An SDR (Sales Development Rep) is a salesperson focused exclusively on outbound prospecting and qualifying leads. They do not close deals. Their job ends when a qualified opportunity lands on an Account Executive’s calendar.
At a glance
- SDRs prospect, qualify, and book meetings. Account Executives take it from there.
- A typical SDR books 8 to 20 meetings per month, depending on targeting quality.
- Fully loaded cost in a major US market runs $70K to $90K per seat annually.
- Ramp time is 60 to 90 days. New hires rarely produce meaningful pipeline before that.
- SDR and BDR are not always the same role. Definitions vary by company.
How does the SDR role actually work day to day?
A typical SDR manages a defined territory or segment, builds prospect lists, and runs cold outreach sequences across email and phone. Responses get sorted into two buckets: worth an AE’s time, or not. Qualification frameworks like BANT exist to make that filter consistent before the AE ever picks up the phone.
The handoff mechanism matters more than most teams acknowledge. An SDR who books a meeting with a 200-person fintech company when the AE only closes enterprise healthcare accounts has wasted everyone’s time. Clear handoff criteria are what separate a productive SDR function from one that generates meeting volume with no downstream value.
Why do B2B revenue teams build an SDR function at all?
The SDR model solves a focus problem. If AEs spend 40 percent of their week cold prospecting, you are paying a $120K closer to do $50K work. Splitting the motion means AEs work pipeline that already meets a minimum quality bar, which protects their time for the activities that actually move deals forward.
That said, an SDR team is not free. The cost only makes sense if pipeline output justifies it at your ACV and close rates. Teams that add SDR headcount before those numbers are clear often find the function costs more than the pipeline it generates.
How is SDR performance actually measured?
Primary metrics
- Meetings booked per month: the most common top-line output metric, typically 8 to 20 depending on segment and sequence quality.
- Meeting-to-opportunity conversion rate: measures whether booked meetings actually qualify as real pipeline once the AE reviews them.
- Pipeline sourced: total dollar value of opportunities attributed to SDR activity, the number finance actually cares about.
What volume metrics miss
Dial counts and email sends look like activity but do not indicate pipeline quality. An SDR hitting 100 dials a week into a poorly defined ICP will produce worse results than one making 40 calls into a tightly scoped list. Meeting quality matters as much as meeting quantity, and conversion rate downstream is the only honest measure of that.
What are the most common SDR mistakes?
- Treating the role as a volume function. More dials does not equal more pipeline. Poor targeting burns domain reputation and demoralizes reps within six months.
- No defined handoff criteria. When SDRs and AEs disagree on what a qualified meeting looks like, conversion from meeting to opportunity suffers and accountability disappears.
- Ignoring ramp time in planning. Hiring in Q3 and expecting Q4 pipeline is a forecasting mistake. Sixty to 90 days of ramp is standard.
- Confusing SDRs with BDRs. Some companies use the terms interchangeably. Others reserve BDR specifically for inbound lead qualification. Clarify the definition before building comp plans or reporting structures.
How does the SDR role connect to adjacent concepts?
The SDR sits at the top of the funnel, directly upstream of the AE. In an ABM motion, SDRs work a defined account list with personalized messaging tied to specific triggers rather than running broad outreach sequences. The AI SDR category is attempting to automate parts of this workflow, particularly first-touch sequencing and basic qualification filtering, though human judgment still dominates once a prospect responds.
SDR output also feeds directly into CAC calculations. If it takes three SDRs producing 40 meetings per month to generate the pipeline that closes 10 deals, that SDR cost is part of your acquisition math whether your finance team tracks it separately or not.