To interview a Sales Development Representative, test prospecting discipline, cold outreach skill, and resilience rather than polished closing. This set covers craft questions on research, messaging, objection handling at the top of funnel, and activity rigor, plus behavioral and situational prompts that reveal coachability and grit.
Run a live cold-call or cold-email roleplay early, since the job is fundamentally doing the thing. Probe for process and persistence, since SDR success comes from consistent activity plus the willingness to be coached.
I'm a prospect who just picked up a cold call. You have 20 seconds. Go.
What to look for: A confident, permission-based opener, a relevant reason for the call, and earning the next 30 seconds rather than pitching immediately.
How do you research an account before reaching out, and how long do you spend?
What to look for: Efficient research tied to a relevant hook, balancing personalization with volume, and knowing when more research stops paying off.
Write or describe the cold email you'd send to a VP of Engineering at a 200-person company.
What to look for: A short, relevant, personalized message with a clear single ask, value framed for them, and no spammy fluff.
A prospect says 'we already use a competitor' on the first call. What do you say?
What to look for: Staying curious instead of arguing, opening a gap or pain question, and aiming for a meeting not an instant win.
How do you qualify whether a lead is worth passing to an Account Executive?
What to look for: A qualification framework (BANT, MEDDIC basics, or fit/need/timing), asking instead of assuming, and not stuffing the pipeline with junk.
How many touches across which channels does it take you to book a meeting, and how do you sequence them?
What to look for: A real multi-channel cadence (call, email, social), persistence without being annoying, and data on what works for them.
How do you handle a day where you make 60 calls and book zero meetings?
What to look for: Resilience, treating activity as a process, analyzing what to adjust, and not spiraling or going quiet.
How do you know when to keep working a prospect versus move on?
What to look for: Reading buying signals and disqualifying cleanly, protecting their own time, and not chasing dead leads out of stubbornness.
Tell me about a goal you hit through sheer persistence when it would have been easy to quit.
What to look for: Evidence of grit, self-motivation, and a concrete result, ideally with numbers, not just effort.
Describe a time a manager gave you tough feedback. What did you change?
What to look for: Coachability, acting on feedback fast, and measurable improvement afterward.
Tell me about a time you had to learn something hard quickly to do your job.
What to look for: Self-driven learning, comfort with discomfort, and applying the new skill to a result.
Your booked meetings keep no-showing. How do you diagnose and fix it?
What to look for: Looking at confirmation cadence, qualification quality, and meeting value, and testing changes rather than guessing.
You're at 40% of quota with a week left in the month. What do you do?
What to look for: Prioritizing warmest opportunities, increasing the right activity, asking for help, and staying composed under pressure.
A prospect is rude and dismissive on a call. How do you handle it and what do you do next?
What to look for: Staying professional, not taking it personally, exiting gracefully, and moving on without losing momentum.
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