12 NOVEMBER 2026 · 4 MIN READ · BEN FILDES
What is an SDR? The role, the numbers, and when to hire one or outsource it
An SDR, or sales development representative, is the person who finds new prospects, starts the conversation and books a first meeting for someone else to close. They prospect and qualify. The account executive sells.
That is the whole job in two sentences. The rest of this post is for the founder or sales leader deciding whether to hire one: what the role does each week, what it costs in the UK, and when the same work is cheaper run for you.
SDR, BDR and AE: who does what
Sales teams split the work into stages, and the titles follow the stages.
| Title | Stands for | Main job | Judged on |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR | Sales development representative | Prospecting and qualifying, often including inbound leads | Meetings held |
| BDR | Business development representative | Outbound prospecting into new accounts | Meetings held |
| AE | Account executive | Running the sales process and closing | Revenue |
| AM | Account manager | Keeping and growing existing customers | Retention and upsell |
Many companies use SDR and BDR for the same role. The line that matters is between the people who book meetings and the people who close them.
What an SDR does in a week
Most of an SDR's week goes on the same five jobs:
- Building the list. Finding companies that fit, and the person in each who owns the problem.
- Outreach. The Bridge Group's 2025 daily medians are 44 dials, 41 emails and 19 LinkedIn touches.
- Follow-up. Most replies come after the second or third touch, not the first.
- Qualifying. A short call to check that the person has the problem, the budget and the authority.
- Handover. Booking the meeting into an account executive's diary, with notes.
On a good week the list is fresh and the replies come in. On a bad week the SDR is calling a stale list at four o'clock to reach a number.
What an SDR costs in the UK
Salary. The Indeed UK average for a business development or sales development role is £42,625. Add employer National Insurance and pension and you are at roughly £4,100 a month. Commission, data, a dialler and a LinkedIn Sales Navigator seat are on top.
Ramp. The Bridge Group puts ramp time at about three months. The first quarter costs around £12,000 and produces very little.
Output. The median quota is ten held meetings a month, of which about six become opportunities.
Attrition. Median attrition is about 40% a year, and average tenure is under two years.
Put together, from month four that is about £410 a held meeting, if they hit quota. Across a typical year including the ramp and a replacement, it is closer to £550.
When to hire an SDR
An in-house SDR is the right call when:
- The product needs explaining. If the first conversation needs twenty minutes of product knowledge, someone who lives inside your business will have it.
- Your market is a named list of fifty accounts. You need one person who knows all fifty, not volume.
- You are building a sales career ladder. Many good account executives start as SDRs.
- Demand is proven. You know who buys and why, and the job is doing more of it.
When to outsource the SDR work
Outsourcing wins when:
- Your closers are prospecting. You are paying closing money for SDR work.
- You cannot afford the ramp. Three months of salary for almost nothing is a real bet for a team of three.
- Attrition has burned you. If the last two SDRs left at month nine, the pipeline left with them.
- You want more than one channel from day one. LinkedIn, email, text and a phone at once, rather than one person learning each in turn.
That work is usually sold as appointment setting. What appointment setting is, and what an appointment setter does explains the model, and outsourced SDR or in-house SDR puts the two side by side on the same numbers.
How we run the SDR work for you
We run the outreach from your team's own LinkedIn profiles, carry it on by email and text, and a British caller rings every interested reply within 24 hours and books the meeting into the right diary, with notes. No-shows are chased and rebooked, never counted.
Modelled on one LinkedIn seat at three to five qualified meetings a month, it works out at £98 to £197 a qualified meeting. There is no ramp: LinkedIn is live within a week and full pace by week four. On our own three-profile campaign, 5,950 people reached became 752 conversations, 98 interested replies and 65 booked meetings in three months.
Appointment setting for B2B sales teams has the full picture.
Sources
Salary: Indeed UK average, plus employer National Insurance and pension, read August 2026. Ramp, quota, attainment, attrition, tenure and daily activity: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions and Metrics 2025, 351 companies. Ours: modelled on one LinkedIn seat at three to five qualified meetings a month, and campaign figures from our own CRM, three accounts, three months, read September 2026. A model, not a promise of results; your market and offer decide the result.
Get your free growth report, or book a 1-to-1 and we work out your cost per meeting, SDR or not, on the call.
Questions people ask
- What does SDR stand for?
- Sales development representative. An SDR finds and contacts new prospects, qualifies them and books first meetings for the people who close. Some companies use the title BDR, business development representative, for the same job or for the outbound half of it.
- Is SDR the hardest job in sales?
- It is one of the most repetitive. Most of the day is outreach to people who did not ask to hear from you, against a monthly meeting quota. Only around 60% of SDRs hit quota, according to the Bridge Group's 2025 report, and median attrition is about 40% a year.
- How do you get a job as an SDR?
- Most SDR roles are entry level and ask for no degree in particular. Employers look for persistence, clear writing and the ability to hold a short conversation with a stranger. Practise writing a three-line outreach message and a thirty-second phone opener, and bring both to the interview.
- What is the difference between an SDR and a BDR?
- It varies by company. Often an SDR follows up inbound leads and a BDR prospects outbound, but many firms use the two titles for the same job. Either way, both book meetings and an account executive closes.
- When should a company hire its first SDR?
- When your closers spend more time prospecting than selling and you have enough proven demand to keep someone busy for a year. If you are still finding out who buys, outsourcing the outreach first is cheaper than three months of ramp.
This is one of the long answers behind appointment setting for b2b sales teams. If you would rather we ran it for you, book a 1-to-1 and we work out your numbers live.
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