SDR vs BDR: the short answer
Both roles exist for the same reason: account executives close more when someone else creates and qualifies their conversations. Both roles sit at the top of the sales process and hand qualified meetings to account executives (AEs). The most common distinction is the source of the leads: an SDR qualifies people who came to the company (demo requests, sign-ups, content downloads), while a BDR finds and contacts companies that have not shown interest yet. In short: SDR is often inbound, BDR is often outbound.
That distinction is a convention, not a standard. Plenty of companies call their outbound prospectors SDRs, some use BDR for partnership or channel roles, and many small teams have one person doing everything under either title. When you read a job description, look at what the person will do, not at the three letters.
What is an SDR?
A sales development representative researches, contacts and qualifies potential customers, then books meetings with AEs. In companies that separate the roles, the SDR focuses on inbound: responding quickly to people who raised their hand, asking qualifying questions and routing them. Speed matters most, because inbound interest cools within hours.
Our full guide on what an SDR is covers the day-to-day work, skills, metrics and pay structure in detail.
What is a BDR?
BDR meaning: a business development representative is a sales role focused on creating new opportunities, most often through outbound prospecting. A BDR chooses target accounts, finds the right contact, looks for a reason to reach out, writes and calls, follows up and books meetings for AEs.
The BDR job is research-heavy. Most of the value comes from choosing the right companies and the right moment, then writing a message the prospect wants to answer. That is why BDR teams lean on account lists, buying signals and strong writing; see how to write a cold email.
In some companies, "business development" means partnerships rather than sales. A BDR there might recruit resellers, integration partners or affiliates. Check the job description.
Outbound BDR work is also where the rules of email matter most, because every message goes to someone who did not ask for it. Honest sender details, a working opt-out, modest sending volumes and fast suppression of anyone who says no protect both the prospect and the company's ability to reach inboxes at all.
SDR vs BDR, side by side
| SDR (sales development representative) | BDR (business development representative) | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead source | Mostly inbound: people who contacted the company | Mostly outbound: companies that have not shown interest yet |
| First task on a lead | Respond fast and qualify | Research, find the right person and a reason to reach out |
| Main channels | Email and phone replies, chat, scheduling | Cold email, calls, social messages |
| Pace | Driven by inbound volume, often reactive | Self-directed, planned around account lists |
| Core skill | Qualification and speed | Research, targeting, writing, persistence |
| Typical metrics | Speed to lead, meetings held, conversion of inbound leads | Positive reply rate, meetings held, pipeline from new accounts |
| Works most with | Marketing, who generates the inbound leads | Sales leadership and AEs, who agree target accounts |
| Biggest risk | Slow response loses interested buyers | Generic outreach gets ignored or flagged as spam |
| Hands off to | Account executive | Account executive |
Why companies use the titles differently
Sales titles grew up company by company, so the same role carries different names. Three setups are common:
Split by lead source
SDRs handle inbound, BDRs handle outbound, both report to a sales development manager. Common in software companies with meaningful inbound volume and a defined set of target accounts.
One title for everything
Everyone is an SDR (or everyone is a BDR) and does both inbound follow-up and outbound prospecting. Common in early-stage companies where volume does not justify specialization.
Split by segment or market
BDRs focus on enterprise or strategic accounts with account-based outreach, while SDRs cover the mid-market or small business segment. The difference is account size, not lead source.
A day in each role
| Time | Inbound SDR | Outbound BDR |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | Respond to overnight demo requests and sign-ups, qualify, book meetings | Review new signals and target accounts, research the day's first batch |
| Late morning | Calls with inbound leads, route those who are not a fit | Write first emails around each account's trigger |
| Early afternoon | Follow up on leads who did not book, update the CRM | Follow-ups due, replies, first qualifying conversations |
| Late afternoon | New inbound as it arrives, handoff notes to AEs | Book meetings, handoff notes, plan tomorrow's accounts |
The same company, seen by an SDR and by a BDR
Imagine an invented 90-person logistics software company, RouteLine, that could use your product. How it reaches your team decides which role handles it, and the first message looks very different.
Inbound: the SDR's reply
RouteLine's head of operations downloads your onboarding checklist and books nothing. The SDR writes within the hour: "Hi Jordan, thanks for grabbing the onboarding checklist. Teams usually download it when a big customer is about to go live. Is that the case at RouteLine, or are you reviewing the process in general? Happy to share how others structure the first 30 days." The job is to understand what triggered the interest and qualify it quickly.
Outbound: the BDR's first email
RouteLine has never heard of you, but it just posted a job for a "customer onboarding lead" to handle "a growing number of enterprise go-lives". The BDR writes: "Hi Jordan, saw you are hiring an onboarding lead for enterprise go-lives. Most teams at that stage run onboarding from spreadsheets until the first big customer slips. We give each account a shared plan with owners and dates. Worth a short look before the new hire starts?" The job is to find the reason and make the first message relevant; see hiring signals.
How SDRs and BDRs work together
When a company has both roles, the friction points are predictable: the same account contacted twice, leads falling between the two, and disputes about who sourced a deal. A few simple rules prevent most of it.
- One owner per account at a time. If an outbound account becomes inbound (they book a demo after a BDR email), decide in advance who keeps it.
- A shared suppression list. Anyone who opts out or is in an active deal is excluded from every sequence.
- The same qualification standard. AEs should receive the same kind of meeting from both roles.
- Shared learning. Questions inbound leads ask are good material for outbound messages, and outbound replies show which problems to address in content.
Reach companies with a reason to buy this week
Startories finds the buying signal, verifies the decision-maker and runs the outreach until they book a call.
Designing pay for each role
Compensation shapes behavior, so it should reward what the company actually needs. Paying per meeting booked encourages meetings that never happen or go nowhere; paying on meetings held, or on opportunities accepted by the AE, aligns the rep with the outcome. For inbound SDRs, adding a speed-to-lead expectation keeps the most valuable leads from cooling. For outbound BDRs, a ramp period with reduced targets is usually needed, because building account lists and messages takes time before replies come in.
Whatever the plan, keep it simple enough that reps can calculate their own pay, and review it when the definition of the role changes. A plan that pays the same way for inbound and outbound work usually over-rewards one of them, because an inbound meeting takes far less effort to book than an outbound one.
How SDRs and BDRs are measured
Both roles should be judged on outcomes, not activity. The difference is where the funnel starts.
- Speed to lead (SDR): time between an inbound request and the first human response. Slow response is the most common leak in inbound.
- Inbound conversion (SDR): share of inbound leads that become qualified meetings.
- Positive reply rate (BDR): interested replies divided by people contacted. It shows whether targeting and reasons for writing work.
- Meetings held (both): booked meetings that actually happened.
- Qualified opportunities (both): meetings the AE accepted as real opportunities.
- Pipeline sourced (both): value of opportunities that started with the rep.
Skills and profile
What makes a strong SDR
- Fast, organized and calm under a stream of incoming requests.
- Good at asking a few sharp questions and listening to the answer.
- Comfortable routing people elsewhere when they are not a fit.
- Clear on the product, so first questions from new leads get confident, accurate answers.
What makes a strong BDR
- Curious: enjoys researching companies and finding a reason to write.
- A clear writer who can explain a problem in two sentences.
- Persistent without being pushy, and resilient to silence.
- Disciplined about email rules and sending habits; see the deliverability guide.
Which one should you hire first?
Look at your inbound volume
If demo requests and sign-ups already arrive faster than anyone can answer them well, an inbound-focused SDR pays off quickly.
Look at your target list
If you can name the companies you want and inbound is thin, an outbound BDR (or an outbound engine) creates the conversations you are missing.
Check who takes the meetings
Either hire needs an AE or a founder with time to take the meetings. Without that, the meetings go nowhere.
Prove the motion first
Someone, usually the founder, should have booked meetings by hand before you hire, so the new person scales something that works; see founder-led sales.
Count the full cost
Salary is only part of it: taxes, benefits, tools, data, management and ramp time add up. See what an SDR really costs.
What to put in the job description
Because the titles are ambiguous, the job description has to do the work. Candidates read "SDR" and "BDR" through their last company's definition, so spell out:
- Lead sources: inbound only, outbound only, or both, with a rough share of time for each.
- Channels: email, phone, social messages, events; and which ones are expected daily.
- Target market: segments, company sizes and regions the person will cover.
- Tools and inputs: CRM, sequencing tool, data sources, and whether account lists or buying signals are provided.
- What success looks like: the metrics, the targets during ramp and the handoff standard.
- Who they work with: the AEs they support and how meetings are handed over.
- Pay structure: base, variable, what the variable is paid on, and the ramp period.
Mistakes companies make when splitting the roles
- Splitting too early. With low volume, two specialists sit idle half the time; one generalist is better.
- No account ownership rules. Prospects receive outbound emails while they are in an inbound conversation.
- Different qualification bars. AEs start ignoring meetings from one source and the whole system loses trust.
- Outbound without inputs. Asking a BDR to "find companies" without a defined ICP, list sources or buying signals wastes most of their time.
- Measuring only activity. Calls and emails sent say little about meetings held and pipeline.
How AI is changing both roles
AI tools now handle a large share of the research and drafting that BDRs used to do by hand, and they speed up inbound qualification for SDRs. "AI SDR" products go further and run prospecting and follow-ups on their own; see what an AI SDR is and AI SDR vs human SDR.
The likely result is not the end of either role but a shift in what people spend time on: fewer hours on lists and first drafts, more on live conversations, qualification judgment and complex accounts. Teams that combine a smaller number of reps with good tooling often get more meetings than larger teams working from static lists.
Career paths and pay
Both roles are common entry points into B2B sales. Typical next steps are account executive, team lead or manager, or moves into marketing, partnerships, revenue operations or customer success. BDR experience is often valued for AE roles that involve finding new business; SDR experience helps in roles that depend on fast, structured qualification.
Pay structures are similar: a base salary plus a variable part tied to meetings, opportunities or pipeline. Figures vary widely by location and company, and official statistics group these jobs into broader sales occupations (BLS: sales occupations).
Where Startories fits
Startories does the research-heavy outbound work of a BDR: it watches Reddit, X, Product Hunt, directories and search for buying signals, matches them to companies that fit your profile, finds and verifies the decision-maker, writes a first email around the event and runs follow-ups that stop on reply. Every reply is classified with a suggested answer, so your SDRs, BDRs or founders spend time on conversations.
It works by email only, within the rules mailbox providers set (Google sender guidelines) and with an opt-out in every email, as US law requires for commercial email (FTC CAN-SPAM guide). See the AI SDR page or pricing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an SDR and a BDR?
Where companies distinguish them, an SDR qualifies inbound leads who contacted the company, and a BDR prospects outbound to companies that have not shown interest yet. Many companies use the titles interchangeably.
What does BDR mean?
BDR stands for business development representative: a sales role that creates new opportunities, usually through outbound prospecting by email, phone and social messages, and books meetings for account executives.
Is a BDR higher than an SDR?
Not as a rule. Both are usually early-career roles at the same level. Some companies treat outbound BDR work as harder and pay or promote accordingly, but there is no standard hierarchy.
Should I hire an SDR or a BDR first?
If inbound requests already outpace your team, start with an inbound SDR. If inbound is thin and you can name the companies you want, start with outbound, through a BDR or an outbound engine.
What metrics matter for SDRs and BDRs?
Speed to lead and inbound conversion for SDRs; positive reply rate for BDRs; and for both, meetings held, qualified opportunities and pipeline sourced.
Can one person be both an SDR and a BDR?
Yes, and in small companies that is normal. The risk is that urgent inbound follow-up crowds out outbound research, so protect fixed time for outbound in the calendar.
Will AI replace BDRs?
AI already handles much of the research, drafting and follow-up timing. Live conversations, qualification judgment and complex accounts still benefit from people, so teams are changing shape rather than disappearing.