What does SDR stand for?
SDR stands for Sales Development Representative. Some companies call the role sales development rep, appointment setter or pipeline generator. The title varies, but the job is the same: fill the sales team's calendars with conversations worth their time.
The role took its modern shape when sales organisations began to split the work into specialised stages. Predictable Revenue, the 2011 book based on Aaron Ross' work at Salesforce, made the model widely known: one team finds and qualifies new opportunities, another takes them to a signed contract. The idea is simple. People who are good at closing deals should not spend half their week looking for someone to talk to.
An SDR owns the start of the sales process, from first contact to a qualified meeting, and then hands over to an account executive (AE) who runs the deal from there.
SDR vs BDR: what is the difference?
BDR stands for Business Development Representative. The most common split is that an SDR handles inbound leads (people who asked for a demo, downloaded a guide or filled in a form) while a BDR works outbound, reaching companies that have not been in touch. In practice the titles are often used interchangeably, and many reps do both.
| Role | Main focus | Hands over to |
|---|---|---|
| SDR | Qualifying inbound leads and booking meetings | Account executive |
| BDR | Outbound prospecting into new accounts | Account executive |
| Account executive | Running meetings, proposals and negotiation | Customer success or account management |
What matters more than the title is that everyone agrees where one role ends and the next begins: what counts as a qualified meeting, and what information has to come with it.
What does an SDR do day to day?
Most of an SDR's week goes into a handful of recurring tasks.
- Research. Building and cleaning lists of companies that match the ideal customer profile, and finding the right people inside them.
- Outreach. Calls, emails and LinkedIn messages in planned sequences. The phone is still the fastest way to get a real answer; read more in our guide to cold calling.
- Qualification. Short conversations to find out whether there is a need, a decision-maker and a reasonable timeline.
- Booking and handover. Putting the meeting in the AE's calendar with notes on who is attending and why.
- CRM work. Logging every activity so the team can see what is happening and pick up where someone left off.
Which KPIs should an SDR be measured on?
Activity numbers are easy to count and easy to game. A rep who makes many calls to the wrong list is busy, not productive. Measure the whole chain instead:
- Activities such as calls, emails and connected conversations, to see effort and spot coaching needs.
- Meetings booked and, more importantly, meetings held. A meeting that does not take place is worth nothing.
- Meeting quality, for example the share of meetings the AE accepts as qualified.
- Pipeline created: the value of opportunities that came from the SDR's meetings.
Targets differ a lot by market, deal size and how well known the brand is, so set them from your own data after a few weeks rather than from someone else's benchmark.
What makes a good SDR?
The best SDRs are curious, structured and resilient. They prepare before they pick up the phone, listen more than they talk and treat a no as information rather than a defeat. They also write well, because much of the work happens in short emails and messages.
Product knowledge can be taught in weeks. The habit of doing careful research and following up every lead takes longer to build, and is what separates a steady performer from someone who burns through lists.
Hire an SDR or outsource the role?
Hiring your own SDR gives you full control and builds knowledge inside the company, but recruiting, onboarding and managing the role takes time. Outsourcing gets you started faster and moves the recruiting risk to the partner. We compare the options in detail in in-house vs outsourced appointment setting.
If you want an experienced rep working in your name without the hiring process, see SDR as a service.