BDR vs SDR: Roles & Responsibilities

The modern sales team is a machine of many parts, dependant on various roles to generate leads and achieve sales funnel success. But in truth, many sales professionals, even those intimately involved with the sales process, don't fully understand the differences between those roles.

Since you're here, we're guessing you'd like to know a little more about the differences between two of the most important sales team roles: BDR vs SDR (or 'Business Development Representative' vs 'Sales Development Representative').

The two roles are similar enough and linked enough to cause confusion. However, as we're going to explain, they're actually very different roles, each with their own distinct duties and responsibilities.

So if you're interested in business development and are putting together a sales team, or you're thinking of applying to a position within a sales organization, this article should have everything you need to know to hit the ground running.

We're going to take a look at the detailed roles and responsibilities of Business Development Representatives and Sales Development Representatives, the key differences between them, the skills needed to succeed in these roles, how they collaborate, and much more.

Let's get started.

BDR vs SDR: an overview

While both BDRs and SDRs share commonalities (for example, they'll both use the same integrated software tools and both contribute to the sales pipeline), the two roles are not the same.

Let's explore the broad definitions of 'Business Development Representative' and 'Sales Development Representative'.

What is a Business Development Representative?

You know what BDR stands for, but what exactly does a BDR do?

In essence, Business Development Representatives are responsible for finding top-of-funnel business opportunities and potential customers. As the name would suggest, their job is to ensure the continued development of the business by reaching new people and researching new markets.

What is a Sales Development Representative?

You might think of SDRs as the 'next stage' in the sales process; they take on cold leads and inbound prospects and try to guide them through the sales funnel, developing relationships and basically turning potential customers into qualified leads. They'll also work to set up appointments for others in the sales teams to fulfil.

The key roles and responsibilities of BDRs

As top-of-funnel sales professionals, BDRs focus primarily on outward expansion. That said, their job is no easy task; a successful BDR must take on a whole range of challenging responsibilities in order to succeed.

1. Lead generation‍
   
   • Armed with a well-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), BDRs will scour various platforms to identify prospects. This will often include LinkedIn, CRM systems, industry directories, databases and more.
     
   • They may also use sales engagement and business intelligence tools to gather data on their leads so as to more accurately understand their needs and pain points and provide tailored solutions.‍
2. Market research‍
   
   • One of the key responsibilities of a BDR is to stay on top of industry trends and emerging markets in order to identify business opportunities. They may also analyze existing business relationships and customer data to help personalize their outreach efforts.‍
     
3. Initial outreach‍
   
   • As BDRs operate at the top of the funnel, this involves spearheading the initial stages of contact with prospects. In practice, that means reaching out to potential customers via phone, email, or LinkedIn.

The key roles and responsibilities of SDRs

Whereas BDRs are busy identifying leads and outbound lead prospecting, SDRs take a leading role in qualifying leads and relationship building.

1. Inbound lead qualification‍
   
   • As we've discussed, not all lead generation is outbound. Some leads come in from marketing campaigns, ads, SEO, social media, and other platforms. It's the role of an SDR to manage these inbound leads and guide them further into the sales pipeline.
   • Speedy follow ups are key here; according to some research, following up within five minutes boosts your chances of converting by nine times!‍
2. Lead nurturing‍
   
   • Sales development reps play a key role in the middle of the pipeline. Essentially, it's their job to turn prospects from 'interested' into 'decided'.
   • They do this by engaging in personalized correspondence and timely follow ups to give the prospect all the information they need to make their decision and making that decision as easy as possible.‍
3. Appointment setting‍
   
   • The SDR's job doesn't end with nurturing; next, they have to secure that all-important meeting between the lead and a sales executive.
   • It's down to SDRs to schedule the appointments and make all the necessary preparations to facilitate its success.

Key differences between BDRs and SDRs

You may have gathered some of the major differences between Business Development Reps and Sales Development Reps already, but for the sake of clarity, let's put it down in black and white:

• Focus areas‍
  
  • Whereas the BDR is searching out areas for business development opportunities and new leads, SDRs are taking charge of inbound leads and lead qualification.‍
• Stages of the sales funnel‍
  
  • BDRs are top-of-funnel sales specialists; it's their job to bring potential clients from new markets into the sales funnel. SDRs, on the other hand, operate lower down the funnel, qualifying existing leads and ushering them through the sales pipeline.‍
• Metrics and KPIs‍
  
  • Given their different roles, the way in which a business measures a BDR's or an SDR's success will vary. For example, you might measure a Business Development Representative's success through number of outbound leads, outreach activities, click-through rates, lead conversion rate, and so on. A Sales Development Representative, however, will be judged on their lead response time, their lead qualification rate, and the number of appointments they set.

Skills and qualities needed by BDRs and SDRs

If you're interviewing for sales team roles, or, indeed, if you're a sales professional looking to dive into a new role, you may be wondering what kinds of skills and qualities best suit each role. To help make this process as simple as possible, we've distilled a few key points:

Essential skills for Business Development Reps

It's a competitive world, and today's BDRs need a variety of skills to see them through.

• Research and analytical skills‍
  
  • BDRs spend around 37% of their work week researching potential clients and a great deal more analyzing them.‍
• Communication skills‍
  
  • As the first impression of the business, BDRs need to be adept communicators capable of conveying your solution, your values, your professionalism, and more, all at once.‍
• Persistence‍
  
  • Did you know that among the fourteen major industries the average conversion rate is just 2.9%? With numbers like those, it takes a lot of resilience to push through.

Essential skills for Sales Development Reps

If you want to provide your sales team with qualified leads and ensure an effective sales process, your SDRs need to be proficient in the following areas:

• Interpersonal skills‍
  
  • The Business Development Representative has done the initial outreach, but the SDR needs to keep them hooked. This involves not only personalization, but prompt response times, too.‍
• Time management
  
  • ‍Chances are, your SDRs are juggling many leads at once; they need to be able to give appropriate responses to each at the drop of a hat, as well as managing appointments for sales executives.‍
• Sales development software‍
  
  • An SDR spends most of their day operating with advanced sales engagement and CRM software; to guarantee a smooth sales process, it's essential that they become proficient in your chosen platform.

What makes the best sales team?

Ultimately, the best sales teams fully understand the delineations of the roles within it. For BDRs and SDRs, this means understanding where they link - use of the same software, 'passing on' leads, ensuring alignment of goals - and where they diverge - BDRs are responsible for finding new business opportunities while SDRs need to usher leads through the pipeline.

Each role requires its own set of skills and qualities which, when applied, will help boost lead generation efforts. A BDR or SDR's success in that endeavour will ultimately be judged on a variety of metrics like conversion rates, response times, lead volume, and click-through rates.

Many businesses choose to outsource lead generation and sales development to expert lead gen services like Leadium. Evidence suggests that outsourced lead generation can result in 43% more outcomes, and when you're getting the benefit of ready-made sales teams led by founders and producing the highest-quality multi-channel engagement strategies, it's no wonder why.

Why not check out Leadium's industry-leading B2B sales services and see what they can do for you today?