The Profile of a Sales Development Representative

An SDR’s job is pretty intense.

Their day-to-day consists of qualifying leads and contacting prospects (cold-calling) in order to close a meeting with them for account executives (AE).

SDRs are probably the most important members of your sales team—they find clients “out of thin air”. They’re the first touchpoint in the sales funnel and the first impression of your SaaS.

Looking for SDR candidates who already have years of experience working as an SDR is often counterproductive. The role of a sales development representative is something you can master in just two years.

In this time period (two years or less) a good SDR will want to keep climbing the career ladder and become a Business Development Manager (BDM) or an AE. The startups that recruit them have the same objective, not only to hire an SDR but as a talent to develop.

SDRs are probably the most important members of your sales team—they find clients “out of thin air”. They’re the first touchpoint in the sales funnel and the first impression of your SaaS.

An SDR needs to have commercial traits, empathy, intelligence, and a business mindset to understand their potential buyers. They need to spark the prospect’s interest with only a few words.

As we’ve said, their experience isn’t everything here. This is why young people who are excited to start their professional careers make some of the best BDRs. They grow with your company.

Why hiring an experienced SDR is counterintuitive:

Usually, one of the following three things will happen over 12 to 18 months after the initial hire of an SDR. One-third of them will be promoted to sales positions, for example, as an AE. Another third of them will do their job well but will realize that sales isn’t for them and will choose another career path. And the last bunch will likely quit or be let go due to poor performance.

Because of this, some companies look for SDRs with experience, thinking their ramp-up time will be shorter and that they’ll close more deals.

But this isn’t really true. The time that they save is only two months to fully ramp up. And they miss out on truly motivated and excited SDRs at the beginning of their careers, compared to those with the experience who work at an average pace.

Some companies look for SDRs with experience as they think their ramp-up time will be shorter and that they’ll close more deals, but this isn’t really true.

However, there is an exception – the long-term SDR. But beware. There’s a certain type of SDR who moves from one company to the next and while they’re not bad at their job, they’re not excellent either.

In the end, companies that hire experienced SDRs might end up with higher staff turnover and costs, and some disappointing results.

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