How to Hire an SDR: 7 Steps, Work Tests and a Scorecard

To hire an SDR, start with a one-page brief that says who they will prospect, which channels they will use and what a qualified meeting is. Then screen applicants on a short written task, test the finalists with a real cold email and a live mock call, and score everyone on the same scorecard. This guide walks through each step, with a job post outline, a scorecard template and a 90-day ramp plan.

If you are still deciding whether you need a sales development rep at all, read when to hire your first SDR first.

Before you hire an SDR: four decisions

Most failed SDR hires trace back to a fuzzy role, not a weak person. Settle these four things in writing before you talk to anyone.

1. Who will they prospect? Name the industries, company sizes and job titles. "Mid-market SaaS" is too vague. "Heads of finance at software companies with 50 to 300 staff in the US" is a list someone can build on day one.

2. Which channels? Cold email, cold calling, LinkedIn, or a mix. An SDR who lives on the phone and one who writes 40 personalised emails a day are different hires. If you are undecided, start with the channel your best customers answer and add the other once the first is working.

3. What is a qualified meeting? Write the two to four criteria a prospect must meet, such as role, company size, a current problem and a rough timeline. This definition drives the SDR's targets, your closer's calendar and, later, how you judge the hire.

4. Who will coach them? A new SDR needs someone to review emails and listen to calls, at least weekly. If nobody on your team has that time, fix that first. Our guide on how to manage remote SDRs shows a 30-minute weekly system. No hiring process makes up for a rep with no feedback.

How to hire an SDR in 7 steps

1. Write the role brief. One page: target accounts, channels, tools, working hours, the qualified-meeting definition and what the first 90 days should look like. This page becomes your job post, your scorecard and your onboarding plan.
2. Write the job post around the work. Describe a real day: "You research 40 accounts, send personalised emails, run a call block in the afternoon and log everything in HubSpot." Being honest about volume and rejection keeps the wrong people out. Also list the tools, hours and who they report to.
3. Add a short written question to the application. For example: "In three sentences, why would a head of finance reply to a cold email from us?" It takes two minutes to answer and filters out anyone who cannot write clearly or did not read your site.
4. Run a 20-minute screening call. Check communication, curiosity and how they talk about past results. Strong candidates know their numbers: how many accounts they worked, their reply rate, meetings booked per month. Use our SDR interview questions to keep it structured.
5. Give finalists a cold email task. Send one real target account and ask for a first email plus one follow-up. Allow a day. You are checking research, brevity and whether the message is about the prospect, not your product.
6. Run a live mock cold call. You play the prospect, using a real objection your team hears often. Details below.
7. Check references and decide fast. Ask a past manager about consistency, coachability and how they handled a slow month. Good SDRs get other offers, so aim to finish the whole process within two weeks.

The two SDR work tests

Interviews tell you how someone talks about the job. Work tests show you how they do it. Keep both short and use your real market.

The cold email test

Give them a company name, a job title and your one-line value proposition. Ask for:

• A first email of under 100 words
• A follow-up for three days later
• One sentence explaining why they chose that angle

What good looks like: a specific reason for reaching out (a hiring post, a new product, a known pain in that role), one clear ask, no buzzwords and nothing that reads like a template. Weak answers open with "I hope this finds you well" and spend three sentences on your company.

The mock cold call

Send your positioning the day before. On the call, play a busy prospect who picks up.

• The opener. Do they say who they are and why they called within the first 20 seconds?
• The objection. Use one your team hears all the time, such as "Just send me an email" or "We already use a tool for that." A strong SDR acknowledges it, asks one question and goes for a specific next step.
• The close. Do they ask for a meeting with a day and time, or drift into a demo?

Afterwards, ask: "What would you change if you called me again?" Candidates who spot their own mistakes are the ones who improve fastest with coaching.

SDR scorecard (template)

Score every finalist from 1 to 5 on each line, after the screen and again after the work tests. Agree what a 5 looks like before you meet anyone, so you compare candidates against the job rather than against each other.

What you are scoring	What a 5 looks like	What a 1 looks like
Writing	Short, specific, about the prospect	Long, generic, about the product
Research	Finds a real reason to reach out in minutes	Uses the company name and nothing else
Listening on calls	Asks a follow-up based on what you said	Reads the next line regardless
Objection handling	Brief answer, then asks for a specific time	Argues, or gives up after one "no"
Coachability	Names their own mistakes and adjusts	Defends every choice
Resilience	Describes a slow month and what they changed	Blames leads, tools or managers
Tools and admin	Comfortable in a CRM and sequencing tool, logs cleanly	Vague about any system they used

Weight writing, listening and coachability highest. Tool experience shortens ramp time, but someone who writes and listens well learns HubSpot or Apollo in a week.

Red flags when hiring an SDR

• No numbers. If they cannot tell you roughly how many meetings they booked per month in their last role, they were not tracking their work.
• Templates in the email task. If the test email could be sent to any company, their real emails will be the same.
• No questions about your buyer. An SDR who does not ask who you sell to will not sound credible to the people they call.
• Unaware of basic outreach rules. Anyone sending cold email to US contacts should know the CAN-SPAM requirements, such as an honest subject line and a working opt-out. Anyone calling should know about do-not-call lists. Rules vary by country, so check yours.
• They only want commission. That usually means they plan to work several accounts at once.

In-house, agency or dedicated remote SDR?

How you hire changes who does steps 2 to 7, what it costs and who keeps the playbook.

	In-house hire	SDR agency	Dedicated remote SDR
Who recruits	You	The agency staffs its own team	A staffing partner shortlists, you choose
Who they work for	You	Several clients	You only
Who owns lists, sequences and call notes	You	Often the agency	You
Time to start	Weeks to months	A few weeks	Candidates within 48 hours through Zenstack
Cost	Salary, commission, taxes, benefits, tools	Retainer or fee per meeting	One fixed monthly fee

We go deeper on the trade-offs in SDR agency vs dedicated remote SDR, and the full numbers are in how much an SDR costs.

The first 90 days: realistic SDR ramp targets

Judging a new SDR on meetings in week two is the fastest way to lose a good hire. Set targets that match what they can control at each stage.

• Days 1 to 30: activity and quality. Access to the CRM, sequencing tool and data source on day one. They learn the product, listen to your best sales calls and build their first lists. Measure accounts researched, emails sent, calls made and the quality of their messages in your weekly review.
• Days 31 to 60: conversations. Sequences are running and the call blocks are routine. Measure replies, connect rate and conversations, and start tracking meetings booked.
• Days 61 to 90: qualified meetings. Agree a weekly target for qualified meetings that your closer accepts. From here, judge the trend over several weeks, not single days.

The weekly review and the numbers to watch are covered in SDR KPIs and metrics to track. If your SDR spends hours each week building lists by hand, that is often the moment to add a GTM engineer to automate the research and enrichment.

Hiring an SDR through Zenstack

Zenstack runs steps 2 to 4 for you. You share your role brief: target accounts, channels, hours and what a qualified meeting means. We send experienced SDRs who have already passed our interviews, and each one records a 2-minute video introduction so you hear how they sound before you meet them. You run the cold email and mock call tests and make the choice.

Your dedicated remote SDR works full-time in your hours, inside your CRM and sequencing tools, and only for you. Every list, sequence and call note stays in your systems. Rates start at $12 an hour, about $1,920 a month full-time, with recruiting, contracts and payroll included, and if the fit is wrong in the first 30 days we replace them at no cost. See pricing, or book a call and tell us who you want to reach.

If your leads are mostly inbound and need a fast call back rather than cold prospecting, an appointment setter may be the better first hire.