAL/BDR suggests the shared demo instead of the individual demo based on the priority of the opportunity (importance of the account, number of licenses, amount of the opportunity, persona). This is in the context of a conversation with the prospect/customer. There needs to be an opportunity in this case to suggest the demo, for the sake of collaboration between the SAL and the BDR. |
| BDR is involved only | When a lead with decision power or significant influence in the org (no individual contributor) expresses a high interest for GitLab (aka: high read/open rates on an email, response received by phone with interest confirmed) AND when the BDR has a tangible reason to think that there is a need in the division/team/company (research, information obtained through other leads in the same org), the BDR can leverage the shared demo for HOT leads to create interest or a sense of urgency, the goal being to have the lead jump on an introductory meeting after the shared demo. |
| Define the criteria for different groups of attendees who can join this demo | |
| Attendees coming from a BDR conversation | In order to attend a demo, this attendee needs to be part of an opportunity in at least stage 1- Discovery. |
| Attendees coming from the AE’s conversations | The AE can leverage this shared demo to invite his own contacts. |
| Step-by-step guide to plan a demo | |
| 1. Get a Zoom Webinars license | You don’t have a Webinar licence by default, so you need to open an access request issue on GitLab to ask for one. |
| 2. Go on Zoom SSO > Webinars (on the left under Meetings) > Schedule a webinar | You will be able to save the entire configuration of the webinar as a template, in order not to set it up again. |
| 3. Change the topic, description, date/time, and duration | Change the topic (this will be the title of your demo, and the name of the event on Google Calendar), the description (describes the content of the demo, the idea is to adapt the focus of the demo depending on your attendees), set the date/time of the demo, and the duration (note that setting a certain duration will not stop the zoom webinar once the time has gone). |
| 4. Tick the box ‘Required’ next to registration | |
| 5. Change the Dial country to match attendees’ language | |
| 6. Configure additional settings such as Q&A, recording, and email settings | |
| 7. Save the configuration as a template for future use |
This complementary table can help structure your thinking around what outbound accounts to choose.
| Account Scoring & Prioritization |
|---|
| Priority 1 Actively Working Accounts (15%) |
| - Strong ICP Qualities |
| - Compelling Triggers |
| - Strategy is Tailored and Targeted |
| - Future based next step dates |
| - Specific next step notes |
| Priority 2 Actively Working Accounts (35%) |
| - ICP qualities |
| - No Triggers |
| - Strategy is Targeted (persona/industry based) |
| - Future based next step dates updated weekly/bi-weekly |
| - Next step notes should just include week # |
| Priority 3 Actively Working Accounts (50%) |
| - ICP qualities |
| - No Recent Triggers |
| - Strategy is nurture based |
| - Future based next step dates updated monthly |
| - Next step notes should just include recent release # or event invite |
| Other Good Account Scoring Qualifiers: |
| - Current CE Usage |
| - 250+ employees in IT/TEDD positions |
| - Good Fit Industry / Vertical (High Growth, Technology, Financial, Healthcare, Regulated Business) |
| - Early Adopters / Innovative IT Shops (Identifiers & Keywords): Kubernetes / Containers, Microservices, Multi-cloud, DevOps, DevSecOps, CICD (and open-source + proprietary tools), SAST / DAST, Digital Transformation |
| - Current DevOps Adoption (multiple DevOps roles on staff or hiring for multiple DevOps positions) |
| Outbound Prospecting Framework |
| Priority Level | Account Strategy Includes | Next Step Date | Next Step Notes | | Priority 1 | Priority #, Any Details | Future based next steps | Hyper-personalized, simultaneous outreach, creative, direct mail, ads, groundswell, events | | Priority 2 | Priority #, Weekly Plan or Length of Sequence | Future based next steps depending on account strategy | Include the weeks outreach and overall strategy | | Priority 3 | Priority # | Update Next Step Date to next months outreach | BDR Next Step, What kind of nurture (Product Updates, Events, Ect) |
Strategies:
Ranking and prioritization of accounts:
Professional Services Opportunities
A Professional Services Opportunity will be used to cover any integration, consulting, training or other service that a Sales rep will sell to a prospect/client and needs or wants to be invoiced separately. To invoice separately a new quote and opportunity must be created.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accepted Lead | A lead that an SDR or BDR agrees to work until qualified in or qualified out |
| Account | An organization tracked in salesforce.com. An account can be a prospect, customer, former customer, integrator, reseller, or prospective reseller |
| AM | Account Manager |
| AE | Account Executive, can be Major or Strategic in AMER/EMEA Enterprise |
| APAC | Asia-Pacific |
| BDR | Business Development Represenative - focused on outbound |
| CAM | Channel Account Manager |
| CS | Customer Success |
| DACH | Germany, Austria and Switzerland region |
| EMEA | Europe, Middle East, and Africa |
| EULA | End User License Agreement |
| High intent | An event, webcast, demo that is a strong indicator of purchase or evaluation |
| Inquiry | An Inbound request or response to an outbound marketing effort |
| IQM | Initial Qualifying Meeting |
| LATAM | Latin America (includes all of Central & South America) |
| META | Middle East, Turkey and Africa Region |
| MQL | Marketing Qualified Lead - an inquiry that has been qualified through systematic means (e.g. through demographic/firmographic/behavior lead scoring) |
| MVC | Minimal Viable Change (not Model View Controller) |
| NEUR | Northern Europe Region |
| NORAM | North America |
| Qualified Lead | A lead that a BDR or SDR has qualified, converted to an opportunity and assigned to a Sales Representative (Stage 0-Pending Acceptance) |
| RD | Regional Director |
| ROW | Rest of World |
| SAE | Strategic Account Executive |
| Sales Admin | Sales Administrator |
| Sales Serve | A sales method where a quota bearing member of the sales team closes the deal |
| SAO | Sales Accepted Opportunity - an opportunity Sales agrees to pursue following an Initial Qualifying Meeting |
| SDR | Sales Development Representative - focused on inbound |
| Self Serve | A sales method where a customer purchases online through our web store. Also known as a “web direct” |
| SEUR | Southern Europe Region |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement |
| SQO | Sales Qualified Opportunity |
| CSM | Customer Success Manager |
| TEDD | Technology, Engineering, Development and Design - used to estimate the maximum potential users of GitLab at a company |
| Won Opportunity | Contract signed to Purchase GitLab |
| Hyper-personalization | The concept of combining real-time data extracted from multiple sources to create outreach that resonates with prospects on an individual level. |
| VIP (prospect) | A Very Important Person, top officer, executive buyer, C-level prospect, or important influencer requiring hyper-personalization. |
| Influencer (prospect) | An individual prospect suspected to be involved with IT decision-making, tooling, teams, roadmap, strategic projects, and/or budgets. |
| User (prospect) | A prospect with limited influence within an IT organization. |
| Groundswell | An outbound strategy focused on filling the top of the funnel by generating engagement, opt-ins, MQLs, and uncovering intent signals. |
| Snippets | Content created for BDRs and SDRs to use to create hyper-personalized sequences, one-off emails, or to use for reaching out to prospects via LinkedIn. |
| Warm Calling | The method used to strategically incorporate phone calls and voicemails into an outbound prospecting workflow. |
| Rules of Engagement (RoE) | Defines ownership of a lead, SAO credit, and collaboration between SDRs and BDRs. |
| BDR Prospecting Status | Salesforce status includes Queued, Actively Working, Worked in FY, and Restricted. |
| Vartopia Partner Account | If populated, the lead/contact is worked by a partner, and Sales Dev should not proceed with outreach. |
| Actively Working Status | Accounts chosen for strategic outreach based on alignment, news, initiatives, etc. Recycles after 10 weeks if not worked. |
| Actively Working Status Requirements | BDR Account Strategy field must be populated. Research and Next Steps notes within 10 days. Minimum 5 people in sequences. |
| Queued status | Accounts waiting to be moved into Actively Working. SDRs work MQLs in this status. |
| Worked in FY status | Indicates an account went through “Actively Working” this FY. Can be moved back to “Actively Working” later. |
| Restricted status | SAE-indicated restriction on the account. BDRs handle the status change, note the reason, and reroute to assigned BDR. |
title: Sales Development Tools and Manager Resources description: This page walks you through all the tools we use in the Sales Dev org.
This page is to act as your guide to the many tools and best practices that the Sales Development Organization uitlizes.
Zoominfo provides our Sales Development Representatives and Account Executives with access to hundreds of thousands of prospects and their contact information, company information, tech stack, revenue, and other relevant data. Individual records or bulk exports can be imported into Salesforce using extensive search criteria such as job function, title, industry, location, tech stack, employee count, and company revenue. More information can be found on the Marketing Operations Zoominfo handbook page.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a prospecting tool & extended reach into LinkedIn Connections.
6Sense is a targeting and personalization platform that we use to reach our different audiences based on intent data and our ideal customer profiles. While the content beblow is more specific to our Sales Development team, please visit the Marketing Operation’s handbook page here for a full breakdown of 6Sense’s functionality.
We currently have in place an automation that will automatically move accounts that reach 6QA status from 6Sense to SFDC.
Specifically:
We have three segments (SMB, MM, ENTG) saved on folder 9a of 6Sense. Each of these segments tries to identify the top accounts we currently have on SFDC that are not being worked by our team.
Through 6Sense Orchestrations, we will automatically update these accounts weekly.
Sales Dev Automation will be enriched with the value of the respective segment (SMB, MM, ENTG)From the moment these accounts get enriched by 6Sense, they will automatically show up on our pre-saved searches on ZoomInfo, one for each segment.
These saved searches will pull the relevant decision-makers per segment, and through ZoomInfo workflows do the following:
B6 - My 6QA Leads.Qualified is the Sales Dev Org’s tool we use to chat with visitors on the GitLab website. Currently the SDR teams primarily respond to inbound chats and visitors using Qualified. The BDRs also have the ability to initiate chats with known leads from their actively working accounts.
Call and demo recording software. Chorus tracks keywords, provides analytics, and transcribes calls into both Salesforce and Outreach. Chorus will be used to onboard new team members, provide ongoing training and development for existing team members, provide non-sales employees with access to sales calls, and allow sales reps to recall certain points of a call or demo. At this time, US Sales, US Customer Success, US SDRs will be considered recorders. Non-US Commercial and Non-US SDRs can request recorder access once they have completed the GDPR training course. Non-US recorders will also need access to the EMEZ Zoom Group. Everyone else can access the tool as a listener if they wish.
Crayon hosts competitive messaging resources that are maintained by GitLab’s product marketing team.
This is where you can find messaging related to GitLab vs some of our competiors such as GitHub, Atlassian, and Azure DevOps
We have an end-to-end process and tool walkthrough that walks manager through all the knowledge and information they need to know to be able to use our tech stack, both for inbound and outbound processes. The full walkthrough of this training is documented on the issue here. Moreover, abbreviated notes of the training can be found here.
This page will serve as a training resource and operational guide for current and future managers. All Sales Development Managers should follow the general leadership principles set out in the handbook.
Onboarding is essential for all Sales Development Managers at GitLab. As part of onboarding, a Becoming a GitLab Manager issue will be created for each manager when they join, or are promoted. This issue is intended to connect new managers with the crucial information they need, and ensure they have access to all the resources and training available.
The BDR process that we have defined here in GitLab is meant to provide a repeatable set of steps that an outbound BDR can follow to achieve results. It is very important for an onboarding manager to align themselves as quickly as possible to this process as it is a proven method that will help them manage their team in a efficient and data-driven way.
The BDR Process is explained step-by-step in the main SDR handbook page here
For a newcoming manager, we provide the Manager attention needed boards that will be your main tool in understanding where your team is aligned to our BDR process, and where they need assistance.
To help structure your usage of the above, you can follow the steps below during your first month at GitLab while the document here will be your main go-to resource
| Action | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Clone the Action Needed Dashboard and edit each report to be exclusive to your team’s names | Gives you a SSoT that you and your team can easily reference |
| Review the dashboard with your team, and discuss how the data on it connect to the BDR KPIs | Allows you to understand your team’s level of maturity and each team member’s current level of alignment to existing processes |
| Take note of any discrepancies or points of feedback from the team, either transcribe them to 1:1s for individual conversations or to the SDR Issue board for org-wide improvements | Enables you to filter between discrepancies that are caused because of a team member’s lack of diligence that should be improved upon by the individual OR for discrepancies that were caused by an org-wide operational shortcoming that should be improved upon on a global scale. |
| Set realistic expectations with the team about adherance to org KPIs and set a review mechanism to go over them on a reccuring basis | Helps maintain a repeatable structure of accountability for your entire team |
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Leadership Handbook | Tools and resources to assist people managers in effectively leading and developing team members at GitLab |
| Compensation Review Cycle (Compa Review) | How to review our Compensation Calculator and carry out the Compensation Review Cycle |
| Sales Dev Manager Onboarding Checklist | Make a copy and complete this checklist to ensure you know your team’s tools and processes |
| 360 Feedback | Opporunity for managers, direct reports, and cross functional team members to give feedback to each other. Schedule and all information on this page. |
| Workday | All team member HR information |
| Transitioning to a Manager Role at GitLab | New manager resources and what to expect |
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| SSoT Sales > Sales Development Territory Alignment Sheet | Can be found in Manager Home Base sheet. Single source of truth document for Sales Development to AE/SAE/Territory Alignment |
| Territory Change Request Issue Board | Use the territory Change Request Issue Board and the BDR_Territory_Change Sales Development Issue Template in order to request a territory change for your rep. |
| Sales Dev Internal Onboarding and Transition issue template | This issue template is to be used when a new teamember is joining the Sales Development Org for the first time or they are transitioning from SDR to BDR or vice versa. |
| BDR Territory Change Request issue template | Use the BDR Territory Change issue template when you would like to request territory changes for your BDRs. |
| Sales Dev Exit Handover Template | This template is meant to be used for team members that are departing from a team to hand off their pending tasks to their peers. |
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Adding yourself or someone else to the team page | Video to assist new hires with updating their blank team page placeholder |
| Update manager or SDR role in Salesforce | To update a manager or Sales Development role in Salesforce, submit a single person access request or bulk access request depending on the number of roles that need to be updated. |
| Create or update members of a Slack user group | A user group is a group of members in a workspace who often need to be notified at once β for example, @managers. To update who is in one of the Sales Development groups, submit a single person access request or bulk access request depending on the number of people that need to be added. Fill out the requested info and delete any remaining info that isn’t needed. Under ‘Account Creation’ put Slack User Group: @ Name (i.e. @Managers). You can also use the bulk AR to request the creation of a user group and list the users who should be in it. |
| Add someone to the Sales Development Gmail alias | Submit a single person access request or bulk access request depending on the number of people that need to be added. Fill out the appropriate info and delete any remaining info that isn’t needed. Under ‘Account Creation’ put the Sales Development email alias |
| Make an edit to the handbook | Guide for how to edit the handbook. *Note: all new hires must do this as part of their onboarding |
| Add a new page to the handbook | This GitLab Unfiltered video will walk you through how to create a new handbook page |
| Create a new job family | For each job at GitLab, the job family is the single source of truth for the expectations of that role. If you need information about when to create a new job family vs when to use an existing one watch this video |
| Resolve failed pipeline when creating an MR | Quick overview of how to go about identifying why a pipeline might be failing for a merge request to the handbook page |
| Sales Development Onboarding Job Specific Task Section | This task section will automatically be added to the general onboarding issue for new SDRs based on their role when hired. |
| Resource | Purpose |
|---|---|
| SDR Issue Board | Used to track GitLab issues involving the SDR team. This is a global issue board. |
| SDR Event Tracker Issue Board | Used to follow upcoming events globally |
| SDR Sisense Dashboard | SalesDev Analytics Hub Dashboard |
| Lead View Descriptions | There are Manager Lead views in SFDC mirroring the SDR and BDR views which are described on the linked Handbook page on the left. These views need to be checked regularly by managers to ensure all necessary leads are being worked.
| Teams | Boards |
|---|---|
| AMER BDR TEAMS | AMER BDR Action Needed - AMER BDR Manager Attention Needed |
| EMEA BDR TEAMS | EMEA BDR Action Needed - EMEA BDR Manager Attention Needed |
| APAC BDR TEAMS | APAC BDR Action Needed - APAC BDR Manager Attention Needed |
| Global SDR Inbound Teams | SDR Global Action Needed - SDR Global Manager Attention Needed |
Format: Audience | Type | Urgency Example:
Audience
Type
Urgency
Example Sales_Dev_fyi channel post titles
[All of Sales Development] | [Enablement - Mandatory] | [π¨ Action Required]
[All BDRs] | [Operations - Outreach Process Cleanup] | [π§ Need to Know ]
[EMEA Enterprise Land] | [Operations - New Outreach Event Sequence] | [π¨ Action Required ]
[All of Sales Development] | [Survey - People Group Survey Reminder] | [π Feedback Requested ]
Our FM/BDR collaboration process is a method that we follow in the spirit of maximizing cross-functional collaboration. We have created an issue template for Field Marketers to populate, which in turns gets managed from the Kanban Board here. The premise of the issue template and board is to streamline communication between our teams. The issue template very clearly articulates all next steps required of this process while it also tries to leave space for us much AdHoc collaboration as required for each specific event.
As a BDR Director you will be tagged first in this issue as the primary DRI, while as a BDR Manager you will be involved in this issue on a case-by-case basis by your regional Director. All next steps of this process are clearly mentioned in the template for the issue so please follow each step in turn. The Sales Dev Operations team is also tagged and will be there to monitor progress and offer help if requested.
On folder #5 in the 6Sense segments list, you’ll find the templates for the main three categories of accounts that we have. These templates are meant to be cloned and edited for your teams as per the guidelines below and will assist with coaching on 1:1s and team calls, as well as driving more predictable pipeline building.
Currently Actively Working Accounts Template
CE/SFDC Accounts not in Actively Working Status
Greenfield Accounts not in Actively Workin
Sales Dev by Salesforce Profile and Role -
Sales Dev Territories by Team role/member associated with each territory -
GitLab People Connect Team members will create the onboarding issue and start completing the onboarding tasks, no later than one week before the new team member joins. People Connect Team members require a minimum of 4 business days (with the new hire timezone as the basis) before the new hire’s start date to complete all onboarding tasks. This issue will be automatically assigned to you. As a manager, you will also have tasks that need to be completed prior to the new team member’s start date.
The general onboarding issue will also automatically add a ‘Sales Development’ section under ‘Job Specific Tasks’ based on the role of the new SDR. Both you and your new hire will have tasks to complete in this section.
With the creation of this issue, an access request (AR) will also be automatically created for a new team member on their second day at GitLab. This AR lists the role based entitlements (pre-defined groups and system-level access that are granted automatically to team members depending on their role) your new hire will need. *See what is being auto provisioned on this AR here.
On your new hire’s first day, the assigned People Connect Team member will schedule a welcome email to arrive at 7:30am (local time of the new team member) on their start date detailing how your new hire can access GitLab and begin their onboarding process.
A career mobility issue should be opened 2 weeks before the transition date by the people connect team. If the aligned manager does not see that issue created 2 days before the scheduled transition date, the manager should reach out to the People Connect Team via the #people-connect Slack Channel.
People connect opens mobility issue if any of the following are true:
If an SDR will be out for a prolonged period of time, please follow the proper processes and complete the SDR leave checklist.
The full process for offboarding at GitLab differs based on whether it is voluntary or involuntary. These processes can be found on the offboarding handbook page.
As BDRs and SDRs, you work closely with the larger marketing org as well as the sales team. Due to this, your onboarding will encompass training on tools and processes related to not only your role but a blend of marketing and sales.
This learning experience involves virtual self-paced learning paths in the form of a general company-wide onboarding issue, a Sales Development specific issue, as well as a Google Classroom course to prep you for Sales Quick Start (SQS). SQS is a 3-day in-person immersive and hands-on workshop for all new hires in a sales development or sales role. In parallel, you will meet regularly with your manager, onboarding buddy and members of our sales development enablement team to chat through and dig a bit deeper into the topics within your onboarding.
The goal in all of this is to ensure that you feel confident and comfortable to hit the ground running at the start of your second month on the job when you will have a ramped quota. Our hope is that along this journey you are not only gaining the tactical skills needed to complete your job, but that you form connections with colleagues, gain a strong understanding of our culture, and begin to develop industry knowledge.
For BDRs and SDRs joining on the first Monday of the month
For BDRs and SDRs joining GitLab on the 15th or after of the month
Quota and compensation will be assigned by the BDR/SDR Manager and discussed in the first 1:1. If a fully ramped BDR/SDR transfers BDR/SDR teams they will have a 50% ramp for month 1 and 100% quota for month 2.
Is the MQL from an Existing Account?
No: It is worked by the SDR team
Yes: Check the BDR Prospecting Status and Account Type
Is the Account a customer?
No: Move on to the next step Yes: Check for Opportunities
Is there an existing renewal opportunity?
No: Move on to the next step Yes: Align with the sales RoE for renewals and check whether the lead is involved in an upcoming renewal, check in with the Account Executive and your Regional Manager to determine what’s the best course of action for this person.
Is the Account in “Actively Working” Status
No: It is worked by the SDR team
Yes: Check for Activity
Is the lead connecting to accounts from the Financial Services (AMER) or Telecommunications (EMEA) industries?
No: Please proceed to the next step.
Yes: Normal RoE rules are superceded, and the lead is worked by the respective Telco/Finserv BDRs, not the SDR team
Does the account have activity placed by the BDR in the last 30 days?
Yes: It is worked by the BDR Assigned.
No: Check to see if there are leads related to the account that have activity using this report
When you modify this report based on company name and email domain, do you see any activity in the last 30 days?
Yes: It is worked by the BDR Assigned
No: It is worked by the SDR Team.
Next Steps: SDR chatters the BDR Assigned and lets them know you didn’t find activity and will go ahead and sequence the lead. FYI’s the BDR Manager. BDR Manager will work with the BDR to put the account into the correct BDR Prospecting status. If a BDR is able to relay information that was not picked up in the SDR’s research, the SDR should end the sequence if the prospect hasn’t engaged and change lead ownership to BDR so the BDR can reach out. If the SDR has engaged with the prospect, there will need to be a coordinated handoff worked out between SDR and BDR. Note: Only activity logged in SFDC will be recognized as activity.
Is the Account in “Queued” Status?
Yes: It is worked by the SDR team
Is the Account in “Worked in FY” Status?
Yes: It is worked by the SDR team
Is the Account in “Restricted” Status?
Yes: It should be routed to the BDR assigned. The BDR assigned will chatter the SAE about whether they’d like them to reach out or whether they would like to own that responsibility. The AE should respond within 48 hours.
If they reply back that the BDR can work, the BDR will continue with the prospect as a lead record and take action.
If they reply back that they want to be responsible, the BDR will convert the lead so that it becomes a contact.
After determining an MQL is to be worked by the SDR team:
Is the new MQL related to an existing MQL that is part of the same account?
No: The MQL can be worked by the SDR that received it through the round robin
Yes: Check the status of the existing MQL
Is the existing MQL in Accepted or Qualifying status?
No: The MQL can be worked by the SDR that received it through the round robin
Yes: Check the activity on the existing MQL
Is there activity in the last 30 days or a follow up task scheduled for the future?
Yes: The MQL should be worked by the owner of the existing MQL
No: The MQL can be worked by the SDR that received it through the round robin. If you are not sure, double-check with the related SDR.
If the related SDR relays information that was not picked up in the new SDR’s research, the new SDR should end any active sequence if the prospect hasn’t engaged and change lead ownership to the team member who has been engaged so they can reach out. If the new SDR has engaged with the prospect, there will need to be a coordinated handoff worked out between the new SDR and the related SDR. Note: Only activity logged in SFDC will be recognized as activity.
Q: I can’t see certain Outreach collections!:
A: You potentially were added to the incorrect Sales Dev Team in Outreach. Please reach out to Sales Dev Operations.
Q: My version of Salesforce seems very basicβ¦:
A: Make sure you are using the Sales version of Salesforce. To check, please go to the top right corner of your Salesforce window and click the blue button with the drop down window. From there select “Sales”.
Q: I have not received access to all of my tools and it has been a week.
A: Notify your manager and have them comment on your Onboarding Role Entitlements Issue.
Q: I have uploaded more leads from ZoomInfo than what are showing up in my Salesforce ZoomInfo Lead View.
A: This most likely due to these leads aleady being in our Salesforce. The problem is that they are listed as a contact in Salesforce and will only appear in your ZoomInfo Contacts view rather than your Zoominfo Lead view.
Q: I do not know what this person did to score as an MQL.
A: First check the last interesting moment description on Salesforce and then check the Scoring tab of the Marketo Sales Insight widget that is also on the Salesforce lead page. If no points were allocated to behavior and only to demographic type information please Slack the Marketing Ops group so they are aware that this lead did not take any new action.
Q: I received a personal data subject request by a prospect.
A: Our MOPs team has set up a process to address any data subject requests for deletion or access to data. If you receive a request for deletion or access to data, please re-direct inquiries to the Personal Data Subject Request. This messaging snippet can be used and tailored.
Q: Why are BDRs no longer the Account Owner in Outreach?
A: BDRs are no longer listed as the account Owner in Outreach to improve Sales Dev and Sales visibility across all prospects/accounts (excluding PubSec). If you want to filter to see just your accounts, please use the ‘BDR Assigned’ field.
Q: A prospect said they were going to buy through our website (known as a Web Direct). How can I tell if they did?
A: SDRs get credit for opportunities where the SDR had meaningful two way communication with a prospect 60 days before they bought GitLab through our website. The best way to search for a web direct opportunity is to use this report. First, set the date range to the time you think the prospect would have bought. Next, find the opportunity that is tied to your prospect’s account. Then follow the process to request SAO credit.
Note: Sometimes someone else from your prospect’s company actually made the GitLab purchase, leading to the opportunity being related to them instead.
Q: How do I request credit for a web direct opportunity?
A: On the opportunity record in Salesforce, compose a new Chatter message that includes the following:
Q: Should BDRs flag duplicate accounts?
A: Yes. However, they do not have the ability to merge it themselves so should chatter @Sales Support to do it.
Q: How do we resolve a dispute over SAO credit?
A: SDR and BDR first try to talk through a solution If no agreement: Managers will determine a solution If no agreement between the managers: Escalate to Senior Leadership Double credit nor double compensation will be given
Q: Who will be handling inquiries from an SDR/BDR standpoint?
A: Inquiries will go to an open queue. SDR’s will not work them. We want to give marketing time to progress these to MQLs.
A: BDR’s can work leads in all statuses if they are related to their “Actively working” accounts. Outreach to these leads would be part of their account strategy.
Q: What if a prospect comes back directly to the BDR much delayed, when the account is not marked as “Actively Working” anymore, but resulting from personalized messaging?
A: Yes, if they email, reply via LI, or call the BDR directly, the BDR will need to check that the lead is in queue ownership. If so, they must move the account back to “Actively Working”, so that the lead can be put into their ownership.
Q: Why are my leads being reassigned to Inquiry Queue?
A: Marketing Operations has a daily scheduled clean at 10:30 PM EST/EDT that update Status = Inquiry to Inquiry Queue. To prevent the reassignment, you’ll want to update the leads from Inquiry to Accepted or add to an Outreach sequence.
Q: What should BDRs do when a prospect or contact responds with a complince related question or objects to being contacted?
A: Immediately reach out to the Privacy Team via #privacy-team-help and forward any email from the contact to dpo@gitlab.com.
Q: How do I know if a lead is associated to a Partner Account and is being worked by a Partner?
A: Partner leads will not be asigned to BDRs or SDRs as they will be assigned to the Partner Queue. To tell whether a lead is associated to a Partner Account, check their Vartopia Partner Account - if it’s empty, you are may proceed with outreach.
Q: When a partner lead is assigned to Partner, when and how can we recall the lead? A: Partner lead will be recalled after a certain period of time if they are not accepted by Partners for joint marketing campaigns. They will be initially be recalled with a Recycle status, once they become MQL, they will be assigned to BDRs or SDRs. For more information on this process, see the Vartopia handbook page.
There are three deciding factors on what channel you should use for your announcement:
Announcement Channels
| Decision Grid | Not Time Sensitive or Important | Important and/or Time Sensitive |
|---|---|---|
| Impacts Multiple Teams | Email Newsletter, Weekly Team Meeting | Sales Dev FYI Slack, All Hands Meeting, Weekly Team Meeting, Email Newsletter |
| Only Impacts a Select Team | Weekly Team Meeting | Sales Dev FYI Slack, Team Channel Slack, Weekly Team Meeting |
| Qualifiers by Channel | Qualifier(s) |
|---|---|
| Sales Dev Global Slack | Shoutouts, Questions, Concerns, Share something that’s working, Fun for Multiple Teams, New Team Members |
| Sales Dev FYI Slack | Announcements and Reminders that involve multiple teams or are of high importance |
| Email Newsletter | Impacts Multiple Teams |
| All Hands Meeting | Important updates that affect multiple teams |
| Weekly Team Meeting | Any updates that affect that specific team |
| Team Slack Channels | Important or Time Sensitive, but only related to that specific team |
| Levels | Details |
|---|---|
| Onboarding | - Timeframe: Month 0 - Parameters: SDR not on quota, leads are off in Traction, Qualified is off |
| Ramping 1 | - Timeframe: Month 1 - Parameters: SDR is on 25% quota, leads are set at 50% in Traction, Qualified is off |
| Ramping 2 | - Timeframe: Month 2 - Parameters: SDR is on 50% quota, leads are set at 100% in Traction, Qualified is off |
| Ramping 3 | - Timeframe: Month 3 - Parameters: SDR is on 75% quota, leads are set at 100% in Traction, SDR is added to Qualified |
| Expert | - Timeframe: Months 4+ - Parameters: SDR is on full quota, leads are set at 100% in Traction, Qualified is on |
| - SDR is now able to create their own Outreach sequences pending approval. |
| Products Considered | Who | Order Type | Segment | Opportunities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitLab ultimate/premium, Duo | SDR | FO + New Connected | SMB/Comm | 1 (Duo Pro is excluded) |
| GitLab ultimate/premium, Duo | SDR | FO + New Connected + Growth (new groups) | Enterprise | 2 (GitLab + Duo Pro) |
| GitLab ultimate/premium, Duo | BDR | FO | Comm/Ent | 2 |
| GitLab ultimate/premium, Duo | BDR | New Connected + Growth | Comm/Ent | 2 |
| Additional seats in current customer department | BDR | Growth | Comm/Ent | 1 |
| Tier upgrade | BDR | Growth | Comm/Ent | 1 |
| GitLab ultimate/premium, agile planning | everyone | All motions | All segments | 1 (agile planning is excluded) |
| Professional services | everyone | All motions | All segments | 0 |
| Sales Development Org Compensation Breakdown |
|---|
| Quota Components Depending on Sales Segment |
| Sales Accepted Opportunities (SAOs) |
| ARR pipeline component |
| 2-way communication must be documented on the Contact in the Opportunity to receive credit. Opportunities missing this documentation will not be considered for compensation and will not retire quota. |
| For BDRs and SDRs who have SAO/ARR goals, compensation is based on the SAO attainment. ARR attainment is a qualifier for accelerator payments. Our aim is to land net new logos and expand to new customer business units, SAOs being our quantity metric and ARR our quality metric. Our mission is to create good qualified pipeline for the company. SAO credit is given for licenses and not for PS Opportunities (for training, for example) nor pipeline minutes. |
| Team Member OTE (SDR/MM BDR, APAC BDR, & Pub Sec) |
| 70% Base Pay |
| 30% Variable Pay: |
| - 100% Individual SAO Quota: |
| - No floor or ceiling |
| - Accelerator x 1.5 after meeting 100% of target |
| - 1.3 x High LAM New Logo Kicker for APAC/Pub Sec BDRs |
| Team Member OTE (ENT BDR Strategic) |
| 70% Base Pay |
| 30% Variable Pay: |
| - 80% Individual Quota: |
| - 20% Growth SAOs |
| - 60% First Order SAOs |
| - 1.3 x High LAM New Logo Kicker |
| - No floor or ceiling |
| - Accelerator x 1.75 after meeting 100% of target of either SAO type for that type |
| - 20% Pooled Net ARR Bookings: |
| - 75% Floor |
| - Ceiling of 140% |
| - Accelerator x 1.25 from 100% to 140% |
| Team Member OTE (ENT BDR Major) |
| 70% Base Pay |
| 30% Variable Pay: |
| - 80% Individual Quota: |
| - 50% SAOs |
| - 1.3 x High LAM New Logo Kicker |
| - No floor or ceiling |
| - Accelerator x 1.75 after meeting 100% of SAO target |
| - 30% Net ARR Pipeline |
| - No floor with a 200% ceiling, no accelerator |
| - 20% Pooled Net ARR Bookings: |
| - 75% Floor |
| - Ceiling of 140% |
| - Accelerator x 1.25 from 100% to 140% |
| Results |
| - ARR won from opportunities BDR sources |
| Activity |
| - Number of opportunities created |
| - Number of calls made |
| - Number of personalized emails sent |
| - LinkedIn InMails |
| - Qualified Engagements |
| - Number of leads accepted and worked |
| Daily outbound metrics |
| - We aim for 45 touchpoints per day using the various methods above. This is a broad expectation and may vary per team given the segment, functionality, and strategy of the team manager. |
| Position | Promotion Criteria |
|---|---|
| SDR to SDR Team Lead (SDR TL) | - Minimum 9 months in the SDR Role (incl. ramp) |
| - Hitting quota cumulatively over the last fully-ramped 5 months | |
| - Willingness to coach and up-level peers | |
| - Endorsement from SDR management | |
| - Demonstration of GitLab’s Values | |
| - Completion of SDR Q1-Q3 Tanuki Techs | |
| NOTE: Not every SDR will have the opportunity to become a team lead. Interviews will take place when a spot is available. A successful applicant must make a 3-month minimum commitment to the Team Lead Role before pursuing another promotion. | |
| SDR to BDR | - Minimum 12 months in the SDR Role (incl. ramp) |
| - Hitting quota cumulatively over the last 2 fully-ramped quarters (neither quarter below 80% attainment) | |
| - Endorsement from current SDR manager | |
| - Demonstration of GitLab’s Values | |
| - Completion of SDR Q1-Q4 Tanuki Techs | |
| NOTE: All promotions require a formal application + interview. Performance and adherence to values guarantee an interview, but candidates must demonstrate suitability during the process. Factors such as interview performance, headcount, and language requirements can influence promotion timelines. | |
| BDR to Senior BDR | - Minimum 6 months in the BDR Role (incl. ramp) |
| - Hitting quota cumulatively over the last 6 months (fully-ramped months must hit 100% cumulatively) | |
| - Endorsement from BDR management | |
| - Demonstration of GitLab’s Values | |
| - Completion of BDR Q1-Q2 Tanuki Techs | |
| BDR to BDR Team Lead | - Minimum 9 months in the BDR Role (incl. ramp) |
| - Hitting quota cumulatively over the last fully-ramped 5 months | |
| - Willingness to coach and up-level peers | |
| - Endorsement from BDR management | |
| - Demonstration of GitLab’s Values | |
| - Completion of BDR Q1-Q3 Tanuki Techs | |
| NOTE: Not every BDR will have the opportunity to become a team lead. Interviews will take place when a spot is available. A successful applicant must make a 3-month minimum commitment to the Team Lead Role before pursuing another promotion. | |
| BDR and BDR Team Lead to Next Step | - Minimum 12 months in the BDR Role (incl. ramp) |
| - Hitting quota cumulatively over the last 2 fully-ramped quarters (neither quarter below 80% attainment) | |
| - Endorsement from BDR management | |
| - Demonstration of GitLab Values | |
| - Completion of BDR Q1-Q4 Tanuki Techs | |
| NOTE: All promotions require a formal application + interview. Performance and adherence to values guarantee an interview, but candidates must demonstrate suitability during the process. Factors such as interview performance, headcount, and language requirements can influence promotion timelines. |
| Quota Component | Criteria |
|---|---|
| SAOs/Stage 1 ARR | - Informal performance management begins when a ramped XDR has two consecutive months below 80% attainment |
| - After two such months, the XDR is informed that they have to achieve the following or they will enter formal performance management: | |
| - Reach at least 80% to their quota each of the next two months | |
| - Should they fall short of the above criteria in either of the next two months, they immediately move to a formal first email warning the following month | |
| - Should they fall short of the above criteria in either of the next two months after the first email warning, they immediately advance to a final email warning the following month | |
| - Should they fall short of the above criteria in either of the next two months after the final email warning, additional discipline will follow including possible termination | |
| - After two consecutive months of meeting the above criteria in any phase of the process, the XDR will exit performance management | |
| Stage 3 ARR | - Informal performance management begins when a ramped BDR has two consecutive months below 80% Stage 3 attainment |
| - After two such months, the BDR is informed that they have to achieve the following or they will enter formal performance management: | |
| - Reach at least 80% to their Stage 1 quota in Actual Net ARR each of the next two months | |
| - Should they fall short of the above criteria in either of the next two months, they immediately move to a formal first email warning the following month | |
| - Should they fall short of the above criteria in either of the next two months after the first email warning, they immediately advance to a final email warning the following month | |
| - Should they fall short of the above criteria in either of the next two months after the final email warning, additional discipline will follow including possible termination | |
| - After two consecutive months of meeting the above criteria in any phase of the process, the XDR will exit performance management |
| Task | Details |
|---|---|
| 1. Uphold Daily Activity Metrics | - MQLs to be sequenced within expected activity metrics. |
| - Work lead records within Salesforce by leveraging relevant sequence libraries in Outreach. | |
| - Use Business Intelligence platforms like ZoomInfo or LinkedIn to verify the validity of inbound lead datapoints. Take appropriate actions to clean up and assure accuracy and consistency of SFDC/Outreach data. | |
| - Maintain SFDC data integrity by following the outbound workflow in researching and prospecting accounts. | |
| - Sequence steps to be actioned within the same day of them being due. Move steps to a further date only because of national holidays affecting outreach (i.e., Christmas day). | |
| - Maintain cross-functional relationships in terms of outbound account planning. Attend each initial qualifying meeting (IQM) with the AE/SAE you work with. Document accurate up-to-date notes in SFDC. | |
| 2. Displaying Business and Sales Acumen | - Display business acumen and sales skills in personalizing inbound/outbound leads, following our CoM email writing principles. |
| - Display business acumen and sales skills in preparing for cold-calls, following our CoM cold-calling principles. | |
| - Display business acumen and sales skills in preparing for scheduled discovery calls, following our CoM sales training. | |
| - Outbound accounts to be added in a weekly cadence, according to the expectations set within each regional team, in terms of outbound cycle (monthly, weekly), and volume of accounts. | |
| 3. Maintain Cross-functional Relationships | - Collaborate with the Sales team in terms of account planning. |
| - Collaborate with the Field Marketing team in terms of event outreach. |
The below apply for all inbound-related leads for both the SDR and BDR teams:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Response Time for leads | - Net New MQLs: 15 minutes - Inbound Responses: 8 work hours |
| Low vs High Touch Sequence Usage | - Over 70% of inbound leads enrolled to High Touch sequences. |
| Inbound pasks past due per day | - No more than 10% of tasks pending per day. - 90% of tasks to be properly completed, not skipped. |
| Two way conversations | - 50 per week. |
In addition to the above, BDR team members are expected to:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Volume of Actively Working Accounts per Quarter | 100 AWA’d accounts per BDR per Quarter, measured per Actively Working Start Date. |
| Research Quality | >70% usage of Intent tools on AWA’d accounts, with high propensity to purchase indicators showed. |
| Volume of Prospects per Account | 5-10 prospects sequenced per account, whose titles and personas match our ICPs. |
In accordance with the Time Off Policy, you need give your manager a heads up early of your intended time off so that they can help arrange cover for your tasks, if necessary.
We want to help our team members being able to fully unplug from work during their PTO, while not having to worry about their workload or target attainment. Based on this, we have created this PTO Territory Planning Issue that you can use to strategize your work and be aligned to the GitLab value of being a Manager of One.
To log a PTO Territory Planning request, please go to the Issue list on the SDR GitLab project here and choose PTO_Coverage_Template from the Description drop-down list. All of these requests are then managed through the board here. and all next steps and guidelines are on the issue description.
At GitLab we have flexible working hours. This means that you can organize your working day as you like and are not expected to arrive and leave at a set time every day, but we do expect MQL’s to be followed up within 1 hour (during business hours) so communication with your manager will be necessary if you plan to be out for an extended period of time. Managers will provide direction on the routing of leads during that time.
With a prospect-facing role in Sales Development, do keep in mind when you are calling and emailing prospects:
In short, working at GitLab means that if you start the day early you can take a long lunch break to hit the gym or go grocery shopping in the middle of the day when it’s quiet, yet you can still do a full day’s work around that and don’t need to be accountable all the time, as long as you are available to call prospects and be available for prospect meetings during normal working hours for your region/territory.
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