Interview guide · Sales roles
Sales development representative interview questions
In short
Good SDR interview questions find out whether a candidate can research accounts, write outreach people answer, open cold calls, take dozens of rejections a day and hand clean, qualified meetings to account executives. Here are 33 questions for sales development representative and BDR roles, with what strong answers sound like, red flags, sample answers and a weighted scorecard.
A sales development representative creates pipeline. They do not usually close deals; they find the right accounts and people, start conversations through calls, email and social channels, qualify interest and book meetings for account executives. A typical SDR is measured on meetings booked or sales-accepted opportunities per month, often 10 to 20 qualified meetings depending on deal size, and makes 50 to 100 touches a day to get there. Most SDRs are early in their careers, which means you are hiring mainly for traits and habits, not a long track record.
Use these questions in a structured 40 to 45 minute interview, then add two practical exercises: a written outreach email and a short cold call. Ask the same questions of every candidate and score before discussing. For candidates with SDR or BDR experience, ask for monthly meeting numbers and conversion to opportunity. For graduates and career changers, look for evidence of persistence, competitiveness and learning speed in jobs, sports, school or side projects.
What to look for in a sales development representative
- Rejection toleranceSDRs hear no, or nothing at all, on most touches. Look for people who describe rejection calmly and keep their activity steady through it.
- Curiosity and research skillRelevant outreach comes from understanding the account. Strong SDRs find a real reason to contact someone in a few minutes, not an hour.
- Writing that gets repliesEmail and social messages are half the job. Short, specific, human writing books meetings; templates with a name swapped in do not.
- Cold call courageMany SDR teams depend on phone connects. Candidates need to be willing to call strangers and handle an abrupt answer.
- Coachability and learning speedSDRs ramp in weeks, not months. Those who apply feedback the same day progress fastest and often get promoted to account executive.
- Process disciplineSequences, CRM updates and handoff notes keep pipeline accurate. A sloppy handoff wastes the account executive's first call.
Background and motivation questions
What do you think a sales development representative does all day, and why do you want to do it?
- Why ask it
- Checks they understand the role's repetition and rejection before they accept it.
- A strong answer
- Describes research, multi-channel outreach, cold calls, qualifying and booking meetings, and gives a reason tied to the work, such as liking competition or wanting a path into closing roles.
- Red flags
- Thinks the role is mostly closing deals or mostly answering inbound leads.
If you have done SDR or BDR work before, how many meetings did you book per month, and how many became real opportunities?
- Why ask it
- Separates activity from quality.
- A strong answer
- Gives both numbers, such as 14 meetings a month with about 70 percent accepted by account executives, and knows why some were rejected.
- Red flags
- Only knows dials or emails sent.
Tell me about a goal you set that took months of repetitive work to reach.
- Why ask it
- Useful for candidates without sales history; shows persistence.
- A strong answer
- A concrete goal like training for a race, learning a language or hitting a work target, with the routine they kept and how they handled setbacks.
- Red flags
- Goals that were reached quickly or with no sustained effort.
Where do you want to be in two years, and what do you need to learn to get there?
- Why ask it
- Most SDRs want to become account executives. That is fine if they understand the path.
- A strong answer
- Wants a closing role or a specific sales path, and names skills they need such as discovery, demos or forecasting.
- Red flags
- Expects promotion in a few months regardless of results.
What did you learn about our company and our buyers before today?
- Why ask it
- Research is the job; preparation for the interview is a preview.
- A strong answer
- Knows who the company sells to, a likely problem it solves and a recent piece of news or product change.
- Red flags
- Has only read the homepage headline.
Prospecting and outreach questions
You have a list of 50 target accounts and one week. How do you decide where to start?
- Why ask it
- Tests prioritization and research judgment.
- A strong answer
- Sorts by fit and trigger events such as hiring, funding, leadership changes or tech changes, picks the top tier for deeper research and puts the rest into a lighter sequence.
- Red flags
- Starts at the top of the list alphabetically or researches every account for an hour.
Write a cold email to a head of operations at a mid-size logistics company. You have 10 minutes.
- Why ask it
- Live writing exercise; most predictive part of the SDR interview.
- A strong answer
- Under 100 words, a relevant hook, one problem, a light ask such as a 15-minute call, no attachments and a subject line that sounds like a person wrote it.
- Red flags
- Long paragraphs about the seller's company, buzzwords, or an aggressive calendar link with no reason.
How do you find the right person to contact at a company with 2,000 employees?
- Why ask it
- Multi-threading and account mapping are core skills.
- A strong answer
- Uses a professional network, company site, org charts and data tools to map likely owners of the problem, then contacts two or three roles with different messages.
- Red flags
- Emails the CEO only, or anyone with a matching keyword in their title.
How many touches do you put in a sequence, across which channels, over what period?
- Why ask it
- Shows they understand cadence rather than one-off outreach.
- A strong answer
- Something like 8 to 12 touches over three to four weeks mixing calls, emails and social, with reasons to adjust for seniority or industry.
- Red flags
- Sends one email and gives up, or emails daily for a month.
What is a trigger event, and give me an example of one you would use for our buyers.
- Why ask it
- Relevance comes from timing.
- A strong answer
- Explains a trigger as a change that creates a need, such as a new executive, office opening, hiring surge or regulation, and ties one to your product.
- Red flags
- Does not understand the idea or gives a generic example unrelated to your buyers.
How do you personalize at scale when you have 80 people to contact today?
- Why ask it
- Balances quality and volume, which every SDR team struggles with.
- A strong answer
- Tiered approach: heavy personalization for top accounts, a relevant line by role or industry for the rest, and templates they rewrite regularly based on reply rates.
- Red flags
- Either personalizes nothing or spends 20 minutes per email.
Cold calling and qualification questions
Cold call me now. I am a busy director and I answer with "Who is this?"
- Why ask it
- Live call shows composure and opener quality.
- A strong answer
- Gives name and company, a short reason for calling tied to the buyer, and asks a question or permission within about 20 seconds.
- Red flags
- Freezes, apologizes for calling or launches into a long pitch.
I say "We're not interested." What do you say next?
- Why ask it
- The most frequent cold call response.
- A strong answer
- Acknowledges, asks a light question to see whether the problem exists, and if not, leaves the door open politely and asks who else might own it.
- Red flags
- Argues, or hangs up instantly without learning anything.
What do you need to know before you book a meeting for an account executive?
- Why ask it
- Booking unqualified meetings wastes senior time and damages SDR credibility.
- A strong answer
- A real problem, the person's role in the decision, rough timing and agreement to the meeting's purpose, using whatever qualification standard the team sets.
- Red flags
- Books anyone who agrees to a call.
What goes into a good handoff note to an account executive?
- Why ask it
- Clean handoffs raise meeting-to-opportunity conversion.
- A strong answer
- Who they spoke to, what the buyer said in their own words, current setup, timeline, other stakeholders and anything promised on the call.
- Red flags
- Just the contact name and meeting time.
How do you leave a voicemail that has a chance of being returned?
- Why ask it
- Tests brevity and practical phone skill.
- A strong answer
- Under 30 seconds, name, reason relevant to them, number said twice slowly and a reference to an email they will send.
- Red flags
- Long voicemails with a full pitch.
A prospect agrees to a meeting but will not say who else is involved. What do you do?
- Why ask it
- Tests ability to qualify the decision process without pushing too hard.
- A strong answer
- Asks how they usually evaluate tools like this and whether anyone else would want to see it, and notes the gap for the account executive.
- Red flags
- Ignores it or refuses to book the meeting.
Behavioral and resilience questions
Tell me about a time you got a lot of rejection in a short period. How did you keep going?
- Why ask it
- SDR work is high rejection by design.
- A strong answer
- A specific example, a habit that kept them steady such as breaking the day into call blocks, and evidence they kept their activity up.
- Red flags
- Took rejection personally and pulled back.
Describe a time you received feedback you did not agree with at first.
- Why ask it
- Tests coachability honestly.
- A strong answer
- Listened, tried it, measured the result and either adopted it or discussed the data with the manager.
- Red flags
- Dismissed it or simply complied without thinking.
Tell me about a time you competed hard for something and lost.
- Why ask it
- Competitiveness and how they handle losing.
- A strong answer
- Explains what they learned and what they did next, without bitterness.
- Red flags
- Blames others or claims they never lose.
Give me an example of a process you built or improved to get more done.
- Why ask it
- Process discipline and initiative.
- A strong answer
- A template, tracker or routine that saved time, with a result such as replies doubled or prep cut in half.
- Red flags
- No examples of improving how they work.
Tell me about a time you had to work closely with someone senior who was hard to please.
- Why ask it
- SDRs serve account executives who can be demanding.
- A strong answer
- Asked what good looked like, adjusted, communicated proactively and earned trust over time.
- Red flags
- Avoided the person or complained without action.
When did you last teach yourself a skill quickly? How?
- Why ask it
- Learning speed predicts SDR ramp.
- A strong answer
- Specific skill, specific method such as practice, recordings or a mentor, and evidence they reached a usable level fast.
- Red flags
- Cannot name anything recent.
Situational and senior SDR questions
It is the 20th of the month and you are at 40 percent of your meeting target. What do you do?
- Why ask it
- Shows ownership and planning under pressure.
- A strong answer
- Works out the gap, checks which channels and segments convert best, increases calling blocks and asks for help early rather than on the 30th.
- Red flags
- Hopes inbound will make up the difference.
Your reply rate dropped from 6 percent to 2 percent over a month. How do you diagnose it?
- Why ask it
- Data-driven thinking about outreach.
- A strong answer
- Checks deliverability first, then list quality, then message and timing, changes one thing at a time and measures.
- Red flags
- Rewrites everything at once with no measurement.
An account executive says your meetings are low quality. How do you respond?
- Why ask it
- Tests relationship and willingness to adjust.
- A strong answer
- Asks for specific examples, agrees qualification criteria together and reviews the next week's meetings with the account executive.
- Red flags
- Gets defensive or blames the account executive's closing.
How would you help ramp a new SDR in their first month?
- Why ask it
- For senior or lead SDR hires.
- A strong answer
- Shares best-performing emails and call openers, has them shadow calls, listens to their first calls and sets small weekly targets.
- Red flags
- Leaves training to the manager.
How do you handle a prospect who asks you to stop contacting them?
- Why ask it
- Respecting opt-outs is a legal and brand issue.
- A strong answer
- Stops immediately, marks the record correctly so no sequence contacts them again, and thanks them.
- Red flags
- Plans to try again from a different channel.
What would you want to change in a typical SDR team's process if you could?
- Why ask it
- Senior SDRs should have opinions grounded in experience.
- A strong answer
- A specific change such as better account tiering or tighter handoff rules, with a reason and expected result.
- Red flags
- No view or only complaints about quotas.
Sample answers
In my first SDR job we launched into a new industry with no case studies, and my first week I made around 300 calls and booked one meeting. I'll be honest, by Thursday I was dreading the phone. What helped was changing what I measured. Instead of meetings, I set a goal of ten real conversations a day where I learned something about their process. I wrote down every objection, and by the second week I could see the same three coming up, so I worked with my manager on answers to each. I also split my calls into 45-minute blocks with a short break between. By the end of the month I'd booked eleven meetings, and two of the objections I'd logged ended up in our team's talk track.
I write it so the account executive could walk into the call without asking me anything. First, who: name, title, how long they've been in the role, and who they report to. Then the problem in the buyer's own words, because that's what the AE should open with. For example, "Our dispatch team rebuilds the schedule by hand every Monday and it takes most of the morning." Then current setup, rough timing, anyone else who should be involved and anything I promised, like a price range or a specific demo. I also add one honest line on how strong I think the interest is. If I booked it as a long shot, I'd rather the AE know that up front.
Interview scorecard
| Competency | Weight | Strong (4–5) | Weak (1–2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outreach writing | 20% | Short, specific, relevant email in the exercise with a natural ask. | Long, generic or seller-focused writing. |
| Cold call and communication | 20% | Clear opener, calm with objections, asks good questions. | Freezes, rambles or argues on the role-play call. |
| Resilience and drive | 20% | Concrete examples of sustained effort through rejection or setbacks. | Avoids rejection, gives up early or blames circumstances. |
| Research and qualification | 15% | Prioritizes accounts sensibly, knows what makes a meeting qualified. | No research method; would book any meeting. |
| Coachability and learning speed | 15% | Specific feedback applied quickly with a result. | Defensive or cannot give examples of learning. |
| Process and organization | 10% | Describes cadences, CRM updates and clean handoffs. | Relies on memory, vague on follow-up. |
Score each competency from 1 to 5 straight after the interview, before discussing the candidate with anyone else, then multiply by the weight.
How to run an SDR interview process
A strong SDR loop takes about two hours of candidate time spread over three steps. Step one is a 20-minute phone screen with a recruiter or SDR manager covering motivation, understanding of the role and one quick objection. Step two is a written exercise: send a short account brief and ask for one cold email and a three-step follow-up sequence, returned within 24 hours. Step three is a 45-minute interview with the SDR manager and an account executive, using the questions above plus a five-minute live cold call.
The account executive in the loop matters. They will receive this person's meetings, and they are usually good at spotting whether a candidate can listen and capture what a buyer actually said. For candidates moving toward closing roles, our account executive interview questions show the next level of expectations.
Score the written exercise blind if you can, with names removed. It is the single best predictor of early SDR performance we have seen, and reviewing it blind keeps polished interviewers from carrying weak writing.
Mistakes to avoid when hiring SDRs
- Overweighting energy. Enthusiasm in a 30-minute interview fades by week six of cold calling. Look for evidence of persistence over months, not volume in the room.
- Requiring sales experience for entry roles. Many of the best SDRs come from hospitality, retail, athletics, recruiting or contact centers. Our inside sales interview questions and these SDR questions both work well with career changers.
- No written test. If half the job is writing, test writing. A candidate who interviews well and writes a 300-word cold email will book few meetings.
- Unclear promotion path. Candidates ask about it. Be honest about typical time to promotion and the results needed, or you will lose them at month nine.
- Asking for pay history. In many US states and cities you cannot ask what a candidate earned before. Ask about targets and results instead, and check the rules where you hire.
- Not testing rejection tolerance. Use a few resilience interview questions and push gently in the role play with a second objection.
Hiring SDR classes in volume
Fast-growing sales teams often hire SDRs in cohorts of 5 to 20 so they can train them together. That works when the process is consistent. Use the same phone screen questions, the same email exercise brief and the same role-play scenario for every candidate in the cohort, and score with the scorecard above before any debrief.
Async steps help at this scale. A recorded video or voice answer to two or three questions replaces most live phone screens and gives every candidate the same prompts. AI-assisted screening can score answers against your rubric and flag the strongest candidates for live interviews, as long as a person reviews every decision and you monitor pass rates across groups for adverse impact.
After each cohort, compare interview scores with month-three meeting numbers. Most teams find the written exercise and the coachability questions predict better than prior experience, and some find their favorite interview question predicts nothing at all. Drop what does not help and keep the loop short.
Frequently asked questions
What are common SDR interview questions?
Expect questions about why you want an SDR role, how you research accounts, a live cold call or written email exercise, how you handle rejection, what makes a meeting qualified and how you would hit a monthly meeting target when behind.
Are BDR interview questions different from SDR interview questions?
Usually very little. Some companies use BDR for outbound prospecting and SDR for inbound qualification, others the reverse, and many use the titles interchangeably. Ask which motion the role covers and prepare for that.
How should I prepare for a business development representative interview?
Research the company's buyers and recent news, write a sample cold email to a likely buyer, practice a 20-second cold call opener and prepare examples of persistence, rejection and learning quickly from feedback.
What is a good SDR interview exercise?
A short account brief followed by one cold email and a three-step follow-up sequence, plus a five-minute live cold call with one objection. Score both against a fixed rubric so every candidate is judged the same way.
What metrics should an SDR candidate know?
Meetings booked per month, meeting-to-opportunity conversion, reply rates by channel, connect rates on calls and daily activity. Experienced SDRs should know their own numbers and explain how they improved them.
Can someone with no sales experience pass an SDR interview?
Yes. Many SDR roles are entry level. Show persistence, comfort with rejection, good writing and curiosity, using examples from jobs, school, sports or volunteer work.