Learn/Sales Development (SDR & BDR)

Open the pipeline

Sales Development (SDR & BDR)

Find the buyers, start the conversation and book the first meeting an account executive will run.

Entry bar: LowUsual entry: straight from school or another customer-facing job$57.5k–$110k/yrtypical posted pay

Looking at openings? The SDR & BDR page lists the employers hiring now, their posted pay and every open role.

The job in plain terms

A sales development representative (SDR) or business development representative (BDR) creates the first meetings in a B2B sale. Some teams split the titles: SDRs follow up on inbound interest such as demo requests and webinar sign-ups, BDRs prospect outbound into accounts that have never raised their hand. Either way the job ends where the deal begins: once a prospect agrees to a qualified meeting, an account executive takes over, and the SDR is paid on that hand-off.

Where the week goes

Research target accounts and the people in them: what the company does, who owns the problem your product solves, and what changed recently that makes now a good time
Run multi-step outreach sequences across phone, email, LinkedIn and sometimes text, adjusting the message by role and industry
Make cold calls, often in blocks of an hour or two, and handle the objections that come in the first thirty seconds
Respond to inbound leads fast, qualify them against the team's criteria and route the good ones to the right account executive
Log every touch and outcome in the CRM so the pipeline report your manager reads is accurate
Work with your account executives on target lists, account plans and the hand-off notes that make the first meeting go well

Three moments from the job

A call block before lunch

You have 45 names from a list of finance leaders at mid-sized logistics firms. You call for ninety minutes, reach six people, and two of them hang up. One agrees to a twenty-minute meeting next Tuesday because you mentioned the integration with the payroll system they already use. You log the meeting, write a short brief for the AE and book a follow-up email for the four who asked you to call back.

An inbound lead at 4:55 pm

A demo request arrives from an operations manager at a 300-person company. You reply within minutes, ask two qualifying questions about team size and current tooling, and see that the company already uses a competitor whose contract renews in spring. You book the meeting, flag the renewal date in the CRM and tell the AE which competitor to prepare for.

Rebuilding a sequence that stopped working

Your email reply rate has fallen for three weeks. You read the replies you did get, notice that the ones from IT directors mention security reviews, and rewrite the second and third emails around a recent security certification. Two weeks later you compare reply rates with your manager and keep the new version.

Who does well in it

People who can take rejection many times a day without taking it personally, who like a measurable target and who are curious enough about other businesses to research them properly. Many SDRs come straight from college or from customer-facing jobs such as retail, hospitality, recruiting, teaching and customer support, where the core skills (talking to strangers, staying organized, recovering from a bad conversation) are the same.

You will probably like it if

You are comfortable picking up the phone to someone who did not ask to hear from you
You like seeing your results in numbers every week and adjusting what you do to move them
You can stay organized across dozens of open conversations at once
You want to close deals one day and are happy to learn the first half of the sale first

Requirements on most postings

No specific degree for most roles, although many tech employers prefer one
Clear spoken and written English, and comfort on video calls
Basic CRM and spreadsheet skills, which most teams will train if you have none
For some roles: prior customer-facing or sales experience of a year or more

Skills managers hire for

Cold calling and objection handlingShort, specific written outreachAccount and buyer researchQualification against a frameworkCRM disciplineResilience and time management

How people get hired into it

1Pick a segment you understand: your previous industry, a product you have used, or a buyer you have worked beside, so your outreach sounds informed from day one
2Learn the vocabulary of the funnel (lead, meeting, opportunity, pipeline, quota) and one qualification framework well enough to explain it
3Build proof: research five target companies for an employer you want, write the first two emails you would send each buyer and keep them as a work sample
4Practise a thirty-second cold call opener out loud until it sounds like you, because most SDR interviews include a mock call
5Apply to SDR and BDR roles with a short note that shows you researched the company, and set a job alert so you see new openings the day they post
6In your first months, ask your manager what the promotion criteria to account executive are and track yourself against them from the start

What outsiders get wrong

Myth: SDR work is just dialing all day from a script.

Reality: Phone is a large part of it, but the best SDRs spend real time on research and writing, and teams increasingly judge them on the quality of the pipeline they create, not only on the count of meetings.

Myth: You will be promoted to account executive after a fixed number of months.

Reality: Promotion depends on results, on the company opening AE seats and on your manager's view of your readiness. Some teams promote within a year, others hire most AEs from outside, so ask how many of last year's SDRs moved up before you join.

Myth: A missed month means you are failing.

Reality: Monthly numbers swing with lead flow, list quality and season. Managers look at trends over a quarter and at whether your activity and conversion rates are improving.

Base, variable and OTE

Open SDR & BDR postings that publish their pay sit mostly in $57.5k–$110k/yr right now. The middle figure is $69.6k/yr, read across 246 openings with a stated range. Most US postings state the base; where a posting gives OTE as well, its role page shows both.

SDR & BDR: pay, employers and openings Pay across every sales role →

Questions candidates ask

How is an SDR measured?

Mostly on meetings or opportunities created per month, sometimes on the pipeline value of those opportunities, with activity counts as a leading indicator. The Bridge Group's 2025 study of 351 B2B companies found a median monthly quota of 10 held first meetings and a median of 112 total activities a day across phone, email, LinkedIn and text, with 60% of SDRs at quota - The Bridge Group. Ask whether a meeting counts when it is booked, when it is held or only when the AE accepts it as qualified.

How is SDR pay split between base and variable?

Most of it is base. The same Bridge Group study found a median base-to-variable mix of 68:32, so roughly a third of OTE is paid on results, usually per qualified meeting or opportunity, sometimes with a bonus when sourced deals close. The OTE guide explains how to read the variable part and what to ask about it.

What does the SDR interview look like?

Usually a recruiter screen, a hiring manager interview, a mock cold call or written outreach exercise, and a conversation with the team. In the mock call, interviewers listen for a clear reason for calling, a question that gets the buyer talking and a calm response to the first objection. The sales interview guide walks through each stage, and the interview practice tool lets you rehearse.

What should I check in an SDR posting?

Whether the role is inbound, outbound or both; the segment and average deal size the team sells; how quota is counted; whether the base and the OTE are both stated; and what the promotion path looks like. Today there are 616 open SDR and BDR roles on the board, and the entry-level sales jobs page collects the ones open to first-time sellers.

How long do people stay in the SDR seat?

The Bridge Group reported an average SDR tenure of 1.9 years in its 2025 study and a ramp of 3.0 months, the shortest since 2010. Promotions made up 16% of SDR attrition, down from 34% in 2020 - The Bridge Group. The usual next step is account executive; others move into account management, customer success, partner sales or operations.