A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales professional focused on generating and qualifying new leads for a business through prospecting and outreach. As the first point of contact, they identify and educate potential customers, creating a pipeline of qualified opportunities before handing them off to an account executive or another closing role.
SDRs are the engine of the sales pipeline, responsible for identifying and nurturing potential customers. They act as the initial bridge between the company and its future clients, ensuring the sales team engages only with well-vetted, high-potential leads.
To excel as an SDR, a unique blend of hard and soft skills is essential. These professionals must be adept researchers and compelling communicators to consistently generate high-quality leads. Success hinges on their ability to connect with prospects while navigating the technical aspects of sales.
While the titles are often used interchangeably, SDRs and BDRs can have distinct roles focused on different parts of the lead generation process.
The SDR role is a common entry point into a sales career. Successful SDRs often advance to become Account Executives, where they close deals. Other growth paths include moving into sales management, customer success, or even marketing, making it a versatile foundation for professional development.
SDRs leverage a robust tech stack to streamline prospecting and engage potential customers effectively.
How is an SDR's performance typically measured?
Performance is primarily measured by the number of qualified opportunities or meetings booked for account executives. Key metrics often include call volume, email response rates, and conversion rates from lead to opportunity, ensuring a focus on quality over quantity.
Is the SDR role just about cold calling?
No, it's much more. While cold calling is a component, modern SDRs use a multi-channel approach, including personalized emails and social media engagement, to connect with prospects and build relationships before the first call.
What is a typical compensation structure for an SDR?
SDR compensation is usually a mix of a base salary and a variable component like a commission or bonus. This variable pay is tied to achieving specific targets, such as the number of qualified meetings set or opportunities generated.
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Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.
Sales development is the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers to create a pipeline of sales-ready leads for closers.
Shipping solutions are services or software that streamline the logistics of getting products to customers, from label printing to final delivery.
Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.
A marketing play is a repeatable tactic used to achieve a specific marketing goal, like generating leads or driving engagement.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where affiliates earn a commission for promoting another company’s products or services.
An email cadence is a scheduled sequence of emails sent to prospects over a specific period to nurture leads and drive engagement.
Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.
Cohort analysis is a behavioral analytics tool that groups users with common traits to track their actions and engagement over time.
Mobile compatibility ensures your site or app works flawlessly on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for a seamless user experience.
Data enrichment is the process of enhancing raw data by adding missing information from other sources, making it more complete and actionable.
Buying criteria are the specific requirements and standards a customer uses to evaluate products or services before making a decision.
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A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.
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.
A sales lead is a potential customer—an individual or organization that has shown interest in your company's products or services.
Demand is the economic principle describing a consumer's desire and willingness to purchase a specific good or service at a particular price.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.
Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy for managing all of a company's relationships and interactions with its customers.
Account-Based Everything (ABE) is a strategy aligning sales, marketing, and success teams to focus on a specific set of high-value accounts.
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Sales enablement provides sales teams with the necessary tools, content, and information to help them sell more effectively and efficiently.
Logo retention is a key B2B metric that measures a company's ability to retain its customers, or 'logos,' over a specific period.
Closed Won is a CRM status for a sales deal that has been successfully concluded, resulting in a signed contract and a new customer.
Sales coaching is a process where managers help reps improve their skills and performance through personalized feedback, training, and guidance.
A sales call is a real-time conversation between a salesperson and a prospect, aiming to persuade them to purchase a product or service.
A sandbox is an isolated testing environment where new or untrusted code can be run safely without affecting the host device or network.
Lead scraping is the process of automatically extracting contact information and other relevant data about potential customers from online sources.
A commission is a service charge paid to an agent for a transaction. It's typically a percentage of the sale, rewarding performance directly.
Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.
Sales enablement content refers to the materials and tools that empower your sales team to engage prospects and close deals more efficiently.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) software helps teams coordinate personalized marketing and sales efforts to land high-value customer accounts.
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Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a web security vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into trusted websites.
Generic keywords are broad search terms that lack specific details like brand or location. They attract a wide audience with less specific intent.
Revenue forecasting is the process of estimating a company's future revenue, using historical data and market trends to guide strategic planning.
"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.
Cold calling is a sales tactic where reps contact potential customers by phone who haven't previously expressed interest in their product or service.
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Docker is a tool that packages applications and their dependencies into isolated environments called containers for easy deployment and scaling.
Feature flags let you remotely control features in your app without new code. This enables safe testing, gradual rollouts, and quick rollbacks.
White labeling is when a company puts its own branding on a product or service that was actually produced by a different company.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
Demand generation is the process of creating awareness and interest in your products to build a pipeline of qualified leads for your sales team.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the percentage of recurring revenue kept from existing customers, including upsells, downgrades, and churn.
Closed Lost is a sales term for a deal that didn't go through. The prospect decided not to buy, or the sales team disqualified them.
Enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to get a more complete picture of your leads.
A Target Account List (TAL) is a focused list of high-value companies that a business specifically aims to convert into customers.
Marketing Operations (MOps) is the engine of a marketing team, managing the technology, processes, and people to run campaigns effectively.
Consultative selling is an approach where salespeople act as expert advisors, diagnosing customer needs to provide the most suitable solutions.
Buying intent is the collection of online cues and behaviors that signal a prospect is actively researching and moving toward a purchase decision.
Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.
A sales demo is a presentation where a sales rep shows a prospect how a product or service works and solves their specific problems.
Objection handling in sales is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns about a product or service to move the deal forward.
Copyright compliance is adhering to laws that protect creative works. It involves legally using content by obtaining permission or licenses.
Cold emailing is sending unsolicited emails to potential customers you haven't contacted before, aiming to start a business conversation.
Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.
A Marketing Qualified Opportunity (MQO) is a lead vetted by marketing as a genuine sales opportunity, ready for direct sales follow-up.
Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards to non-game activities to boost engagement and motivate users.
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Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the portion of the market your business can realistically serve with its current products and sales channels.
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A sales dashboard is a visual tool that centralizes and displays key sales data, metrics, and KPIs to help teams track performance and goals.
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Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
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A sales coach is a mentor who trains and guides sales reps to enhance their skills, boost performance, and ultimately close more deals effectively.
Sales acceleration refers to strategies and technologies designed to speed up the sales cycle, enabling reps to close more deals, faster.
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Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a system of integrated software that businesses use to manage and automate their core day-to-day processes.
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of where prospects are in the sales process, from the first contact to the final sale.
CRM enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to make them more complete and accurate.
A value statement is a clear, concise declaration of the unique benefits a company provides to its customers, outlining its core purpose.
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Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.
A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a document declaring the preliminary commitment of one party to do business with another, outlining the chief terms.
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Sales partnerships are strategic alliances where two companies co-sell products to expand their reach, generate new leads, and increase revenue.
Microservices is an architecture where apps are built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate with each other over APIs.
A knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic.
A buying signal is any action from a prospect that indicates they are interested in making a purchase, helping sales teams prioritize leads.
Triggers are predefined conditions that, when met, automatically launch a workflow or action, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are websites that look and feel like native mobile apps, offering features like offline access and push notifications.
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Persona-based marketing uses fictional customer profiles, or personas, to create targeted messaging for specific audience segments.
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Outbound lead generation means proactively reaching out to potential customers who haven't yet expressed interest to introduce them to your brand.