SDRSales Development Representative
By Federico Donatone · Updated October 15, 2026An SDR (sales development representative) is a B2B salesperson who opens new conversations with potential buyers. The SDR researches target accounts, contacts decision makers by phone, email or LinkedIn, checks whether each one fits, and books a qualified meeting for an account executive, who then runs the sales process and closes the deal.
What is an SDR responsible for?
An SDR owns the first stage of the sales funnel: the step between a name on a list and a meeting in a seller's calendar. The SDR does not close deals. The output of the job is a qualified meeting, which means the right person, at a company that fits, with a real reason to talk.
- Pick the next accounts from the target list the company agreed on.
- Research the account and the person: a new leader, a funding round, a hiring push or another reason to reach out now.
- Make the first touch by phone, email or LinkedIn.
- Follow up and answer every reply, objections included.
- Qualify: does the company fit, does this person own the problem, is there a reason to meet?
- Book the meeting and send the account executive a short brief on who is coming and why.
Good SDRs spend more time on research than on writing. The research is what gives a first message its reason to arrive, as our guide to sales trigger events shows.
SDR vs BDR vs account executive
Most companies use SDR and BDR (business development representative) for the same job. Where a company splits them, the SDR follows up inbound interest and the BDR prospects cold accounts. The account executive takes over once a buyer is qualified.
| SDR | BDR | Account executive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main job | Qualify new interest and book meetings | Prospect cold accounts and book meetings | Run the sale and close it |
| Typical leads | Inbound: forms, demo requests, sign-ups | Outbound: named target accounts | Qualified meetings from SDRs and BDRs |
| Output | Qualified meeting | Qualified meeting | Signed contract |
| Judged on | Meetings held, opportunities accepted | Meetings held, opportunities accepted | Revenue closed, win rate |
How SDR performance is measured
Dials and emails sent are easy to inflate and say little about pipeline. Track each stage on its own, for the same accounts and the same period: meetings booked, meetings held, the share of held meetings that matched the target profile, and opportunities your sales team accepted. Our B2B Outbound Evidence Standard defines each stage.
Held meeting rate = Meetings held ÷ Meetings booked × 100As an illustration, if an SDR books 30 meetings in a month and 21 of them take place, the held meeting rate is 70%.When to hire an SDR or outsource the role
An SDR pays off when the offer already sells and the bottleneck is the number of good conversations. The usual signs are clear:
- Account executives spend their week prospecting instead of closing.
- You can name the companies and job titles you want to reach.
- Deal sizes are large enough that one new customer covers months of prospecting work.
- Referrals and the founder's network no longer fill the calendar.
Hiring in-house makes sense once the playbook works and you want a long-term owner inside the company. If nobody has yet proven which accounts and messages work, an outsourced SDR team arrives with the method, the data and the sending setup, and you keep the lists and sequences it builds.