What 2 qualities do top NFL Draft picks and top SDRs have in common?

The most talked-about sport in the US is football.

The most lucrative league in the US is the NFL. One of its biggest events is the annual NFL Draft.

If the most valuable sports league is the NFL, then the most valuable position in sports is the quarterback. And yet, every year, all of the experts make bold predictions about which quarterbacks will be the next elite talent to lead an NFL franchise.

Team ownership groups and management will literally bank their billion-dollar franchises on the potential of a position where the accuracy of predictability is not even 10% (VC firms have about the same success rate).

For proof, just Google “highest-rated quarterback busts.” Or you can just see a couple of famous examples below that had lackluster pre-draft ratings:

1. Tom Brady...barely a 6th round pick because he "lacked athleticism."

2. Patrick Mahomes...many scouts said, “his mechanics were so poor that he couldn't even identify the ‘Mike’ linebacker.” If you don’t know what the ‘Mike’ is, it’s something quarterbacks are taught it in high school.

Or go look at the top 20 touchdown passers of all time in college. How many NFL great do you see? I see 1 potentially 2.

Future NFL quarterbacks cannot control the infrastructure that they're drafted into (see Aaron Rodgers versus Alex Smith) but they can control their internal infrastructure (see JaMarcus Russell versus Andrew Luck).

The 2 most overrated indicators of SDR success

1. “previous industry experience”...The job of an SDR is to get a prospect so “thirsty” for your value proposition that they cannot wait to hop on a call with one of your sales reps. That’s it. Industry and product knowledge are immensely overrated.

2. ...objective data from a previous organization such as quota or tenure.

Why are these overrated?

Because the infrastructure that the SDR walked into is out of their control.

My top 3 performing SDRs...

All 3 had:

• No previous SDR experience

• No tenure over 12 months

• No previous industry experience

2 of them:

• Never had a quota

1 of them had:

• Missed quota every quarter at her previous company

The most successful SDR that I personally know but never coached set a record in his region (one of the largest financial sales organizations in the world) for time to SQL quota and graduated to a sales role in less than 12 months. His previous industry was medical supply account management.

What 2 traits did these SDRs have in common?

2 things:

1. Mindset (default for action - discipline - curiosity - empathy)

2. Raw skills with technology

Tactics and playbooks can be taught.

If you have an SDR candidate that ranks high in the 2 traits above, then you have a future SDR (and possibly) sales rockstar on your team.