SDR: what a sales development representative does

The SDR role exists because finding and qualifying buyers is a different job from closing them. Splitting the two lets closers spend their time on serious conversations.

A typical SDR day includes:

• Researching accounts and contacts that fit the ideal customer profile.
• Sending emails, making calls and writing social messages.
• Following up on inbound leads.
• Asking qualifying questions and passing sales qualified leads to an AE.

Writing the messages is usually easier than knowing who should get them. An SDR working from a list of companies that merely fit the profile sends a lot of messages and gets few replies. An SDR who knows which people have just described the problem in public can start with those people.

These are the posts an SDR would want at the top of their list each morning. Sample sentences, scored 0 to 100 for buying intent the way HearBuyers scores posts:

• Sample, score 91. "We're evaluating call recording tools this month for a 20-rep team. What's worked for you?" It names an evaluation, a team size and a timeframe.
• Sample, score 66. "Our reps hate our dialer." Pain without a request. Worth watching.
• Sample, score 0. "Hiring: SDR, remote, base plus commission." This is a job post, not a buyer. Filter these out.

Job posts are among the most common false matches when you search for sales-related keywords.

• Measuring SDRs on activity alone. Calls and emails are easy to count, but what matters is meetings that turn into pipeline.
• Handing over unqualified meetings. AEs lose trust in the SDR team fast.
• Using one sequence for everyone. Someone who asked for help in public should get a reply to their post, not step one of a cold sequence.
• Treating SDR as only an entry-level role. Good SDRs build deep market knowledge that the rest of the team relies on.

• Outbound sales: the motion most SDR teams run.
• Prospecting: the core SDR activity.
• Lead qualification: how SDRs decide what to hand over.
• Sales qualified lead: the hand-off point to an AE.

For a sales team that wants stated intent next to its account lists, see HearBuyers for sales teams.