{"id":33537,"date":"2017-02-21T13:15:09","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T21:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/?p=33537"},"modified":"2017-10-17T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T17:12:27","slug":"10-traits-of-great-sales-development-rep-hires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/10-traits-of-great-sales-development-rep-hires\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Traits of Great Sales Development Rep Hires"},"content":{"rendered":"

As author <\/span>Jeb Blount<\/span><\/a> says, \u201cIf you suck at prospecting, you suck at closing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Which means that Sales Development is your most important department in sales. Don\u2019t believe me? Take a look at the account executives on your team that never hit quota. It\u2019s probably because they don\u2019t have the prospecting skills that SDRs excel at. Thankfully, you can get ahead of the curve by hiring great SDRs that grow into great account executives.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Whether they are an inbound or outbound SDR, these roles are the toughest jobs in sales. Therefore, recruiting the right people for this “A Team” can be a big challenge. Hiring the wrong people can be costly: one bad impression could burn a bridge at a key account, or turn a great deal into a lost opportunity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In order to define and find great SDRs for your organization, here are ten traits to look for when hiring:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Creativity<\/b><\/h2>\n

Modern SDRs must be creative. It\u2019s not enough to blindly follow a process: the modern selling landscape has changed drastically in the last 15 years. Back in the early 2000s, sending out thousands of emails asking for a referral was good enough. Now, we live in the world of hyper personalization and educated buyers<\/strong>. Great SDRs must be able to adapt to the changing landscape and think for themselves.<\/p>\n

Passion<\/b><\/h2>\n

Being a SDR can be draining. On a daily basis, you deal with constant rejection. To be successful, your candidate must have passion for the product and sales itself<\/strong>. Without this, the SDR will fail when the going gets tough. To screen for this, ask the candidate what they know about the product and why they want to sell it. If they\u2019re not sure, or don\u2019t have a satisfactory answer, move on.<\/p>\n

Grit<\/b><\/h2>\n

SDRs must have a <\/span>Jeff Bridges-at-the-end-of-True-Grit<\/span><\/i><\/a> level of…you guessed it, grit. Top SDRs focus on winning – they have an internal quota that is higher than the one set by their manager. These reps embody the Winston Churchill quote \u201cWhen you are going through hell, keep going.\u201d Failure is a common occurrence for SDRs. It\u2019s how they deal with that failure that makes up their character.<\/strong> Ask your candidates about a time they failed and what they did because of it. Top candidates will be honest and have a good story to tell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Competitiveness<\/b><\/h2>\n

You can\u2019t be a successful SDR if you are not competitive. Your candidate will be doing the toughe<\/span>st job in sales. There are a couple personal backgrounds that generally indicate high potential for sales:<\/span><\/p>\n