What is a BDR (Business Development Rep)?

A BDR (business development rep) is an early-career sales role that finds and opens conversations with new prospects, usually through outbound calls, email and LinkedIn, and books qualified meetings for an account executive rather than closing deals.

At a glance

• BDRs create pipeline. They’re measured on qualified meetings or opportunities, not closed revenue.
• The line between a BDR and an SDR isn’t standard. HubSpot describes BDRs as outbound and SDRs as inbound; Salesforce notes that some companies do the opposite.
• Salesforce describes the SDR or BDR job as an entry-level, front-line sales role, and for many sellers it’s the first step toward becoming an AE.
• Most BDRs are paired with one or more account executives who take the meetings they book.

How the BDR role works

A BDR’s week is research, outreach and qualification. They work a list of target accounts, find the right people, run a sequence of calls and emails, and qualify the ones who respond against the team’s rules before booking time with an AE.

Because titles vary, the useful question when you hire or compare benchmarks is what the job actually does. Write down whether the role works cold accounts, inbound leads or both, and which number it carries.

BDR versus SDR, in practice

• Common split one: BDRs prospect cold, often into named or larger accounts. SDRs qualify inbound leads. This is how HubSpot defines it.
• Common split two: the reverse, with BDRs on inbound and SDRs cold calling, which Salesforce says some companies use.
• Also common: one title for both. Many teams use SDR and BDR interchangeably.

What a BDR is measured on

Example (illustrative): a BDR’s month might be judged on 12 held meetings with ICP accounts, a show rate above an agreed floor, and the pipeline value of the opportunities the AE accepts. Each number is defined in writing before the month starts, so there’s no debate about what counted.

Common BDR mistakes

• Measuring activity. Dials and emails show effort. Held meetings and qualified pipeline show results.
• No ICP rules. A BDR without clear ICP filters fills the AE’s calendar with accounts that won’t buy.
• Weak handoff. If the AE re-qualifies every meeting, the notes from the BDR aren’t doing their job.
• Comparing benchmarks across different jobs. An outbound BDR into large accounts and an inbound qualifier shouldn’t share a meetings target.
• No path forward. The role is a training ground. Without a plan to move good BDRs up, they leave.

How BDRs show up in a revenue system

The BDRs and SDRs on our sales pods are dedicated to one partner, work inside that partner’s tools, and are hired, trained, coached and replaced by us. DigitalOcean needed a regional outbound team inside its own commercial organization. We hired, trained and ran it, and CAC came in 37% lower. Read the DigitalOcean story or see how our sales pods work.

Terms that sit next to the BDR

BDR work is prospecting and outbound sales, and the meetings it books are appointment setting. In account programs such as ABM, BDRs work a fixed list of named accounts. How long a new BDR takes to reach full output is rep ramp time.