amdroid4504

.

Personal Narrative

SDR Interview: How to shoot yourself in the foot

Hi there.

Just want to share for a lesson to all.

I recently managed to get an interview for a remote SDR role applied thru YC site.

Thanks to the Bravado Academy section (link attached) I was able to prep myself well with the infos provided and asked the right questions. The vibe was positive and I was confident that this will proceed to the next round.

However a couple of days earlier I reached out to what I deducted to be a potential ICP (a CEO @ Co Founder), sent a message with a disclaimer that I have no affiliation (yet) to the company I am interviewing asking him for a favor if he is down with talking to me, an aspiring SDR-to-be for that company, he has not responded yet. My intention was simply to show that I have the initiative to go to that extent, and if the person responded I was even going to ask if he is okay to record the session as document (mock up) to be shared with the interviewer later.

I mentioned about what I did in the courtesy email after the interview, to which the interviewer responded - "appreciate the initiative, not recommended to do in the future as you may unknowingly hit an existing customer or in this case, target a company that we can't serve.

I wanted to know what it means by that but was no longer responded to, got a point though. What would the line typically mean? Thanks.

...I blew it didn't I?

https://bravado.co/blog/sdr-interview/

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42 comments

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braintank

Politicker

13

Enterprise Account Executive

Yeah, don't pretend you work for a company.

amdroid4504

Contributor

2

.

You are right never claim that you are part of the organization when you are not. But I did put up a disclaimer that I do not work for them though, would it still implicate me and the company I interviewed? What would be a better way of going about this - in showing enthusiasm I mean.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

8

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Interview well. Don't reach out to potential prospects in advance of landing the job.
Out of curiosity, where did you get the idea that this would be a good thing to do?

amdroid4504

Contributor

5

.

Just a hunch really. Gut feeling thought it’d be a good idea. Apparently not. I was so eager to add value that I didn’t see the repercussions of it, other people’s perspective.

I should have leveraged this space to ask about this first, put up a poll.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

5

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Live and learn. People have done far worse. ;)

oldcloser

Arsonist

3

💀

Yep, well intended. But even with a disclaimer, you really can’t have any idea how it’s going to be received. What if it was a current customer who thought the company put you up to that as part of the process. But he hadn’t had a service related call returned n 2 weeks. So many bizarre possibilities that the company obviously didn’t want stirred up.

amdroid4504

Contributor

3

.

Never would have crossed my mind of something like that, so many ways it can go wrong apparently. Clearly I haven’t had enough battle scars yet (not even in the battle), and common sense isn’t common for the uninitiated.

Sadly have to accept that it happened the way it did; but I am also happy to know that this is one tight knit community!

oldcloser

Arsonist

3

💀

And you dropped your first WR gold. Common sense isn’t common for the uninitiated. Stealing that. Honestly - as for your error - now you know. Still, It could have gone the other way. Rough break. Hang out a while and ask about this shit before you go off half cocked next time. There are hundreds of years experience in here. We generally like to help it you’re not an asshole. Sometimes you’ll get help even if you are.

amdroid4504

Contributor

2

.

Honored and humbled, thank you!

Armageddon

Opinionated

1

Enterprise Account Executive

definitely unfortunate you didn't come here first, in the future- here is a better way to go about it.

Identify an ICP fit for the company and a few key stakeholders at that company. Build an account plan for that company tying value drivers to a strong why do anything. Build out a cadence for each key stakeholders that really hones in on why you, why now, why do anything.

Send THAT to the hiring manager asking for their feedback without ever reaching out to the account. Present it in a way that shows you are able to roll up your sleeves and go the extra mile, but that shows humility and coach-ability at the same time.

amdroid4504

Contributor

2

.

Got an update here. They send me an email asking me to do a 1-week assignment (guess I was just let off with a warning) and it is pretty much what you described;
1) Find ideal clients and why chose them 2) Find the decision makers and contact info 3) Write a draft pitch.

So thank you for these gems! 💎

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

Glad to hear this!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Nice! Glad to hear you’re still a candidate.

Armageddon

Opinionated

3

Enterprise Account Executive

Thats awesome! Knock it out of the park

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

🥂

lilhunter

Good Citizen

2

independent sales consultant

If I read this correctly, OP never claimed to be affiliated with the company. I've done something similar in the past and gotten good feedback about my hustle and initiative.
The 2 things I did differently, were:

1) found someone in my network who is in their ICP and asked about their experience with buying the type of tool I was going to be selling (not their product specifically). I was looking to better understand the customer pain points, problems, and language

2) I mentioned this to them face-to-face so I could drive home the point that I wasn't misrepresenting them or anything.

Another great way to get the voice of the customer is to go on G2 Crowd and read the reviews (both positive and negative). It's important to understand how they're positioned in the market and how customers feel about the product. Remember, you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you!

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

Solid take

amdroid4504

Contributor

1

.

So looking also into product adjacent in a way and gets to know the competitors as well. Stealing this and making my tweak along the way.
Thats true, if the customers rant about it you got yourself free pointers on the pain to solve, hope its aligned to your product.
These are great points thank you!

jefe

Arsonist

10

🍁

Your heart was in the right place, but don't do this. There are so many ways this can (and did) go wrong.

Your disclaimer can be easily missed, and you're not representing them nor do you have any knowledge beyond what you gleaned from their website.

I think this is a byproduct of inexperience. Don't beat yourself up but learn from it and don't pull anything like this again.

BigShrimpin

Catalyst

4

Account executive

its the kind of thing that worked for one person once somewhere then gets shared out as job search advice but yes bad idea

amdroid4504

Contributor

3

.

This surely is a lesson learnt the hard way. Yes definitely not doing something like this anymore. Thanks @jefe. Can this be salvaged? Or its point of no return.

jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

You can give it a shot, but quite honestly with the job market the way it is and amount of candidates out there for an SDR role, you’ve probably been written off.

amdroid4504

Contributor

2

.

On to the next then.

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

Godspeed

oldcloser

Arsonist

1

💀

But don’t break the Godspeed limit like this again. You don’t want another ticket.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

3

Sales Rep

Don’t over think it, learn from this, but I assume they still appreciate the initiative. Was it the hiring manager or recruiter who you told

amdroid4504

Contributor

1

.

Thank you and will do. It was the hiring manager.

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

hard lesson, you didn't have any malicious intent but this is a huge red flag to potential employers

amdroid4504

Contributor

1

.

Indeed. I’ll just try to interview well, go by the book nothing fancy from now on, couldn’t risk it anymore as there isn’t a lot of work-from-anywhere SDR remote roles lying around.

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Smart to use Bravado Academy.
Dumb to pretend you're something you're not.
Really dumb to propose recording a conversation.

amdroid4504

Contributor

1

.

Thanks, short and sharp appreciate it.
The recording part was something I got over from several influencers on social media saying that it is a good way to create your brand/portfolio for someone with no prior experience, thought it was a good idea; good to know its actually not. Now that I put it this way (influencers, social media) yup I see what you mean.
Guess this is a way I'm doing sort of A/B testing for now.
Always open to best practices, keep em coming chief.

Armageddon

Opinionated

2

Enterprise Account Executive

haha yeah, very much blew it. Why does everyone feel like they have to go so damn extreme these days??

What was once, "oh maybe I can prospect into the hiring manager for an interview" turned to, "why don't I build out a territory plan for their ICP and send it to the hiring manager", which is now "fuck it I'm just gonna assumptive close 'em and get to work 😂"

amdroid4504

Contributor

0

.

Thats actually quite the idea for a skit. Like something K&P would do 😂

oldcloser

Arsonist

1

💀

Yes you did.

BlackVNeck

Good Citizen

1

Mid Market Account Executive

It doesn’t look like anyone actually answered your question about what their response means.
Translation: since you’re not an employee, you don’t have CRM access. Which means you might accidentally pick a company that A) is already their customer or B) actually not a good fit for their product/service.

amdroid4504

Contributor

1

.

Hi yes, I was fortunate that there was a follow up email explaining this, exactly as how you are saying it now. It makes more sense to me. I got to know during the interview that they are using Apollo and I have been playing around it since. Quite easy to navigate.
By the way how does it even know on the buying intent part? I know its algo mumbo jumbo but traditionally how would one find out and uncover about how their client's spend behavior looks like? Curious.

iamtheone

Executive

1

Enterprise SDR

Better to just show on a slide or a document how you went about prospecting the account and why you did it.

amdroid4504

Contributor

0

.

I will do this next time. I already sent in the test assignment, but had a separate file on how I came about those clients, if need be will share the documents over to them to share my thought process.
Also I felt like they might think I'm relying solely on AI, hence I had the working file. Is this something common now in this line of work - relying on AI I mean to help find leads.

1

Managing Partner

There is nothing wrong with reaching out, ever. But you need to be candid and straight forward. There should be no question where your coming from.

1

Managing Partner

Your welcome. Anyone in a senior role or sales leadership role that has an issue with you reaching out should not be in that role. Good luck...!

amdroid4504

Contributor

0

.

Thank you! Will keep that in mind

amdroid4504

Contributor

0

.

Got an update yesterday that I didn’t get it, asked for any areas to improve (really wanted to know if I was nailing it) but nada no more coming from them. Made me think a bit there if its just a ploy to get free leads. Oh well on to the next. Fun experience nonetheless.

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