Below is a complete job description for a founder's first outbound sales rep: title, summary, responsibilities, what success looks like at 30, 60 and 90 days, requirements, pay placeholders and how to apply. Copy it, replace everything in square brackets, and delete anything that does not match your business. After it comes the part most templates skip: four decisions to make before you post it, and a short written exercise that screens candidates better than a resume does.

The job description

This one is for an outbound role, meaning the person starts conversations with companies that did not ask to hear from you. If you are not sure whether you need that or someone who handles inbound leads, read SDR vs BDR first, because the title you post decides who applies.

Title: Outbound Sales Representative, [Company name]

Location: [Remote in country / City, hybrid]. Type: [Full time / Part time, __ hours a week]. Reports to: [Founder].

Summary

[Company name] makes [what you sell] for [one specific kind of buyer, for example "independent veterinary clinics with 2 to 10 vets"]. We are looking for our first outbound sales representative. You will find the right companies, start conversations with the people who decide, and book qualified meetings for [the founder / an account executive]. You will help write the playbook, so we want someone who is comfortable without a finished process.

What you will do

  • Build and maintain a list of target companies and the decision makers at each, using [LinkedIn / the company's website / the CRM / our lead tool].
  • Research each company before contacting it, so the first message refers to something real about their business.
  • Send [__] new first emails and make [__] calls a week to people on that list.
  • Follow up on every conversation until it ends in a meeting, a clear no, or an agreed date to speak again.
  • Answer replies within [one business day] and book meetings on [the founder's / the account executive's] calendar.
  • Log every contact, reply and outcome in [CRM name] the same day.
  • Meet with [the founder] for 30 minutes each week to review results and decide what to change.
  • Report which messages, lists and subject lines work, and which do not.

What a qualified meeting is

A [20 to 30 minute] call, on the calendar, with a person who [has the problem we solve, has budget authority or can bring in someone who does, and agrees to the meeting after hearing what we do]. Meetings that do not meet this are not counted.

What success looks like

  • 30 days: You know our buyer, our product and our objections. You have a target list of [200] companies with contacts. Two or more versions of a first email are written and approved. Outreach has started and every contact is logged.
  • 60 days: You are sending at the agreed weekly volume. You have booked [__] qualified meetings and can tell us which message and which segment produced them. Replies are answered inside the agreed time.
  • 90 days: You are booking [__] qualified meetings a month on your own. You have written down what you do, so someone else could follow it. You have proposed at least two changes that improved results.

Requirements

  • [1 to 2 years] of experience in outbound sales, business development or a similar role, or a strong written sample that shows you can do it.
  • Clear, plain writing. You will be asked to write a short sample as part of applying.
  • Comfortable with rejection and with following up several times without being pushy.
  • Organized enough to keep a CRM current without being reminded.
  • Experience with [CRM / email tool] is helpful. We will train you on the rest.

Pay

[Base: $__ to $__ per year or per hour]. [Commission: $__ per qualified meeting that takes place / __% of first-year revenue on deals you sourced]. [Expected total in a typical month at target: $__ to $__]. [Benefits: ___]. [Start date: ___].

How to apply

Send a resume or a short note on your background to [jobs@example.com] with the subject line "Outbound rep". Include a link to anything that shows how you write. Finalists complete a 45-minute written exercise and a 30-minute conversation. We reply to every applicant within [7] days.

Notes on the template

A few details are worth getting right before it goes live.

  • Responsibilities. They follow the pattern the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes for sales representatives: identifying prospective customers, contacting them, answering questions, following up and keeping records. The template narrows that to the outbound part.
  • Pay. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says most employers pay sales representatives a combination of salary and commission, or salary plus bonuses, which is why the pay section has a base and a commission slot. If your job will be performed at least partly in New York State and you have four or more employees, New York's Department of Labor requires a salary or salary range in the posting, and the figure has to be one you believe in good faith is accurate. Check the rules where the person will work before you leave the pay line blank.
  • Wording. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says a job advertisement cannot show a preference for, or discourage, applicants because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Phrases like "recent graduate" and "digital native" can cross that line, so leave them out.

Four decisions to make before you post it

1. Who they sell to

The template has a blank for one specific buyer. If you cannot fill it with a sentence a stranger could act on, the hire will spend their first month guessing. Write it first; describe your buyer in one sentence shows how, and what an ideal customer profile is goes deeper.

2. What counts as a qualified meeting

If you pay by the meeting, or measure by it, the definition has to be written down. Say a founder sells inventory software to veterinary clinics. A call with a receptionist who says "send us something" is not a qualified meeting. A 20-minute call with the clinic owner who confirms they still count stock by hand is. Without that line, a rep will book whatever is easiest to book, and you will spend your days in calls that go nowhere.

3. Who writes the emails

There are two workable answers. You write the first version and the rep adapts it, or the rep writes and you approve the first two versions. The unworkable answer is that nobody decided, so the rep sends their own with no review. Decide, and say it in the 30-day goal.

4. What tools they get on day one

List the inbox they send from, the CRM, the lead source, the calendar and the document with your pricing and objections. A rep without these loses the first two weeks to access requests. Also decide who owns the sending domain and the email account, because a rep who leaves should not take your sender reputation with them.

If this feels like too much to settle, that is useful information. What has to be true before you hire a first salesperson covers the signs that you are early.

Screen candidates with a written exercise

Resumes for sales jobs all look the same. A short exercise shows how a person thinks and writes. Send it to finalists only, make it 45 minutes, and pay for it if it runs longer.

The exercise. "Here is a one-paragraph description of our product and a one-sentence description of our buyer. Below are links to three real company websites in that market. Pick one. Write the first email you would send to its owner, in 120 words or fewer. Then write a two-line follow-up for three days later. Finally, list three things you would want to know before sending this to a hundred companies."

How to score it. Give one point for each of these.

  1. The first line refers to something actually on that company's website.
  2. It asks for one small, clear next step, not a demo or an hour.
  3. It is under 120 words and reads like a person wrote it.
  4. The follow-up adds something new instead of repeating the first message.
  5. The three questions show real thinking, for example about who the right person is, what the offer is, or how to measure results.

A 4 or 5 goes to the conversation. A 3 goes only if the pool is thin. A 2 or below does not, however good the resume looked. In the conversation, ask them to talk through a deal that stalled and what they did. Listen for specifics, not summaries. If the role is on commission only, read how to hire a salesperson on commission before you post, because that changes who applies.

If you are not ready to hire, Rocketship is one option for founders in that spot: you describe the buyer in plain words, and it finds the companies, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, answers replies and books the meeting, from $12 a month on the pricing page while you decide whether a person is the right next step.