How to Hire an SDR & Future-Proof Your Sales Team

Hiring top sales talent remains one of the biggest challenges facing revenue leaders today. Yet few roles offer higher potential ROI than strategic sales development representatives. When structured for success, high-performing SDRs create a strong competitive advantage through their market insights and revenue impact.

But many organizations struggle to achieve sustainable SDR success. Outdated metrics prioritize activity over revenue, while lack of coaching and unexciting compensation hinder strategic alignment.

The result? Underwhelming SDR performance.

To transform SDR performance, leaders must completely rethink their approach to hiring, developing, and incentivizing these critical roles.

This guide will explore the proven frameworks for recruiting and empowering world-class SDRs primed to drive exponential revenue growth.

Applying the 95-5-90 Rule

Hiring a successful sales development representative starts with crystallizing exactly what defined success looks like from both a performance and behavioral standpoint across those critical first 90 days.

We use a simple formula called the 95-5-90 rule to quickly assess if an SDR candidate has what it takes to thrive.

During their initial 90 days, a stellar SDR should aim for:

95 Completions Per Week: Instead of meetings, completions focus on quality conversations regardless of prospect interest level. This balances pipeline meetings with insight gathering.
5 Conversations with Leadership: Alignment requires transparency between reps and leaders on what’s working and where support is needed.
5 Meaningful Connections with Peers: Building trusted peer relationships accelerates learning and facilitates best practice sharing.
90 Days to Prove Themselves: Success doesn’t happen overnight. Give new SDRs space to ramp skills with the right coaching.
0 Excuses: Top performers take extreme ownership for results, reflect on failures, and persist through obstacles.

Guided by the 95-5-90 framework as their guiding light, SDRs gain a clear understanding of the pivotal metrics, behaviors, and milestones that embody excellence.

Operationally, we assess each SDR candidate on a few key factors including:

List Penetration and Follow Up – Are they diligently working through their targeted account lists via phone and email? How systematically are they tracking outreach cadences and responses?
Coachability – How receptive are they to feedback on their calls and pitch? How readily do they implement coaching advice to advance skills?
Mindset – When confronted with objections and rejection, do they exhibit determination or defeatism? Does failure motivate them?
Goal Achievement – Are they capable of executing all the core SDR activities like call pacing, note taking, opportunity assessment, and lifecycle management to hit completions targets?

With the 95-5-90 rule steering SDRs and leaders, newly onboarded reps are kept on track with the core principles that fuel top performance. Next we’ll explore the hiring process itself.

The Secret Sauce - Our SDR Hiring Process

To attract top talent, we kick off with a deliberate hiring process that mirrors the actual job requirements. Our established method involves candidates showcasing strategic selling skills in a high-pressure scenario, proving their capabilities on the spot.

Here is a look at the key phases of hiring SDRs:

#1: Cold Calling Into the Company

Rather than accepting passive applications, we require SDR candidates to hunt us down and pitch themselves to a hiring leader via cold call. This tests their grit and selling mentality right out of the gates.

We provide the key details candidates need to research our company, identify roles, find contacts, and craft targeted outreach. Top performers lean into the challenge and creatively secure the initial screening call.

#2: The 60-Minute Trial By Fire Call Blitz

Once they get through to a hiring leader, job candidates have a short screening call discussing their background. Regardless of interview quality, the hiring manager explains we’re “not quite feeling it” and see if the candidate fights to prove themselves.

Hungry and determined sales executives jump at the chance and get invited to a 60-minute call blitz:

Rapidly onboarded onto our sales tech stack
Assigned targeted account lists
Given call messaging to use
Expectation set to start dialing ASAP

Throughout the blitz, we monitor account selection, call pacing, pitch delivery, questions posed, data capture, objection handling and their ability to receive and apply coaching.

#3: Evaluating Trial By Fire Performance

The blitz assessments allow evaluators to gauge key selling skills and behaviors in real-time:

Learning velocity: How quickly can they adopt new tools and messaging?
Confidence: Do they sound assured, energetic and friendly on calls?
Opening technique: Is their approach crisp and compelling or generic and forgettable?
Discovery ability: What types of questions do they leverage to reveal needs?
Work ethic: Is their call pacing disciplined and relentless?
Response to coaching: How do they incorporate manager feedback between calls?
Poise: Can they confidently handle rejection and challenging prospects?

This insight informs hiring decisions and highlights training needs.

Post-hiring, a new sales development representative undergoes an intensive onboarding bootcamp, swiftly escalating call volume and complexity. Coaches reevaluate new reps within 90 days based on the 95-5-90 benchmark.

Now let’s discuss leveraging data and technology effectively.

Leveraging Data and Tech for SDR Success

Motivation and skillset are key drivers of SDR performance. But it’s the leaders who set the stage for success by leveraging analytics and tools effectively. While seemingly minor, the richness of contact data and dialer capabilities holds significant sway over critical SDR KPIs. Even the most dedicated SDR manager may struggle without the right tools.

Extracting top value from data and technology boils down to two key directives:

Double down on contact data health: Securing direct dials, mobile numbers and email addresses is the lifeblood of SDR pipelines. By meticulously scoring purchased lists and appending key particulars, the raw materials are in place for higher response rates and more qualified conversations. View contact enrichment as the essential fuel powering SDR performance.

Align dialer functionality with dataset quality: Flawed contact lists may require high-volume parallel dialers to register enough connections, albeit lower-quality ones. But for accurately targeted contact sets, basic power dialers balance efficiency and quality. As data precision improves over time, leaders can pivot to more selective dialing approaches without hindering productivity.

With these critical components successfully addressed, SDRs gain confidence dialing enriched records from consistent technology, focusing on craft refinement rather than lead adequacy or tool capability.

And narrowing the performance lens to soft skills and work ethic is the first step to exponential gains.

Creating the Right Culture

For long-term sales success, it's all about embedding the right behaviors and values into your organization's culture. Here are some key characteristics to consider for SDR managers:

Values

Grit - Persisting through rejection and always moving forward.
Ownership - Taking extreme responsibility for outcomes regardless of circumstances.
Accountability - Relentless focus on goals and pushing peers to higher standards.

Behaviors

Proactive Communication - Radical candor from reps and leaders on progress and blockers.
Consistent Development - Fixing weaknesses and expanding skills through tireless practice.
Knowledge Sharing - Celebrating wins collectively and bringing peers along.

Leadership

Authentic Compassion - Building meaningful emotional connections beyond transactions.
Unwavering Support - Removing roadblocks and empowering smart risk taking.
Shared Vision - Rallying around ambitious goals far bigger than any one person.

When the right vision, leadership, and culture are in place, SDR teams evolve from cost centers to crucial competitive differentiators, driving exponential revenue growth year after year.

Execute a Complete SDR Transformation

Hiring and developing exceptional SDR talent remains the #1 predictor of sales success. Leaders who reimagine their approach to sourcing, assessing, onboarding and incentivizing SDRs will capture game-changing competitive advantage.

While many organizations still cling to outdated SDR models delivering lackluster pipeline, those willing to put in the work to implement the strategies and best practices covered in this guide will future-proof growth.

To build a championship SDR team, it's crucial to blend the science of process and technology with the art of coaching and culture. By following the detailed framework outlined here for hiring, development, compensation, and culture, leaders can unleash the full revenue potential of their sales development organization.

Now is the perfect time to unlock the potential of data-driven revenue growth. Revamp your SDR team to propel your business to new heights.

How to Hire an SDR & Future-Proof Your Sales Team

Joey Gilkey

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