Sales
Sales Development Representative
The most accessible way into a software company with no prior experience, and the one with the clearest exit path if you treat it deliberately.
The most accessible way into a software company with no prior experience, and the one with the clearest exit path if you treat it deliberately.
A day that is actually representative
| Time | What you are actually doing |
|---|---|
| 08:00 | Research block. Fifteen accounts properly, not eighty superficially. |
| 09:30 | Call block. Sixty dials, four conversations, one meeting if it is a good day. |
| 12:00 | Writing sequences. The email that works is short, specific and about them. |
| 14:00 | Handover call with an AE, where you learn whether your qualification was real. |
| 16:00 | Reviewing your own recordings, which almost nobody does and which is the whole difference. |
The decisive round
“Cold call me.”
Interviewer: “I'm a VP of Engineering. You have thirty seconds. Go.”
A weak answer. “Hi, this is [name] from [company]. How are you today? I'm reaching out because we help engineering teams improve their developer productivity and I wanted to see if you'd be open to a quick fifteen-minute call to learn more about what we do.” ‘How are you today’ identifies the call as a cold call in the first two seconds. ‘Learn more about what we do’ asks them to give up time for your benefit.
A strong answer. “'Hi — this is Priya, I'm calling from [company], and I know I'm interrupting you. Can I take thirty seconds and then you can tell me to go away?'
[pause — and I genuinely wait for the answer]
'I'm calling because I saw your team posted four platform engineering roles this quarter. Usually when I see that it's because build times or on-call have got bad enough that people are leaving, and it's cheaper to hire than to fix. I don't know if that's you.
We work with [comparable company] and their CI went from forty minutes to nine, which took two engineers off firefighting.
I'm not going to pitch you on a call. Would it be worth fifteen minutes with our solutions engineer to see whether the same problem exists in your pipeline — or should I leave you alone?'
The three things I'm doing deliberately: I name the interruption, because it buys the thirty seconds. I lead with an observation about them, not about us. And I give them an easy exit, because 'should I leave you alone' gets more yeses than 'does that sound interesting'.”
Naming the interruption, a specific observed trigger, a named comparable outcome, and an explicit permission-to-decline. Being able to explain why each move works is what separates a hire from a script-reader.
What to build or bring
- Do the live call. Almost every SDR loop has one, and almost every candidate has not rehearsed it out loud.
- Three researched accounts with the trigger you would open on.
- Your own written sequence — five touches, and be able to defend each one.
- Ask about the path out. Twelve to eighteen months to AE is the standard, and asking signals seriousness.
Compensation
| Market | Band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $50k – $70k base | OTE $70k – $100k |
| India | ₹4L – ₹12L OTE | Very large market; the most common non-technical entry into SaaS |
The book for this field
Sales
What sales postings actually ask for, the roles and how they differ, pipeline and forecasting, selling technical and AI products, the loop, and the honest version of crossing over from a technical role.
Cross-cutting
Skills every archetype tests
These are shared across every field on this site — the same question asked in different vocabulary — so preparation here compounds rather than being spent once. The book above is specific to your field.