You like talking to people you have not met
This job is conversations with strangers, most days. The people who do well are the ones who already find that interesting rather than frightening.
Tech sales · Sales development
Become a sales development representative.
Start with a conversation.
SV Academy trains people for sales development roles in technology, then puts graduates in front of employer partners for interviews. You do not need a sales background. Many of our strongest candidates had never carried a quota before they called us.
Admissions line open every hour
Understands 99 languages
Speaks 17 natively
15-minute first conversation
Live · admissions · click to talk
Three steps, and the first one is today.
No application form to fill in before anyone will speak to you. Start with the conversation and find out quickly whether this is right for you.
STEP ONE
Talk to admissions
Fifteen minutes on the phone, right now if you like. We will ask about your background, why sales, and how you handle being told no. You should ask us plenty in return.
STEP TWO
Train
Intensive training in the craft of sales development: prospecting, discovery, objections, and the discipline of doing it every day when it is not going well.
STEP THREE
Interview with employer partners
Graduates go in front of our employer partners for interviews. The work of winning the role is still yours — we make sure you are ready for it and in the room.
What we look for, plainly stated.
We would rather tell you the standard than have you guess at it. Read this honestly against yourself. If most of it sounds like you, call us.
You have done work where talking to people was the job
Recruiting, sales, customer service, teaching, hospitality, bartending, fitness, real estate, front desk, intake calls, youth work. You do not need a sales title. Many of our strongest candidates never had one.
You ask questions
Curiosity is most of the work. A sales development representative earns a conversation by asking the question nobody else asked. We notice whether you ask us anything.
You did your homework
Read this page. Look us up. Come with a view. We would much rather hear “I understand the training, but I do not understand how placement works” than a polished answer with nothing behind it.
You have kept going through something hard
Not a story that ended well. A time it was genuinely difficult in the middle and you stayed. This work involves hearing no many times a day.
You take coaching
You will be corrected often and early. The people who improve fastest are the ones who hear feedback without flinching and change something the same week.
You move
If this is right for you, you will want to start soon. People who book far out and reschedule rarely end up going through with it.
You sound like you mean it
Energy carries over a phone line more than people expect. If the work genuinely interests you, we will hear it — and so will every prospect you ever call.
How to prepare for your call.
Four things. None of them take long, and all of them are noticed.
- Know what we doSV Academy trains people for sales development roles in technology and puts graduates in front of employer partners for interviews. Read that sentence twice — we will ask what you know about us.
- Bring two or three questionsAbout the training, the placement process, what good looks like, what makes someone fail. Arriving with nothing to ask is the single most common reason a conversation does not go further.
- Have one real story readyA time you talked a stranger into something. A time you kept going when it was not working. A time someone gave you hard feedback and you did something with it.
- Take the call somewhere quietSomewhere you can hear and be heard, with a few minutes either side. It is a conversation, not a form.
Straight answers to the hard questions.
Is a job guaranteed?
No, and you should not trust anyone who tells you otherwise. What we do is train you to be ready to launch a tech sales SDR career, and put you in front of employer partners for interviews. Getting hired is still your work. We think that is the honest deal, and the people who hear it and lean in are exactly the ones who do well here.
If that answer disappoints you, this is probably not the right programme — and it is better that we both know now.
The conversation is fifteen minutes. It starts when you click.
Come with a question or two. That is genuinely the thing we notice most.