How to hire an SDR

When an SDR is the right next hire

An SDR creates conversations. That only helps if somebody can convert them and if the proposition already lands with a defined audience.

• Founder-led or AE-led selling has proved that the proposition works, and the constraint is now volume of conversations.
• There is a person available to take the meetings within days, not weeks.
• You can describe your target customer specifically enough that a new starter could build a list from it.
• There is a manager with time to listen to calls and coach in the first three months.

What to put in the brief before you advertise

Most SDR searches stall because the brief describes the person rather than the work.

• The target market, by segment, size and job title of the buyer.
• The channel mix expected: phone, email, LinkedIn, events, and the realistic split.
• What a qualified meeting means to you, in one written definition.
• The tooling the SDR will be given, and who administers it.
• The ramp expectation at 30, 60 and 90 days, in writing.
• The progression route and the realistic timeframe to reach it.

How to assess an SDR candidate

1. 01Ask for their activity and outcome numbers in a consistent format: meetings booked, meetings held, and how many became qualified pipeline.
2. 02Ask how they chose who to contact. Strong candidates describe a filter; weak ones describe a list somebody handed them.
3. 03Run a short live exercise: ten minutes to research an account you name, then two minutes on why they would approach it and how.
4. 04Run a role-played first call with a member of your team. Score question quality, listening ratio and whether they recover from a brush-off.
5. 05Score every candidate on the same written scorecard before any discussion happens.

Signals worth more than a polished CV

• They can explain what stopped working in their outreach and what they changed.
• They talk about the prospect's situation before their own product.
• They use tooling to spend more time in conversations, not to increase volume for its own sake.
• They ask you about ICP, enablement and manager time during the interview.

What causes early SDR attrition

• No manager time in the first eight weeks.
• A meeting target set before the definition of a qualified meeting was written down.
• A progression promise made verbally and never revisited.
• A list the SDR cannot influence, in a market nobody has validated.

Common questions

Should I hire one SDR or two?

Two, where budget allows. A single SDR has no comparison point, so you cannot tell whether a slow start is the person, the market or the message. Two also protects the pipeline if one leaves.

Does an SDR need industry experience?

Rarely. Sector knowledge is learnable in weeks for a top-of-funnel role. Judgement about who to contact, and the resilience to keep going, are not.

Should the SDR report to Sales or Marketing?

Either can work. What matters is that one person owns the qualified-meeting definition and reviews calls weekly. Split ownership is what causes the argument later.