Coffeesforclosers

Director Sales and Market Development

Notable Contributor

Celebrated Contributor

Hiring SDRs- Am i too rigid?

I have a theory and looking for input on it. I tend to hire very green or very senior SDRs. By Green i mean 1 maybe 2 SDR jobs and by senior i mean 20+ years in the space and wants to just come and grind the phones and collect checks (no importance in moving to AE, management, travel, etc cause theyve been there before)

What i avoid and looking for critique- If they have more than 2 SDR jobs and looking at an SDR job, outside of PE and a Pandemic, my thought is they are not very good at being an SDR if they are SDR hopping and always starting over in a year or 2 and never advanced (again probably cause they were not a successful SDR.

Let me know if i am way off here as i have been in this practice at 3 companies now.

What is the average SDR jobs you look at as a bad thing

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More than 2 Between 2-4 You dont believe in this?

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DaveFromCollege

Notorious Answer

6

Account Executive

I'm not sure. I have been in 2/3 SDR positions and recently made the move to AE. I was kinda looking at other SDR positions, but according to your logic, you would not consider me.

To the surprise of no one, the SDR position is the most underappreciated, underpaid, and overlooked when it comes to sales. SDR hopping usually stems from that rather than not performing. (this is based off of what I went through and saw, so take this with a grain of salt)

I'd say listen to their journey, regardless of experience. If your company has a good culture, SDRs will probably stay.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

3

Director Sales and Market Development

Appreciate the insight. It is by no means a hard dismiss by me, I will interview them but do have a "guard" up. I lied my way into my first AE job as I too lacked experience and nobody would give me a shot without experience. It's a strange world. And agree, SDR is an endless and thankless role. Congrats in getting the AE gig, crush it.

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

3

Account Executive

Wow. Sounds like you did what you had to do to make it and there are no regrets. Must be hard shirking the opportunity to judge others.

softwarebro

Politicker

4

Sales Director

There are a lot of jobs / bosses / companies that are awful. So you have had 3 jobs in 3 years? Not going to pull your name from the running but will dig into "why?". I do my best not to judge someone's future performance on past performance because there are too many variables. I'm pretty good at figuring out if a salesperson has what it takes to be successful in the interview process.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

1

Director Sales and Market Development

Solid point and similar to what i do. I am not a dismiss at resume type, i do speak to them and ask. Dont want to lose out on a good candidate cause they had 3 shit jobs, we have all been in a bad spot before. Appreciate the input

Telehealth_2the_Moon

Notable Contributor

3

Director of Business Development

I'm on board with hiring green or hiring experienced. I think I would have a lot of questions regarding the different SDR roles, what didn't work, what did, why do you think this one will work, etc.

While in a perfect world we all could take anyone and turn them into a rock star, the limiting factor is time. A green one often listens to the instruction and goes for it (at least until they realize they don't like sales) and a old timer just goes for it.

I'd really like to see more companies turn the SDR/BDR role into a real career option.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

2

Director Sales and Market Development

Career path is and always has been my biggest struggle. But also sometimes unrealistic for a SDR to learn the complexities of an enterprise ERP for example and expect to be an AE when they can't answer 80% of functional questions. But there has to be a fine line. I love your examples of questions and absolutely do similar talk track. Thansk for input

Telehealth_2the_Moon

Notable Contributor

1

Director of Business Development

Yeah for sure, and I like those questions because it shows if they are aware of the challenges of the job or if they are deflecting the blame on the companies, past managers, etc.

If they are gonna throw their past boss under the bus during the interview they probably are gonna look for a reason to not like you pretty quickly too!

But yeah, I'd love to see SDR/BDRs be a role that could make money, at least enough to keep them from always just eyeing the AE role.

BDR/AE/Sales manager all have wildly different skill requirements to be successful at them so I really wish we didn't consider it a straight hierarchy from one to the other.

Edit: but to do that you'll have to change the whole structure of things, starting with compensation and going from there.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

1

Director Sales and Market Development

I set up 3 internal SDR positions to help move them through so they dont feel completely stagnant, but still after all 3 of these in 1.5-2years they still bail. Its the circle of life i guess

Bell4my

Contributor

2

AE

20+ years? Who are these fools taking this job?

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

2

Director Sales and Market Development

Lol, it only happened twice, but it is not a unicorn as it was 2x not once. They had done the corporate ladder climb, made some good cashish, wanted bennies and a stabel check, like the space and know the space and decided to keep grinding the phones. Both were great and you have them forever

Bell4my

Contributor

1

AE

You're right, that's not a unicorn. That's two unicorns.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

1

Director Sales and Market Development

Wish i could upvote this more than once! Well played

funcoupons

WR Officer

1

👑

I think it depends on the individual. Sure, some people job hop every few years because they aren't fit for the role and hope a new company will be the ticket to improvement. But some people have short stints in an SDR role because their comp plan sucked/changed, bad culture, bad management, or maybe they just want a change of product. SDR is a grind, I don't blame people for wanting to switch up the product they're pitching from time to time.

Read cover letters and pry into job history on a phone screen, you'll be able to figure out if this is someone you want around pretty quickly.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

1

Director Sales and Market Development

I say as a caveat that my resume is similar where I am a new role every 2-3 years. I'm in PE and this is a 6th grow and sell opp I am in. I also think this plays a major role in funding and PE owned everything. Comp change, culture change, merger or acquired. Totally agree, and will continue to interview them and bring my guard down a bit. Just a bit though lol.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

1

MDR

While in a perfect world we all could take anyone and turn them into a rock star, the limiting factor is time.

SportsSalesGuy

Tycoon

1

Enterprise Account Executive

SDR/BDR are the most under appreciated and underpaid roles even though they are the tip of the spear for the sales and marketing teams. Likewise, they are (hopefully) the future of your companies next (AE/ISR/MM, etc.) of your org. You want sales people to grow within so they can make more immediate impact because they know the sales plays, the tech stack, the accounts and so on. Just need to learn the close.
SDR/BDRs are poorly treated and that is why it is so hard to find a good one or seem to be hard to find. Burnout rate and turnover rate is super high because of the mistreatment, pay and the following --> Because a lot of these companies talk about growth opportunities and then once a bad QTR or Year hits, they are chopped. Or they are poorly managed, led and taught and they may not succeed at a certain org. And sometimes they are asked to do way to much out of scope of what a BDR/SDR should do.

SO, I would definitely talk to those that may be "red flags" in your case and rly ask them about why the moves and changes. Could have been laid off, could have been a sinking ship and they had to jump, or maybe there was a lot of false promises of growth and turned out to not be true (VERY COMMON).

Think about it. Most people don't like or want to do that job but they know its a pay to play. You gotta pay your dues to move up. And some of those folks still haven't gotten their shot and you might find a diamond in the rough with those people.

TheJoker

Fire Starter

0

VP of Sales

You might just miss a diamond if you are too rigid.

I'd spend a little bit of time with the ones that look great but job hopped, or had longer time in the role, they may have legitimate reasons. I'd confirm my assumption before passing them over.

goose

Politicker

0

Sales Executive

This is tough and depends on your organization. Are you looking to promote SDRs or are you looking for them to stay in their role?

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

1

Director Sales and Market Development

Always attempt to promote.

goose

Politicker

0

Sales Executive

Well then I'd stay away from someone who jumps from SDR role to SDR role and identify what you are looking for in terms of a sales person and work with them to enter the organization, hit their targets and get promoted. If you pick people that jump from role to role you will inevitably end up with some shitty people (not all shitty but some shitty).

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

Hiring based on things that are not in the job description…… no bueno.

LambyCorn

Arsonist

0

A mfkn E

i have had like 7 sdr roles lol

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