EPISODE #005
This week’s star performer is Charley May, a newbie SDR from Leadoo, and a big LinkedIn advocate! Charley joins host Neil Bhuiyan on the show from her base in Malaga, Spain, and shares her SDR story of how she successfully locked-on during Lockdown.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
EPISODE #005 TRANSCRIPT
TL;DR
+ Introduction (to Charley and Leadoo) [00:09.090]
Neil Bhuiyan Hi there, guys, and welcome to Episode five of the SDR DiscoCall Podcast. Today's star performer is Charley May from Leadoo. Charley is based out in Malaga. So we're going to be learning about how she got locked in on lock down and found her dream job through social media, her recruitment, coaching and interview process while being backed up by her SDR manager. Also how she built a relationship in sales with her father and why she loves LinkedIn.
So how does the SDR DiscoCall Podcast work? Well, it's actually a Discovery Call, hence the name. And every Tuesday at 8am we're going to have a brand new SDR for 30 minutes and an agenda of introductions their SDR story and three key takeaways that they've learned to share with other SDRs. So with that in mind, let's begin.
So, guys, I want to welcome our next guest. This is Charley May. She's from Leadoo. We recently connected on LinkedIn because her tagline really stood out to me.
And I was intrigued to learn a bit more. And we connected on a call just to learn about her SDR story. So as it goes, I thought I'd invite her to the show. And here she is. So thank you so much for joining Charley. How are you doing?
Charley May Yes, I'm good. Thank you for having me.
Neil Bhuiyan No problem. So Charley, for the listeners out there that can't see you but can hear you, give us a little introduction as to who are you, kind of where are you and what you're doing and what do you like to do outside of SDRing.
Charley May OK, so obviously my name's Charley. I'm 22. I'm currently living in Malaga in Spain, working for Leadoo, as you mentioned. So I'm currently in the SDR role. I've been working with Leadoo for three months, so still classed as a newbie as such. So at Leadoo we're basically a lead-driven-marketing platform. So we work with our prospects to help increase the amount of quality leads they get from their existing website traffic. So, you know, we've got tools that are able to activate their visitors and to engage in conversations.
And it's a really like cool, and modern tool that, you know, our prospects see the kind of personality within the tool as well. We kind of you know, we help our clients to get 30 to 70 percent more leads compared to what they were previously getting, so and you know, it's a good product to sell. And I like the product, which obviously always helps when you're you're trying to pitch a product and then out of work.
I live over here, my partner. So me and him try and do things at the weekend if we're not exhausted from work, obviously trying to enjoy the sun. We are in Spain and it gets cold in the winter. So we are trying to get the most of the weather at the minute. But other than that, we're quite chill.
So we'll just watch stuff over the weekend and take the weekend to reset really and just kind of get ready for the for the following week and then I like to perform out of work as well. So because of covid, that's that's kind of paused at the moment. But I am looking at going back into my performing with a group here and then other than that, I am awful for Netflix and reading. So if you can't get a conversation out of me, that's usually why my head is usually in a book or my earphones are in for Netflix.
+ A walk through Charley’s journey to Leadoo [00:03:28.190]
Neil Bhuiyan I love it, thank you. And you mentioned the really interesting point here, which we're going to dive into shortly. But kind of this is like your new first SaaS role as an SDR. You're learning about a tech company and everything. And obviously we're going to dive into that. But I was also looking at your LinkedIn. You've had kind of like different experiences of working as like a telemarketer at Dixons. You worked at DHL, you've done some telesales as well. And also there was that performance piece that really stood out to me. And it's something I'm seeing in a lot of SDRs I'm speaking to recently. But could you kind of walk us through the journey of Charley like before you got into Leadoo? What was that journey like, Charley?
Charley May Yeah, I mean, so when I went to college, did musical theatre, I went to uni and covid-19 doing musical theatre, unfortunately, which, you know, seems to be a bit more common now. Uni didn't work out for me for for X amount of reasons. And I left after my second year. Once I left, I kind of went back to where I was living in Leicester and was kind of at a dead end. I was very I was more obsessed with going out with my mates than trying to find myself a career.
I was I was at that age. Now, I don't think it's a problem. I think I spoke about this on Linkedin before. I think especially in this day and age, if you go to uni or you don't go to uni and you don't know what you want to do with your life.
So what you've got all this time and experience is the most I've learnt out of the years since I've left uni is experience because those experiences have helped me to actually realise what it is that I actually want to do. So, yeah, like you said, I've done customer service and sales and I was a bit of a brat, so maybe, you know, turning up late or not doing the amount of work. But I was always good at customer service.
I like speaking to people, I'm sociable, even the chatting and part of it. You might solve their problem and you might be looking to sell them something. But at the end of the day, you're speaking to people. You can have a normal chat. And a lot of the time, if you're if you're speaking to the right people in the right manner, you're going to have good conversations. And that can really help to kind of cheer up your day and speed you there long because you're enjoying the role that you're actually doing.
But yeah. So the last job before I actually came to Leadoo, I was doing sales again over in Spain. And I'd finally got to the point when I moved to Spain, I was like, you know, well, that's what I want to do. I'm going to stay in sales. But if I'm going to do that. Sales is sales, I have to be at the top of my game, I can't just put half of my effort into it and expect to reap the rewards and things like that.
So I did the sales and then I was in a job where I loved it. I was getting people out of timeshare, which is very popular in Spain. So we were helping to get them out of that, loved it but that just wasn't a chance for for progression in the company, unfortunately. So when I found Leadoo, it kind of ticked all the boxes in the Outreach for the job, which of course you like. Yep. Yep. Brilliant. And then when I started at Leadoo about three months ago during lockdown, it actually managed to tick the requirements that it said, which was great, because a lot of the time these jobs offer a lot of things. And sometimes, unfortunately, it's not it's not what they say they is what they say it is. But with Leadoo, they managed to tick all the right boxes and carry on when I actually went into the role, which was great.
Neil Bhuiyan Love it. That is a cool story, and I can definitely resonate in terms of with education in past, if something is not right for you and that you do have other opportunities outside.
+ Handling difficult customers and prospects – why customer service matters [00:07:08.840]
Neil Bhuiyan Yeah, that's kind of the same story that I went through myself. An interesting piece that you put in there is about customer service and that you love speaking to people and human interactions, etc.. Similar to myself, I've worked in a lot of customer service roles before I went into sales and I still love chatting to customers on the phone face to face or when I used to work in Pizza Hut many years ago meeting customers at the counter. But obviously with customers, you can get happy customers and you get angry customers, of course. And I understand as SDRs we speak to a lot of people on the phone. We're trying to get through to them and sometimes they might be in a bit of a bad mood, like how do you handle when you get that sort of angry or irate customer either as an SDR or when you were working in customer service, how did you handle that?
Charley May I think it goes back to the you're speaking with people. You're not just because they've got a job doesn't mean that they're not a normal person out of work. You're going to ring somebody and something tragic could have happened or their kid could have spilled a bowl of cereal over them in the morning. And that's put them in a mood for the day. It happens to everyone. And I think when you have calls like that, although it can be a challenge, I think it can kind of say, you know what, let's re-evaluate.
Maybe we've got off on the wrong step, maybe, you know, have a brief conversation with them. But if it's not something they're interested in, especially with sales for the time being, then you can you can use that and you can say, look, it doesn't sound like a good time to you. And half the time they'll appreciate it. They'll be like. Right, you know. But yeah, it's not I'm sorry. Let's try again next week.
And that and that gives you a good foot and if it is something small or minor, when you speak to them next and you say, look, it wasn't the right time, they might even talk about it. They might laugh and say, yeah, you know, well, the dog ate a sock and we were called to the vet in the morning, you know, so I think that's great with customer service. Obviously, it's a bit different because, you know, they're asking for your help and sometimes they can they might not be very happy, but with customer service, I always used to think if they were unhappy customers, I want them to be happy customers by the end and help them, because if they're having a crap day, then, you know, by the end of the day, they're going to feel a bit better because they'll think, oh, but that woman actually helped me get past the problem that that may have been a big part of that day as well.
+ The importance of building relationships [00:09:17.190]
Charley May And going back to what you said about about relationships, I mean, some of the best kind of closes that I've had, whether it's been like right at the beginning of my sales journey, they might be people that I've had four or five calls with over the space of six weeks. But I know about their kids and what's going on at home. And you build that much of a relationship that when you actually kind of pass them on and they're going to be a closer you get a bit upset about it because you're like, oh, you know what that was like?
That was my friend that I spoke to once a week. So it is great to have that aspect in sales where you feel like you're doing something for them and you're reaching something for them. But it's still you've been able to build that relationship and give a good name on the brand as well. If they've worked with the brand and they've had a good a good experience, that they're going to recommend it to people and they're going to want to go back as well.
Neil Bhuiyan Hundred percent agree, Charlie, and I think if you're able to do that in your current role today as well, and you speak to people at Leadoo and when you move on to your next SaaS journey or your next company and you're building out this network, these people will remember you that when you want to reach out to them to introduce, hey, I'm working at a new company, that's what you do. It's going to be an easier conversation to have.
Charley May Yeah, definitely.
Neil Bhuiyan I absolutely love it.
+ The sales gene: how Charley learnt the art of selling from her Dad [00:10:24.870]
Neil Bhuiyan And also, if we go back to where you said, OK, you came to Malaga, you was working in the timeshare place, and then you found Leadoo and you said, right, it's Sales I want to do. I remember you kind of telling me earlier in the week that used to work with your father and his company and he kind of gave you a bit of advice I'd love to for the listeners to be able to hear. That's kind of what was going on there.
Charley May Yeah. So it was funny, actually. I worked at Wicke's with my dad, so my dad was actually dealing with the kitchens and bathrooms. So he was doing the whole the whole journey. So obviously speaking to the clients, looking at design in their kitchen and bathroom and going right through the process. And I remember when I worked there I was doing the customer service, I was doing the tills and it was a really funny experience, actually, because obviously my dad was in the office, kind of doing the kitchens and bathrooms.
And on my lunch break, I'd be like Dad, shall we go and get a McDonald's and everyone would be like, oh, great. So you've got your dad here. And it was nice to it was nice to build that relationship with my dad as well, to be it's not something I recommend completely long term. Working with my dad for years and years. It was lovely to have that experience with working with my dad. But because my dad's had kind of he's always done kitchens, bathrooms and sales and that kind of background, I think I take after my dad and a lot of ways with my personality.
So when he sells, I think a lot of his attributes I've actually got from him in that sense. So when I got to when I got to a bit of a later age, Dad said to me, what about sales? And at first I kind of just said, like, no, that's that's not me. Like pushy sales. No, I'm not about that. And then I ended up listening to my dad's advice and went into the sales kind of experience.
And it was great to be able to go home and speak to my dad about it and him understand what I was saying, you know, to go home and be like, oh, I've got this client and this happened to my dad actually will go through the journey and give me, you know, feedback and give me tips and advice on how to help. But yeah. So I guess I kind of owe it to my dad really that I'm in sales if we speak in that sense.
Neil Bhuiyan I love I love that and it's great to be able to bounce off somebody that's kind of gone through the plays of sales and look at different ways of doing stuff to help his daughter out and strengthen that relationship as well in the family. And I remember like with my family when I told them, all right, I'm going to go join a startup. It's a tech thing. It's called SaaS. They were like Neil like is not a proper job. there are so many risks and everything involved. And when I tried to explain them kind of what we did and what the solution was, it completely went over their head.
Charley May Yeah
+ Making the decision to become an SDR [00:13:01.500]
Neil Bhuiyan I'm really interested to know, like when you explain to your family that you are working for Leadoo and kind of what they did, what was kind of the feedback from them? Did they get it or how did they take it?
Charley May To be honest, joining Leadoo was a funny one because I was in the time-Share job and then we went into lockdown in Spain. And when I say lockdown in Spain, I mean, you're allowed out for the chemist in the supermarket. You aren’t allowed on walks. You aren’t allowed out. It was awful. So I got to the point where I was ready to leave my old job and found Leadoo. But I was in the middle of all of this covid situation and I was like do i risk it and go for this job. That could be an amazing opportunity. Or do I stay in the job that I'm knowing that I've got that security of having to wage through the pandemic whilst I'm I'm working at home. So I really struggled with it. And as soon as I kind of have my first interview, I was I'd kind of made up my mind already. So I spoke to my dad. My dad's very, very supportive and very go for it. So my dad was like, yeah, as long as, you know, it's all it's all legit.
It's something that you're going to have go for it. Whereas my mom, as lovely as she is, is a bit more straight headed. So my mom said to me, look, you need to think about it and think what realistically is going to going to be good for you? Are you going to be secure in this job? My partner was very similar to my mom as well. But when I explained Leadoo, actually, I found it helped me when I went into the job because the way I had to explain Leadoo to my mom and my partner is how you might explain it to prospects, making it simple and really getting to the bottom line of what Leadoo does to be able to then explain it to my mom and my boyfriend really helped when I actually got into the role because I think it made me understand more to begin with.
But yeah, so in the end I just went for it. Really glad that I did that. Yeah, I struggled because obviously we were in covid and I was like, what if what if it doesn't work out?
Neil Bhuiyan And that's a very valid point, there is always that fear of what if it doesn't work out and a way mentally that I flip that sort of anxiety and fear and a lot of decisions I've made in life is what if it works out?
Charley May Yeah
Neil Bhuiyan What if I join this company, what if it turns into the greatest role? And I remember that many years ago when I started my SDR Journey, I said I wanted to be like the CEO of my own company, the M.D. of it all. And I sat there and I remember a lot of people and my friends and family said, Neil, you're freaking crazy, man. Like, get your head out the clouds. What are you thinking? And I always used to say to them, well, what if it does work? And I said, well, it'd be amazing if it did, but let's be realistic.
And I've also learned that sometimes when you have that passion or that spark or the fire to go achieve something to your dad's point, just go for it.
Charley May Yup!
Neil Bhuiyan But I'm very happy to see and hear that you did go for it and you're still doing the role. So well done. And also, you mentioned something very, very important. It's like if you're able to explain simply what you do to your friends, your parents, your grandparents, that's exactly the best way to speak to a prospect, I think, because if you're on the phone, they're on the other side of it.
Charley May They haven't got a demo in front of them. They don't have a website. You need to perhaps in 30 seconds to a minute, kind of explain what it does. So a really good acronym that I got taught by the CEO Showpad was KISS, which is Keep it simple, stupid. Yep.
Neil Bhuiyan And I've always tried to do that with discussions and I'm guilty of it. Sometimes I get too caught up because I'm so passionate about it. Yeah, but, but I love to hear it.
+ The interview experience at Leadoo [00:16:29.410]
Neil Bhuiyan And obviously like with going through that process and joining Leadoo, how did you come across Leadoo and kind of what was that interview experience like for you?
Charley May Um, yeah. So when I, when I actually found the job initially it was on a Facebook advert and I don't think I was actually looking for a job at the time because, as I said, I was happy in my role and I wasn't looking to kind of go elsewhere. And I found a Facebook ad which then took me onto the site and then they used an in-page-bot which is one of the conversational tools that we used.
And it was able to give me like a pre interview. But it's quite a cool way. It's not something that I've ever experienced before. And this. The technology that is embedded into the job role, it asks questions in a very personal way and it's like a cool way to associate. So they tell you what they want from you, but then they ask the questions and it kind of gives you the dropdown option. So how many years experience have yout got? And it's a really fun, interactive way, I'd say, to kind of apply for a role and for saying that was the first kind of interaction that I have with Leadoo, I was already enjoying it.
I thought, this is great. And I remember actually because of the process of the interview, I then actually spoke to my family about it. And although I had not heard anything yet, I was so like, oh, I'll have this interview. And it was really cool and my mon said have you spoke to somebody. And I was like, no, I just did it on the Internet. And she was I don't understand. I was like, don't worry about it. Like, it's fine. But we're actually using this tool funnily enough at the moment with recruiters. I've just started a new sector within staffing and in recruitment. So it's really good. I mean, it pretty qualified candidates and reduces the time of the hiring process. So like I said, it's really personal. But when the actual interview process started, as my manager gave me a call and we had kind of an initial chat to begin with, but it was quite a thorough a process, really.
I mean, I had kind of a cold call, an email task and over the phone call and mock-calls. So it's quite extensive, but it was really enjoyable.
It was nice to, you know, associate with the company that were interested in making sure people have the skill sets to match the role, which was great, obviously, again, because we were in lockdown, I got to have virtual drinks over Skype at the end of it. That was great. So with my colleagues at the moment, that was only that was only three of them. So Haley, Dan and Kevin and then I joined the call and it was great.
We just had a drink, had a chat, and I ended up staying on for like an hour longer than needed because I was enjoying myself. Obviously, it was lockdown, so obviously I wasn't speaking too anyone. Well, but yeah. And it was a really cool way to kind of meet the team and have like an on board in session before before I even found that if I got the role.
Neil Bhuiyan Yeah. I love that. I love that. It's that whole experience of applying, going through those motions, kind of going through the little bits of tests and whatnot and actually having real conversations with the team to understand them about them a little bit more. But I love that virtual drinks at the end of it. And it's a question a lot of SDR Managers ask me, like, what's the optimal kind of interview process? We're working with the recruiters and sometimes they're just putting out job posts.
They're trying to get somebody in maybe a 10, 15 minute, and then they don't hear from them. Yeah, but in terms of like hearing feedback of, you know, kind of getting on board with Adam and just having those initial chats, what was that experience like? How quick were they to respond? How long did you have to kind of wait because there might be people listening in that are about to apply for their SDR job, what what advice would you give them all?
Charley May So with advice, I would say 100 percent be yourself. Don't try and blend yourself into a role. I understand that you have a work persona and an out of work persona that especially with something like sales, you have to have a personality, your personality has to shine through your roles, same as when you send in a cold email or your doing a cold call. They don't want to speak to a robot.
They want to speak to a person. So you have to make sure that your personality shines through. Obviously, you know where to draw the line in an interview. Those things you don't say in an interview. But again, we keep saying this, that people are people like your you may be chatting to a manager and having an interview, but the other person, too. And that was one of the things that stood out to me when when I had my interview process with Adam because he's from the UK as well.
In regards to kind of the culture of the UK, when I was speaking about like school years and chatting and he was really easy to speak to. And it didn't feel like one of those interviews where you're panicking because you, you know, like your heart's beating so fast because you're nervous.
He made me feel really comfortable. And I think that was one of the main things that stood out of the interview process because it was nice to, you know, actually chat and learn about the company and learn about Adam himself just to really understand that I was going to be working for people were not not a big kind of company. Where, they kind of over-churn numbers, especially with it being a startup. I'd never, never been a part of that.
So it was amazing to to have that personal connection straight away.
+ Onboarding at Leadoo and the importance of listening [00:21:42.340]
Neil Bhuiyan Well, Adam, if you're listening in there, hopefully you are to say, well done, dude, congrats that you've given a great experience to Charley and Charley. I think a lot of people listening in, not just SDRs we may even have recruiters listening into these sort of things, but to optimize the process. I think that is pretty much the best way to go. And as you mentioned, like working for Start-up, this is a first time for you. You've met with Adam and then you go into your onboarding for Leadoo and learning about the world. What was that onboarding experience like for you?
Charley May Yeah, the on-boarding was great. I think it was nice to kind of strip it all back. I think that I am at an age where if I have bad habits from sales, I'm at the age where I can break out of them, which is good. So it was nice to kind of in the onboarding sessions, strip all that back and restart and and talk about the basics of sales and the basics of Cold-Calling before we went into the product and getting confused by too much at once.
So yeah, it was great. And we had a lot more cool sessions to begin with as well, which I think helped because, you know, rather than being thrown on the phone, I had the chance to kind of not not too much kind of preparation, but I got the chance to really be able to understand it before I got on the phone. But a lot of the things that I learned in the onboarding session was very, I think, listening.
So having a conversation with somebody and letting them finish what they're saying before jumping in obviously their opinion being important, I feel like that was a huge thing that I took away from when I first started this job. I was I don't think it's rude. I think it's a personality. But I think I was so rude. I was constantly cutting people off, like, well, I had to say, what's more important? So with the onboarding, I really learned kind of respect my prospects are more important to me in that sense.
Whatever they say, I'm going to learn from it. So to really learn to to have those conversations and not just talk at them and take on board, you know, what they're saying and learn from it.
Neil Bhuiyan I think you've learned very well, Charley, and you're really right. So obviously a really great skill set for an SDR or anybody in sales is that this is the action of active listening. So active listening is to listen with intent, without the intent to reply straight away.
And I used to cut people up all the time in conversations because as soon as I heard a pain word or a challenge or an issue, I said, well, you know what? We can definitely help you out. And it kind of made the other person feel, well, he's not really being empathetic to my needs as to what he's doing and a really good tip. that I taught myself that again, I learned as an SDR was when somebody was speaking.
As soon as I finished speaking, I would tap my foot on the floor three times and that would give them enough time in case I had another thought that they wanted to spurt out. And if they hadn't spoken, then I would resume the conversation. And that kind of helped me balance because I think for a good conversation, if you're an SDR or whoever you're talking to, especially if you're asking questions, is your prospect should be do 70 percent of the talking was the SDR should do 30 percent and that 30 percent is just asking questions of, OK, so what's your process?
How is it currently working for you? How did that make you feel? And what would be the impact if you could achieve this and just letting your prospects unload? And I think I think the best analogy that I've got is that we're kind of psychiatrists in sales where our prospects come in to sit on a couch and they want to unload their mind and tell us about their problems. And if you think about psychiatrists, they can get paid up to two to three hundred pound an hour for a couple of words.
And then the patient walks out thinking, oh, you know what? I feel so much better.
+ How best to take notes as an SDR [00:25:25.800]
Charley May Yeah, for sure. And nothing. Sorry, another great tip actually for for SDRs always have a notebook next to you. Always. If you're on a call with somebody, write down those tips. Like if they say, for example, their pain is they don't get enough traffic to their website, whatever it is, write it down. And when they finish speaking, lead with that say so. I notice that you didn't you don't get enough website traffic that really just if you listening to what they're saying, that's great.
And even if you think you're going to remember it, write it down. It's not going to hurt you to jot a couple of words down and have it next to you and use that to when you carry on speaking, because even the person you're on the phone with will go, oh, they've actually like really just listened to what I've just said. So I think a really good tip. Just have a notebook, have a pen and just just jot.
I think I'm on my third notebook and I've been at three, but just use the notebook.
Neil Bhuiyan I love it. And I 100 percent agree. It's really important to keep notes. What I used to find is I used to type my notes on my laptop, on my Mac when I was in calls. And then I learned that if you actually write notes down, like you said in a notepad, you can actually recall memories and emotions more from when you had that conversation. But maybe something you can help the other SDRs out in a lot of SDRs tell me Neil it's really difficult to listen to somebody, to take notes, to write everything down and then look back up with them and ask questions.
And I'd always say, you know what, just bullet point the words that you've heard, but how do you keep notes and how are you able to do two things at once Charley?
Charley May I'll be honest. My notebooks are so scruffy. They are awful. It's not something you look at to learn something. It's just random words all over the place. One thing I'll do, I'll tend to do kind of like like you said, bullet points or a little cloud. And just a couple of key words. I think if you put key words, you don't have to write full sentences. Your brain's clever, if you write one word, as soon as you look at that word more more times than not, you're going to understand what you've got in that word.
So I would say just keep it short, keep it sweet. Just write yourself a couple of words and you'll retain it. You'll understand as soon as you look at it, it's only going to have been, well, fifteen, twenty seconds before that they've said it. So you don't need to be writing long sentences and getting yourself distracted. Just keep it short and sweet and and it will help.
+ LinkedIn: Helping other SDRs [00:27:48.540]
Neil Bhuiyan Thank you so much for that, Charley. So another thing that I'd love to for the listeners to learn about yourself is I looked when I looked at your LinkedIn profile like you want to kind of help other SDRs.
And you said in your tagline, I want to put the fun back into SDRing in kind of what's your ambitions or aspirations of how you want to help other SDRs kind of what's on Charley's plan?
Charley May I'm not sure, really. I think when I started, I'd never use LinkedIn. I don't really know my password. I didn't I didn't know anything about it. But I'm quite a creative person. And I think LinkedIn is such an amazing tool to be able to use for work because it's such an amazing platform. You can you can talk about yourself. You can talk about other people. You can try and be motivational. And there's all these different things that it's just I just I love LinkedIn.
I think it's a great platform I'm not promoting it, but no, I think it's a great platform. And the main thing that I wanted to do was kind of just not coming from a confidence point of view because I've not been in the SDR role that long. But if I learned something from my SDR role and I can pass it onto one person, that's me being able to help one person. And I think if you can do that whilst being creative, then that's that's great.
You can do that. But I actually did a LinkedIn training session this week the first training session I've ever done with our with our newbies, and Adam kind of trusted me to take the take the plunge. So I set up a little presentation about LinkedIn and I left the training, and thought, God these guys are going to think that, like, I'm booked by LinkedIn. I just kept talking about how great it was. And I just think it's in a sales industry.
It is just such a great tool, whether it's I've connected with a lot of SDRs recently. And that's not from a prospect point of view. That's from a I really want to make sure that my LinkedIn I've got as many SDRs on their as possible because that's who I'm working with, in essence. And I want to really build my relationships with SDR. So my End Goal, I would say, is to have a big network of SDRs that can use my information to learn from it, but also let me learn from them.
I mean, everybody loves each other on LinkedIn and that's what I like. But I do think it's very important to to think, with Linkedin, when you start a role or if you're in a role, there is so much information on LinkedIn that you can't let yourself drown in it. Just just if you feel like you're drowning in it and there's too much advice and too many tips to take a break, take a step away from it, because it's a great tool, but it can be overused.
And I think it can confuse people more sometimes because there's so much information out there. So I'd say it's a great tool and use it. But if you do everr feel, like your getting overwhelmed with the information on there. Just take a step back and leave it for a few days until you you revisit it.
Neil Bhuiyan I totally agree with you, dude, because I was guilty of that last night. So I agree that it's a great networking tool. You can be speaking to lots of people. You can read a lot of blogs and articles and it's a free library of information in sales. But the other day I kind of went down a dark rabbit hole where I clicked onto one post. I went over and I started this probably about half eleven last night when I was doing some work. And then it got to like two am and I looked at my clock, and I was like oh my God, I should leave
So I like your idea of step away, switch off. And there is definitely some tools out there that you can add to Chrome to kind of kick off from reading too much and being online too much. But for you, like you said, you're looking to connect with other SDRs and build a network in this community, which is really cool. And I love what stands out to you, like when you look at an SDRs profile, one of the things that make thing, oh, do you know what, I'd love to chat to that person or learn a bit more about them?
Charley May Yeah, I think it's different for different people. I might not I might not like what you like on LinkedIn, for example. For me, I am ultimate cheese, so motivational post motivational videos. If it's something that I'm going to come in in the morning and I'm going to look through my LinkedIn post and I'm going to see something that either adds value to my job or is going to motivate me on a Monday morning. I'm going to I'm going to want to connect with you, because if you're using that platform for positivity, that's fine.
Be on my network 100 percent. I think with the day and age that we're in, that's you were always going to find negativity that it's everywhere, whether it's on LinkedIn or Facebook. So I think it's important to not dwell on it, not dwell on the negativity, try and find the positive parts of LinkedIn. So at the moment, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm just trying to connect with as many positive people as possible. I think networking, networking can come later.
If you're looking for prospects on LinkedIn, as great as I think it is to reach out for me at the moment, that's not my ultimate goal. I want to I want to become my personality on LinkedIn before I reach that next step. So. Yeah, but I think it's you know, it's it's just a great tool.
Neil Bhuiyan I love it. It sounds like you're the beginning of your journey of being a social sniper. But as you mentioned, building your brand identity, getting your brand equity so people kind of know you for who you are.
And I love that the whole positivity, mindset and vibe that you want to put out. That's what attracted me to come to your profile, because as soon as I saw that, I was like, this dude is screaming positivity. I want to learn more about them. And I think equally to your point, yeah, we can use it to connect with prospects. I do it for myself, for my business, and I do it with my clients as well.
But if you can take that sort of mentality for your prospects there are people that will want to connect with you in that field. So if its Marketeers, CMOS or kind of like lead-demand-gen, then that's what you want to do. You're not just another salesperson with a product because we've got a website that shows all of that and we want to know what value can Charley add? I can definitely hand on heart guarantee that you're going to add a lot of value to your customers as well as your network.
+ Charley’s key takeaways [00:33:49.410]
Neil Bhuiyan So I'm super excited to see you grow with that. So as we're coming towards the end of our lovely session today, what three bits of advice would you give to the Charley of three months ago who's about to start this SDR journey and kind of what things have you learned that you'd love to share with the listeners?
Charley May Okay, um, so this is quite hard for me because I try and think back to where I was three months ago, mentally out of work and where I am now. And I was in quite different places, so I tried to put the pieces together a little bit. Um, the first thing I'd say is just go for it. If you see an opportunity somewhere else and you think there's potential, as we said earlier, just go for it.
You have one life. You learn from experience. Just go and do it. Do it now. Don't think about it. Um, a second type of advice I give myself is not to be too dwelling on what I'm thinking. So if I've got a thought just to say it, especially when you you start at a company, I think that was a few things when I started that maybe I was worried to say to Adam because I thought, you take it the wrong way and the longer I am here.
I learned that if you just say if you just say it, you'll get through that obstacle so much quicker. So even if it's, you know, something that you're struggling with, like personalised emails rather than sitting in silence, I wish I'd just have gone right. Let's do it. Rather than a few weeks down the line and have spent longer worrying about it than actually solving it and the last tip, would be, just enjoy it, I've loved it, the three months that I've been at Leadoo.
I feel like I've been here years, but I love the job so much that I wish I'd focused on that as well at the beginning and tried to not let my nerves get the better of me. I think I'm quite outgoing, so maybe I didn't look that nervous, but I think I was definitely feeling it. So just to not let my nerves bother me, just to enjoy the job and fun it's all going to work out fine. So, yeah, just have fun, enjoy the job that your doing and don't don't make it feel like a chore.
Neil Bhuiyan Charley, I absolutely love it and 100 percent agree with it. And I'm so happy to see that you're content with this role. And as you said, like you wish you did certain things in the last three months. You definitely have the next three months to implement all of these. And I'm really intrigued and I would love to have you back in as another guest to kind of hear what's going on with Charley, how things have progressed, because this is going to be an exciting year and we'd love to follow you with this.
So for the listeners out there, because obviously, Charley, somebody who is very socially active, she's on LinkedIn. Charley, what would you say for the listeners out there who want to connect with you? What's the best way to get in touch with you or kind of what's the best way to connect?
Charley May Just connect. Just do it, to be honest, with Linkedin at the point I'm at now. I'm not I'm not like a thirty thousand follower basis. Any connection I'm happy to have.
Neil Bhuiyan Yet!
Charley May Maybe we'll use, Yet, any connection I'm happy to have. So honestly, just send me a connect on LinkedIn. If you want to chat, send me a message. That's absolutely fine. Yeah, just connect and we'll have a chat. I'm happy to speak to anyone and I'm happy to have kind of anyone on my network.
Neil Bhuiyan Thank you so much, Charley. So, guys, I wanted to say a massive thank you to Charley May from Leadoo as being one of our SDR guests on the SDR DiscoCall Podcast and we will definitely be having you back in as a future guest, But Charley, I just want to say again, massive thank you, Happy Selling. And best of luck.
Charley May Perfect, thank you for having me, I've really enjoyed it.