SDR (Sales Development Representative): Definition and Meaning

What does SDR stand for?

SDR stands for Sales Development Representative. It’s the role responsible for the very top of the sales pipeline: finding prospects, making first contact, and qualifying whether someone is worth a sales conversation.

The SDR doesn’t close deals. That’s the account executive’s job. The SDR’s job is to fill the AE’s calendar with qualified meetings. In most B2B organizations, this means a combination of two motions:

• Outbound prospecting. Cold calls, cold emails, LinkedIn messages, and other direct outreach to people who match the company’s ICP. The SDR is often working from a target account list built by sales leadership or RevOps.
• Inbound qualification. Following up on leads generated by marketing: form fills, content downloads, webinar attendees, demo requests. The SDR’s job is to determine whether the lead is a real opportunity or just browsing, then route qualified leads to an AE.

This division of labor exists for a straightforward reason: AEs are expensive. Their time is best spent running demos and closing deals, not digging through lead lists or making 50 cold calls a day. The SDR handles the volume work so the AE can focus on revenue.¹

How SDRs work in practice

A typical SDR’s day is built around activity metrics. Dials made, emails sent, LinkedIn touches, conversations held, meetings booked. The Bridge Group’s research across 400+ B2B companies found that the average SDR makes about 45 dials per day, leading to roughly 5 quality conversations.²

The workflow typically looks like this:

1. Prospect identification. SDR builds or receives a list of target contacts matching the ICP.
2. Outreach sequence. Multi-touch cadence across phone, email, and social over 2-3 weeks.
3. Discovery conversation. When a prospect responds, the SDR runs a brief qualifying call — often using a framework like BANT to assess fit.
4. Handoff. If the prospect qualifies, the SDR books a meeting with an AE and passes along context (pain points, budget signals, timeline). This creates a Sales Qualified Lead or a Sales Accepted Lead, depending on the organization’s pipeline stages.

SDR compensation reflects this workflow. Most SDRs are paid a base salary plus variable compensation tied to meetings booked, pipeline generated, or SQLs created. The key: SDRs are compensated on the deliverable they control (qualified meetings), not on closed revenue.

SDR vs. BDR vs. AE

Three titles, a lot of confusion. Here’s how they typically break down:

SDR (Sales Development Representative) focuses on qualifying inbound leads and booking meetings. Some organizations also have SDRs doing outbound, making the title effectively interchangeable with BDR.

BDR (Business Development Representative) typically focuses on outbound prospecting: cold outreach into target accounts. The BDR is hunting for net-new pipeline rather than qualifying leads that marketing handed over.

AE (Account Executive) is the closing role. AEs take the qualified meetings that SDRs and BDRs generate, run the sales process (demos, proposals, negotiations), and close the deal.

In practice, the SDR/BDR distinction is inconsistent across companies. Some use only “SDR” for both inbound and outbound. Others use only “BDR.” What matters more than the title is whether the role is focused on pipeline creation (SDR/BDR territory) or pipeline conversion (AE territory). When you see a job posting, read the responsibilities section rather than relying on the title.

SDR metrics that matter

Why would you track SDR metrics separately from overall sales numbers? Because the SDR function has its own bottlenecks, and catching them early prevents pipeline problems downstream.

The metrics that matter most:

• Activity volume. Calls, emails, and social touches per day. The leading indicator: if activity drops, everything else follows.
• Conversation rate. How many touches does it take to get a live conversation? Industry average is about 4.4 connects per 100 touches.
• Meetings booked. The primary output metric. Average quota is roughly 21 introductory meetings per month.
• MQL-to-SQL conversion. For inbound SDRs, this measures how effectively they’re qualifying marketing-generated leads.
• Pipeline generated. The dollar value of opportunities created from SDR-sourced meetings. This connects SDR activity directly to revenue.

The ratio of SDRs to AEs matters for planning too. The Bridge Group’s data shows an average of 1 SDR for every 2.6 AEs in SaaS companies, though higher-velocity sales models tend to have more SDRs per AE.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does SDR stand for?

SDR stands for Sales Development Representative. It is a specialized sales role focused on the front end of the pipeline: finding new prospects through cold outreach (calls, emails, LinkedIn) and qualifying inbound leads that marketing generates. SDRs do not close deals. Their job is to book qualified meetings for account executives (AEs), who handle the demo, negotiation, and close. Most B2B SaaS companies treat the SDR role as a distinct function sitting between marketing and the closing sales team.

What is the difference between an SDR and a BDR?

The titles SDR and BDR (Business Development Representative) are often used interchangeably, but some organizations draw a line between them. When they do, SDRs typically handle inbound lead qualification (following up on leads that marketing generated), while BDRs handle outbound prospecting (cold calling and emailing into target accounts). In practice, many companies use one title for both functions. If you see a job posting for either role, read the description carefully because the actual responsibilities vary more by company than by title.

Is SDR a good entry-level sales role?

Yes, and it is the most common entry point into B2B tech sales. The SDR role teaches core skills (prospecting, objection handling, pipeline management, CRM hygiene) without requiring you to manage a full deal cycle. Most companies design the SDR position as a 12-18 month stepping stone to an account executive or other closing role. The Bridge Group's research found that average SDR tenure is about 1.5 years, which aligns with the typical promotion timeline. The tradeoff: it is high-volume, repetitive work with significant rejection, and not everyone enjoys the daily grind of cold outreach.