There’s a dream partnership inside every sales org.
One player crushes prospecting. The other closes business in their sleep. Pair these two and you have the makings of a winning team.
- More opportunities
- Higher quality meetings
- Bottom-line growth
These potential partners are the SDR and AE.
But they rarely team up.
Sadly, too many sales pros let a lack of incentives, leadership direction, and knowledge get in the way of this growth strategy. Big miss.
We pulled together a sales dream team for a recent webinar. Morgan J Ingram, CEO at Amp, joined Clari’s Devin Reed and Kyle Coleman to break down co-prospecting.
Here’s what they shared.
The What
Co-prospecting is a strategic partnership.
To get in front of more high-quality leads and refine the pipeline, the SDR and AE should collaborate from the start of the sales process.
With co-prospecting, SDRs and AEs should:
- Develop account plans by researching target accounts and building a point of view on priorities, pain points, and stakeholders.
- Divide prospecting responsibilities by role, with the SDR focusing on individual contributors and the AE engaging executives.
- Create an outreach strategy with coordinated touchpoints from both reps tailored to the target persona.
- Execute the outreach plan together through emails, calls, meetings, and other engagements.
In other words, they divide and conquer.
The Why
Co-prospecting sounds nice and all.
But why should sales teams invest in it? Why should we collaborate instead of focusing on individual actions and metrics?
Here’s the pitch:
- Co-prospecting takes advantage of the combined skills of SDRs and AEs, leading to stronger account planning and outreach.
- Co-prospecting unlocks deeper account understanding through coordinated research and communication. This drives targeted messaging and improves relationship building across the power line.
- Co-prospecting reduces the workload for both partners, opening more time for deep research and strong conversation. It also improves workplace happiness.
- Co-prospecting creates shared accountability. This delivers higher pipeline quality and a focus on outcomes.
But most importantly, this strategy can significantly increase meeting and conversion rates compared to SDRs or AEs working solo.
Less busy work, more impact.
What’s not to love?
The How
We’ve got the strategy.
Now, let’s put it to work.
Strong co-prospecting requires a dedicated system that puts the SDR and AE on the same wavelength.
Start with this mini playbook:
- Step 1: Prioritize top accounts each week. Keep it around 10-15 accounts.
- Step 2: Block time for the SDR and AE to research and develop their account plans.
- Step 3: Divide prospecting responsibilities across the power line. The SDR focuses on individual contributors (below the power line), and the AE focuses on executives (above the power line).
- Step 4: Map out coordinated outreach with touchpoints from both reps.
- Step 5: Execute the plan together. The SDR owns the initial outreach.
- Step 6: Use a sales engagement platform to import accounts, coordinate tasks, and track progress.
- Step 7: Continuously gather feedback. Refine the approach and ensure quality pipeline generation.
The key is coordination.
The SDR and AE row in the same direction.
The co-prospecting secret weapon
Ready to equip your team with an industry-leading outreach tool?
Groove Spaces, now part of the Clari Revenue Platform, allows users to move past spreadsheets and collaborate on live Salesforce account lists and opportunities to accelerate deal cycles and close more revenue. It’s the only product you need for co-prospecting and account planning, turning co-prospecting from a chore into a business-winning engine.