Glossary · Roles

Sales development representative (SDR)

A sales development representative (SDR) works at the top of the sales funnel, researching prospects, sending outreach by email, phone, and LinkedIn, and booking qualified meetings for account executives or founders. SDRs are measured on activity and meetings booked rather than closed deals, which keeps closers focused on selling.

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What it means in practice

An SDR program needs three things to work: a clear ideal customer profile, a tested message, and a way to measure activity and replies. Without them, even a strong SDR spends the day on lists that will never convert.

Offshore SDRs who work U.S. hours can call and email prospects live during their business day. Rekruuto places full-time SDRs, lead generation specialists, and cold email specialists in the Philippines at $1,800 a month.

Read more in our sales and lead generation articles, or see the outsourced SDR page.

What to prepare before an SDR starts

  • A written ideal customer profile: industries, company size, job titles, and the problem you solve for them.
  • A tested outreach sequence across email, phone, and LinkedIn, with the reason to reply in the first line.
  • A clear definition of a qualified meeting that your closer agrees with.
  • A CRM set up to log every touch, so activity and replies can be measured.
  • Weekly targets for activity and meetings booked, reviewed together every Friday.
  • Key performance indicator (KPI)

    A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that shows whether a person, team, or process is meeting its goals.

  • Role scorecard

    A role scorecard is a one-page definition of what success looks like in a job: the mission, three to five measurable outcomes, and the competencies needed to deliver them.

  • Time-zone overlap

    Time-zone overlap is the number of working hours two people or teams share live on the same day.

Read next

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