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SDR Recruitment: Finding Sales Talent
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When it comes to developing your SDR recruitment process, don’t underestimate the importance of digging beyond results and data. A candidate may have impressive sales experience on paper, but do they have the right traits to work at your business? While they may have been top of the leaderboard at their previous company, do they have the skills and qualities necessary to successfully pitch to your specific target market? “Training can develop the candidate’s skill set and building their tech stack can give them all of the tools needed to get the job done, but igniting the natural passion, perseverance, and qualities needed in a successful salesperson is much harder.” “People make mistakes when it comes to cultural fit -if you hire someone who is not a right cultural fit for your team, they won’t be comfortable and probably won’t last very long within the business,” Kitti says, “For example, someone who is very introverted or doesn’t like a target-driven, high-pressure sales environment won’t be a good fit. It’s a crucial element. You need to find someone who doesn’t mind picking up the phone dozens of times a day.”
Recruitment is the very first step in building a successful sales development team, but many organizations fail to take into account the importance of having a methodical SDR recruitment process. “Before starting your search, you must first understand what characteristics and soft skills fit your team as well as how to actively seek them out.” To understand how to build an iron-clad SDR recruitment plan, we spoke to Kitti Toth, Head of Talent Acquisition at Operatix. She talks us through not only how to go about recruiting a first-class sales development professional, but also what core competencies to actively seek out in a candidate.
When it comes to developing your SDR recruitment process, don’t underestimate the importance of digging beyond results and data. A candidate may have impressive sales experience on paper, but do they have the right traits to work at your business? While they may have been top of the leaderboard at their previous company, do they have the skills and qualities necessary to successfully pitch to your specific target market? “Cultural fit is also important, as you want the new” “People make mistakes when it comes to cultural fit -if you hire someone who is not a right cultural fit for your team, they won’t be comfortable and probably won’t last very long within the business,” Kitti says, “For example, someone who is very introverted or doesn’t like a target-driven, high-pressure sales environment won’t be a good fit. It’s a crucial element. You need to find someone who doesn’t mind picking up the phone dozens of times a day.”
Training can develop the candidate’s skill set and building their tech stack can give them all of the tools needed to get the job done, but igniting the natural passion, perseverance, and qualities needed in a successful salesperson is much harder. Cultural fit is also important, as you want the new candidate to thrive within their new team and environment. “People make mistakes when it comes to cultural fit -if you hire someone who is not a right cultural fit for your team, they won’t be comfortable and probably won’t last very long within the business” Another factor is defining how much experience you would like your candidates to have. Are you willing to pay more for representatives with a sales background, or are you willing to invest in training for those who don’t have a previous track record? There are benefits to both options – less experienced candidates are more mouldable, but will take more help and time compared to those with a history in sales.
Training can develop the candidate’s skill set and building their tech stack can give them all of the tools needed to get the job done, but igniting the natural passion, perseverance, and qualities needed in a successful salesperson is much harder. Cultural fit is also important, as you want the new candidate to thrive within their new team and environment. “For example, someone who is very introverted or doesn’t like a target-driven, high-pressure sales environment won’t be a good fit.” Another factor is defining how much experience you would like your candidates to have. Are you willing to pay more for representatives with a sales background, or are you willing to invest in training for those who don’t have a previous track record? There are benefits to both options – less experienced candidates are more mouldable, but will take more help and time compared to those with a history in sales.
Step One: Understanding the Traits of a Great SDR “A candidate may have impressive sales experience on paper, but do they have the right traits to work at your business?” Training can develop the candidate’s skill set and building their tech stack can give them all of the tools needed to get the job done, but igniting the natural passion, perseverance, and qualities needed in a successful salesperson is much harder. Cultural fit is also important, as you want the new candidate to thrive within their new team and environment.
Step One: Understanding the Traits of a Great SDR “While they may have been top of the leaderboard at their previous company, do they have the skills and qualities necessary to successfully pitch to your specific target market?” Training can develop the candidate’s skill set and building their tech stack can give them all of the tools needed to get the job done, but igniting the natural passion, perseverance, and qualities needed in a successful salesperson is much harder. Cultural fit is also important, as you want the new candidate to thrive within their new team and environment.
Recruitment is the very first step in building a successful sales development team, but many organizations fail to take into account the importance of having a methodical SDR recruitment process. “After all, a candidate will say what they think you want to hear, so you must be more tactical about your approach.” To understand how to build an iron-clad SDR recruitment plan, we spoke to Kitti Toth, Head of Talent Acquisition at Operatix. She talks us through not only how to go about recruiting a first-class sales development professional, but also what core competencies to actively seek out in a candidate.
Step One: Understanding the Traits of a Great SDR “When it comes to developing your SDR recruitment process, don’t underestimate the importance of digging beyond results and data.” Training can develop the candidate’s skill set and building their tech stack can give them all of the tools needed to get the job done, but igniting the natural passion, perseverance, and qualities needed in a successful salesperson is much harder. Cultural fit is also important, as you want the new candidate to thrive within their new team and environment.
Recruitment is the very first step in building a successful sales development team, but many organizations fail to take into account the importance of having a methodical SDR recruitment process. “It can be all too tempting to browse someone’s LinkedIn profile and be lured in by promises of instant results, yet forgoing a structured SDR recruitment process could be your downfall.” To understand how to build an iron-clad SDR recruitment plan, we spoke to Kitti Toth, Head of Talent Acquisition at Operatix. She talks us through not only how to go about recruiting a first-class sales development professional, but also what core competencies to actively seek out in a candidate.
The Recruitment Process “This initial screening shouldn’t be overly in-depth, but rather answer the key questions laid out in the SDR recruitment plan mentioned above.” “We begin by accessing the CV and look to see if it’s a fit for what we’re looking for,” Kitti explains, “Then, the recruitment team would initiate a 30-minute conversation with the potential SDR to access basic things such as their general knowledge about Operatix, their previous experience, understanding of objection handling, core calling preferences and targets.”
Confidence “When interviewing candidates, ensure to tailor some questions to dig deeper into how confident they are with cold calling, objection handling and holding their own in a conversation” Assertiveness