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30 sales development representative
interview questions that actually work.
Pulled from the Neuroworx item bank: nine years of calibration against twelve-month performance outcomes on 14,083 sales development representatives. Sorted by stage (screen, assessment, on-site) and level (IC1 to IC5). Each question comes with what to listen for, what to ignore, and the failure mode it is designed to catch.
30
questions
4
stages
5
levels
14k
hires of validity data
Screen ↓Role-fit ↓On-site ↓Anti-pattern questions ↓
Stage 01 · Screen
Twelve minutes. Ten questions.
The screening conversation. Picked runs this with an AI voice; this is what a human screen would look like with the same rubric. Time-box hard. 60 seconds per answer.
10 questions
01
Walk me through the last meeting you booked. From the first touch to the calendar invite.
scopespecificity
Listen for
A real account, the channel that worked, the message that got the reply, the AE handoff.
Ignore
Generic "I do multi-channel outbound" stories without an account name.
catches · SDRs who cannot name a single meeting they booked outside the team script.
02
Tell me about a sequence you killed because it was not working. What did you replace it with?
crafthonesty
Listen for
A specific sequence, a real reason, the version that replaced it, the lift they measured.
Ignore
A claim that everything they have ever shipped worked.
catches · SDRs who run the same template the team gave them and have never edited it.
03
Play me your last cold call. What would you change about the first thirty seconds?
voiceself-awareness
Listen for
A specific moment in the opener. A named change they would make. They have actually listened to themselves.
Ignore
"My opener is solid." Nobody is solid for thirty seconds every time.
catches · SDRs who have never listened back to their own calls.
04
A buyer picks up the phone and says "I have ninety seconds". What do you say?
voicecraft
Listen for
They earn the next sixty. They ask a question before they pitch. They are not selling the product, they are selling the meeting.
Ignore
A pitch dump.
catches · SDRs who treat ninety seconds as their last chance and burn it.
05
What is the most useful disqualification you made this quarter?
qualification
Listen for
A real account, a clear reason, the conversation with the AE about why they did not pass it.
Ignore
A spam-filter answer ("they had under ten employees").
catches · SDRs who pass everything to the AE and call it pipeline.
06
How do you research an account before you touch it?
craft
Listen for
Specific sources. A real workflow. Time spent that maps to account value.
Ignore
"I look at their LinkedIn."
catches · SDRs who treat every account like the others.
07
Tell me about the AE who refused one of your leads. What did they say and what did you do next?
feedbackcoachability
Listen for
They remember the AE, they remember the reason, they changed something afterwards.
Ignore
A complaint about the AE being too picky.
catches · SDRs who think the AE was wrong.
08
What is your current monthly target and what percentage are you at this month?
honesty
Listen for
The number. The reason. Honesty about the month going well or badly.
Ignore
"I am hitting target" without a number.
catches · SDRs who cannot name their own target.
09
Tell me about the week you wanted to quit. What did you do?
resilience
Listen for
A real week. A real reason. Specific things they tried. They are still here.
Ignore
A hero narrative.
catches · SDRs who have never had the week.
10
Why are you looking for a new role?
stage fit
Listen for
A reason about them, not the current employer. The kind of team they want.
Ignore
Pure complaint about the current manager.
catches · SDRs running away rather than towards.
Stage 02 · Role-fit assessment
A scoped task. A scored rubric.
One scoped exercise. We score the thinking, not the polish. The candidate has the equivalent of 45 minutes.
8 questions
01
Here is a real ICP description. Write a four-touch sequence: cold email, follow-up email, LinkedIn message, cold call opener.
craftsequence
Listen for
Each touch earns its place. The opener references something specific. The voicemail-or-call opener sounds human.
Ignore
Four-paragraph cold emails. Long emails are an SDR tell.
catches · SDRs whose written sequences read like every template Apollo has ever shipped.
02
Here is a real prospect LinkedIn profile and their company page. Write the first email you would send.
researchcraft
Listen for
A reference to something the prospect or company has done that proves the SDR read the page. A question, not a pitch.
Ignore
A name-merge with the personalisation slot filled.
catches · SDRs who personalise the first line and pitch the rest.
03
Role-play the first thirty seconds of a cold call. I am the head of revenue ops. I picked up by accident.
live skillvoice
Listen for
A pattern interrupt. They earn the next sentence. They ask a question.
Ignore
A canned opener with no warmth in the voice.
catches · SDRs whose written work is good and whose voice is not.
04
Your AE forwards you a lukewarm reply: "send me a deck". Write what you send back.
commsjudgement
Listen for
They do not send the deck. They send back a question or a fifteen-minute slot. They keep the thread alive.
Ignore
Sending a fifteen-slide deck.
catches · SDRs who treat "send me a deck" as a win.
05
You inherit a cold list of two hundred accounts the previous SDR never touched. Write the first week plan.
triageprioritisation
Listen for
A clear segmentation. A small set of accounts they will go deep on. A clear stop-and-pass-back rule.
Ignore
A plan to mass-email all two hundred on day one.
catches · SDRs who treat the list as one block.
06
Pick one of our public customer-shape descriptions and write a sixty-second voicemail script for it.
craftspecificity
Listen for
Under sixty seconds. A reason for the prospect to call back. A specific reference to the customer shape.
Ignore
"Hi, just calling to see if you would be open to a quick chat."
catches · SDRs who phone in voicemails.
07
Here is a real reply: "we already use [competitor], thanks". Write the next email in the thread.
objectioncraft
Listen for
Curiosity, not combat. They ask one question that earns the right to keep the thread open.
Ignore
A feature-by-feature comparison.
catches · SDRs who default to feature wars.
08
Show me your sequence dashboard or your call log from last week. Talk me through one number that surprised you.
self-instrumentation
Listen for
They have looked at the numbers. They can name one. They have a hypothesis about why.
Ignore
"I had a strong week."
catches · SDRs who do not read their own data.
Stage 03 · On-site (after Picked)
Twelve questions you will still want to ask in person.
Picked screens, scores, and shortlists. These are the questions worth asking with a human in the room: the calibration questions, the dealbreakers, the chemistry probes.
12 questions
01
What is the one part of outbound you want to get sharper at in the next six months?
growth
Listen for
A specific skill. A specific plan. A specific SDR or AE they would learn from.
Ignore
"I want to book more meetings."
catches · SDRs without a learning agenda.
02
Tell me about a time a peer SDR gave you hard feedback. What did you change?
coachability
Listen for
A real peer, a real piece of feedback, a real change. They still get the habit wrong sometimes.
Ignore
"I take feedback well." Means nothing.
catches · SDRs who have never accepted a hard note from a peer.
03
What is the most uncomfortable feedback you have received from a prospect on a call?
self-awareness
Listen for
A specific call. A specific line. What they did with it.
Ignore
A general "I have had a few rude prospects" answer.
catches · SDRs who treat prospect pushback as the prospect being wrong.
04
Walk me through a sequence step you ran for too long. When did you realise?
judgement
Listen for
The number that finally told them. The reason they kept it running. The cost of the delay.
Ignore
A defence of the step.
catches · SDRs who confuse activity with progress.
05
Pick two SDRs you admire from your current or last team. What do they do that you do not?
taste
Listen for
Concrete habits. Habits they have started copying. Habits they have not.
Ignore
Pure praise.
catches · SDRs without taste for other SDRs.
06
What is one thing you read or listened to this year about outbound that changed how you work?
curiosity
Listen for
A specific source, a specific lesson, a specific change they made.
Ignore
A thing they have been meaning to read.
catches · SDRs who do not study the craft.
07
When are you best on the phone? Morning, afternoon, after a walk?
operating model
Listen for
A real pattern. Self-awareness about their energy.
Ignore
"I am always on."
catches · SDRs without self-instrumentation.
08
Do you want to be an AE? When?
careerretention
Listen for
A direction and a timeline. Honesty about what they still need to learn first.
Ignore
"Whenever the company is ready."
catches · SDRs without a forward direction.
09
If you join, what would your first week look like?
agencyonboarding
Listen for
A specific plan. Often: shadow ten AE calls, read the last twenty closed-won discovery notes, call two former customers.
Ignore
"Whatever onboarding you have."
catches · SDRs without onboarding instinct.
10
What would make you leave us inside six months?
dealbreaker
Listen for
A real irritant. A specific manager pattern. A specific working condition.
Ignore
"As long as the role is good."
catches · Hidden dealbreakers, surfaced post-offer.
11
What is one question you would want to ask our worst-performing SDR?
probingcuriosity
Listen for
A real question. Usually about a quiet thing. "Which step of the sequence do you skip?"
Ignore
A softball.
catches · SDRs who do not want to know what is broken.
12
Run a live thirty-second voicemail for our sales leader. I am the VP of revenue at a 200-person SaaS company.
live skillcalibration
Listen for
Under thirty seconds. A reason to call back. They sound like a human.
Ignore
A read of a script.
catches · SDRs whose written work is sharp and whose voice is flat.
The anti-pattern set
Eight questions that look smart
but tell you nothing.
"What is your biggest weakness?"
You will get a strength-shaped weakness. We have asked this 47,000 times. It catches no-one. Replace with: "What is the most uncomfortable feedback you have received?".
"Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Either a rehearsed answer or a stalled one. Both useless. Replace with: "Where would you want to be in three years?"
"Tell me about yourself."
Wastes the first three minutes on the CV they already gave you. Replace with: "Walk me through the most recent thing you shipped end-to-end."
"Why this company?"
Generates polished mission-talk. Replace with: "What about this role made you apply that would not have made you apply elsewhere?"
"Are you a team player?"
No-one says no. Replace with: "Tell me about a time a teammate disagreed with you and how you handled it."
"How do you handle stress?"
No-one says badly. Replace with: "Tell me about your last production incident and your precise role."
"How would you reverse a linked list?"
Probes nothing we care about. We removed it from the bank in 2019. Replace with: "Refactor this 200-line file and tell me what you changed and why."
"If you were an animal, which animal would you be?"
You know what we are going to say. Replace with: anything else.
Or, let us ask
We will ask these for you.
By Friday.
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Sales development representative interview questions · Picked.ai