How to Land an SDR Role in 2024

Mar 7

Presented by: Jimmy Comodeca and Morgan Shelly

How to Land an SDR Role in 2024

Landing an SDR role can be tough. But the good news is that there are a number of different steps you can take that will put you far ahead of other applicants.

In this guide, we’ll walk through step-by-step which tactics and strategies to use that will help you stand out to hiring managers and land you a high-quality SDR role!

Keep in mind that it’s the combination of all of these tactics that work well. You’ll be at a disadvantage by skipping over sections.

Let’s get started!

Section 1: Getting Started

Optimize Your Resume

1. Emphasize Numbers and Specifics

One of the most important aspects of a successful sales resume is the use of numbers. Here’s how to make your bullet points more impactful:

Cold Calls and Emails: Instead of saying, “Made cold calls and sent cold emails regularly,” be specific. For example, “Consistently made 70+ cold calls daily and sent 30 personalized cold emails, resulting in a 109% quota attainment in 2022”

Meetings Scheduled: Highlight your impact on business development, e.g., “Booked an average of 15 new client meetings per week”

Quota Attainment: Showcase your ability to meet and exceed sales quotas. For instance, “Consistently exceeded monthly sales quota by 20%, contributing to a $550k in closed/won revenue for the team.”

Including these specific numbers not only demonstrates your productivity from an activity standpoint, but also provides context for your achievements.

2. Use a Text-Based Format

Substance takes precedence over style. While a visually appealing resume is crucial in some industries, a text-based format allows you to include more detailed information about your accomplishments.

Save your resume as a PDF. You don’t know what type of device the hiring manager will use. Make sure the format doesn’t change and that anybody can open it by saving as a PDF.

Additionally, if you have work experience, put your education information at the bottom or on the side, not at the top of your resume.

3. Use Results-Driven Language

When describing your experiences and responsibilities, shift the focus towards the results you’ve delivered. Showcase how your efforts have positively impacted the business. For instance:

Revenue Growth: Highlight your ability to generate revenue. “Implemented a sales strategy that resulted in a 30% increase in annual revenue.”
Client Acquisition: Emphasize your role in acquiring new clients. “Generated $500,000 in new business by identifying and securing key accounts.”

If you need some inspiration on results-driven language, check out this website.

One of the biggest mistakes that reps make is they use the bullet points to list the responsibilities of the SDR role. Things like “prospected into new accounts” and “set up demos for the Account Executive”. Don’t describe the role, describe the outcomes of your actions.

In conclusion, a results-driven sales resume, filled with specific numbers, presented in a text-based format, and focused on your contributions to the business, will leave a lasting impression on hiring managers. Remember, your resume is your sales pitch to potential employers, so make it count by showcasing your ability to drive success in the sales world.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Having a professional LinkedIn profile matters. LinkedIn profiles that are more complete tend to see better results.

1. Professional Profile Photo

Your LinkedIn profile picture is your first impression with potential connections and employers. It’s vital to have a current and professional image. Avoid using selfies or photos from social outings. Opt for a high-quality headshot.

2. Showcase Your Writing Skills in Your LinkedIn Summary

One of the biggest mistakes jobseekers make is not completing the summary section or using the auto generated LinkedIn summary.

The Summary section of your LinkedIn profile is your opportunity to showcase your personality, skills, and writing abilities. Speak in the first person, highlighting your passions, accomplishments, and aspirations. A human, relatable summary not only humanizes your profile but also makes it more engaging.

3. Showcase Your Content

If you’ve written articles, been on podcasts, or have posted insightful content on LinkedIn, feature them in your profile. This demonstrates your knowledge and commitment to sharing valuable insights with your network.

Here’s what that might look like:

4. Actively Engage

Engage with your network by commenting on posts, sharing your insights, and participating in relevant discussions. Active involvement helps to get eyes on your profile. Start by giving more than you take.

5. Have a Clear Headline

Your LinkedIn headline is a concise statement that introduces you to the world. If you’re actively looking for a specific role, make it evident in your headline. Keep it focused on your primary objective, as hiring managers appreciate clarity and commitment. Avoid listing multiple types of roles to avoid confusion.

Bad example: “Seeking an SDR, CSM, or sales ops role”

Good example: “Seeking my next SDR role.”

6. Make Sure Your Profile is Complete

Ensure that your profile is fully filled out, including details about your work experience, education, skills, and endorsements. The more complete your profile is, the easier it is for others to get a well-rounded view of your professional background and abilities.

7. Ask for Recommendations

Be sure to ask your previous colleagues, managers, and clients to leave you recommendations. Hiring managers notice these recommendations, particularly those from former managers!

8. Make Sure Your Profile is Set to “Open to Work”

LinkedIn functionality: 1) Make sure you are set to “Open to Work” 2) receive updates from LinkedIn job postings 3) If you can afford it, pay for LinkedIn Premium for a short period of time – it’s worth it!

In summary, a well-optimized LinkedIn profile for sales professionals goes beyond just listing your job history.

The Secret Weapon: The Brag Book

Having a digital portfolio, often referred to as a “brag book”, is a game-changer. While your LinkedIn profile and resume provide a high-level overview, your brag book allows you to “stand out” from the noise in a competitive job market and showcase the full spectrum of your achievements, tactics, and abilities.

Here’s an example of a brag book. We’ve seen this tactic work over and over. It works for a few reasons:

Hiring managers can see how you think, so it becomes less risky for them to hire you. They know what they are getting.
Other people don’t do this. It helps you stand out.
It shows you go the extra mile. People who take the time to complete a brag book aren’t afraid to get things done, a trait hiring managers love

Here are some key tips for building a compelling brag book:

1. Tell the Story of How You Consistently Hit Quota

While resumes and LinkedIn profiles offer the end results, your brag book is the place where you can paint the full picture. Provide a step-by-step account of how you consistently achieve your quotas. Share your strategies, tactics, and the processes you’ve honed to meet and exceed sales goals.

2. Showcase Your Sales Tactics (this is the most important part!)

Your brag book should be a showcase of your sales tactics and techniques. Include your cold call scripts, examples of successful cold emails, and how you handle common objections.

Consider adding video walkthroughs to demonstrate your sales pitches or product demonstrations. The more you can show your prospective employers or clients, the better they can understand your value.

If you don’t have previous examples to share, you can create hypothetical scenarios, demonstrating what you would do if you worked for another company. Try to use companies that salespeople would be familiar with and can relate to.

3. Don’t Hold Back on Sharing Your Achievements

The brag book works because it shows you are capable of selling yourself. To get a sales job you have to be able to sell yourself. There’s no right or wrong way to do this, it just needs to be example-heavy and tactical! The more information you include the better.

We suggest you build your brag book in PitchFolio! There’s an SDR template to help get you started!

Section 2: Getting the Interview

There’s a few things to keep in mind before we get started in this section

Just like in a sales role, getting a sales job is a numbers game. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear back immediately. Keep at it!
You have to be a salesperson to get a sales role
Being proactive is key

This won’t happen overnight. Consistency with this process is what will give you positive results

Take Action

In order to become an SDR, you have to be an SDR. If you blindly apply to jobs on LinkedIn, it’s unlikely that you will hear much back. So what should you do instead?

1. First, identify which companies you are hiring and which ones you would like to apply to.

2. Then make a list of all these companies. We recommend you take a look at a site like RepVue to determine if the company has a high-achieving sales organization. Examine all of the factors: base salary, OTE, tech stack, percent of the team achieving quota, etc.

3. Then, apply to the role on LinkedIn.

4. From there, use LinkedIn to find the leaders of those sales teams. Sometimes the hiring managers are listed on the job post, other times they are not. If they aren’t listed, this is where your prospecting skills come into play.

5. Go to the company’s LinkedIn and look at all the employees. Then filter the employees by job title. Here are some titles to look out for:

SDR Manager
Director of Sales Development
VP of Sales

There are a few variations of these titles, but generally, those are the most important people to reach out to after applying.

Use a tool such as Apollo.io or Lusha to find their phone numbers and email addresses. Almost all of these data tools offer free trials.

Call the Hiring Managers Directly

Call them and use a similar script to this:

“Hi (first name) – My name is Bob. I came across (company)’s LinkedIn post regarding how they are hiring another SDR for your team. I think I’d be a great fit for this. Can I take a minute to tell you why?”

From there, it’s important to demonstrate that you’ve done your research. Understand the problem that the company solves, find out what department buys their product, and read the full job posting.

The most important part in all of this is to be authentic and relate your past experiences to this open position. Don’t make it sound like you are reading off of a script! Be authentic and be confident.

If you successfully book a meeting, be sure to send your brag book over to the hiring manager before the meeting!

No Answer? Send a Cold Email

If you aren’t able to get a decision-maker on the phone, the next step is to send a cold email or LinkedIn message.

A common mistake that people make when they reach out to a hiring manager is that they make it all about themselves. Here’s what that looks like:

Bad example: “Hi Bob – I saw you are hiring an SDR. I’m very interested in it. When can we talk about it?”

This message is all about you, but it doesn’t show anything about why the hiring manager should hire you.

Here’s a better example: “Hi Bob – I saw you’re hiring an SDR with experience calling into marketing organizations. I have 1.5 years of experience calling into these types of organizations, I hit quota 120% last quarter, and am looking for a new role.

Think I might be a fit?

P.S. You can check out my brag book here! Inside you’ll find my cold call scripts, examples of cold emails, and everything else I do to hit quota”

See how this email shares what the candidate brings to the table? They are selling himself in the email. Do that!

Follow Up

Just like in a sales role, it’s important to follow up. Hiring managers are no different. Create a sequence of calls and emails over a 3-week period.

Now repeat this entire outreach process over and over again. This is the most important part.

Section 3: Nailing the Interview

The phone screen is typically the next step in the process. So how can you nail the phone screen?

Come into the call with energy. Time and time again hiring managers tell us about how important this is. Act like you want to talk to them!
Answer the questions. This may seem straightforward, but it’s a common problem. Be sure to answer the interviewer’s questions without getting off track. An easy way to make sure you stay on track is to start your answer by summarizing the question. For example: If the interviewer asks for you to tell them about a time when you broke into a tough account, start your answer off with “A time when I broke into a tough account is when…”
Avoid rambling. Be mindful of going off on long monologues. The conversation is a two-way street.
Know your numbers. This is so important! This means you come to the interview prepared with every statistic you have available to you. From how many calls you made to how many months you hit quota. Know all of them! Even if you don’t know the exact numbers, make an educated guess.
Know the promotion path, but understand the role that they need right now. Oftentimes SDRs get excited talking about how badly they want to become an AE. The reality is that these companies need SDRs, not AEs. Show commitment to being an SDR. Talk about your long-term goals, but focus on how you want to be an asset to the team as an SDR
Take notes so you don’t forget who you talked to and details about each role if you are interviewing for many companies

Asking Questions at the End

Here are a few things to keep in mind when preparing questions for the interviewer:

Avoid generic questions. Don’t ask a question just for the sake of asking questions. Use them to gather information. Example: “Of your top reps, what traits do they have that make them so successful?”

Start your questions off by referencing things that the interviewer said previously in the conversation. Example: “You mentioned earlier in the call that you have an SDR that hit 150% quota last month. What do they do differently that makes them so successful?”

At the end of the call, always ask what the next steps are! You are in sales, make sure you establish clear and actionable next steps before you get off the call.

FAQ’s in Sales Interviews

Here are some of the common questions that come up in sales interviews with some sample answers.

Why do you want to work in sales?

What they are looking for: Interviewers ask this to see what truly motivates you. What’s the driving force behind your quest to be in sales.

Sample answer: I’ve got ambitious goals for my life and for my career, and the only way those goals are going to happen is if I am successful and can make enough money in a role like this. For example, I want to buy a house for my family in the future. I’ve got to start preparing now to make that happen so I can provide. Failure really isn’t an option for me here.

How do you handle rejection?

What are they looking for: The SDR role is tough. There’s a lot of turnover. Hiring managers want assurance that you are capable of being in a role for an extended period of time where you get rejected over and over.

Sample answer: Setting realistic expectations is key to handling rejection. I fully understand the SDR role is a grind. There’s plenty of rejection. So going into the role with that knowledge ahead of time is key, but beyond that it’s about focusing on moving forward and practicing on how to get better.

What are you looking for in your next role?

What they are looking for: Hiring managers want to know what your long-term career goals are and if they align with what the company can provide. The last thing a hiring manager wants is for somebody to come in, and then be unhappy about their career progression options

Sample answer: For my next role I’m looking for a company where I can come in and learn what it takes to be successful. From there, I want to be able to actively apply those learnings and book meetings to help the team. I want to master the SDR role, and the eventually move into an AE role where I can close my own deals. I recognize that it’ll take some time to get there, but my long-term goal is to move into a closing role.

Section 4: Post-Interview Follow-up

After you’ve completed your interview, be sure to send a follow-up. This does 2 things.

1. It gives you an opportunity to showcase your follow-up skills (something that is key in the SDR role)

2. It opens up the email thread to establish the next steps

Make sure that your follow-up email is personalized based on the conversation you had with them. This is NOT the time to use ChatGPT. Here’s an example:

“Hey Bob – Thanks for taking the time to speak with me about the SDR role.

It sounds like it’s an exciting time to be at (company) based off of (insert things you talked about).

You mentioned on the call that it’s a fast-paced environment. Given my previous sales experiences, I’m confident I could adapt to the call-heavy and fast-paced SDR environment there.

Is there any other information I can provide to help with the evaluation process? If so, please let me know. Looking forward to hearing back!

Best,

Jimmy”

Section 5: Job Search Pro Tips

When answering the phone, always answer by saying “Hi this is (your name)”. It comes off as significantly more professional than a “hello?”.
Do not get emotionally attached to any one company. In sales terms, this is known as “detaching from the outcome”. Just like a sales role, if you attach yourself and your self-worth to one single opportunity, you will set yourself up for disappointment.
Response time matters. If you receive an answer from a recruiter or hiring manager, respond back quickly!
Schedule meetings for ASAP. You don’t know where the company is in their job search. Another candidate might be two interviews in already and about to receive an offer. If you wait until the next week to schedule your first call it might be too late.

Best of luck! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Jimmy Comodeca or Morgan Shelly. We’re both happy to help!

Pitchfolio Team

How to Land an SDR Role in 2024