REVOPS TRAINING

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

The role responsible for creating qualified pipeline through prospecting, rather than closing it.

What the role is for

To convert attention into qualified pipeline — inbound follow-up, outbound prospecting, and the qualification conversation that decides whether a closer should spend time. The specialisation exists because prospecting and closing reward different behaviour and different rhythms.

The measure that breaks the role

Meetings booked is directly producible by the person measured on it, and it improves fastest when qualification loosens. Pair it with what those meetings converted to, measured a quarter later, or the number reliably rises while pipeline quality falls.

What determines SDR output, mostly outside the SDR

  • Lead response time. The single largest lever on inbound conversion, and it is usually a routing and capacity problem rather than an effort problem.

  • List quality. Prospecting into a poorly defined ICP produces low conversion regardless of skill or volume.

  • Acceptance criteria. If sales does not apply a shared standard, the SDR cannot aim at one.

  • Feedback. Without knowing which meetings converted, an SDR cannot improve their qualification — they can only do more of the same.

Measuring it defensibly

  1. Track SDR-sourced opportunities through to closed-won on a creation cohort, not meetings booked in a period.

  2. Report acceptance rate, and make rejection a real path with a reason code.

  3. Compare conversion of SDR-sourced against other sources. A material gap is a qualification finding, not a personnel one.

  4. Derive the ratio to AEs from your own numbers, and revisit it when either conversion rate moves.

RELATED TERMS

Account Executive (AE)

The closing role carrying a revenue number, responsible for working opportunities from qualification to signature.

Lead Response Time

The elapsed time between an inbound lead arriving and a human making a genuine first attempt to contact them.

Outbound Sales

Manufacturing pipeline by initiating contact with accounts that have not raised their hand.

Sales Accepted Lead (SAL)

A lead sales has acknowledged and agreed to work, sitting between marketing qualification and genuine pipeline.

COMMON QUESTIONS

What does an SDR do?
Works inbound and outbound prospects to a qualified meeting or opportunity, then hands off. They do not close, which is what separates the role from an account executive.
How should SDR performance be measured?
On qualified pipeline that converts, not on activity or meetings booked. Activity targets alone reliably produce activity; meetings-booked targets reliably produce meetings that nobody wanted.
What SDR-to-AE ratio is right?
Derived, not adopted. It follows from how much pipeline an AE needs, the conversion rate from SDR-sourced meetings, and how many an SDR can genuinely produce. Any published ratio encodes someone else's three numbers.
Why do SDR programmes fail?
Usually at the handoff rather than the prospecting. If accepted meetings are not worked promptly, or the acceptance criteria are not shared, the SDR is optimising toward a standard nobody applies and the pipeline they create does not convert.

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