Naturally, the most effective way to get your product out there is to hire an exceptional sales development representative. A great SDR person will generate leads, keep an engaged funnel of prospects, and represent your business in an authentic way.
But how do you go about hiring a sales development representative?
Here are all our tips when it comes to hiring a sales development representative!
While SDRs are often entry-level positions, they play a large role within your startup – after all, an SDR is the first point of contact between your business and the customer.
Before you go out there and hire, here are a few things your ideal SDR should absolutely know how to do:
Of course, your job ad needs to be tailored to these requirements specifically. Be as clear as possible. When reading the job ad, your candidate should know straight away:
As you’re identifying your ideal candidate and crafting job ads, don’t forget to keep your employer brand up to shape. Stay active on LinkedIn, customize your Careers Page, and create a culture deck that portrays what you’re all about. From a talent pool perspective, Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are particularly prevalent in the business-to-business (B2B) domain and they’re often selling software, referred as ‘SaaS sales’ or ‘tech sales’ so this is good to keep in mind if your product doesn’t fit this category.
Postponing interviews is one of the primary frustrations job seekers have. No one wants to go through a long hiring process, especially when there are other opportunities on the line.
Make things short and sweet. Don’t spend too long on the screening process – CVs often don’t portray reality accurately, not to mention that candidates with less impressive backgrounds might still outperform others – and move on to the skills test as soon as possible.
And what’s the reason a skills test comes before an in-depth interview, we hear you ask?
When searching for amazing SDRs, their personality and soft skills are among the primary factors to consider. This means the interview stage is the longest and most complex one – you want to make sure your new team member is a cultural fit and suits your company's needs in face-to-face interactions.
A skills test is easier, not to mention that it helps you identify a shortlist of candidates very effectively. What better way to gauge someone’s sales performance than to actually see them sell?
You can have your candidate write an email, leave a voicemail, or do a quick roleplay scenario on camera.
Careful, though – you’ve got to make sure you optimize your hiring for DE&I and mitigate any bias. The easiest way to do that is through having set criteria for measuring each candidate’s performance, such as:
Finally, determine if your candidate’s using clear and effective language. Brandon Kirsch, Inbound Growth Specialist at HubSpot, unpacks some of the phrases that salespeople ought to use when in doubt:
"Got it, so it sounds like...",
"To confirm, it seems like...",
"Alright, let me take a swing at what I'm hearing. Correct me if I'm wrong..."
Alright, let’s jump into the last – and most important – part of the hiring process!
This is where you really get to feel out your candidate’s energy, probe the corners of their mind, and see how they perform on a deeper level.
Finally, don’t forget to ask if your candidate has any questions for you. After all, the interview goes both ways – as you’re gauging the candidate’s skills, they’re also gauging what kind of an employer you are.
And again, we recommend you use structured interviews (with set questions and a standard evaluation procedure) to mitigate any unconscious bias.
Hiring an amazing sales development representative might be challenging, but once you get to the interview stage, you should have a pretty clear sense of who is best.
Our final advice is to let your team in on the hiring process, listen to your gut, and don’t be afraid to give a younger person a chance. Their spark and enthusiasm might be exactly what you need to skyrocket your success.
Move's TAaaS ('Talent Acquisition-as-a-Service') model ensures you get it right when you most need to. As an embedded recruitment company, we’re experts at securing top talent that thrives in early-stage tech businesses. Similar to top recruitment agencies in London, we have an amazing network of candidates - but unlike them we work on a fixed cost basis, which means we’re typically 63% less expensive than traditional recruitment agencies. Think RPO recruitment with a heart 🥳
Plus, we’ll set you up for hiring success so you can do it without us in the future.
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An SDR (Sales Development Representative) is in charge of generating new leads, getting in touch with potential prospects, and qualifying which buyers are the right fit for your company. They manage the sales pipeline, often through a CRM tool.
While sales development representatives reach out to new prospects and qualify leads, sales executives take over further down the road when they negotiate and close deals.
The average salary of a sales development representative (SDR) in London is £33,992 per year as reported by Glassdoor.
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