On hiring all-stars: 9 lessons from 9yrs and 500+ candidates

What I wish I knew almost 10 years ago

no fluff: ~9 years under my belt interviewing 500+ SDR candidates 9 lessons learned to not get burned... 🧯

1. Hiring is never a sure-fire thing. When it comes to finding top SDR talent I’m all about stress testing skills with micro role-plays & assignments-- get as many "windows" into their skill sets as your can

2. If you can't hire someone in 2 (maybe 3) face-to-face interviews MAX you're not doing it right. Early in my career I took the wrong approach here and interview after interview after interview looked for perfection. Perfect is the enemy of great... and it burns precious time.

3. Disqualifying bad candidates > qualifying good ones

4. References are key, but most people have no idea how to use them. Call references at the very end to start building your success plan for that person based on strengths that you can learn about.

5. Backchanneling is good but risky- you have to understand the relationship of the person to the candidate (which is sometimes impossible)

6. Motivation isn’t so important but it helps to know what motivates candidates to make sure you can provide the right fuel for their fire

7. run away from anyone who is too proud to learn and grow 🌱

8. be very honest about the role and let people be turned off by the truth - people who disqualify themselves are a blessing 🙏

9. get stats on past performance against quota and probe deep to validate them - past performance predicts future success.


5️⃣ categories to test in the first face-to-face interview

Skill: 5-10min cold call roll-play with 2-3 objections

Growth Mindset: build a sequence in my SEP (to show their speed with tech-- new or familiar with it) 🤫 don't talk, let them control your mouse, narrate what they're doing, and go (2-3min)

Financial alignment: salary expectations VS OTE 💰

🧐 Knowledge acquisition & curiosity: explain how email deliverability works and why it's important.

**A MUST** Personal Alignment: 1 & 3 yr career goals

I ALWAYS ask about their career aspirations and if I sniff out any bullsh*t I call it out

For example, interviewed someone the other day who was like “I wanna be an AE” (ok chill) I asked, you have experience now, why not just apply for AE jobs

5min later he thanked me for setting him straight and also DMed me a week later thanking me again for helping him realize he doesn’t want to be an SDR again 🤷‍♂️

= dodged that bullet


all-star managers-- what would you add?

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