The short answer
In B2B sales, an SDR is a sales development representative: the person who finds companies that could buy, starts the conversation, checks whether there is a real opportunity and books a meeting for an account executive (AE), who runs the deal and closes it. The SDR sits between marketing and sales. A typical week is split between research, call blocks, emails and LinkedIn messages, answering inbound requests quickly and writing handover notes in the CRM. SDRs are measured on meetings booked and held, and on how much of that becomes qualified pipeline the AE accepts, not on revenue closed. AI now takes over much of the research and list-building. The conversations, and the judgement about whether a lead is worth an AE's hour, stay with the SDR.
The definition follows common usage in B2B sales teams and the Wikipedia entry on sales development, read on 1 October 2026.
What an SDR does
The job is the first part of the sales process, up to the point where a buyer agrees to a proper conversation. Four tasks fill most of the week.
Prospecting. Building and working a list of companies that match the ideal customer profile, and finding the right person at each one. How to set that up step by step is in the prospecting guide for Belgium.
First contact. Calls, emails and LinkedIn messages, usually as a sequence of several touches over a few weeks rather than one attempt.
Qualifying. Checking in the conversation whether the company fits, whether this is the right person, whether there is a reason to act now and whether they can pay. How to qualify a lead sets out those four questions.
Booking and handing over. Putting the meeting in the AE's calendar and writing down what was learned, so the buyer does not have to repeat themselves. B2B appointment setting covers how to get from a first reply to a meeting that actually happens.
In a European team, two things are added. The SDR often works in more than one language: in Belgium a single list can need Dutch, French and English openings. And the rules on first contact differ by country, so the channel an SDR may open with in Belgium is not always the one allowed in the Netherlands or Germany. What cold outreach is allowed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany compares them.
SDR, BDR and AE compared
The titles are used loosely. The most common split is that an SDR follows up on inbound interest and a BDR (business development representative) opens accounts that have shown no interest yet, but many companies use the two words for the same job. Ask what the role actually does before comparing offers or job descriptions.
Role | Main job | Starts from | Hands over | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
SDR | Qualify interest and book meetings | Mostly inbound leads: demo requests, form fills, event contacts | A qualified meeting to the AE | Meetings booked and held, speed of follow-up |
BDR | Open new accounts and book meetings | Mostly outbound: target accounts with no interest shown yet | A qualified meeting to the AE | Meetings booked and held, pipeline created |
AE | Run the sales cycle and close | The meeting the SDR or BDR booked | A signed customer, often to account management | Revenue closed against quota |
Smaller companies often have no separate SDR at all: the AE or the founder prospects and closes. The role usually appears once there are enough deals that the AE's time is better spent in meetings than on finding them. Many AEs start as SDRs, which is one reason companies hire for the role.
A realistic day and the tools
No two teams run the same schedule, but a working day tends to look like this:
Morning: the list. Decide which accounts to work today and why now: a new vacancy, a new director, a visit to the website. Research each one briefly and find the person to contact.
Late morning: a call block. An hour or two of calls with notifications off, working the accounts researched earlier.
Throughout: inbound. New demo requests are answered first. A request that waits a day is a colder conversation.
Afternoon: written touches. Follow-up emails and LinkedIn messages in the sequence, replies, and rebooking meetings that moved.
End of day: the CRM. Log outcomes, write handover notes for meetings booked, and record why a lead was dropped.
The tools behind that day are usually five: a CRM that holds the accounts and the history; a source of company and contact data to build the list; a sequencing tool for the emails and follow-ups; a phone or dialer; and LinkedIn. A calendar link for booking and a place to find buying signals complete the set. The research step is the one that eats the morning, and it is the one that tooling has changed most.
How SDR performance is measured
The most common quota element for an SDR is the meeting that is held, not just booked, and bonus plans are often tied to it. Good teams look at a short chain of numbers rather than one:
Meetings booked and meetings held. The gap between the two says a lot about how well the meeting was set up.
Meetings accepted by the AE as qualified. The AE decides after the first conversation whether it was a real opportunity. This keeps the SDR from booking meetings that only fill a calendar.
Qualified pipeline created. The value of opportunities that came from the SDR's meetings. It links the role to revenue without holding the SDR to a close that someone else runs.
Activity. Calls, emails and conversations are useful as leading indicators to coach on, but a poor goal on their own: they reward volume over relevance.
Write the definition of a qualified meeting down, agree it between SDR and AE, and review it every quarter. Targets without that definition turn into arguments about lead quality. Published benchmarks for meetings per month vary so widely by market, deal size and inbound share that it is better to set targets from your own first three months.
How AI changes the SDR role
The parts of the job that are research are moving to software. Finding companies that match a profile, checking whether they still exist and are growing, spotting a reason to call, finding the contact and drafting a first message used to take hours per rep per week. AI tools now do most of that before the SDR starts. The rise of AI sales agents explains how they work, and AI SDR tools for European teams compares seven of them on price, languages and data source.
What stays human is the conversation: hearing on a call that the timing is wrong, noticing the buyer is not the decision-maker, and judging whether a meeting is worth an AE's hour. The SDR's week shifts from building lists to talking to the companies on them.
That is where Bizzy fits. Describe your customer once, and Bizzy keeps finding the next ones: it reads Belgian companies from the KBO register, filed accounts at the National Bank of Belgium and publications in the Official Gazette against what you sell, qualifies them, and delivers the matches with the reason each one is on the list, ready to push into HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Teamleader Focus or Odoo. Companies in the Netherlands and other countries are covered through Creditsafe data. The SDR starts the week with the list already there, and has more time for real conversations. Plans start free; see pricing.
Where the role leads next: what an account manager does and inside versus field sales.
Frequently asked questions
What does SDR stand for? In sales, SDR stands for sales development representative: the person who prospects, qualifies and books meetings for account executives.
What is the difference between an SDR and a BDR? Usually an SDR follows up on inbound interest and a BDR prospects outbound into accounts that have shown no interest, but many companies use both titles for the same job.
What is an SDR measured on? Mainly meetings held and the qualified pipeline those meetings create, as accepted by the account executive. Activity counts are used for coaching, not as the goal.
Will AI replace SDRs? AI takes over research, list-building and first drafts. The conversations and the judgement about whether a lead is worth pursuing stay with people, so the role shifts towards more time talking to buyers.
Photo: office towers on the Zuidas in Amsterdam, Choinowski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons