Sales Development Representative

Overview

You prospect into companies that hire globally, trying to book qualified meetings for the AE team. Your targets are HR leaders, finance executives, and founders at companies with remote/international teams. You're selling against Rippling, Remote, Gusto Global, and status quo (companies using multiple local payroll providers).

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Series D+ / Late-stage growth (9,000+ employees)

Size: 9,122 employees globally

Growth: Aggressive expansion, recently held global kickoff in Dubai, actively hiring across all GTM roles

Market Position: Major player in global employment space, competing heavily with Rippling and Remote for mid-market deals

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 20-30% Inbound - companies that find Deel through content, search, or referrals. Quality varies—some are ready to buy, many are just researching
• 60-70% Outbound - you're building lists of companies hiring internationally and cold calling/emailing decision makers
• 10% Channel/Referrals - accountants, fractional CFOs referring clients

SDR/AE Structure: Large SDR team feeding a large AE team. You're assigned territories (by region, industry, or company size) and work a specific patch.

SE Support: AEs handle most demos solo, but Solutions Engineers join for technical deep dives on complex integrations or compliance questions.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Rippling (biggest threat—similar platform approach), Remote (pure-play global employment), Gusto (for US+international), legacy providers like ADP/Papaya Global

How They Differentiate: Owned entities in 100+ countries (vs contractor relationships), single platform for payroll + HR + IT + immigration, faster setup times

Common Objections:

• "We already use [Rippling/Remote/ADP]" - most prospects aren't actively looking
• "Too expensive compared to local providers" - switching cost concerns
• "We're not hiring internationally right now" - timing objection
• "Compliance concerns about switching mid-year" - real blocker for some

Win Themes: Compliance confidence (owned entities), platform consolidation (replacing 3-5 tools), speed to hire in new countries, better contractor-to-employee conversion flow

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Cold Calling (35%) | Email/LinkedIn (25%) | Research/List Building (20%) | Inbound Follow-up (10%) | Internal Meetings (10%)

Key Activities

• Cold Calling: 50-70 calls per day to HR leaders, CFOs, and founders. You're trying to identify companies hiring internationally and get 5-10 minutes to qualify their setup. Most don't answer. Many who do answer aren't interested.
• Email Sequences: Running multi-touch sequences (6-8 emails over 3 weeks) to prospects who didn't pick up. You're A/B testing subject lines and messaging constantly.
• Inbound Follow-up: Working leads that came through the website or content downloads. These are warmer but still need qualification—many are just researching or student/consultant inquiries.
• Research & Targeting: Building lists in LinkedIn Sales Navigator and ZoomInfo. Looking for companies that recently posted international job openings, announced remote-first policies, or raised funding.
• Meeting Handoff: Writing detailed notes on what you learned (current payroll setup, pain points, timeline, budget authority) so the AE can run an informed demo.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• High rejection volume: Most companies aren't actively looking to switch payroll providers. You hear "we're all set" 50+ times per day.
• Complex qualification: You need to quickly understand if they have international employees, who handles payroll, what tools they use, and if they have budget authority—all in a 3-minute cold call.
• Competitive landscape: Rippling has massive brand momentum right now. Remote has "global employment" in their name. You're often the third vendor they're talking to.
• Long sales cycles downstream: Even when you book a great meeting, deals take months to close. You don't always see the outcome of your work.
• Gatekeepers: Getting past HR coordinators to the actual HRBP or CFO is tough. Lots of "send me an email" brush-offs.

What Success Looks Like

• 15-20 qualified meetings booked per month that show up and advance to next stage
• 40-50% of your meetings convert to opportunities (AE accepts them as real pipeline)
• Consistent daily activity: 60-80 touches per day (calls + emails + LinkedIn)
• Pipeline feedback loop: AEs tell you which meetings turned into deals so you learn what good qualification looks like

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VP/Director of HR or People Ops (50-500 person companies)
• CFO or Head of Finance (startups, high-growth companies)
• Founders/COOs (smaller companies, 20-100 employees)

What They Care About:

• Compliance confidence: Not getting fined or sued for misclassifying contractors or breaking local labor laws
• Consolidation: Tired of logging into 5 different systems for payroll, benefits, HR, equipment
• Speed to hire: Can they hire someone in a new country in 2 weeks vs 2 months?
• Cost: Total cost of employment vs current setup (often paying premium to local providers)
• Switching risk: Will this break mid-year? Can they migrate cleanly?

Requirements

• 1-2 years in SDR/BDR role (or very strong performance in first SDR job)
• High activity tolerance: Comfortable making 50-70 calls per day and hearing "no" constantly
• Business acumen: Can quickly understand a company's hiring model and payroll setup
• Coachable: Willing to iterate on messaging, follow the playbook, and adapt based on what's working
• Comfortable with ambiguity: Deel moves fast—processes change, territories shift, new products launch quarterly
• Self-motivated in remote environment: You're likely working from home with teammates across 10+ time zones