If I was running an SDR team today I never would celebrate "meetings booked."

Especially via cold call.

Yes meetings matter.

But it is not hard to book a meeting or put a placeholder in a prospect's diary.

It is also not hard to book a demo and sell it as a "comparison" to what they are currently doing. Any rookie can beg for a slot on a calendar.

But that does not mean it is a real opportunity.

The 5 Questions Every SDR Must Answer

In our SDR Sales Training, we teach that a meeting is only a meeting if it is qualified.

For any meeting booked your SDR should be able to answer these five questions.

1. Is the meeting booked with a decision maker?

If you are booking meetings with gatekeepers you are wasting your time. We discuss why you must go to the top in The High Road to Sales.

2. What problem are they looking to solve that we can help with?

If there is no problem there is no sale.

3. How long has that problem existed?

This helps you understand urgency.

4. What have they done to fix it if anything?

This helps you understand their commitment to change.

5. What emotional attachment do they have to fixing said problem?

People buy on emotion. If they do not care about the problem they will not buy the solution.

If your SDR cannot tell you this then your meeting is just a hit and hope strategy.

Quantity vs Quality

You could book 20 meetings a week but if they do not turn up or have no authority or have no problem or have no money what is the point?

This is the definition of the vanity metrics we warned about in Stop Chasing Vanity Metrics.

It looks good on a report but it creates zero revenue.

Change the Incentive

Plenty of companies pay their SDR per meeting. This encourages bad behavior.

How about paying them for qualified meetings?

When you do this they learn what prospecting actually is.

Your Account Executives are not fed poor leads. They stop wasting time on demos that go nowhere.

And the meetings might actually turn into revenue.

That is the whole point right?

If you want to stop filling calendars with ghosts and start filling them with revenue it is time to change how you measure success.