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Every SDR interview question, answered.
15 min readUpdated 2026
Every question you’ll actually be asked at an Australian SDR interview, what each interviewer is really listening for, and what to ask back.
Before we start
If you’re reading this, you’re already ahead of most people.
Getting an interview at a tech sales company in 2026 isn’t easy. Most candidates apply to 30+ roles before landing their first interview. If you’re here, you’ve already done the hard part. You wrote a resume that worked. You picked the right companies. You stood out in a stack of applicants who didn’t.
What follows is every question you’ll be asked across every round, with the framing hiring managers actually want to hear. Don’t try to memorise the answers word-for-word. Read them, internalise the structure, and then make them yours.
The candidates who land roles aren’t the ones with the most polished answers. They’re the ones who sound human, prepared, and genuinely interested. That’s the bar.
Written by Isobel Hardwick, a current top-performing SDR at a fast-growing SaaS company.
Round 1
The Recruiter Screen
30 minutes·Their goal: Decide if you're worth the hiring manager's time. The recruiter is the gatekeeper, your contact through the whole process, and the one person who knows the OTE.
What they’re listening for: That you're engaged, that you've done some product research (not a lot, they'll often summarise it for you), that you can explain your career history concisely and connect the dots to why sales.
What they'll ask you
01
“Walk me through your career so far.”
They want a 90-second arc, not your full LinkedIn. Set up where you started, why you moved between roles, where it's all pointing now. End on what excites you about this kind of role.
02
“What do you know about [Company]?”
You don't need an essay. One clear sentence on what they sell, one on who their customers are, one on something you found interesting. The recruiter will fill in the rest.
03
“Why do you want to move into sales?”
Avoid “I like talking to people.” Tie it to something specific in your past: a moment you closed a deal, hit a target, persuaded someone, or got energy from a hard conversation. Make it personal and verifiable.
04
“Why this company specifically?”
They're checking you didn't just spray applications. Pick one thing about the product, the team, or the mission and connect it to your story.
05
“What keeps you motivated day to day?”
They're listening for self-driven energy, not external validation. Money is a fine motivator if you frame it as a scoreboard, not a survival mechanism.
06
“What are your salary expectations?”
Have a number. The recruiter usually already knows the OTE: give them a range that lines up with it, and ask for a number on commission structure in return. If you’re unsure what to ask for, use the QuotaClub salary calculator to get a real range for your role and city.
07
“What's your notice period? When could you start?”
Be specific. Vagueness here reads as not-serious.
08
“Have you applied anywhere else?”
Honesty without oversharing. “I'm in early conversations with one or two other tech companies” is a plus signal: it shows you're being thoughtful about a career move, not desperate.
09
“Do you have any concerns about this role?”
Use this. If something on the job spec was unclear, ask. Recruiters appreciate candidates who treat the conversation as two-way.
10
“What questions do you have for me?”
Always have at least three. See the list below.
Issy’s prep cheat code
Recruiters source candidates on LinkedIn before job boards.
Update your LinkedIn headline to signal you're moving into tech sales BEFORE you start applying. “Aspiring SDR | Ex-[Industry] | Based in [City]” works. Recruiters search for these exact phrases.
What you should ask them
- “Why did this role become available?”
- “What does the rest of the interview process look like?”
- “How have you found your time at the company?”
- “What's the most important skill the team is looking for in this hire?”
- “Is there anything I should specifically prepare for the next stage?”
Round 2
The Hiring Manager (SDR Manager)
30–45 minutes·Their goal: Decide if you can do the work and be coached. They've hired SDRs before. They've seen good and bad. They know what works.
What they’re listening for: How you'll hit targets, not just whether you want to. Coachability, confidence under pressure, and signs that you can handle rejection without it derailing you.
What they'll ask you
01
“Why tech sales?”
Same question as the recruiter, but expect more probing. Have a story, not a slogan.
02
“How do you stay organised when you're juggling a lot?”
SDRs run between 50 and 200 active conversations at once. Talk about specific systems: calendar blocking, CRM hygiene, daily ritual. Not generic “I'm super organised.”
03
“How do you build a relationship with someone you've never met, quickly?”
They want to know if you can warm a cold conversation in 30 seconds. Talk about asking specific questions, mirroring tone, finding common ground in the first 60 seconds.
04
“How do you feel about cold calling?”
Don't lie and say you love it if you don't. They'll see through it. Better answer: “I find it uncomfortable, and I do it anyway because I know it works.” Shows self-awareness and grit in one breath.
05
“How do you feel about getting rejected?”
They want to hear a healthy detachment. Best framing: rejection is data, not a verdict. Each “no” tells you something about the next “yes.”
06
“What's your biggest weakness?”
Don't say “I work too hard.” Pick a real weakness that isn't a deal-breaker for the role, then explain how you're actively working on it. Example: “I overthink my outbound emails. I've started giving myself a 5-minute time limit per email and it's helped me move faster without sacrificing quality.” Real weakness, real fix, no humble brag.
07
“Tell me about a time you didn't hit a target.”
Don't dodge with a humble brag. Pick a real miss, walk through what happened, what you learned, what you changed. The story is the answer.
08
“Tell me about a time you took feedback well.”
They're checking coachability. Pick a moment where the feedback was uncomfortable, you accepted it without defending, and you did something different next time.
09
“How would you research a prospect before reaching out?”
Walk through your actual approach: LinkedIn, company news, trigger events, mutual connections. They want to hear that you do real research, not spray-and-pray.
10
“Talk me through how you'd open a cold call.”
Have a structure. Permission opener (“Have I caught you at a bad time?”), reason for the call, value statement, call to action. Practise saying it out loud before the interview.
11
“What's harder for you, the call or the email?”
Honest answer. They want self-awareness, not performance.
12
“If you booked your first meeting in week one and zero in week two, what would you do?”
Diagnostic question. They want to hear: review the data (what did week one do differently?), ask for help (manager, peers), don't panic, double down on what worked.
13
“Why should we hire you over the other candidates?”
Don't list virtues. Pick one specific thing about your background and connect it to one specific thing they need.
Issy’s prep cheat code
Hiring managers test for one thing in this round: can they coach you.
Mid-interview, they may give you a small piece of feedback to see how you respond. Don't defend. Don't explain. Just say “That's helpful, I'll work on that.” Coachability beats brilliance every time at this stage.
What you should ask them
- “What are the monthly KPIs for this role? (Activities and outcomes.)”
- “Is the rest of the team hitting their targets?”
- “How many AEs would I be supporting?”
- “How are inbound leads handled? Do SDRs get any?”
- “Does the team work closely with marketing? Are there in-person events?”
- “What does ramp look like in the first 90 days? When am I expected to hit full quota?”
- “What's your management style?”
Mid-way check-in
Want me to run mock interviews with you for every round?
These templates work. Practising them out loud with someone who’s been through the rounds works better.
Book a 30-min call with me →Round 3
The Presentation / Panel
60–90 minutes (plus 8–10 hours of prep)·Their goal: See you actually do the job in conditions close to the real thing. Usually a manager or two plus an AE.
What they’re listening for: Whether you can simplify a complex product into one or two sentences, take live feedback without defending, and show real curiosity about the business.
This is the hardest round. You’ll spend 8–10 hours preparing. Three things to know before you start. They aren’t looking for perfection. They aren’t penalising you for getting things wrong. They are evaluating three specific qualities below.
The three tasks
01
A presentation
Research the product, present your understanding of what it does, who it helps, and who you think the ideal customer profile (ICP) is.
02
A cold email
Write an outbound email to a person of your choosing. Usually you pick the prospect.
03
A cold call roleplay
The panel will play a prospect and you'll cold-call them live.
What they’re really evaluating
a
Research depth
Did you spend real time understanding the product? Can you talk about the customer, not just the features?
b
Coachability
When they give you critical feedback mid-presentation, do you accept it and adjust, or do you defend?
c
Communication and commercial thinking
Can you simplify a complex product into one or two sentences? Do you understand the business, who pays, who benefits, and what problem it actually solves?
Issy’s prep cheat code
Before you submit your presentation, DM another SDR who already works at the company and ask them to glance over it.
Most SDRs are happy to help. They were in your shoes recently. They’ll flag the things the panel will pick on, and you can fix them before the live session.
Follow-up questions they may ask
01
“Walk me through how you arrived at that ICP.”
Show the logic. Don't just guess: talk about the criteria you used.
02
“What did you find hardest about preparing this?”
They want to see self-awareness. Pick something real.
03
“If you had another 8 hours, what would you change?”
Tests reflective thinking. Pick something specific.
04
“What did you learn about us that surprised you?”
Tests genuine curiosity. Pick something the website doesn't tell you.
05
“Pretend I'm a CFO who hates sales calls. How would your opener change?”
Live adaptation test.
06
“What questions do you still have about the role after doing this prep?”
Tests whether you're treating the role as real or hypothetical.
What you should ask them
- “Where did I do well, and where could I have been stronger?”
- “Was anything I presented a red flag for you?”
- “How does this presentation compare to the kind of work I'd be doing day to day?”
Round 4
The Final Round (VP / Senior Stakeholder)
30–45 minutes·Their goal: Sanity check. The senior person is looking at you with a longer-term lens. Are you someone they want to invest in for two to three years?
What they’re listening for: Career thinking, ambition, fit with the company at a leadership level, no major red flags.
What they'll ask you
01
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Have an answer. “I want to be an AE within two years, then a senior AE” is fine. “I'm not sure” is not.
02
“Do you want to be an AE after the SDR role?”
Almost always yes. They want to see you have a trajectory, not a placeholder mindset.
03
“What attracted you to this company over others?”
Same question as round one, but with a senior twist. Show you've thought about the company's position in the market, not just the role.
04
“What's the biggest skill you'll bring to this role on day one?”
One sentence. Pick the strongest thing on your background and connect it to the role.
05
“What's the biggest gap in your experience for this role?”
Be honest. Acknowledge the gap, then talk about how you'll close it. Pretending you have no gaps reads as either dishonest or unaware.
06
“What would your previous manager say about you?”
Pick three adjectives, one of which is slightly self-critical. “Driven, organised, and probably a bit too hard on myself” reads as self-aware.
07
“How do you handle pressure?”
Show structure, not bravado. Talk about systems, breaks, conversations with managers, not “I thrive under pressure.”
08
“Anything I haven't asked that you wish I had?”
Use this. Talk about your most interesting career moment, or the one piece of context that didn't fit anywhere else.
What you should ask them
- “How are your AEs performing this year?”
- “What do you think the biggest skill is to be successful in this role?”
- “How are you finding the company yourself?”
- “What does the next 12 months look like for the team?”
- “What's the company's biggest challenge right now?”
The three stories
Three stories every SDR candidate needs.
Every interviewer in every round will ask versions of these three questions. Have your stories rehearsed.
01
The “why sales” story
Why sales, and why now. Connect it to a real moment in your past. Make it specific. Two minutes max.
02
The career story
Your career arc in 90 seconds. Where you started, why you moved between roles, what you've learned, and what you're aiming at next.
03
The failure story
A real time you didn't hit a target, fell short, or got something wrong. What happened, what you learned, what you'd do differently. Avoid the fake humble brag (“I work too hard”). Tell them the actual story.
Prep checklist
Before any round, every time.
- Practise saying your three stories out loud, on camera. Watch yourself back.
- Research the company beyond the homepage. Read the last three blog posts and the most recent press release.
- Look up your interviewers on LinkedIn. Note one specific thing about each one you can mention.
- Have at least five questions per round ready, written down.
- If you have a presentation round, ask another SDR at the company to glance over it before you submit.
- Test your tech the day before. Camera, mic, internet, lighting.
- Be online five minutes early.
- Send a short thank-you email within four hours of every round.
If it doesn’t land the first time
Rejection is data, not a verdict.
You will get rejected. Most candidates apply to 15–30 roles before landing one. That’s normal.
After every rejection, ask the recruiter or hiring manager for one piece of feedback. Most will give it. Apply that feedback to the next application. Each rejection should make you 5% better.
The candidates who get hired aren’t the ones who never get rejected. They’re the ones who keep going after they do.
Common questions
About SDR interviews in Australia.
The questions candidates ask before they apply, and the answers most career-change content gets wrong.
- How long does an SDR interview process take in Australia?
- Usually two to three weeks from first recruiter screen to offer. Larger SaaS companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, Atlassian) can move faster when the role is urgent. Boutique SaaS firms can stretch to four weeks if they're scheduling around senior leadership availability.
- What's the OTE for an SDR in Sydney or Melbourne?
- Entry-level SDR OTE in Australia in 2026 is typically A$80,000–A$110,000, made up of a base of A$65,000–A$80,000 plus A$15,000–A$30,000 in variable. Sydney sits at the top of that range, Melbourne and Brisbane slightly below. Use the QuotaClub salary calculator for a number tailored to your role and city.
- Do you need a degree to be an SDR in Australia?
- No. Most companies care more about communication, resilience, and curiosity than the specific degree on your resume. A bachelor's degree helps if you're applying for a visa-sponsored role, but career changers from hospitality, finance, fitness, retail, and teaching land SDR roles every month.
- How many roles do candidates apply to before getting hired?
- Most candidates apply to 30 or more roles before landing their first interview, and run through 4 to 8 full interview processes before getting an offer. The candidates who land roles fastest are the ones who tailor every application and follow up properly.
- What's the difference between an SDR and a BDR?
- Functionally identical in 2026. Both prospect for new business and book qualified meetings for AEs. Some companies use SDR for inbound (leads coming to you) and BDR for outbound (you cold-prospecting), but the interview process and the day-to-day work are the same.
More questions about working together, pricing, and how the program works on the QuotaClub FAQ page, or read how the 1:1 program is structured.
Written by
Isobel Hardwick
Current top-performing SDR at one of APAC’s fastest-growing SaaS companies. Hits between 177% and 344% of target every quarter. Works 1:1 with career-changers until they land their first SDR role.
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Every round. Every answer. Every nerve.
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