BDR, SDR and Outbound Prospecting teams are breeding grounds for tomorrow’s sales leaders. These sales professionals are eager to make an impact and move up the ranks. But, these roles are also a grind! It’s easy for reps to get burnt out, which is exactly why managers looking to hold onto top talent need to help team members succeed in their current roles while also helping them gain the skills they need to advance up the ranks. Here are a few best practices you should consider implementing.

1. Plan a Model Day

On any given day, an outbound sales rep might have to make between 75 to 100 touches (both calls and emails), sit in on at least three appoints, attend a daily team meeting, send out follow up emails and conduct research for at least 10 new accounts.

That’s a lot for anyone to handle, but for a sales rep fresh out of school that can be overwhelming, which is precisely why sales team leaders should establish ‘model days’. These model days can translate into ‘model weeks’ and will ultimately help to ensure that each and every team member is allocating their time appropriately. By showing your team exactly what, how and when activities should be conducted, you’re setting your team and yourself up for success.

2. Encourage Team Members to Send Daily Update Emails

One of the most important things a rep can do is give the entire sales organization visibility into their daily activity. Tracking and updating the team on their activity (calls, emails, conversations, appointments set, opportunities created and so forth) on a daily basis helps create transparency across sales reps and gives key stakeholders within the organization visibility into what it is “those guys/gals” are actually doing all day.

Sending daily update emails also keeps your team members accountable to their goals and will effectively keep reps on track to hit their numbers every day, week, month and quarter. You may also want reps to include key insights from conversations they’re having each day with prospects to establish a clear feedback loop between sales and marketing.

3. Create a Formalized Handoff Process to Account Executives

As mentioned earlier, a business development role has become a great stepping stone to grow your sales organization internally.Young reps have the opportunity to learn about the business inside and out and decide if sales is the right career path for them. But, in order to give reps the proper insight into a full sales cycle and enable them to truly understand the process, you need to formalize the way leads and appointments are passed from BDR to AE.

Failing to institute a formalized handoff process causes a disconnect between team members and creates opportunities for leads to fall through the cracks. This lack of process can also cause some BDRs to lose the visibility they want or need into the opportunities they’ve sourced. Formalizing the process allows you to improve the lead qualification process while also giving young sales reps the opportunity to learn from more senior team members.

Remember that BDRs and SDRs are valuable and irreplaceable components of your sales organization. It’s important to both encourage their current success while also keeping an eye on the future. Help your sales reps prepare for the future and you’ll ensure success now and when the time comes for a promotion.