What is an SDR?

What does an SDR do?

Salesforce describes the SDR as a sales professional who "manages all top-of-the-funnel activities in the sales cycle": everything that happens before a prospect is ready to buy. In practice that is four jobs.

• Prospecting. Building the list of companies and people who fit your ideal customer profile.
• Outreach. Writing to and calling people who did not ask to hear from you, and following up.
• Qualifying. Checking that the person has the problem, the role and the timing to be worth a meeting.
• Booking. Putting a first meeting on the calendar of the account executive who will run the deal.

Salesforce adds that SDRs "often function as a bridge between the sales and marketing departments, doing a mix of inbound and outbound presales work."

Is an SDR the same as a BDR?

Often, in practice. Many companies use the two titles for one job. Where they split them, the SDR follows up on inbound leads and the BDR starts outbound conversations. SDR vs BDR sets the two side by side.

How do you measure an SDR?

An SDR's output is a first meeting, so count meetings. Count held meetings, not booked ones: a booked meeting is a time on a calendar, and a held meeting is a call that took place. To see what one held meeting costs you with an in-house SDR, use the SDR cost calculator.

Where does Dylan fit?

Dylan is an AI agent built by Belkins that does the email side of the job. He writes from his own mailboxes, follows up, answers routine replies and books meetings into your calendar. Pricing, legal questions and complaints go to your team, and you pay per held meeting. He does not make phone calls.