How To Hire Sales Development Representative

How To Hire Sales Development Representative; Why do you hire a talented Sales Development Representative in your company?

Suppose, you have a great infrastructure and a brilliant team but your sales margin is poor.

Will that work out in the long run? Not at all!

So, what can be done to weed out that possibility?

You need to appoint a competent Sales Development Representative or SDR.

As per a report, sales executives working with SDRs get a 5% enhancement in selling time. Moreover, it turns out around 20% enhancement in the revenue.

According to another study, 12.6% of calls of SDRs yield positive results. Besides, it turns out to be a productive conversation.

So, your business needs an updated and proactive SDR.

But, it is not a cakewalk to hire an eligible candidate from a pool of applicants.

Surely, some actionable strategies are there and that is the post is about.

So, are you ready to know about it? Let’s start the discussion.

Actionable Tips To Hire Proficient SDRs:

Are you going to hire SDRs for the first time?

If it’s a yes, then you ought to decide about a platform upfront.

Whether you want it through an employment agency or via referrals, it’s up to you.

But, either case, don’t fail to judge a candidate before recruiting.

So, how to analyze the worth? Follow the steps below:

Design A Job Description For Sales Development Representative:

Requirements and expectations from an SDR candidate vary for two different companies.

Hence, it’s a critical need for a business to have a blueprint of the job description.

Otherwise, you may end up hiring a wrong candidate.

Note that most applicants will be likely to have zero to little experience as SDRs. So, how to judge their capabilities?

Analyze their personality attributes.

Check for their educational background.

Find out if they have similar work experience.

These checkpoints will help you to weed out incompetent candidates.

Key Tips:

Never ever create an unclear job description.

Add the job roles coherently. Thus, candidates will understand what they will need to do as SDRs.

And you can expect only meaningful applications from genuine candidates.

Include the minimum academic qualification you are looking for.

Do not forget to add a crystal clear salary structure to the job description. Otherwise, future talks on negotiation will waste your time.

Run Telephonic Interviews:

Once you got resumes of deserving candidates, the process enters the next round.

It is time to know more about them and weed out the ineligible ones.

So, start running telephonic interviews.

An unclear job description can cause you to select the wrong candidates.

The same applies to vague questions.

It will put you in a fix. You won’t determine whether a candidate is fit for your company as a capable SDR or not.

So, invest some time to design thought-provoking, comprehensive questions.

The questions must comply with the SDR requirements of your business.

Besides, frame some questions that will reflect your core business values.

Fix the ideal answer patterns in your mind. It will help you to choose the desired candidates with ease.

Remember, the duration of the interview must not be less than 10 minutes. It can be 20 minutes long.

Other than answers, some other aspects also need your emphasis.

It is imperative to judge their tone and their way of conversation. Thus, you can realize how much convincing they sound.

An SDR mostly interacts with prospects and clients via phone calls. So, voice quality analysis is essential in this phase.

Take an idea from the following SDR interview questions.

Do not forget to customize them, as per your business needs.

Which factors motivate you?

A candidate wants to work in your sales team to explore opportunities.

He/she must like your products and/or services.

Moreover, the candidate is willing to ease your prospects’ pain points.

He/she wants to resolve the queries of the prospects regarding your offerings.

As a whole, they want to work to boost your business growth.

Check for these factors in their answers.

How do you handle disappointments in sales?

Rejection and disappointment are integral factors of this job.

So, an ideal candidate must be able to handle it and get ready for the next move.

Hence, you should check for a positive attitude in their answers.

An ideal candidate will reply that he/she always tries to learn something from the rejection. And also applies it in the next opportunity provided.

Note that you need a motivated Sales Development Representative.

A person with a negative mindset can spoil the attitude of the entire sales team.

What was the worst selling experience in your career?

A candidate always tries to portray how efficiently he/she can handle prospects.

They also have long stories of how well they can convert prospects into customers.

In order to judge their worth, you need to ask opposite questions.

If a person can handle challenging situations, he/she can manage the easy ones as well.

Take a look at the questions below. You can customize them, as per your requirements.

Why it went so bad that you consider it to be your worst experience?

Have you learned anything from this experience?

Did this experience affect your later work?

Can you deal with such situations now?

The next question is like this:

What is your take on cold outreach?

It is a key role of an SDR to carry out cold outreach.

Opt for a candidate, who knows well about cold calling and emailing.

Do not forget to ask whether they have any prior experience in it with success.

Sell me a product.

It is a classic interview question in the truest sense. This question will unearth the level of knowledge and skills of a candidate.

Emphasize the tone and convincing power in their voice. Ask a few questions as a customer.

How the product will benefit me?

I am busy now!

Just pay attention to how they deal with such a situation.

What is success according to you?

An ideal candidate considers the entire team or business success as a real success.

Do not hire a professional, who just focuses on his/her own success.

What have you learned recently in your niche?

This question will help you to find out candidates, who remain updated with knowledge.

The world is changing and so the sales tactics.

Therefore, an ideal contender must be aware of the latest sales strategies.

Otherwise, it is difficult to persuade today’s well-informed buyers.

If a candidate takes longer to answer, he/she might not be the right choice.

Make sure to ask the same questions to all the shortlisted applicants.

Asking different types of questions to different candidates can confuse you.

It will difficult for you to find out ideal candidates by comparing.

First, design questions that you think comply with your requirements for SDR.

Measure the answers with a scale of 1 to 10.

Thus, you can check the answers easily after completing the interview.

Moreover, comparisons between answers will become easy in this way.

Some Other Questions

The aforementioned questions are essential for checking the worth of the candidates.

finitely, you should customize these questions, as per your requirements.

Even you can also add other questions to judge the understanding level of the candidates.

Some other questions are as follows:

Why have you chosen this field?

Why do you think you are the most deserving candidate for this role?

What is your opinion on cold calling? Are you comfortable in making such calls?

Are you experienced in cold calling?

Can you present a small pitch on a product or service of our company?

What is your take on a CRM system? Have you used one before?

Which sales strategies you think have become obsolete now?

Once all set, it is time to analyze the knowledge of candidates about your company.

It will reveal which candidates genuinely want to work in your organization.

Thus, you can weed out those, who are just attending a random interview.

The following questions will show the level of homework they have done in your company.

Don’t forget to customize the same according to your business.

What motives you to work at our company?

Why are you willing to sell our products?

It’s Time For Assigning A Practical Task:

Interview completed? You have selected a couple of competent candidates, right?

It is time for a high-level selection process.

In this step, assign the selected candidates a practical task.

Otherwise, you couldn’t judge whether you are selecting the best contender or not.

This task will help you to analyze which of them can handle their daily tasks with the ace.

However, it is imperative to plan the task upfront with proper instructions.

Assign all of the shortlisted candidates the same task.

Your shortlisted SDR candidates must show incredible professionalism.

And you will judge based upon their convincing power and clarity in their goals.

They need to communicate with an imaginary client via both cold calls and cold emails.

Weed out those contenders, who don’t emphasize the details in the communications.

Check the details like typos, correct grammar, persuasiveness, etc.

Nonetheless, you should provide enough flexibility in their tactics.

Who knows one of your candidates has some innovative ideas?

Sometimes, clumsier contenders can also show brilliance. So, don’t neglect such sales genius at all.

An SDR must handle emails as well as calls both. So, the practical task should exhibit both of them.

Don’t forget to check the confidence level.

Also, examine how well they can handle a no. Are they able to convert it to a yes with their strategies?

Divide the task into two different sections as follows:

Prospecting Email:

The shortlisted candidates need to find out a person or business as an ideal target.

Obviously, the main goal is to sell your products or services.

Your test guidelines can be as follows:

Perform research on the target people or businesses.

Reach a conclusion about who you want to contact.

Select one person or company from the list of prospects.

Design a personalized cold email to reach the prospect.

Your message must be clear, concise yet effective.

Use a proper subject line and persuasive body without sounding salesy or spammy.

Add a CTA to schedule a call with that prospect.

Voicemail Message:

You can follow the below guidelines for the second test:

You got a positive response from the prospect along with the phone number.

Now, it is time to make a call to that person.

However, upon calling, you hear his/her voicemail answering the call.

You need to leave your voicemail message.

The maximum time you will have 45 seconds for your voicemail pitch.

Do not forget to specify the email conversation.

Leave the company phone number at the conclusion.

It’s Your Turn:

It is an ideal test to find out which candidates can design a great voicemail pitch.

Examine the tone and confidence level in each of their voice.

Do check the convincing and persuasive capability in the voice.

Keep taking notes upon the performance of each candidate.

Thus, you will get a clear idea about who is doing how.

Otherwise, it can create confusion if you hear the candidates first and then start judging them.

Hearing and giving points simultaneously will also help you in the comparison.

As a result, you can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their pitches.

Role-play Test:

It is a classic part of the entire interview session. This phase will find out candidates, who are ready to boost your sales team.

Furthermore, you can also examine their capabilities to handle difficult situations.

It is essential to analyze a candidate’s worth by creating a challenging situation.

And this role-play interview will help you to make your selection.

All that this test needs is the spontaneous performance of the candidates.

All of the candidates must have prepared well, isn’t it?

However, real-world situations don’t depend on any prior preparation.

An SDR needs to interact with people of different personalities and temperaments.

Hence, it is a must to judge their instant performance without preparation.

Your work is to design different situations upfront for this test.

Judge the shortlisted candidates based on their instant reactions and performances.

They will need to deal with various situations to prove their worth.

Note that this role-play test is not like the other interview phases of this process.

Rather, it is a scope for you to re-check if you are hiring an ideal candidate.

Involve your sales team in this process. Do not forget to interact with the SDR manager of your company.

Observe the performance of each and every candidate. And reach the conclusion about the best performance.

Assign the same task to all candidates to make the judgment easier.

Take the ideas from the following templates. Customize it, as per your needs.

Call one of our target prospects. I pick up the call and let you know that I am busy now. Now, you have 1.5 minutes for your pitch.

Create two to three different characters to analyze the potential of the candidates.

Do not forget to add at least one impatient character too. It will judge the patience level of the candidates.

Once you are done with the test, start analyzing the performance for every character.

Add the feedback of your sales team as well. As a result, you can make a well-informed decision.

Also, it will shed light on those aspects that you could have missed.

You can expect to find out the right set of candidates at the end of this process.

Personal Interview:

It is the last round of the whole interview process. This round will let you know more about the selected candidates.

The personal interview is a bit informal. It is like an interaction process to know their mindset and thinking.

Moreover, you should also give candidates the flexibility to ask you questions. The topic is about the culture of your organization.

Some sample questions of personal interview are as follows:

Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.

What encourages you to go to work daily?

What is your future career plan?

What work ambiance do you prefer the most?

What does teamwork mean to you?

What are your leisure activities?

How do you update yourself with the changing sales strategies?

How do you prepare yourself before a sales pitch?

Customize the questions, according to your business type.

Encourage candidates to ask you questions about your company culture or job role.

In fact, the personal interview round is like a light-hearted conversation.

Frame the questions in advance with the help of your sales team.

Select The Best Candidates:

Now, it is time to finalize your decision.

After a long tiring day, you finally reached the conclusion.

Take some time from the candidates.

Now, make a panel with your SDR manager and a few experienced sales executives.

Evaluate the performance of the shortlisted candidates from starting to finish.

As of now, you have more likely got decent ideas about the most deserving contenders.

Hire only proactive, motivated professionals, who have the zeal to learn and upgrade.

Have you selected the best minds? Congrats!

It is time to do the final revision.

Do check their CVs and applications. Ensure that they fulfill the required academic and other qualifications.

Nevertheless, emphasize more on their practical performance than the qualifications.

You need a professional, who can close more sales in less time. So, their sales approach is what matters the most.

Take the opinion of the sales experts in your company. Now, prepare the list of the selected candidates.

Call the candidates, who had reached the final phase. Tell them why they are appointed or not.

Make this final explanation as a part and parcel of your business culture.

It will boost the transparency and reputation of your company.

Wrapping Up

Does the entire process seem cumbersome to you? It might be! But, it will pay off. You will get a talented SDR (s) for your company.

It will help to grow the sales and revenue of your business in the long run.

However, interviewing and selection is not the final step.

You will need to onboard the selected candidates on the first day of their joining.

Moreover, if needed, you can also arrange a training session for you. Thus, they can be well familiar with the work culture of your organization.

Besides, it will also let them interact with the existing team members.

Happy interviewing!

Imagesource