Hiring remote SDRs in Latin America

1Write the brief before you source

Write the brief before you post the role or call a single candidate. Without a brief, every interviewer judges against a different picture, and every confident candidate looks right. Share the brief with everyone who interviews.

A useful brief fits on 1 page:

• ICP: industry, company size, buyer titles and the trigger that marks a good account
• Target: qualified meetings held each month, with qualified defined in writing
• Hours: the US time zone covered and the daily overlap you need
• Comp: base plus variable in USD, tied to qualified meetings. Roles placed through Remote Sales Careers have paid $1,000 to $5,000 USD a month
• Tools: CRM, dialer, sequencer and data source, ready on day 1

Set the meeting target from your own numbers. Start from your connect rate, your conversation to meeting rate and your show rate. With no outbound history yet, say so, and set a target for the end of the ramp instead of month 1.

Put comp in the brief, in USD. The candidates you want are looking for remote roles paid in USD. State the base, the variable at target and the pay dates. Tie the variable to qualified meetings held, the same number you will judge.

2Decide who to hire first

Your first hire depends on 1 question: do you have an outbound playbook that works? A playbook means a defined ICP, messaging buyers answer, and a sequence that has booked meetings.

With no playbook, hire 1 senior SDR or a player coach. This person builds the motion while booking meetings: tests messages, finds the accounts that answer and writes down what works. A junior rep with no playbook has nothing to copy.

Once the motion works, hire a pod of 2 or 3 SDRs. A pod lets reps compare notes and share call recordings. It also shows whether results come from the playbook or from 1 person.

The motion works when you can tick these boxes:

• The ICP and the list source hold steady from month to month
• Messages and talk tracks are written down for a new rep to learn
• You know your connect rate and meeting rate by channel
• Someone has time to coach calls from recordings each week

Hire the senior rep or player coach for judgment. You pay for the ability to tell a bad list from a weak opener or the wrong persona. In the interview, ask how they would find out which one is failing.

3Build the scorecard and screen

A scorecard turns gut feel into evidence. Interviewers score these 5 traits alone, before the debrief:

• English fluency: clear on the phone at speed, with a buyer who interrupts
• US buyer experience: has sold to US buyers and describes the calls
• Remote discipline: keeps a schedule and logs activity unsupervised
• Coachability: takes feedback and changes the next attempt
• Prospecting craft: researches an account and writes a clear first line

Set the weights before the first interview. Hiring guides weigh coachability above polish, because craft can be taught during the ramp. Then write anchors for every trait. For coachability, 1 means the second attempt repeats the first. 3 means 1 of 2 coaching points appears, and 5 means both appear.

Screen in the format the job uses. Ask for a short recorded intro and a first email to 1 real account from your ICP. Candidates who apply through Remote Sales Careers record an intro video, and companies watch it before the first meeting.

On the phone screen, test the other traits. For US buyer experience, ask for the titles they called, the objections they heard and the tools the team used. For remote discipline, ask how they plan a day, and what they do when a day goes wrong.

4Run the 2 round mock cold call

The 2 round mock cold call is now a common SDR hiring test in guides like 80Twenty’s. It measures coachability.

• Brief: send ICP, product and buyer persona a day ahead
• Round 1: a 5 minute baseline call where you play the buyer
• Coaching: 2 pieces of feedback, each 1 specific change
• Round 2: the same call, right away
• Score: the change between rounds counts more than round 1 polish

Pick feedback the candidate can apply in 2 minutes. Good examples: state the reason for the call in your first sentence. Ask 1 question about their current process before you pitch.

The balance of talking and listening gives you 1 number to compare across rounds. 80Twenty uses talk 43%, listen 57% as a benchmark for a strong mock call. A candidate who talks through round 1 and asks more questions in round 2 is showing coachability.

Score the second run against your anchors. Did both coaching points appear? Did the candidate ask a question about the feedback? Did they stay calm when you pushed back?

5Judge cost per qualified meeting

Base salary is the easiest number to compare and the least useful. A rep with a lower base who books few qualified meetings can cost more per meeting than a rep who books many.

Work out the number each month:

• Add the full monthly cost: base, variable paid, tools, data and coaching hours
• Count qualified meetings held, using the definition in your brief
• Divide the cost by qualified meetings held
• Compare the result with what a qualified meeting is worth: your meeting to deal rate times your average deal size

Count meetings held, not meetings booked. A meeting nobody attends costs the same rep time and adds nothing to pipeline. Held meetings also show whether the rep is booking the right people.

Expect the number to start high while the rep learns. Judge the trend across the ramp, never a single month. Use the same math to compare options: a senior SDR against a pod, or a remote hire in Latin America against a local one.

6Onboard and ramp in 60 to 90 days

Onboarding decides how much of your hiring work pays off. 80Twenty puts the typical SDR ramp at 3.2 months and annual SDR turnover near 40%. A clear plan with weekly checkpoints gives a remote hire better odds of reaching full output.

Before day 1, prepare logins, a starter list from your ICP and recorded calls from your best rep.

• Week 1: product and ICP training, tool setup, shadow your best caller
• Week 2: first live calls and emails on the starter list, reviewed daily
• Weeks 3 and 4: full cadence on the ICP list and a weekly 1 to 1
• Day 30 review: activity quality, call recordings and list feedback

From day 31, the ramp is judged on meetings:

• Days 31 to 60: a ramped meeting target and objection practice from real calls
• Day 60 review: qualified meetings held against the ramped target
• Days 61 to 90: full target, with the rep building part of their own list
• Day 90 review: cost per qualified meeting trend and the decision on full quota

Watch for the warning sign new SDRs describe on Reddit: whole days spent polishing LinkedIn messages instead of calling. Check the activity mix in weeks 2 and 3, and raise the mix in the next 1 to 1. Hold every checkpoint inside your overlap hours, so coaching happens live.