If you're building a B2B sales team or looking to scale your lead generation, at some point you're going to hear the word SDR. But what exactly does an SDR do? How is it different from an Account Executive? What skills does the role require and how is performance measured?
In this article we explain everything you need to know about the SDR role: what it is, what the day-to-day looks like, which KPIs define whether it's working and when it makes sense to bring one onto your team, whether through direct hiring or staff augmentation.
SDR stands for Sales Development Representative. It's the profile responsible for the top of the sales funnel: identifying prospects, contacting them, qualifying them and converting them into opportunities ready for an Account Executive to close.
The SDR doesn't close deals. Their work ends when they book a qualified meeting between a prospect and the closing team. It's a specialized role with its own metrics and a defined process, and it's one of the most critical pieces of any B2B lead generation engine.
These three roles are frequently confused. Here are the key differences:
Focuses on early-stage inbound and outbound prospects. The goal is to qualify whether a prospect has the right profile, problem and intent to become a customer. Once qualified, the opportunity is passed to the Account Executive.
Similar to the SDR but with an exclusive focus on outbound prospecting and opening new markets or segments. While the SDR may work with leads that have already shown some interest, the BDR starts from scratch: identifying target accounts, building lists and generating first contact.
The closer. Takes the opportunities qualified by the SDR or BDR, works them through the sales cycle and converts prospects into customers. They don't prospect or qualify from zero — their energy is 100% focused on closing.
The separation of these roles is what allows a B2B sales team to scale efficiently. When the AE prospects and closes at the same time, neither activity gets done well.
The SDR identifies companies and contacts that fit the company's ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). They use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, ZoomInfo or Lusha to find the right contact data and build high-quality prospect lists.
This part of the work is more strategic than it seems. A poorly built list produces very low response rates and wastes everyone's time. An experienced SDR knows how to segment precisely and prioritize accounts with the highest potential.
Once the list is ready, the SDR runs initial contact campaigns across multiple channels: cold email, LinkedIn and phone calls. The goal isn't to sell on the first contact — it's to start a conversation.
A good SDR doesn't send generic emails. They personalize each message so the prospect feels it was written specifically for them, referencing their industry, their role, a relevant pain point or a recent purchase intent signal.
When a prospect responds, the SDR starts a qualification conversation. The goal is to determine whether they have the right profile to become a customer using frameworks like BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) or MEDDIC.
This is the most critical skill in the role. Qualifying well means the AE only invests time in opportunities with a real probability of closing. Qualifying poorly means the AE wastes hours in conversations that never lead anywhere.
The final output of the SDR's work is a booked meeting between the qualified prospect and the Account Executive. That meeting needs to arrive with context: the AE needs to know who the prospect is, what their problem is, what they know about the solution and what expectations they have going into the call.
The SDR logs all activities in the CRM: emails sent, responses received, calls made, conversation notes, status of each prospect in the pipeline. Without this record, it's impossible to measure, optimize and scale the process.
Not every prospect is ready to buy the moment you contact them. An effective SDR maintains relationships with prospects who showed interest but aren't ready yet, through periodic follow-ups and relevant content, until the timing is right.
Most of the SDR's work happens in writing: emails, LinkedIn messages, follow-ups. The ability to write clear, relevant messages that generate responses is the most important skill in the role. An SDR who can't write cold emails that convert can't do the job well, regardless of how many other skills they have.
An SDR receives more rejections in a week than most people do in a year. The ability to maintain motivation, volume and quality of work despite constant rejection is what separates exceptional SDRs from average ones.
In qualification conversations, the SDR needs to ask the right questions and listen carefully to understand whether the prospect is truly a fit. Genuine curiosity about the prospect's problems generates richer conversations and more accurate qualifications.
A modern SDR works with a tech stack that includes a CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce), prospecting tools (Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator), email sequencers (Outreach, Salesloft) and data enrichment tools (Lusha, ZoomInfo). Fluent use of these tools is essential to operating at the volume and consistency the role requires.
The SDR manages dozens or hundreds of prospects simultaneously at different stages of the process. Without a clear priority structure and solid operational discipline, it's easy to miss opportunities, forget follow-ups and leave money on the table.
To qualify well and have relevant conversations, the SDR needs a deep understanding of the product they represent, the problems it solves, the market it operates in and the competition. An SDR who can't answer basic product questions loses credibility and opportunities.
Activity KPIs measure the volume of work executed: emails sent, calls made, LinkedIn messages sent, follow-ups completed. These are input indicators, not output, but they're fundamental because without volume there are no results.
A productive SDR typically handles between 80 and 150 touchpoints per day distributed across channels.
Measures what percentage of sent emails are opened by the prospect. A healthy open rate in B2B cold email is between 40% and 60%. Below that, the problem usually lies in the subject line or the quality of the list.
Measures what percentage of contacted prospects respond. In B2B cold email, a response rate between 5% and 15% is a solid benchmark. Above 15% is excellent. Below 3%, something isn't working in the message or the segmentation.
The most important SDR KPI: how many qualified meetings they book per week or per month. The benchmark varies by industry and ICP, but in mid-cycle B2B sales, a productive SDR should book between 8 and 20 qualified meetings per month.
Measures what percentage of meetings booked by the SDR convert into real opportunities for the AE. If this rate is low, the problem usually lies in qualification: the SDR is booking meetings with prospects who don't fit the ICP.
Measures what percentage of prospects who confirm a meeting don't show up. A high no-show rate indicates prospects weren't sufficiently engaged or qualified. The acceptable benchmark is below 20%.
In some teams, the total value of the pipeline generated by the SDR is measured: the sum of the potential value of all the opportunities they opened. It's a KPI that directly connects the SDR's work to the company's revenue impact.
If your Account Executive is spending time on prospecting, you're paying closing rates for lead generation work. Bringing in an SDR frees the AE to focus on what they do best.
If the flow of opportunities has peaks and valleys, the problem almost always lies in the lack of a systematic prospecting process. A dedicated SDR generates a consistent and predictable flow of qualified opportunities.
In this case, staff augmentation is the smartest solution. Instead of hiring an SDR directly with all the costs and time that implies, you bring in a specialized SDR flexibly through a provider like Siete.
Hiring an SDR directly takes between 45 and 90 days between recruiting, selection and onboarding. With staff augmentation, you can have an operational SDR in 2 to 3 weeks, integrated into your tools, your process and your ICP from day one.
At Siete (Sie7e) we work with B2B companies across Latin America and the United States that need to scale their lead generation without the costs or timelines of direct hiring. Our SDRs operate integrated with your team, report with clear metrics and have one single goal: filling your pipeline with qualified meetings.
The SDR is the piece that transforms lead generation from a sporadic activity into a systematic and scalable process. Without a dedicated SDR, prospecting depends on free time that nobody has, and the pipeline is unpredictable by definition.
If your company needs more qualified opportunities, a more consistent prospecting process and Account Executives focused on closing, the fastest and most efficient path is bringing in a specialized SDR, whether directly or through Siete's staff augmentation model.
Want to see how it works for your company? Let's talk.
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