SDR interview design

An interview should make a candidate show how they think, write, listen, and adjust across a short sequence of exercises. Smooth answers can carry someone through a conversation, but useful signal appears after feedback and another attempt. Judge the change, then connect it to the habits the role needs. The strongest coachability signal comes from how quickly a candidate absorbs feedback and adjusts in a live exercise.¹

Set the hiring signal

Decide what the interview must expose, and make each stage produce an observation you can compare with the next one.

The role sits at the top of the funnel, where the work is prospecting and starting conversations.² A generic sales interview tests persuasion and deal instinct.³ Build prompts that test disciplined, repeatable outreach and improvement over time.⁴

Use a signal set that covers coachability, sales technology and AI literacy, process discipline, and conversational agility.⁵ Before meeting anyone, write down the behavior that counts for each signal. This keeps the interview focused on what the person can do and gives every interviewer the same lens.

Initial screen

Use the screen to establish context and decide whether the later exercises are worth the time. Keep the conversation focused on evidence you can test again.

The initial screening should answer the required questions in the recruitment plan without becoming overly in-depth.⁶ Cover the candidate's experience, career goals, and alignment with the role.⁷ Ask about their prospecting process, discovery-call approach, and how they would start in the role.⁸

Use questions such as:

• What work have you done that involved starting conversations with new people?
• What are you looking for in your next role?
• What would you want to understand before starting?

Listen for specific actions, a clear account of what the candidate owned, and an explanation of how they learned. Once you have enough context to tailor the exercises, move on. Keep unresolved claims for the work sample instead of extending the screen into a full interview.

Email challenge

Give writing its own stage, with a clear task and a fixed stopping point. Review the work before the live exercise.

An email challenge that takes no more than 30 minutes is considered a strong way to identify the raw skills of a competent SDR.⁹ Ask for a short outreach message based on the information you provide. Keep the task close to the work the person would perform so the response gives you something concrete to inspect.

Read for a clear reason for contact, attention earned without excess explanation, and an easy next action for the reader. Discuss the draft to understand the candidate's choices and reasoning. Move on when the writing gives you enough evidence to test how the person handles live interaction.

Live exercise

Use live work to watch behavior under pressure and after coaching. The candidate should respond to a prompt, absorb feedback, and try again.

Role play belongs in the process as a distinct interview stage.¹⁰ Start with the prompt "Give me your life story in three minutes".¹¹ The exercise tests brevity, which is treated as a core trait for speaking with prospects.¹²

Then probe confidence with cold calling, objection handling, and maintaining a conversation.¹³ Ask the candidate to respond to a realistic objection, give feedback, and try again. This gives you an initial indication of quick thinking.¹⁴

Listen for whether the second attempt changes in response to the feedback. A candidate who can explain the adjustment and apply it gives you stronger information than someone who delivers a polished first answer. Move on when you have seen the person's response to instruction, pressure, and an unscripted turn.

Team conversation

Bring in people who will see the work up close. The conversation should add a human check without becoming a vague culture chat.

A team conversation can check coachability and honesty about weak spots in 30 minutes with the manager and one SDR the candidate would sit beside.¹⁵ The interview team should include one or two SDR peers.¹⁶

Ask, "What does a qualified meeting mean in your current role? Who wrote that definition?"¹⁷ Use the answer to see whether the candidate understands how quality is defined and can explain the source of that standard. Also ask about a difficult interaction, what the candidate did, and what they would change after reviewing it.

Keep the culture conversation open. Good SDRs will have options, so treat this stage as a conversation that helps both sides judge the fit.¹⁸ Move on when the team has a clear view of how the candidate handles weak spots, questions, and disagreement.

Make the decision

Decide from observations collected in the same order for every candidate. Give each interviewer a defined signal to watch and a place to record what happened.

Use a structured interview process.¹⁹ Keep questions objective and tied directly to job performance and duties.²⁰ Have interviewers write down the behavior they saw, the prompt that produced it, and any change after feedback. Compare those notes with the signal set before discussing personal impressions.

Use the written task to judge communication choices, the live exercise to judge adjustment and conversation, and the team conversation to judge self-awareness. A strong decision should explain what the candidate did at each stage and where the evidence remains thin. If an interviewer cannot point to an observed behavior, leave that part unscored.

What not to do

Protect the design from shortcuts that turn it into a charm test.

• Let charm decide the outcome when the interview should test proven ability and methodical thinking.²¹
• Run a generic sales interview that tests persuasion and deal instinct alone.³
• Make the initial screening overly in-depth.⁶
• Skip the email challenge, an interview step that is often overlooked.²²
• Turn the culture conversation into a disqualification exercise.¹⁸

Before the next interview, write the prompts and observable behaviors into a shared score sheet. Run the same sequence for every candidate, record what changed after feedback, and make the decision from those observations.