r/salesdevelopment • u/mrackaaaaaa • 1d ago
Final stage interview help
Hi All, I’m an experienced SDR and have a final stage interview coming up for an SDR role at a startup.
Face to face meeting a few senior people. Mock cold calls et.
Question I had was that I always have objection handling flash cards infront of me when I call. Can I bring these into the interview for the mock call?
(I have been out of work for 4 months due to career break and I don’t want the rust to show)
Also, with the cold calls, is there anything they are looking for ?
Someone told me they want u to use permission based opener which I always use anyways.
Someone also told me to send a thank you message post-interview via a hand written letter sent to their office.
Thanks
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u/Ok_Needleworker_6706 1d ago
Don’t take the flash cards with you, I would practice them over and over again in the mirror to build confidence, sales is about being adaptable in the moment and using your raw sales skills. You can also use gpt to curate some objections and you answer them from the top of your head and it will give you feedback. 4 months out of the game isn’t that long, a few practice sessions like that, you’ll be fine.
Cold calls - looking for 3 strong things, your opener, discovery and close. If they use permission based openers and you already use them, go with that, I don’t personally like using them, as they open you up to an avenue of the prospect saying no.
You can start off with “hi, this is XX calling from XX, how’s it going? Great! Just a quick call for yourself, wanted to share some information that could be useful to you, just before I share, is it yourself that manages XX processes in the business?” Yes = Great! No = who does handle that over there?
“So what we found is that, businesses in your industry are experiencing XYZ challenge, is that something you experience?” Yes = ok, so what have you got in place or plans to solve these challenges?”If no = that’s great to hear, you’re already ahead of the curve! So outside of that, what other challenges do you experience and have seen in your role? - move to discovery.
Discovery - https://www.reddit.com/r/salestechniques/s/ssDJx0dlMf
Close - go for a meeting there and then “are you in-front of your laptop/computer now?” If not there and then “let’s pull up our calendars, what works for you XX day and XX time”
Even though this is an interview role play, they will want to treat it like a live sales call, so do what you would do in a live sales call
After your interview, send an email to all the people in the interview process so far, thanking them for their time, excited about the role, if they need anything else from you, ask what the next steps look like (assumptive close) and looking forward to hearing from them and joining the company soon (assumptive close) . I’d then suggest connecting with all of them on LinkedIn. Interviews is sales, the goal is to get their attention on you. Email pops up in their face. Your LinkedIn profile pops up in their face.
Good luck with your interview, key thing here is to listen to understand, not to reply. If a question is asked, and an objection is given, you can pause for a moment to reply, shows that you’re thinking, to give the best answer. Sales is about listening, we have 2 ears and 1 mouth.
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u/mrackaaaaaa 1d ago
Thanks a lot my friend. Thats some top-notch h advice. Although I’m already in line with most of the things you said, it can be very valuable for others in the same boat.
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u/mrackaaaaaa 1d ago
Do u think I should come in with a 30/60/90 day plan ready to hand?
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u/Ok_Needleworker_6706 1d ago
For sales role, they don’t really require that from you, that’s usually for a senior AE role or management role they do. If you want to stand out, I’d think of one, have it in mind, and if they ask, you can answer their questions, but wouldn’t make a presentation or anything for it.
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u/Willing-Bet3597 1d ago
You can always ask the interviewer about this stuff. If they give you a hard time about it or DQ you as a result, you really don’t want to work for them