š Hey RevOps friends! Quick question for those of you who've hired SDRs before ā especially founding SDRs at early-stage startups: We're hiring our first SDR at Lean Layer and trying to find creative and effective ways to source strong, motivated candidates. We've experimented with some outbound and posted in a few SDR-specific Slack communities, but we haven't found the right fit and I keep getting spammed by SDR agencies. I would really appreciate any help in the following areas:
Where did you find your best SDRs (job boards, Slack groups, college groups, something else)?
Did you have more success with outbound or inbound strategies?
Any tips for pitching the role effectively to new grads or early-career folks?
Weāre trying to avoid generic job board noise and really want to find people excited to grow with a scrappy team who can go beyond the traditional SDR responsibilities. Thanks in advance for any wisdom you can share! š
Your network! Just as you're doing here in this community (and clearly 'RevOps Co-Op") . Ask who knows the best and the brightest and everything else! By far the best way to hire. Also, the other best way is to engage someone who has hired hundreds of SDRs in their day (like me š) and have them recruit for you for a cut of their first year salary.
I would reach out to the career centers for universities that have strong schools in your industry. We also offered both full time and part time opportunities which was a great feeder (and also allowed us to test) into our SDR team.
Inbound will (should) always be stronger BUT outbound is always effective and creates impact both directly through revenue and drumming up awareness (which boosts more inbounds). Iād have your SDRs and Sales team post and create presences on LinkedIn as well as that is a great source to drum up top of funnel!
Half the job is finding the right person, the other half is ensuring they're set up for success. Keep in mind, more training might be required for a new college grad and to be honest, I am not sure how hungry they will be... I have seen a mix We help clients hire SDRs and train them, we typically hire through slack communities and LinkedIn for the best candidates. You can also look at organizations like RE:Work which helps mid-career folks transition to sales. If you're not seeing success, it could be a screening problem or the compensation isn't competitive enough because there is a lot of great talent out there. Check repvue.com for compensation guidance. If you're trying to build an aggressive sales motion, outbound is a must, obviously great if you have inbound, but what will your reps be doing when inbound isn't busy? Twiddling their thumbs? They should be calling, pitching, closing outbound leads that meet your ICP. Hope this helps and let me know if you need help š
Thank you so much for the inside everyone! If anyone has any recommendations for specific SDR slack communities I would very much appreciate it. I'm currently a member of SDReady and SDR Boston
