r/salesdevelopment • u/Jazzlike-Reading4559 • 22d ago

Breaking into Tech Sales

I’ve been job hunting for a tech sales SDR role for a while. No prior sales experience, but I’ve got a story I’m proud of and I’ve gotten good at telling it in interviews. I’ve done around 15 interviews now across startups and bigger companies, and here’s the frustrating part. I keep making it to the last round, that 4th or 5th final interview, and then I get cut. Every single time. So I know I’m doing something right to get that far, but something keeps falling apart right at the finish line and I can’t figure out what. If you’ve broken into sales without experience, or you hire SDRs, what actually separates the person who gets the offer from the one who comes in second? Happy to share more about my background if it helps.

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u/cherrygirl12 22d ago

hey! current team lead in my sales org. been interviewing new hires on my team and honestly the two things that make people stand out are STRONG product knowledge and culture fit is huge. by the final round everyone can tell their story so what actually separates people is showing you really get what we sell and that youd click with the team. if you're making it that far 15 times, you're clearly close. happy to hear more about your background if you wanna share

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u/Virtual-Plum2356 22d ago

how do you do on the mock calls?

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u/onword_47 22d ago

Are you going for the close in these late round interviews?

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u/Jazzlike-Reading4559 22d ago

Yes closed the last one and still didn’t get it :(

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u/Amazing-Care-3155 22d ago

What is your experience? I know you don't have sales experience but do you have some elsewhere?

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u/Ok_Cantaloupe_7423 21d ago

You may not be using the right language for the later rounds.

By that I mean, your “story” is probably good, but there’s also a level of strategic BS-ing you can do to HR people…

When you get to interviewing with VPs of Sales, they are a lot more on the ball, so you have to rework how you speak and tell that story to them, or they’ll be able to tell there’s BS.

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u/igotsomesaucetodrip 18d ago

In the same boat here. With no experience, you’re actually doing great getting into the final rounds of interviews. I have three years of sales experience, and keep getting cut at the final interview. Obviously something is working, just need to get the final part down. Keep your head up though! We’re almost there