How do you stay up-to-date on industry trends and best practices in sales development, given there is a lot of noise out there?

It's extremely important to build a network across the sales industry either by joining user groups or reaching out to your peers at other companies and asking for a " coffee chat " to understand how they are tackling the challenges and where they see opportunity. I also belief in asking new starters what they liked from there previous company in reference to sales development 

You could set up an RFI and have various companies come and present to you or commission a report via sales enablement agencies on best practices. 

Staying up to date: 

It’s important to pick a medium that you like for content. Whether it is Linkedin, podcasts, email newsletter, or chat based slack groups, you want to make sure you are setting yourself up for success. If the content goes unread or unlistened to, you won’t build a consistent learning habit. 

Personally, I find the most value in content forums where you can engage and ask follow up questions, hear multiple opinions on a particular matter, and even reach out the the original writer for a 1-1 chat! 

Another underutilized source of knowledge for industry trends is content from Sales Development technology vendors. It’s imperative that they stay on the cutting edge, so following a few top vendors on Linkedin will allow you to see what future the tools are preparing for. 

Avoiding the noise:

There can be a great amount of value in public best practices. That said, there is risk in assuming that something that works for someone else will also work for you, or for implementing changes to something when you are already seeing above-average results. For example, if your content is getting a 20% reply rate, you may not want to adopt the “best practice” that moved someone else's team from a 10% to 15% reply rate.

Having your own benchmarks and running your own A/B tests can help you determine where you should be altering your SDR motion, and where you should keep yours in place.  Then, you can proactively search for interesting ideas to test in areas you are performing below benchmark. 

Staying ahead in a sea of industry information requires strategic choices tailored to your preferences.

• Opt for podcasts during your commute or workouts if you prefer shorter format

• Decide if lecture formats like in person conferences or webinars suit your learning style

• Tap into expert insights by following industry leaders on social media or joining professional advisory networks like Emblaze and Gartner

• Embrace technology by setting alerts for key topics, leveraging news aggregators, and curating content to personalize your learning experience effortlessly.