Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Overview

You're prospecting into companies that are hiring (or want to hire) people outside their home country. You're calling HR leaders, finance teams, and founders to book demos for Account Executives. Remote sells global payroll, employer of record (EOR) services, and contractor management—so you're talking to people dealing with the actual headache of international compliance and payments.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage / Large (14,101 employees - this is a well-funded, established company)

Size: 14K+ employees globally

Growth: Still hiring aggressively on the SDR team, which signals ongoing expansion

Market Position: Major player in a competitive space—competing with Deel, Rippling, Oyster, and others in the global employment platform category

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• ~30% Inbound - Companies searching for EOR solutions, website visitors, content downloads (Remote has strong SEO/content presence)
• ~60% Outbound - Cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, email sequences to companies showing hiring signals
• ~10% Referrals/Partners - Some partner ecosystem for accountants, consultants

SDR/AE Structure: Dedicated SDR team feeding AEs (you're not selling, just qualifying and booking)

SE Support: AEs have solution engineers for demos—you don't need to be technical

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Deel (biggest threat), Rippling (if selling full HRIS), Oyster, Globalization Partners, Velocity Global

How They Differentiate: Remote emphasizes being truly global (operates in 80+ countries), compliance-first, and transparent pricing vs Deel's aggressive sales tactics

Common Objections:

• "We already use Deel" (most common)
• "We're not hiring internationally yet" (timing)
• "We just set up our own entity" (too late)
• "Too expensive vs contractors" (cost)

Win Themes: Compliance quality, transparent pricing, better customer support than Deel, IP protection for contractors

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Cold Calling (50%) | Email/LinkedIn (25%) | Research/List Building (15%) | Meetings/Admin (10%)

Key Activities

• Cold calling HR/Finance leaders: 60-80 dials per day. You're looking for companies that recently raised funding, are hiring on LinkedIn, or posted international roles. Most calls go to voicemail. You need thick skin.
• Multi-touch outreach sequences: Email + LinkedIn + phone cadences. You're competing with 5 other EOR vendors in their inbox. Your messaging needs to stand out.
• Qualifying conversations: When someone picks up or replies, you're asking about their international hiring plans, current setup (entity vs contractor vs EOR), timeline, and budget authority. 5-10 minute calls.
• Booking demos: Setting up 30-45 minute meetings for AEs with qualified prospects. You need to confirm budget ($50K+ annual spend minimum), authority (talks to finance/legal), need (actively hiring or planning to), and timing (next 3-6 months).

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Rejection volume: You'll get hung up on, ghosted, and told "we're all set with Deel" 30+ times per day. This isn't consultative selling—it's high-volume prospecting.
• Competitive market: Every growing startup gets hammered by Deel, Remote, Rippling SDRs. Breaking through the noise is tough. Prospects are fatigued.
• Timing dependency: You need to catch companies RIGHT when they're about to hire internationally. Too early and they don't care. Too late and they already picked a vendor.
• Manager is explicit about expectations: "Energized to hit the phones every single day" means this is a grind. If you don't like cold calling, you'll burn out fast.

What Success Looks Like

• Booking 15-20 qualified meetings per week consistently (60-80/month)
• ~30-40% of your meetings show up and meet qualification criteria
• AEs convert 20-25% of your qualified opps to pipeline (you're measured on meeting quality, not closed deals)

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• HR Directors/VPs at 50-500 person companies (Series A-C startups, mid-market)
• CFOs or Finance leaders (they control budget for international expansion)
• Founders/CEOs at earlier-stage companies (sub-50 employees)

What They Care About:

• Compliance risk: Not getting sued or fined for misclassifying contractors or violating local labor laws
• Speed to hire: Can they hire someone in Germany next month without setting up a legal entity?
• Cost: EOR markup vs entity setup costs vs contractor rates
• Contractor IP protection: Making sure contractors don't own the code they write
• Ease of use: HR team doesn't want to learn 5 different systems for payroll in different countries

Requirements

• 6-12 months of SDR/BDR experience OR strong hunger to break into SaaS sales (they'll consider fresh grads with the right attitude)
• Comfortable making 60-80 cold calls per day without needing constant motivation
• Thick skin for rejection—this is a numbers game in a competitive market
• Good at storytelling/creative outreach (manager mentions "creative outreach to prospects"—you need to stand out from other EOR vendors spamming the same people)
• Competitive mindset—manager wants someone "tired of the status quo" and with "desire to win"
• Willing to work in Remote's systems/processes (this is a 14K person company—there's structure and playbooks to follow)