What is an SDR? The sales development role, explained

What does an SDR do?

An SDR turns a list of companies that fit into meetings with people who might buy. In practice that means researching accounts, writing and calling, following up when nobody answers, asking enough questions to know whether there is a fit, and booking the meeting for an account executive. Negotiating and closing are normally the account executive's job. The work breaks down into five parts:

• Research. Pick accounts that match the ideal customer profile, find the person who owns the problem and look for a reason to write now, such as a new hire, a new site or a product launch.
• First contact. Reach out by email, phone or LinkedIn, depending on how the company sells. A cold email has to say why you are writing to this company in particular, or it reads like everyone else's.
• Follow-up. If there is no answer, follow up on a set schedule, and stop the moment someone asks you to.
• Qualification. Check that the company fits, that the person can buy or can bring in whoever does, and that the problem is real. Some teams use a framework such as BANT (budget, authority, need, timing).
• Handover. Put the meeting on the account executive's calendar and pass on what was learned, so the buyer does not have to repeat themselves. Log it in the CRM.

What does an SDR's week look like?

An SDR's week is a loop: research the accounts that fit, write and call, answer replies the same day, book meetings for the account executive, then review with that account executive which meetings happened and which became opportunities. What follows is an illustration, not a measured case. Picture an SDR at a company that sells route-planning software to regional freight carriers. Monday starts with a list of carriers that match the profile, and the first hours go on research: fleet size, recent hires, new depots. The rest of the week goes on writing to operations directors, calling those who replied with a question, answering every reply the same day and booking demos for the account executive. On Friday the two of them look at which meetings happened, which ones the account executive turned into opportunities and which were a poor fit, and they adjust next week's list. Nothing in that loop is glamorous. What makes it work is the Friday review: it is where a vague profile turns into a precise one.

SDR vs BDR: is there a difference?

SDR and BDR (business development representative) often describe the same job: the person who opens conversations before an account executive takes over. In companies that separate the two, a common split gives SDRs the inbound leads, people who asked for something, and gives BDRs the outbound prospecting into accounts that never got in touch. Some companies use the titles the other way round, and others treat them as interchangeable. The practical advice is to read the job description, not the title. Three questions settle it: where do the leads come from, which channels does the rep use, and what counts as a qualified meeting. If you are still deciding which motion to build first, our guide to inbound vs outbound covers the trade-off.

SDR vs account executive

The SDR creates the opportunity and the account executive (AE) works it. The AE runs the discovery call or demo, writes the proposal, negotiates and closes, and usually carries the revenue target. Splitting the two lets each person do one kind of work all day: prospecting needs persistence across many accounts, while closing needs time with a few buyers who are already interested. The table shows how companies that separate the roles tend to split them.

How is an SDR measured?

An SDR is best measured by meetings that actually take place with qualified buyers and by the opportunities the account executive accepts from those meetings. Calls made and emails sent show effort and help diagnose problems, but a target on activity alone rewards volume: a rep can hit every activity number and still book nothing useful. A short scorecard keeps the focus on outcomes:

• Meetings held, not meetings booked. A no-show is not a meeting.
• Qualified meetings, judged against a definition written before the rep starts: company profile, the person's role and what has to be true about the problem.
• Opportunities accepted by the account executive. If the AE turns down most of the meetings, look at the definition and the list before you blame the rep.
• Pipeline from those opportunities, once the CRM can attribute it consistently.
• Activity and reply rates, as a diagnostic. They tell you where the process breaks, not whether it works.

What does it take to hire and ramp an SDR?

Hiring an SDR takes more than a salary. Before the first day you need a written ideal customer profile, an offer the rep can explain in a couple of sentences, a source of data, a sending setup that will not put your main domain at risk, and someone senior who takes the meetings and coaches the rep every week. Then come these costs:

• Ramp time. A new SDR spends the first weeks learning the market, the product and the objections. Plan for output to build gradually and judge the hire on the trend, not on the first month.
• Management. Someone has to review messages, listen to calls, check the meetings and keep the list clean. Without that time, the job drifts towards activity for its own sake.
• Tools and data. A CRM, a data source, a sending tool, and mailboxes set up and warmed up before volume goes up.
• Turnover. When an SDR leaves, the accounts, the notes and the half-finished conversations need an owner, or the work starts again from zero.
• Sending rules. If the SDR emails prospects, the rules depend on the country. In the United States, the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide says the law makes no exception for business-to-business email and requires, among other things, honest headers and subject lines, a postal address and an opt-out that is honored promptly. Check every market you write to with qualified counsel.

How much does an SDR earn?

SDR pay depends on the market, the company and the compensation plan, which often combines a base salary with a variable tied to meetings or opportunities. There is no official figure for the role as such: O*NET, the occupation database sponsored by the US Department of Labor, has no occupation called sales development representative. So we give no number here. If you compare numbers from job boards or vendor surveys, check the sample, the city and whether variable pay is included. When you design the plan, tie the variable to meetings held or opportunities accepted, so the money rewards the same thing the scorecard does.

Three ways to get SDR work done

There are three common ways to get SDR work done: hire someone in-house, contract an outside provider, or buy booked meetings from a service that runs the outreach for you. They differ in who manages the work, which channels are covered and what stays in your company when the contract ends.

• An in-house SDR. You keep control and the knowledge stays with you, and you take on recruiting, tools, management and the ramp. It fits when you want phone, email and LinkedIn from one person and plan to grow future account executives from within.
• An outside provider. An outsourced SDR does the first-contact work from outside your company, and what is included varies from one provider to the next, so ask which channels are in scope, who writes the messages and who owns the data. An appointment setting agency is a close alternative, sold around the meeting rather than the rep.
• A done-for-you meetings service by email. Ace Digital is one option: our booked meetings service builds a verified list of buyers, writes each email for one company, warms up separate mailboxes before sending, and has a person read every reply and put the interested buyers on your calendar. It works by email, so if you want someone on the phone every day, an in-house SDR fits better.