Denver SaaS Built a 10-Person SDR Team in 5 Weeks - Every Candidate Interviewed, Zero Screens by Managers
[Sales-led SaaS, Denver] · Technology
Results at a Glance
- Applicants interviewed: resume-filtered → 640 of 640
- Manager screening hours: 60+ → 0
- 90-day quota attainment: baseline → +38%
The Challenge
SDR hiring is a volume-and-voice problem: hundreds of applicants, and the job IS talking - but managers can't call 640 people, so previous cohorts were hired off resumes and gut feel, and ramp attrition showed it.
The Solution
Every applicant took a live AI interview that does what a resume can't: tested objection handling, discovery questioning, and composure under pushback in an actual conversation. Scorecards ranked candidates on demonstrated selling behaviors with quotes and timestamps; managers ran final round only.
The Results
10 hires from 640 applicants with zero manager screening time. The cohort's 90-day quota attainment beat the previous class by 38% - because the interview measured the actual job.
We used to hire SDRs on vibes and regret it by month two. Now every hire already proved they can handle a hard conversation.