memoryBlue Insights – Q4 2020

Below is the memoryBlue client bulletin, delivering sales development insights every Monday to our entire slate of high-tech partners. The updates span all five memoryBlue offices, encompassing 100+ sales development campaigns and 150+ SDRs working relentlessly to generate net new revenue for these businesses.

Happy New Year! We’re pressing pause on the usual weekly review to take a look back at Q4 2020. Notably, this past quarter produced an array of big-time company news, important events and major client successes.

We unveiled memoryBlue Public Sector, our newest business unit, announced our latest office in beautiful downtown Seattle (opening this month!) and crowned our annual memoryBlue Phenom alumni award winner.

What’s next? 2021 is poised to be the biggest and best year yet in the company’s 18+ year history.

Notable Numbers

• The SDR team averaged an 8.8% prospect conversion rate in Q4. That made it the best quarter of the year for this core metric, which rose sequentially in every quarter of 2020. This tells us our commitment to continuous and intensive SDR training through memoryBlue Academy and manager coaching is paying off in a tangible way.

• Lead quality was exceptional in Q4 as we posted a 7.79 average lead score from our clients. As with prospect conversion rates, that average was the single best quarter of 2020. Booking and holding prospect meetings are crucial to SDR and client success, but those achievements don’t amount to much if the right prospect conversations aren’t taking place.

• Prospect meeting hold rates checked in above 75% this past quarter. Another key metric and another high-water mark for the year. This is a particularly sensational achievement as our SDR team pushed right through the holiday season firing on all cylinders. Ensuring that booked prospects keep a meeting commitment is a carefully refined skill, and we love to see this rate surging as we hit the new year.

Highlight of the Quarter

Jackson Hawkins, the Managing Director of our Austin office, oversaw a team that produced one of the most notable client moments and milestones of the quarter (and year). We featured this achievement when it happened, but it deserves to be reprised. Here’s the original rundown:

“Featured as a successful Case Study, memoryBlue client Couchbase has officially hired 20 sales professionals from our team in close to four years of partnership! The major database solutions provider, based in Silicon Valley, began this fruitful relationship with memoryBlue in an effort to acquire highly skilled, well-trained sales talent while expanding their talent pool beyond the geographic boundaries of their HQ location.

Hitting this hiring milestone is a strong indicator that they found the ideal solution by tapping the steady pipeline of sales talent from memoryBlue.”

Spotlight on Training

In Q4, memoryBlue hosted six different Academy cohorts, each kicked off through our intensive two-day Bootcamp power course and continued on through the steady drumbeat of the six-week Foundations program. Kellie Courville, our Senior Academy Facilitator, led the charge last year to significantly refine and evolve the signature sales training curriculum that every single new hire completes at the outset of their tenure.

The knowledge, skills and prospecting methodologies the Academy ingrains in every SDR that passes through its “virtual halls” serve as the building blocks for a successful start in high-tech sales. All together, close to 90 individuals – including internal and external professionals – turbo-charged their sales training through one of these six Academy cohorts initiated last quarter. We positively can’t wait to see all of these hustlers spread their wings and flex some serious sales muscle in 2021.

Lead Scores

Here’s a look at a selection of notable client-based lead scores in Q4 across each of our offices:

HQ Office: 12/21/2020 – 2:50PM – 10/10 – Francois
“Prospect was the perfect lead – not using a BC/DR software, in charge of putting a system in place and needing to do due diligence. Buying timeframe was a bit long – but other than that – great use of time!”

Austin Office: 11/13/2020 – 11:13AM – 10/10 – Jon
“Extremely well targeted lead. Your organization provided direct access to the best point of contact within a global organization. Excellent lead.”

Boston Office: 12/14/2020 – 10:47AM – 10/10 – Amanda
“Great Call! Duncan was an A++.”

Denver Office: 12/14/2020 – 4:30PM – 10/10 – Miles
“Miles set up a great call with Tina, and was able to help me turn around the outcome of the first call. Tina went from ‘just looking’ to becoming a serious prospect and is moving up the pipeline pretty quickly.”

Silicon Valley Office: 11/17/2020 – 11:31AM – 10/10 – Alesia
“Got a demo out of it. Great lead!”

A Commitment to Launching Great Sales Careers

memoryBlue proudly added 18 new members to our swelling alumni ranks this past quarter. For comparison’s sake, that quarterly number exceeds the total new alumni produced just seven years ago (in 2013) for the entire year. Our alumni group grew by over 80 new members in 2020 – making it our largest “new alumni” year ever.

The SDR role is typically the very first step every sale pro must take on the road towards a long and successful professional sales career. But it’s infinitely more than a stepping stone when it’s done right. The lessons learned, skills mastered and grit acquired during this role set the very best pros apart from the crowd throughout their entire professional life.

We’re positively thrilled to play an important role in the launch of so many promising high-tech sales careers. Our clients get to reap the rewards of these hard-working individuals (and frequently hire them to augment internal sales teams).

And as a company, we get the pleasure of seeing our people hit their full potential – which is often vastly bigger than even they may think possible at the outset of their journey.