Don't hire an SDR before you read this

Only 60% of SDRs hit quota, the lowest figure The Bridge Group has ever recorded. 

Most founders read that as a talent problem. On our discovery calls, it usually isn't.

We've taken a lot of calls with founders looking for Sales rep lately. They generally fall into two camps, and you can tell which inside five minutes.

One founder told us, "honestly our sales process is garbage right now," and wanted someone to fix it top to bottom. Another is still pre-revenue and wants outbound to prove they can "find our ideal customer profile."

Both asked for an SDR. Both need something else first.

That's the playbook-less SDR: a rep hired to find out what works. An SDR runs a playbook. They don't write one. Hand them a list and no pitch, and you get what a third founder remembers from an old outbound push: calls with people who "didn't even know... what we did."

Compare that with a SaaS operator who opened our call like this: "The primary reason why I wanted to expand this SDR function now is because we have figured out a playbook."

Then he listed it. 

"This is not an SDR who's going to come in and wonder how to pitch the product."

He'd already run outbound through an outside SDR team, and never felt they weren't "bringing qualified leads" or didn't "understand my product." Same job. Different starting line.

Before you hire an SDR, tick these:

Two or more boxes empty? Fill in the gaps before you make your next SDR hire. 

Some can. 

But you're paying an executor's price and hoping for a builder. The same Bridge Group study puts median SDR attrition at 40% a year. If the playbook only exists in your rep's head, there's a real chance it leaves with them.

Our account executive put it bluntly on a call last month: "If they don't have a good enough understanding of the product, they're not going to be successful no matter where they are, no matter how good of a salesperson they are."

Hire the person who builds the playbook first, then the SDRs who run it. That's a full-cycle account executive: someone who prospects, closes and writes down what worked. 

One agency owner hiring for exactly this seat asked a South African candidate the best screening question I've heard all year: "Tell me about a time when you were given an objective but no process for achieving it."

South Africa is where we'd look first for both seats. The senior SDR in Saturday's email wrote the playbook her team of seven calls from. That's the profile.

About to post an SDR role?

Reply with how many of the five boxes you can tick. I'll tell you straight if you need an SDR, a full-cycle AE or both, and we'll have 3 to 5 vetted candidates in front of you within 7 to 10 days.

Or just book a call with our recruitment specialists below and they’ll help you figure out your next move. 

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Until next time,
The Go Carpathian Team