How has AI impacted the transition from SDR to AE?

AI has impacted virtually all sales roles, but arguably business development reps (BDRs) and sales development reps (SDRs) have seen the most material impact on their trajectory thanks to the proliferation of sales intelligence and automation platforms. The path from SDR to account executive (AE) is well-trodden, even if it’s far from straightforward. The big question: Do AI-powered platforms for sales teams help or hinder that journey?

While the jury is still out on whether AI is eliminating early sales roles, some experts think the technology can help young professionals learn the requisite skills to move swiftly up the ranks.

“I don’t think it’s going to be OK to not embrace this technology,” said Steve Harding, international SVP at revenue orchestration platform Clari + Salesloft. “There are some technologies that come in waves and there are others that come in tsunamis. This is one that is coming in a tsunami, so it’s a pressured imperative that people get up to speed.”

Shifting skills

AI-powered automation has removed some of the busy work that has historically bogged down early sales professionals (while also creating some slop in the process), which Harding thinks can help them focus more on developing their seller skills.

“We can find more time in our day to do what sellers should do: i.e., the real art of selling, so being personal, being present, being informed, being a trusted advisor, being in service of the customers,” Harding said. “Many of those things are human traits. The SDR, as another sales agent, has an opportunity to actually elevate the way that they work within the sales cycle because a lot of the background work can be done for them.”

Mark Schopmeyer, co-founder and co-CEO of sales commission software CaptivateIQ, believes AI automation has eliminated some barriers to growth.

“It’s leveling the playing field in a way for BDRs,” he said. “Instead of a couple BDRs being truly exceptional in their role, a lot of these tools are making a lot more of the BDR workforce as productive as your top performing BDRs. As a result of that, you’re seeing some of the flip side, which is everyone’s driving outcomes a little bit more consistently because you don’t have to be reliant on who does the best research and who does the best personalization.”

Big opportunities

These executives think AI tools have increased opportunities for early sales professionals, with Harding saying they can truncate the time between roles.

“SDRs can just work through more volume and therefore can drive more proof points faster,” Harding said. “Typically it was anything from 18 months to two years before an SDR was really chomping to become an AE. There’s potential to collapse that if it’s the right talent with the right attitude and the right investment in learning and the ability to embrace these tools.”

Harding also thinks that as information and AI technologies continue to evolve, it will increase the need for early sales roles.

“This wave of technology has the potential to drive more volume, more speed, more acceleration, which actually can grow the pie and increase the need for workforce rather than decrease it,” he said. “We can as humans just get more done, and that opens the aperture of possibility.”

AI tutor

It seems that while AI has become a bogeyman for the sales industry at large, it can provide significant professional development opportunities when utilized in the right way.

Harding and Schopmeyer stressed the importance of mentorship in early sales roles—an area AI can assist in through training and coaching tools, or simply by taking on mundane tasks so sellers can focus on more important projects.

“[Early sales professionals] may not have fully developed the skill sets that you normally would have expected out of that role,” Schopmeyer said.

Schopmeyer said some qualities early sales professionals need to develop are “grit, drive, and curiosity” as well as coachability.

“These things are really hard to develop, which is why when I see people jumping to become an AE—they skip the BDR path—I traditionally see a lower success rate of those folks,” he said.

Big picture: Like any AI tool, it’s hard to judge the long-term fortune or misfortune of its deployment at a time of such rapid change. What is certain, however, is that in the hands of the right salesperson, it can be a powerful tool to quickly upskill and fill the gaps in knowledge to advance career opportunities.