Terms

Sales Development

Sales development is the business function that manages the initial stages of the sales cycle, focusing on identifying, connecting with, and qualifying potential customers. This specialized team acts as a bridge between marketing and sales, ensuring that only well-vetted leads are passed to account executives for closing. They are often the first human point of contact a prospect has with a company.

Key Responsibilities in Sales Development

The sales development team is the engine of the sales pipeline, tasked with generating and nurturing new business opportunities. Their primary role is to bridge the gap between marketing efforts and the sales team, ensuring a steady flow of high-quality leads for account executives to close.

  • Prospecting: Identifying and researching potential customers who fit the ideal customer profile.
  • Outreach: Initiating contact with prospects through channels like email, phone, and social media.
  • Qualifying: Vetting leads against established criteria to determine their potential as customers.
  • Nurturing: Building relationships and maintaining engagement with early-stage prospects.
  • Handoff: Transferring sales-qualified leads to account executives for the next stage of the sales process.

Essential Skills for Sales Development Professionals

Success in sales development hinges on a specific set of skills that blend analytical rigor with interpersonal finesse. Professionals in this role must be adept at navigating the initial stages of the sales cycle and making a strong first impression. Key abilities include:

  • Communication: Mastering outreach through calls, emails, and social selling to effectively engage prospects.
  • Research: Identifying and vetting potential leads to ensure they align with the ideal customer profile.
  • Qualification: Assessing a lead's readiness to buy using established frameworks and keen judgment.
  • Adaptability: Evolving strategies and messaging in response to market feedback and changing business needs.

Sales Development vs. Business Development

While often used interchangeably, sales development and business development have distinct strategic functions.

  • Sales Development: This function is tactical, focusing on qualifying inbound and outbound leads to create a pipeline for account executives. It improves sales efficiency and conversion rates, making it ideal for companies of all sizes that need to manage lead volume and ensure sales reps focus on the best opportunities.
  • Business Development: This role is more strategic, centered on creating long-term value by identifying new markets, partnerships, and revenue streams. It's less about immediate sales and more about positioning the company for future growth, often preferred by firms looking to expand or diversify.

Tools and Technologies in Sales Development

A modern sales development tech stack is crucial for efficiency. Core tools include a CRM for lead management and sales engagement platforms to automate outreach. Sales intelligence software helps teams identify trends, while sales enablement tools provide relevant content to streamline the process.

Career Pathways in Sales Development

The typical career path begins with an entry-level position like a Sales Development Representative (SDR). SDRs focus on prospecting and qualifying leads to build the sales pipeline. A common promotion is to an Account Executive (AE), where the responsibility shifts to closing deals.

With experience, individuals can advance into leadership roles like Sales Development Manager or Director. These positions involve managing the team and setting overall strategy. This progression offers a clear path from tactical execution to strategic oversight within the sales organization.

Frequently Asked Questions about Sales Development

How is success measured for a Sales Development Representative (SDR)?

Success is typically measured by key performance indicators (KPIs) like qualified opportunities created, meetings booked, and pipeline generated. The focus is on the quality of leads passed to account executives, not just raw activity volume.

Is sales development just another term for cold calling?

No, it's a multi-channel strategy. While phone calls are a component, it also involves personalized emails, social media engagement, and in-depth research to warm up leads and build relationships before the initial conversation.

What is the difference between an inbound and outbound SDR?

Inbound SDRs handle leads that come from marketing efforts, like demo requests or content downloads. Outbound SDRs proactively identify and contact potential customers who have not yet shown interest, creating new opportunities from scratch.

Other terms

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Network Monitoring

Network monitoring is the continuous process of tracking a computer network's performance and health to detect and resolve issues proactively.

Network Monitoring

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns a company's sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive predictable revenue.

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

Responsive Design

Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.

Responsive Design

Webhooks

Webhooks are automated messages sent by an app when a specific event occurs. They push real-time data to another app's unique URL.

Webhooks

Lead Scrape

Lead scraping is the process of automatically extracting contact information and other relevant data about potential customers from online sources.

Lead Scrape

Accounts Payable

Accounts Payable (AP) is the money a company owes its suppliers for goods or services bought on credit. It's listed as a current liability.

Accounts Payable

Workflow Automation

Workflow automation uses rule-based logic to run a sequence of tasks that would otherwise require manual human effort to complete.

Workflow Automation

Marketo

Marketo is a marketing automation platform used by B2B marketers to manage lead generation, nurturing, email marketing, and analytics.

Marketo

Logo Retention

Logo retention is a key B2B metric that measures a company's ability to retain its customers, or 'logos,' over a specific period.

Logo Retention

Sales Acceleration

Sales acceleration refers to strategies and technologies designed to speed up the sales cycle, enabling reps to close more deals, faster.

Sales Acceleration

Audience Targeting

Audience targeting is the process of segmenting consumers into specific groups to deliver more personalized and relevant marketing messages.

Audience Targeting

Dark Funnel

The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.

Dark Funnel

Data Appending

Data appending is the process of adding new data fields to your existing database records to enrich and complete your information.

Data Appending

Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a short, memorable summary of what you do, designed to be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator.

Elevator Pitch

Buyer’s Remorse

Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret or anxiety that can arise after making a purchase, often questioning if it was the right decision.

Buyer’s Remorse

Programmatic Display Campaign

Programmatic display campaigns use automation to buy and sell digital ad space in real-time, targeting specific audiences across the web.

Programmatic Display Campaign

Sales Partnerships

Sales partnerships are strategic alliances where two companies co-sell products to expand their reach, generate new leads, and increase revenue.

Sales Partnerships

Intent-Based Leads

Intent-based leads are potential customers whose online actions—like searches or content engagement—signal a clear interest in buying a solution.

Intent-Based Leads

Sales Dashboard

A sales dashboard is a visual tool that centralizes and displays key sales data, metrics, and KPIs to help teams track performance and goals.

Sales Dashboard

B2B Data Erosion

Learn about B2B data erosion, including causes of B2B data decay, strategies to combat data erosion, & measuring the impact of data erosion.

B2B Data Erosion

Regression Testing

Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.

Regression Testing

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the ethical gathering and analysis of market data to inform strategic business decisions and gain an advantage.

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Customer Buying Signals

Customer buying signals are the actions, behaviors, or statements a prospect makes that indicate they are moving towards a purchase decision.

Customer Buying Signals

Sales Enablement Technology

Sales enablement technology refers to software and tools that equip sales teams with the resources they need to close more deals efficiently.

Sales Enablement Technology

Sales Lead

A sales lead is a potential customer—an individual or organization that has shown interest in your company's products or services.

Sales Lead

Site Retargeting

Site retargeting is a marketing strategy that shows ads to people who have previously visited your website but left without converting.

Site Retargeting

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue kept from existing customers, including upsells, downgrades, and churn.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Sales Calls

A sales call is a real-time conversation between a salesperson and a prospect, aiming to persuade them to purchase a product or service.

Sales Calls

Intent Data

Intent data tracks a user's online behavior—like searches and site visits—to identify signals that they are ready to make a purchase.

Intent Data

Revenue Forecasting

Revenue forecasting is the process of estimating a company's future revenue, using historical data and market trends to guide strategic planning.

Revenue Forecasting

Marketing Attribution Model

A marketing attribution model is a framework for assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that lead a customer to convert.

Marketing Attribution Model

Buyer Intent

Learn about buyer intent, including understanding buyer intent signals, strategies to capture buyer intent, & buyer intent vs. customer interest.

Buyer Intent

Intent leads

Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.

Intent leads

Applicant Tracking System

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that manages your entire hiring and recruitment process from a single dashboard.

Applicant Tracking System

SAM

Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the portion of the market your business can realistically serve with its current products and sales channels.

SAM

Warm Outreach

Warm outreach is contacting prospects with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact, making your message more personal and effective.

Warm Outreach

Customer Relationship Management Systems

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that centralizes customer data to help manage interactions and nurture relationships.

Customer Relationship Management Systems

Feature Flags

Feature flags let you remotely control features in your app without new code. This enables safe testing, gradual rollouts, and quick rollbacks.

Feature Flags

Cold Calling

Cold calling is a sales tactic where reps contact potential customers by phone who haven't previously expressed interest in their product or service.

Cold Calling

Technographics

Technographics is data that outlines a company’s technology stack, helping B2B teams identify prospects based on the software and hardware they use.

Technographics

Rollback Procedures

Rollback procedures are a set of steps to restore a system to a previous, stable version after a failed update, ensuring minimal disruption.

Rollback Procedures

Data Security

Data security protects digital information from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft throughout its entire lifecycle.

Data Security

Account

An account is a company or organization that you're targeting for sales. It can be a prospective, current, or even a past customer.

Account

Ramp Up Time

Ramp-up time is the period a new hire takes to get fully up to speed and become a productive member of your go-to-market team.

Ramp Up Time

Chatbots

Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.

Chatbots

Net New Business

Net new business is revenue from customers who have never purchased from your company before. It’s a crucial indicator of sustainable growth.

Net New Business

Demand Generation

Demand generation is the process of creating awareness and interest in your products to build a pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team.

Demand Generation

X-Sell

X-Sell, or cross-selling, is a sales strategy of selling additional, related products or services to an existing customer base.

X-Sell

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable, recurring income a business expects to receive each month from all active subscriptions.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Enterprise

An enterprise is a large-scale organization, often a corporation, defined by its complex structure and substantial number of employees.

Enterprise

Social Proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation.

Social Proof

Stress Testing

Stress testing is a type of software testing that determines a system's robustness by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity.

Stress Testing

Contact Data

Contact data is the set of details, like names, emails, and phone numbers, used to get in touch with a person or business for outreach.

Contact Data

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Sales Workflows

Sales workflows are a set of automated actions that streamline the sales process, helping teams engage leads consistently and close deals faster.

Sales Workflows

Sales Methodology

A sales methodology is the framework that guides how your sales team approaches the entire sales process, from prospecting to closing deals.

Sales Methodology

Application Performance Management

Application Performance Management (APM) monitors and manages an application's performance, availability, and the experience of its end-users.

Application Performance Management

GDPR Compliance

GDPR compliance means following the EU's strict data protection laws to ensure the secure and lawful handling of personal data.

GDPR Compliance

Operational CRM

An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.

Operational CRM

Direct Sales

Direct sales involves selling products directly to consumers in a non-retail setting, such as at home, online, or person-to-person.

Direct Sales

Consumer Relationship Management

Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all of a company's relationships and interactions with its customers.

Consumer Relationship Management

Business Continuity

Learn about business continuity, including understanding key components, steps to ensure continuity, common challenges, & best practices.

Business Continuity

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a digital strategy where businesses send targeted emails to prospects and customers to build relationships and drive sales.

Email Marketing

Account-Based Sales

Account-Based Sales (ABS) is a focused B2B strategy where sales and marketing teams treat high-value accounts as individual markets of one.

Account-Based Sales

Lead Generation Software

Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.

Lead Generation Software

Sales and Marketing Analytics

Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).

Sales and Marketing Analytics

Outbound Lead Generation

Outbound lead generation means proactively reaching out to potential customers who haven't yet expressed interest to introduce them to your brand.

Outbound Lead Generation

B2B Data Platform

Learn about B2B data platform, including key benefits of B2B data platforms, choosing the right B2B data platform, challenges in implementing B2B data platforms.

B2B Data Platform

Sales Territory

A sales territory is a specific group of customers or a geographic area that a salesperson or sales team is responsible for managing.

Sales Territory

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales specialist who finds and qualifies new leads, building a pipeline for the sales team.

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface

A Representational State Transfer (REST) API is a web service that uses a simple, stateless architecture for systems to communicate online.

Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface

Sales Coaching

Sales coaching is a process where managers help reps improve their skills and performance through personalized feedback, training, and guidance.

Sales Coaching

API

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other and exchange information.

API

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

B2B Intent Data

Learn about B2B intent data, including how B2B intent data enhances sales strategies, sources of B2B intent data, leveraging B2B intent data for competitiveness.

B2B Intent Data

Email Personalization

Email personalization uses subscriber data—like their name, interests, or past behavior—to create highly relevant and targeted email campaigns.

Email Personalization

Process Builder

Process Builder is a Salesforce automation tool that lets you create 'if/then' business processes with a user-friendly visual interface.

Process Builder

Data Enrichment

Data enrichment is the process of enhancing raw data by adding missing information from other sources, making it more complete and actionable.

Data Enrichment

AI Sales Script Generator

An AI sales script generator is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to create personalized sales scripts for any outreach scenario.

AI Sales Script Generator

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Learn about B2B, including what is it, its key elements, the benefits of B2B partnerships, the differences between B2B and B2C, and strategies for effective marketing.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

B2C2B

Learn about B2C2B, including how B2C2B transforms sales, key strategies for B2C2B success, & differences between B2C2B and B2B2C.

B2C2B

Objection Handling

Objection handling is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns or hesitations about a product or service to move a deal forward.

Objection Handling

Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is a strategy where businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on current market demands and other factors.

Dynamic Pricing

Predictive Lead Generation

Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.

Predictive Lead Generation

Buying Signal

A buying signal is any action from a prospect that indicates they are interested in making a purchase, helping sales teams prioritize leads.

Buying Signal

Product-Led Growth

Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a business strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

Product-Led Growth

Precision Targeting

Precision targeting is a marketing strategy that uses data to identify and reach a highly specific audience most likely to convert.

Precision Targeting

Lead Qualification

Lead qualification is the process of determining which prospects are most likely to become paying customers based on predefined criteria.

Lead Qualification

Content Management System

A Content Management System (CMS) is software for creating, managing, and modifying website content without needing specialized technical skills.

Content Management System

Use Case

A use case is a detailed description of how a user interacts with a system to achieve a specific goal, outlining the steps from start to finish.

Use Case

Closed Opportunities

Closed opportunities are potential deals that have concluded. They are categorized as either 'closed-won' (a sale was made) or 'closed-lost'.

Closed Opportunities

Consumer

A consumer is an individual or entity that buys products or services for personal use, not for resale. They are the final user in a supply chain.

Consumer

B2B Marketing Attribution

Learn about B2B marketing attribution, including challenges in B2B marketing attribution, & key metrics for effective attribution.

B2B Marketing Attribution

Docker

Docker is a tool that packages applications and their dependencies into isolated environments called containers for easy deployment and scaling.

Docker

Cold Email

A cold email is an initial outreach sent to a potential customer with whom you've had no prior contact, aiming to introduce your business.

Cold Email

Sales Enablement

Sales enablement provides sales teams with the necessary tools, content, and information to help them sell more effectively and efficiently.

Sales Enablement

Simple Object Access Protocol Application Programming Interface

A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.

Simple Object Access Protocol Application Programming Interface

Letter of Intent

A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a document declaring the preliminary commitment of one party to do business with another, outlining the chief terms.

Letter of Intent

Trigger Marketing

Trigger marketing uses customer actions or events to automatically send highly relevant, personalized messages at the perfect moment.

Trigger Marketing