Associate Account Development Representative

Role Purpose & Context

Role Summary

The Associate Account Development Representative is responsible for generating new sales opportunities and building the initial pipeline for our Enterprise Account Executives. Day-to-day, you'll be researching potential clients, crafting compelling outreach messages, and qualifying prospects to ensure they're a good fit for what we offer. This directly impacts our ability to hit revenue targets, as you're essentially filling the top of our sales funnel. You'll work closely with the Enterprise Account Executives and the Marketing team, translating marketing leads into tangible sales conversations. When this role is done well, our Account Executives have a steady stream of high-quality meetings, meaning more closed deals and faster growth. When it's not, the pipeline dries up, and everyone feels the pinch. The challenge here is cutting through the noise and getting busy executives to pay attention. You'll hear 'no' a lot, and you'll need to stay motivated. The reward, though? It's seeing your hard work turn into a qualified meeting, knowing you've opened the door to a potentially massive deal, and learning the foundations of a lucrative sales career.

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: Sales Development Manager
• Direct reports: 0
• Matrix relationships: Sales Development Representative (SDR), Business Development Representative (BDR), Junior Sales Executive,

Key Stakeholders

Internal:

• Sales Development Manager (your direct boss)
• Enterprise Account Executives (who you'll be setting meetings for)
• Sales Operations (they help with tools and data)
• Marketing Team (they give you leads and content)

External:

• Prospective clients (various levels, often managers or directors)
• Industry contacts (for networking and insights)

Organisational Impact

Scope: Honestly, you're the engine room of our sales pipeline. Your ability to consistently generate high-quality sales opportunities directly impacts our revenue growth and market presence. Without you, our Account Executives would be starting from scratch, and that's just not efficient for an enterprise business.

Performance Metrics

Quantitative Metrics

1. Metric: Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) Generated
2. Desc: The number of qualified meetings you book that result in a genuine sales opportunity for an Account Executive.
3. Target: Target: 15 SQLs per quarter
4. Freq: Measured: Weekly, reviewed monthly
5. Example: Example: In Q1, you booked 17 meetings that met our qualification criteria and were accepted by the AEs, exceeding your target.
6. Metric: Outbound Activity Volume
7. Desc: The total number of calls, emails, and LinkedIn messages you send out to prospects.
8. Target: Target: 100+ activities daily (mix of calls/emails/social)
9. Freq: Measured: Daily via Outreach/Salesloft, reviewed weekly
10. Example: Example: On Tuesday, you made 40 calls, sent 55 emails, and 10 LinkedIn messages, hitting your activity target for the day.
11. Metric: Pipeline Value Influenced
12. Desc: The estimated revenue value of the opportunities you generate and pass to the Account Executives.
13. Target: Target: £500K+ pipeline value per quarter
14. Freq: Measured: Monthly, as opportunities are created in Salesforce
15. Example: Example: Your SQLs in Q2 resulted in new opportunities totalling £620,000, showing you're targeting the right size of client.
16. Metric: Conversion Rate (Prospect to SQL)
17. Desc: The percentage of your initial outreach efforts that successfully convert into a qualified sales meeting.
18. Target: Target: 5% conversion rate
19. Freq: Measured: Monthly, based on sequence performance
20. Example: Example: Out of 1,000 prospects you contacted last month, 55 resulted in qualified meetings, giving you a 5.5% conversion rate.

Qualitative Metrics

1. Metric: Discovery Call Quality
2. Desc: How well you run your initial calls, asking good questions, uncovering pain points, and setting the stage for the Account Executive.
3. Evidence: Evidence: Your Sales Development Manager will listen to call recordings, and Account Executives will provide direct feedback on the quality of the meetings you book. We're looking for clear summaries, identified pain, and a good handover.
4. Metric: CRM Data Hygiene
5. Desc: Keeping Salesforce up-to-date with accurate prospect information, activities, and meeting notes.
6. Evidence: Evidence: Regular audits by Sales Operations on your Salesforce records. We'll check for completeness of contact details, activity logging, and clear next steps. Clean data helps everyone.
7. Metric: Learning & Development Engagement
8. Desc: Your proactive approach to learning new sales techniques, product knowledge, and industry insights.
9. Evidence: Evidence: Completion of internal training modules, participation in role-play sessions, asking thoughtful questions in team meetings, and actively seeking feedback from your manager and AEs.
10. Metric: Team Collaboration & Support
11. Desc: How well you work with your peers and Account Executives, sharing insights, best practices, and helping out when needed.
12. Evidence: Evidence: Feedback from your colleagues and AEs, your willingness to jump in on joint projects, and contributing positively to team discussions. We're a team, after all.

Primary Traits

• Trait: Resilience (Grit)
• Manifestation: Truth is, you'll hear 'no' a lot in this job. Maybe 90% of the time. Resilience means you don't let that get to you. You treat a 'no' as a 'not yet' or a 'not right now'. You learn from it, tweak your approach, and jump straight onto the next prospect without missing a beat. If a sequence isn't working, you'll analyse it, adjust, and try again, rather than just giving up. It's about getting knocked down and getting back up, quickly.
• Benefit: Enterprise sales cycles are long and full of setbacks, even at the very top of the funnel. If you let every rejection get to you, you'll burn out fast and won't hit your numbers. We need people who can shake off a tough call, learn from it, and maintain a positive attitude because that's what keeps the pipeline flowing.
• Trait: Insatiably Curious
• Manifestation: You're genuinely interested in how businesses work and what problems they're trying to solve. When you're researching a prospect, you're not just looking for a name and number; you're digging into their company news, their latest earnings, what their competitors are doing. On a call, you ask open-ended questions and actually listen to the answers, trying to understand their world before you even think about mentioning our product. It's about wanting to know 'why' and 'how' constantly.
• Benefit: To qualify a good lead, you need to understand their business pain. If you're not curious, you'll just scratch the surface, and the meetings you book won't be high quality. AEs need prospects who've had their problems properly explored, and that starts with your curiosity. It builds trust, too.
• Trait: Process-Minded
• Manifestation: You understand that consistent success in sales isn't just about raw talent or charisma; it's about following a repeatable, proven process. You're happy to use the sequences and playbooks we've built, and you'll stick to our qualification criteria. When something isn't working, you'll look at the process first – 'Did I follow the steps? Where did it break down?' – rather than just blaming bad luck. You're organised and systematic in your daily tasks.
• Benefit: In enterprise sales, especially at the entry level, a structured approach is crucial. We've got methodologies that work, and we need you to apply them consistently. Without a process, it's chaos, and we can't scale. Your ability to follow and refine processes helps us all learn what's truly effective and makes your own success more predictable.

Supporting Traits

• Trait: Empathetic
• Desc: You can put yourself in the prospect's shoes, understanding their challenges and frustrations from their perspective. This helps you tailor your message and build rapport quickly.
• Trait: Coachability
• Desc: You're eager to learn, open to feedback, and actively seek ways to improve your skills and approach. You see constructive criticism as an opportunity, not a personal attack.

Primary Motivators

1. Motivator: Learning & Growth
2. Daily: You'll be constantly asking questions in team meetings, shadowing Account Executives, and devouring sales books or podcasts in your own time. Every call is a learning opportunity, good or bad.
3. Motivator: Achieving Targets & Competition
4. Daily: You're driven by hitting your daily activity goals and quarterly SQL targets. You enjoy seeing your name on the leaderboard and pushing yourself to outperform your previous best. A bit of friendly competition with your peers usually gets you going.
5. Motivator: Helping Others Succeed
6. Daily: You get a real kick out of finding a truly great lead for an Account Executive, knowing that you've just given them a strong chance to close a big deal. You'll share insights with your team if you find a new prospecting trick.

Potential Demotivators

Honestly, this role isn't for everyone. If you need constant validation, you'll struggle. If you hate repetitive tasks, even when they're essential, you might find parts of this job frustrating. If you expect every single piece of your work to immediately translate into a closed deal, you'll be disappointed – that's just not how enterprise sales works at this level. The reality is, you'll spend a lot of time on calls that go nowhere, and you'll meticulously research accounts that never respond. If you can't handle rejection or the grind of consistent outbound activity, this probably isn't the right fit.

Common Frustrations

1. The 'No-Show' Meeting: You've worked hard to book a qualified meeting, only for the prospect to simply not turn up.
2. CRM Data Hell: Spending time chasing down missing information or fixing incorrect records in Salesforce, when you'd rather be selling.
3. The Internal Resource Scramble: Sometimes it feels like you're fighting for attention or support from other teams, even when your work directly feeds their success.
4. Generic Objections: Constantly hearing the same 'not interested' or 'send me an email' responses, even when you know you've got something valuable to offer.

What Role Doesn't Offer

1. Immediate, direct control over deal closure – that's the AE's job.
2. A quiet, solitary work environment; it's a busy, often noisy sales floor (virtual or physical).
3. Guaranteed quick wins; enterprise sales is a marathon, not a sprint.
4. A role where you only talk to people who are already excited about our product – you'll be creating that excitement.

ADHD Positives

1. The fast-paced nature of outbound sales, with constant new interactions and the need to switch between tasks (research, calls, emails), can be highly engaging for those with ADHD.
2. The immediate feedback loop of calls and responses can provide a satisfying sense of accomplishment and novelty.
3. Structured sequences and playbooks provide a clear framework, which can help channel energy effectively towards specific goals.

ADHD Challenges and Accommodations

1. Maintaining focus during long research blocks or repetitive data entry might be challenging. We can help with tools that break down tasks or offer noise-cancelling headphones.
2. Dealing with rejection consistently can be demotivating if not managed well. Regular check-ins with your manager for positive reinforcement and reframing setbacks will be key.
3. Keeping CRM data perfectly updated can feel tedious. AI tools (see Section 4B) can automate much of this, and we can offer visual reminders or gamification for data hygiene.

Dyslexia Positives

1. Strong verbal communication skills often found in dyslexic individuals are a huge asset in sales calls and building rapport.
2. Excellent problem-solving abilities and 'big picture' thinking can help in understanding complex client needs and tailoring solutions.
3. The ability to think creatively about outreach messages and objection handling can be a significant advantage.

Dyslexia Challenges and Accommodations

1. Drafting perfect emails or detailed CRM notes might take longer. We encourage the use of grammar and spelling checkers (like Grammarly) and AI-assisted writing tools.
2. Reading long reports or product documentation can be tiring. We can provide audio versions, text-to-speech software, or summarise key information verbally.
3. Ensuring accuracy in data entry can be a challenge. We have robust CRM systems with validation and offer peer review for important documents.

Autism Positives

1. A strong ability to focus deeply on research and data analysis for prospecting can be incredibly valuable.
2. Adherence to process and methodology (like MEDDPICC) can lead to highly consistent and effective outreach.
3. Direct, honest communication, when framed correctly, can build trust with prospects and internal teams.

Autism Challenges and Accommodations

1. Navigating unspoken social cues or nuances in client conversations can be tricky. We offer specific training on active listening, questioning techniques, and role-playing scenarios.
2. Unexpected changes in scripts or processes might be unsettling. We aim for clear communication about changes and provide time for adaptation.
3. The high-energy, sometimes boisterous, sales environment might be overwhelming. We offer flexible working arrangements, quiet zones, and noise-cancelling headphones.

Key Responsibilities

Experience Levels Responsibilities

1. Level: Associate Account Development Representative (0-2 years)
2. Responsibilities: Research and identify potential enterprise clients who fit our ideal customer profile (ICP). This means digging into company websites, LinkedIn, and news articles to find the right people to talk to.
3. Craft and send personalised outbound emails and LinkedIn messages that grab attention and clearly articulate the value we can offer. You'll be using our sales engagement platform for this.
4. Make outbound calls to prospects, introducing yourself and our solutions, and qualifying their needs. This isn't just cold calling; it's about starting a genuine conversation.
5. Conduct initial discovery calls (usually 15-20 minutes) to understand a prospect's current challenges and determine if there's a good fit for our product. You're looking for pain points here.
6. Schedule and confirm qualified meetings for our Enterprise Account Executives. This is the main goal, getting that warm handover.
7. Accurately record all your activities, prospect information, and meeting notes in Salesforce. Clean data is crucial for everyone else down the line.
8. Learn and apply our sales methodologies (like MEDDPICC basics) to improve your qualification skills and understand the enterprise sales cycle.
9. Participate in daily and weekly team meetings, sharing insights, learning from your peers, and getting feedback from your manager.
10. Supervision: You'll have daily check-ins with your Sales Development Manager, especially in your first few months. They'll listen to your calls, review your emails, and provide immediate feedback. Most of your work will be paired or closely monitored until you're comfortable operating independently on routine tasks.
11. Decision: Honestly, you won't be making many independent decisions at this level. You'll follow established playbooks and scripts. Any complex prospect questions, objections you can't handle, or requests for pricing/technical deep dives should be escalated immediately to your manager or the assigned Account Executive. Think of yourself as a detective and a door-opener, not the closer.
12. Success: Success here means consistently hitting your SQL targets, maintaining a high volume of quality outbound activity, and getting positive feedback from the Account Executives you support. It's also about showing a real eagerness to learn and improve, and contributing positively to the team's energy.

Decision-Making Authority

• Type: Prospect Qualification
• Entry: Follow strict qualification criteria. Escalate any ambiguous cases to your Sales Development Manager.
• Mid: Independently apply qualification criteria, adapting slightly for unique situations. Consult manager on significant deviations.
• Senior: Define and refine qualification criteria for your team. Empower team to make qualification decisions, providing guidance on complex scenarios.
• Type: Outreach Strategy
• Entry: Execute pre-defined sequences and messaging. Personalise within given templates. Any new messaging ideas must be approved by your manager.
• Mid: Design and A/B test new outreach sequences and messaging for specific target segments. Get manager approval before wide deployment.
• Senior: Define the overall outbound messaging strategy for a team or segment. Approve new content and ensure alignment with marketing.
• Type: Resource Allocation (Internal)
• Entry: No authority to allocate internal resources (e.g., AE time, Solution Architect time). Your role is to book the meeting, not manage the follow-up resources.
• Mid: Can request specific AE involvement for certain qualified prospects, but final approval rests with the AE or Sales Manager.
• Senior: Can influence resource allocation for strategic deals, working with Sales Management to secure pre-sales or technical support.
• Type: Pricing/Discounting
• Entry: Absolutely no authority to discuss pricing or discounts. Escalate any such questions immediately to the Account Executive.
• Mid: No authority to discuss pricing or discounts. Understands basic pricing models to answer general questions, but defers specifics to AE.
• Senior: Understands pricing models and discount frameworks. Can advise AEs on strategy but does not have approval authority for discounts.

Competency Requirements

Foundation Skills (Transferable)

These are the fundamental skills that underpin everything you'll do in this role. We're looking for potential and a willingness to learn, so don't worry if you're not an expert in all of these right away.

• Category: Communication & Interpersonal Skills
• Skills: Active Listening: Really hearing what a prospect says (and doesn't say) on a call, rather than just waiting for your turn to speak.
• Clear Written Communication: Crafting concise, grammatically correct, and compelling emails and LinkedIn messages. No jargon, just clarity.
• Verbal Articulation: Speaking clearly, confidently, and persuasively on the phone, even when you're a bit nervous.
• Rapport Building: Quickly establishing a friendly and professional connection with prospects, making them feel comfortable talking to you.
• Category: Problem-Solving & Critical Thinking
• Skills: Basic Objection Handling: Learning to respond to common 'not interested' or 'send me an email' objections without getting flustered.
• Information Gathering: Knowing how to research a company or individual effectively to find key insights before a call.
• Prioritisation: Figuring out which tasks are most important each day to hit your targets, even when you have a long to-do list.
• Category: Adaptability & Resilience
• Skills: Handling Rejection: Shaking off a 'no' and moving on to the next prospect with a positive attitude.
• Learning Agility: Quickly picking up new product knowledge, sales techniques, and tools.
• Feedback Incorporation: Taking on board constructive criticism from your manager and peers and applying it to your work.
• Category: Organisation & Time Management
• Skills: Task Management: Organising your daily outreach, research, and admin tasks efficiently.
• CRM Utilisation: Accurately logging activities and updating prospect information in Salesforce.
• Goal Orientation: Staying focused on your daily and weekly targets to ensure you're contributing to the team's overall success.

Functional Skills (Role-Specific Technical)

These are the more specific sales and technical skills you'll need. We'll provide plenty of training, but a foundational understanding or eagerness to learn is key.

Technical Competencies

• Skill: MEDDPICC Qualification (Basic Understanding)
• Desc: You'll learn the basics of this sales methodology to help you identify Metrics, Economic Buyers, Decision Criteria, and Pain Points during your discovery calls. It's about understanding if a prospect is actually a good fit.
• Level: Basic
• Skill: Value-Based Selling (Basic Articulation)
• Desc: Moving conversations beyond just features. You'll learn how to articulate the potential business outcomes and value our solutions can bring to a prospect, even if you're not building full ROI models yet.
• Level: Basic
• Skill: Multi-threading (Initial Identification)
• Desc: Understanding the concept of speaking to multiple people within an account. You'll learn to identify and engage with 1-2 key stakeholders beyond your initial contact, helping to broaden our reach.
• Level: Basic

Digital Tools

• Tool: Salesforce Sales Cloud
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Accurately managing your own pipeline, logging all activities (calls, emails, meetings), creating new leads and contacts, and updating opportunity stages. You'll use standard reports and dashboards to track your own progress.
• Tool: LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Building targeted lead lists, researching accounts and contacts before discovery calls, and sending personalised InMail messages to prospects. You'll use it to understand who's who in an organisation.
• Tool: Outreach / Salesloft (or similar)
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Executing pre-built email and call sequences, personalising templates for individual prospects, and tracking engagement metrics like open and reply rates. This is your engine for outbound activity.
• Tool: ZoomInfo / Cognism (or similar)
• Level: Intermediate
• Usage: Pulling accurate contact and company data for prospecting, verifying information before outreach, and enriching existing CRM records to ensure we have the most up-to-date details.
• Tool: Tableau / Power BI
• Level: Basic
• Usage: Consuming pre-built dashboards to track your personal performance against quota and key performance indicators (KPIs) like activity volume and SQLs generated. You won't be building them, just using them.

Industry Knowledge

• Area: B2B Sales Cycle Fundamentals
• Desc: A basic understanding of the typical stages involved in selling to businesses, from prospecting and qualification to closing and post-sales. You'll learn how your role fits into the bigger picture.
• Area: Target Market & ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)
• Desc: Understanding who our ideal customers are (e.g., specific industries, company sizes, common challenges) so you can identify and prioritise the right prospects for outreach.

Regulatory Compliance Regulations

• Reg: GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• Usage: Understanding the basics of data privacy and consent when collecting and processing personal data for prospecting, especially for contacts within the EU and UK. You'll learn what you can and can't do.
• Reg: TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) / PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations)
• Usage: Awareness of regulations around cold calling and electronic communications to ensure your outreach methods are compliant and ethical. We'll guide you on best practices.

Essential Prerequisites

• Strong verbal and written communication skills – you'll be talking and writing all day.
• Basic computer literacy and comfort with using multiple software applications simultaneously.
• A genuine desire to learn about sales, business, and technology.
• A positive attitude and a resilient mindset – you'll need it!
• The ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.

Career Pathway Context

These aren't just checkboxes; they're the building blocks for a successful career in sales. If you've got these fundamentals, we can teach you the rest. We're looking for raw talent and a hunger to succeed, not necessarily years of experience in sales. Many of our best Account Executives started right where you are now.

Qualifications & Credentials

Emerging Foundation Skills

• Skill: Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration
• Why: Critical within 6 months—this isn't just a 'nice to have' anymore. Competitors are already using tools like ChatGPT and Claude to draft highly personalised emails and call scripts in minutes, not hours. SDRs who figure this out will outproduce their peers significantly.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Effective Prompting for Sales Copy', 'description': 'Learning how to give clear, concise instructions to AI models to generate compelling subject lines, email bodies, and LinkedIn messages that resonate with specific buyer personas.'}, {'concept_name': 'AI for Objection Handling', 'description': 'Using LLMs to brainstorm and practice responses to common sales objections, getting immediate feedback on clarity and persuasiveness.'}, {'concept_name': 'Summarisation & Research with AI', 'description': 'Leveraging AI to quickly digest lengthy company reports or news articles, pulling out key insights relevant for your pre-call research.'}, {'concept_name': 'Ethical AI Use in Sales', 'description': 'Understanding the boundaries and best practices for using AI to ensure authenticity and avoid sounding robotic or disingenuous.'}]
• Prepare: This week: Sign up for a free version of ChatGPT or Claude and start experimenting with drafting emails and call openers.
• This month: Use AI to summarise 3-5 company earnings reports or industry news articles for your pre-call research.
• Month 2: Work with your manager to develop and test 2-3 AI-generated email sequences, tracking their performance.
• Month 3: Share your best AI prompts and techniques with the rest of the SDR team, becoming a go-to person for AI tips.
• QuickWin: Start using AI today to draft the first version of your internal emails or meeting summaries. No approval needed, immediate time savings.
• Skill: Data-Driven Prospecting & Prioritisation
• Why: Important within 12 months. The sheer volume of data available on companies and individuals is growing. Simply 'dialling for dollars' is becoming less effective. Future SDRs will use data (intent signals, technographics, firmographics) to pinpoint who to call, when, and with what message, rather than just relying on intuition or broad lists.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Intent Data Analysis', 'description': "Understanding what it means when a company is 'showing intent' (e.g., downloading competitor whitepapers, visiting specific product pages) and how to prioritise them."}, {'concept_name': 'Technographic Insights', 'description': "Using data about a company's existing technology stack to identify potential integration points or competitive advantages for our product."}, {'concept_name': 'Lead Scoring Models', 'description': 'Understanding how leads are scored based on various attributes and engagement, and using these scores to focus your outreach efforts.'}, {'concept_name': 'A/B Testing Outreach', 'description': 'Systematically testing different subject lines, call-to-actions, and value propositions to see what performs best, using data to refine your approach.'}]
• Prepare: This week: Ask your Sales Operations team to explain how we currently score leads and what data points are used.
• This month: Pick one target account list and try to find 3-5 additional data points (e.g., recent funding, specific tech they use) that could help you prioritise.
• Month 2: Work with your manager to run a small A/B test on two different email subject lines for a specific campaign.
• Month 3: Present your findings on a successful data-driven prospecting approach to the team.
• QuickWin: When you're researching a company, try to find one piece of 'intent' data (e.g., a recent job posting for a relevant role) that you can reference in your outreach today.

Advancing Technical Skills

• Skill: Advanced CRM Reporting & Dashboards
• Why: As you progress, you won't just consume dashboards; you'll want to understand the underlying data. This means learning how to create custom reports in Salesforce to analyse your own performance more deeply, spot trends, and identify areas for improvement.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'Report Types & Filters', 'description': "Understanding how to select the right report type and apply filters to get specific data sets (e.g., 'my SQLs by industry')."}, {'concept_name': 'Custom Fields & Objects', 'description': 'Basic understanding of how custom fields impact reporting and how to ensure data is entered correctly for future analysis.'}]
• Prepare: This month: Ask your Sales Operations team to show you how to build a basic report in Salesforce.
• Month 3: Create a custom report to track your personal activity metrics against your targets over the last quarter.
• Month 6: Build a simple personal dashboard in Salesforce to visualise your key performance indicators.
• QuickWin: Spend 15 minutes each week exploring the standard reports available in Salesforce to understand what data is being tracked.
• Skill: Multi-Channel Sequence Optimisation
• Why: You'll move beyond just executing pre-built sequences. The next step is understanding how to design and optimise multi-channel sequences (email, call, social) in tools like Outreach or Salesloft to maximise engagement and conversion rates.
• Concepts: [{'concept_name': 'A/B Testing Sequence Steps', 'description': 'Learning how to test different messages, call-to-actions, and timing within a sequence to see what performs best.'}, {'concept_name': 'Engagement Metrics Analysis', 'description': 'Deep diving into open rates, reply rates, and call connection rates to identify bottlenecks in your outreach.'}]
• Prepare: This month: Shadow a senior SDR or AE who is actively testing and optimising their sequences.
• Month 3: Propose a small A/B test for a specific step in one of your current sequences to your manager.
• Month 6: Design a new 5-step multi-channel sequence for a specific target persona and present it for feedback.
• QuickWin: Review the performance metrics of your current sequences in Outreach/Salesloft today and identify the lowest-performing step.

Education Requirements

Experience Requirements

Level: Minimum | Req: A-Levels (or equivalent vocational qualification) with strong grades in English and Maths. | Alts: Alternatively, demonstrable experience in a customer-facing role where you've shown strong communication and problem-solving skills will be considered. | Level: Preferred | Req: A Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field. | Alts: Significant experience (1-2 years) in a fast-paced customer service, retail, or hospitality role with a proven track record of hitting targets could also be a strong fit.

Preferred Certifications

• Cert: Any foundational sales methodology course (e.g., Sandler, Challenger Sale introductory modules)
• Prod: Various (e.g., LinkedIn Learning, specific sales training providers)
• Usage: Shows a proactive interest in sales and a basic understanding of structured selling techniques, which will give you a head start.
• Cert: CRM Administrator Certification (e.g., Salesforce Administrator)
• Prod: Salesforce
• Usage: While not essential for an SDR, having a deeper understanding of how CRM systems work can be a significant advantage for data hygiene and reporting.

Recommended Activities

• Shadowing experienced Account Executives and other SDRs to learn best practices and observe different sales styles.
• Participating in internal sales training programmes and workshops on product knowledge, objection handling, and discovery calls.
• Actively seeking feedback from your Sales Development Manager and Account Executives after calls and meetings.
• Reading industry blogs, sales books, and listening to relevant podcasts to stay updated on best practices and market trends.
• Attending sales conferences or webinars (internal and external) to network and learn from industry leaders.

Career Progression Pathways

Entry Paths to This Role

• Path: Graduate Scheme / University Leaver
• Time: 0-1 year
• Path: Customer Service / Support Professional
• Time: 1-2 years
• Path: Retail / Hospitality Sales
• Time: 1-2 years

Career Progression From This Role

• Pathway: Enterprise Account Executive (L2)
• Time: 18-36 months in the Associate Account Development Representative role

Long Term Vision Potential Roles

• Title: Senior Enterprise Account Executive (L3)
• Time: 3-5 years from starting as an Associate ADR
• Title: Regional Sales Manager (L5)
• Time: 7-10 years from starting as an Associate ADR
• Title: Sales Operations Manager (IC or Manager track)
• Time: 5-8 years from starting as an Associate ADR

How Zavmo Delivers This Role's Development

DISCOVER Phase: Skills Gap Analysis

Zavmo maps your current competencies against all requirements in this job description through conversational assessment. We evaluate your foundation skills (communication, strategic thinking), functional skills (CRM expertise, negotiation), and readiness for career progression.

Output: Personalised skills gap heat map showing strengths and priorities, estimated time to competency, neurodiversity accommodations.

DISCUSS Phase: Personalised Learning Pathway

Based on your DISCOVER results, Zavmo creates a personalised learning plan prioritised by impact: foundation skills first, then functional skills. We adapt to your learning style, pace, and neurodiversity needs (ADHD, dyslexia, autism).

Output: Week-by-week schedule, each module linked to specific job responsibilities, checkpoints and milestones.

DELIVER Phase: Conversational Learning

Learn through conversation, not boring modules. Zavmo uses 10 conversation types (Socratic dialogue, role-play, coaching, case studies) to build competence. Practice difficult QBR presentations, negotiate tough renewals, and handle churn conversations in a safe AI environment before facing real clients.

Example: "For 'Stakeholder Mapping', Zavmo will guide you through analysing a complex enterprise account, identifying key decision-makers, and building an engagement strategy."

DEMONSTRATE Phase: Competency Assessment

Zavmo automatically builds your evidence portfolio as you learn. Every conversation, practice scenario, and application example is captured and mapped to NOS performance criteria. When ready, your portfolio supports OFQUAL qualification claims and demonstrates competence to employers.

Output: Competency matrix, evidence portfolio (downloadable), qualification readiness, career progression score.