for a discovery call. Last option: Make an email introduction, Cc’ing both the sales rep and the new lead, with each other's contact information in the email. And of course, the Sales Development Rep needs to log the email/pass in their sales force automation system, like Salesforce.com, and set up a new task or calendar item for their Account Executive. The SDR Gets Credit After The Account Executive Re-qualifies New opportunities are not upgraded to “qualified” until after the Account Executive speaks with and re-qualifies them in their own phone call. Do not let the Sales Development Rep get credit until this happens, it is so critical to quality control! After the Account Executive speaks to the prospect on the phone and feels good about the same basic outbound qualification criteria (Can we solve their problem? Are we in touch with the decision makers? Do they want a next step?…), the Account Executive can upgrade the opportunity to “Stage 2: Qualified”. Now the Sales Development Rep can get credit and compensated for it. Use An Audit Process It requires some extra time, but it is totally worth having a manager or the company owner review every single outbound opportunity to ensure high quality and integrity of the results. As soon as an opportunity is upgraded, check it to ensure all of the following: Was this truly an incremental outbound opportunity? Not an inbound lead from your website? Was it re-qualified by the Account Executive by phone? (Sometimes an Account Executive would “do a favor” for their Sales Development Rep and upgrade opportunities before they re-qualified—a big no-no). Did the Sales Development Rep and Account Executive enter notes into your sales automation system appropriately? If it doesn’t exist in your