Despite all the complications that came with COVID-19, there were also some interesting developments – especially for salespeople. While most industries suffered from the lockdowns and economic instability, many SaaS and tech companies did well in 2020. With all this growth, a lot of companies have needed to expand their sales teams. A lot of the sales leaders I’ve spoken to have found it quite difficult to recruit and onboard their SDRs remotely. The general challenge seems to be: how to hire, on board, and successfully retain remote sales reps and SDRs? We are going to discuss these challenges and put forward the most effective solutions in the next few articles. First, we’ll discuss hiring SDRs remotely.
Hiring SDRs
Hiring SDRs is hard! A lot of the people responding to your ad tend to have no previous sales experience and are generally inexperienced. You have to rely on your judgement of their aptitude, attitude, and personality traits as to whether they’d be any good at the job. A difficult feat. So, how do you find out whether a candidate will make a great SDR and will fit in with your team’s culture?
How to attract the best SDRs candidates
Sales is a highly competitive industry. Just as you’re testing the candidates, they’re evaluating your value as an employer. How do you make yourself stand out as the preferred employer?
Have a good job description.
It should be clear and upfront what you’re looking for, and what you’ll offer the candidate in return. A surprising number of employers will write a job spec and ask for a lot, but conveniently forget to discuss what the candidate gets in return for all their hard work. It’s a shame because there is a direct link between the number of benefits disclosed in a job specification, and the number of application it receives.
What to look for when hiring SDRs.
At ExP, we help SaaS, and Tech start-ups scale up their sales performance. This could be through expanding their outbound sales teams, or training their current teams. As a result, we’ve developed solid methods for qualifying potential SDRs during the processing stage.
What we’re usually looking for in a new SDR is coachability. Sales skills can be taught, if someone is coachable you can guide them to gain any skill, and perform. Bonus points for those that show other skills that you can’t coach. It’s always great to have someone with a hunger to learn. Are they curious about your company? Can they communicate effectively?
How do you find out if your candidate has these attributes? Put them to work. Competency questions are great, but there’s more value in getting the candidate to complete a task or exercise relating to their role.
At Exp, we often ask the candidates to record a video pitch to the client company. It’s a great way to see how they’ll deal with prospecting. We aren’t looking for the perfect pitch or the right answers. What we’re looking for in the video is proof that they’ve looked at the company’s website, analysed it and gained an understanding of their product range. What’s important is the effort – you’d be surprised how many people waffle on without finding out what the job is, or what the organisation does.
What task can you give your prospective SDRs?
You can give your candidate any simple, short task you think applies to their role. Here are some tips to make the process easier for you and your candidates:
- Make the task a mandatory part of the application process. It will help you narrow down your list by eliminating candidates that haven’t submitted their task.
- Choose a basic exercise that applies to your candidate’s job and will help them demonstrate the skills they’ll need.
- Don’t forget to tell them how long the exercise will take.
How can ExP help?
Having processes like these in place can improve the recruitment experience for both you and your candidates.
To learn more about how ExP could help you find and recruit SDRs that match your culture and business needs, get in touch. Alternatively, why not book a consultation with one of our sales experts today?