What is a Sales Development Representative?
A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is an outbound prospector whose job is to generate qualified pipeline for Account Executives. SDRs research target accounts, craft personalized outreach, and book discovery calls — their metric is meetings set, not deals closed. At a startup, SDRs are often the engine of top-of-funnel growth, scaling outbound in a way that founders and AEs can't sustain alone.
At what stage should you hire a Sales Development Representative?
Series A and beyond, once you have at least one AE to receive the meetings the SDR generates. Hiring an SDR before you have a functioning sales process and a quota-carrying AE to close deals leads to wasted pipeline. The signal: your AEs are spending significant time on prospecting that an SDR could handle, reducing their closing capacity.
Common titles for this role
- Sales Development Representative
- SDR
- Business Development Representative (BDR)
- Outbound Sales Representative
- Market Development Representative (MDR)
- Junior Sales Representative
What does an SDR do at a startup?
- Research target accounts and identify the right contacts to reach out to
- Execute outbound sequences via email, phone, and LinkedIn
- Qualify inbound leads and route them to the appropriate AE
- Book discovery calls and demos for the sales team
- Maintain CRM hygiene: accurate activity logging, contact data, and pipeline status
- Provide feedback on message resonance and ICP signal to sales leadership
- Hit weekly activity metrics: emails sent, calls made, meetings booked
Key skills and qualifications
- 1–3 years of sales or business development experience (or exceptional first-time SDR candidates)
- Strong written communication — SDR emails are often the first impression your company makes
- Resilience and consistency: SDR work is high-volume and high-rejection
- Research skills: ability to personalize outreach based on account and contact research
- CRM proficiency: Salesforce or HubSpot activity logging and pipeline management
- Coachability: openness to feedback and willingness to iterate on messaging
Why hire your SDR through RFS?
- SDR is a high-volume role — we move fast and screen for the right mix of grit, communication skill, and learning agility
- 29-day average time to hire — SDR searches should be fast; with RFS they are
- 300+ placements at VC-backed companies across all GTM functions
- Pre-vetted for written communication quality and track record of quota attainment
- No upfront fees — contingency model
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