In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, two acronyms frequently cause confusion: SDR and BDR. While the roles overlap, their distinctions matter—especially when building a high-performing sales strategy. Knowing where each fits can be the difference between wasted effort and accelerated growth.
What Are SDRs and BDRs?
Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) focus primarily on inbound lead qualification. They engage prospects who’ve already shown interest—through website visits, content downloads, or demo requests. SDRs are the gatekeepers for warm leads, ensuring only qualified opportunities reach your Account Executives.
Business Development Representatives (BDRs), on the other hand, specialise in outbound prospecting. They research, identify, and connect with potential customers who may not be actively searching for your solution. If SDRs are filters, BDRs are hunters—proactively creating opportunities from scratch.
According to Salesforce’s State of Sales Report 2023, companies that deploy both SDRs and BDRs achieve 36% higher conversion rates than those relying on just one role.
Core Responsibilities
SDRs spend their time responding to inbound enquiries, nurturing prospects through the early stages, scoring leads, and booking meetings for Account Executives. Their work is especially cost-effective in organisations with strong marketing engines, as HubSpot reports that inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound ones.
BDRs pursue cold leads. Their day typically involves researching target accounts, making cold calls, sending personalised outreach emails, leveraging LinkedIn for social selling, and building rapport with decision-makers. Unsurprisingly, this requires persistence: Bridge Group found BDRs need 67% more touches than SDRs to secure a meeting.
Key Performance Indicators
For SDRs, success is measured by efficiency in handling inbound leads. Benchmarks include lead response time (ideally under five minutes), lead-to-opportunity conversion rates of 15–20%, and the number of qualified meetings booked per month. Secondary indicators—like email response rates or pipeline value generated—help refine performance.
For BDRs, KPIs reflect outbound challenges. Volume plays a bigger role here: number of new prospects contacted daily, call-to-meeting conversion rates (typically 1–3%), email open rates, and opportunities created from cold outreach. Successful BDRs make an average of 52 calls a day, with top performers pushing above 75 (Outreach.io, 2023).
Skills That Drive Success
SDRs thrive on active listening, fast qualification, objection handling, and strong CRM discipline. They’re at their best when building rapport with people already curious about solutions like yours.
BDRs need resilience and creativity. They excel at prospect research, writing personalised messages, and breaking through gatekeepers. Social selling and account-based marketing skills are critical, especially in industries where deals require months of nurturing.
Career Path and Compensation
Both SDR and BDR roles are classic entry points into sales. RepVue’s 2023 salary data shows UK SDRs earn about £28,000 base (£42,000 OTE), while BDRs average slightly higher at £30,000 base (£45,000 OTE). Progression usually moves from SDR/BDR to Account Executive, then into senior AE or account management roles. Notably, 73% of Account Executives started in SDR/BDR positions.
Which Role Fits Your Business?
The right mix depends on your growth stage:
Most organisations benef
- Companies with strong marketing pipelines often get more value from SDRs, since inbound leads are already flowing in.
- Businesses in niche markets, or those expanding into new territories, rely more heavily on BDRs to generate opportunities where none yet exist.
it from both. Salesforce data shows hybrid SDR/BDR teams deliver 24% higher quota attainment than those using only one approach.
How SendIQ Supports Both
At SendIQ, we’ve seen that SDRs succeed when supported with tools like website visitor identification, enabling them to prioritise the warmest inbound prospects. For BDRs, our LinkedIn automation, email outreach, and cold calling capabilities help scale outbound efforts without losing the human touch.
Ultimately, the question isn’t “SDRs or BDRs?” but “How do both roles fit into your revenue engine?” Aligning their responsibilities ensures no opportunity slips through the cracks—whether it starts as an inbound lead or a cold prospect.
