Sales development representative: what the job is, how it is measured, and what AI already does

What is a sales development representative?

A sales development representative (SDR) is the salesperson who opens the door. SDRs research companies that fit the ideal customer profile, reach them by phone, email and social channels, qualify their need, budget and timing, and book a meeting for an account executive. They rarely close deals. Their main output is qualified meetings.

The role sits between marketing and sales. Marketing creates interest, account executives turn interest into revenue, and the SDR connects the two. The Wikipedia entry on sales development describes the function as identifying, contacting and qualifying leads so that a salesperson gets a qualified meeting with a likely buyer, and traces the idea back to Oracle in the early 1980s.

In practice, SDR sales is a specialization of labor. Instead of asking one rep to prospect, demo, negotiate and close, a company splits the work. The SDR spends the whole day on the first conversation, which is the part most closers hate and the part that decides how full the pipeline is.

For a freelancer or a two-person agency, there is no separate SDR. You are the SDR on Monday morning and the closer on Thursday afternoon. That is exactly why it helps to understand the role: you can borrow its routines and metrics without hiring anyone.

What does an SDR do all day?

An SDR's day is a loop of research, outreach and follow-up, with a few hours blocked for live calls. Most of the work is invisible to the buyer: deciding who to contact and what to say before anyone picks up the phone.

1. Build or clean the target list. Pull accounts that match the ideal customer profile, for example dental clinics in Phoenix or HVAC contractors around Columbus, and remove the ones already in the CRM.
2. Research each account. Read the website, recent reviews, job posts and social profiles to find a reason to reach out that is about them, not about you.
3. Run the sequence. Send the day's emails, make a call block, and add LinkedIn or Instagram touches. Wikipedia notes the phone is still the main SDR channel, with email and social used in multi-touch patterns.
4. Handle replies. Answer questions, push back gently on "not now", and log every response.
5. Qualify. Check the basics: is there a real need, who decides, is there budget, and when would they act.
6. Book and hand off. Put the meeting on the closer's calendar with notes, so the buyer never has to repeat themselves.
7. Update the CRM. Move each account to the right stage and set the next step, or it will be forgotten by Friday.

The federal O*NET database lists a closely related task for services sales reps: "contact prospective or existing customers to discuss how services can meet their needs." That sentence is the SDR job in one line. If you want a deeper look at the meeting-booking side, read our guide to appointment setting.

Which metrics are SDRs measured on?

SDRs are measured on meetings first and activity second. According to the Wikipedia entry, the held meeting is the most common quota element, and it is usually tied to the variable part of on-target earnings. Activity numbers explain why the meeting count is high or low.

Watch the ratio between activity and meetings, not activity alone. A rep who makes 80 calls into a bad list will lose to a rep who makes 30 calls to businesses that clearly have the problem you solve. That is why targeting sits at the top of every good SDR process, and why our sales prospecting guide covers where to find prospects among local businesses before it gets to channels and scripts.

SDR vs BDR: what is the difference?

The short version: an SDR typically works inbound leads, and a BDR typically prospects cold, outbound accounts. Both qualify and book meetings for closers. Many companies, especially small ones, use the two titles for the same job, so read the job description before assuming either way.

For someone selling to local businesses, the BDR side is the one that matters most. Plumbers, med spas and restaurants rarely fill in a demo form for a marketing agency or an IT provider. You have to find them first, which is outbound work. Our explainer on inbound vs outbound sales covers when each motion pays off.

How much does an SDR make?

There is no official SDR salary figure, because US federal statistics do not track sales development as its own occupation. The closest benchmark is O*NET's category for sales representatives of services, which reports a median wage of $69,990 a year ($33.65 an hour) in 2025, across about 1.27 million jobs.

Treat that number as context, not as an SDR offer. The O*NET profile for services sales representatives covers many kinds of reps, including people who close deals, and it projects average growth of 3% to 4% for 2025 to 2035. SDR pay is usually built differently:

• Base salary, paid regardless of results.
• Variable pay, often tied to meetings held or qualified opportunities.
• On-target earnings (OTE), the sum of both when the rep hits quota.

Recruiters and software vendors also publish SDR salary averages, but each one uses its own sample, often drawn from tech companies. A local agency in Tampa or Kansas City should read those numbers with care before planning a hire.

If you are deciding between hiring an SDR and using software for part of the job, compare the full cost of a rep (salary, variable pay, tools, ramp time and management) with the cost of a tool. You can see Vonsel's plans on the pricing page.

Which parts of the SDR job can an AI agent do today?

An AI agent can already handle most of the research and preparation, and a good share of the first touch. It cannot yet replace a person on a live call or in a negotiation. The useful way to think about it is task by task, not job by job.

This is where Vonsel fits for people who sell to local businesses. You tell it what you do and what you offer. Its AI agent reads the Google reviews of each business, spots the specific complaints that match your service, and returns the businesses that actually need you, with the reason. It finds around 300 of them in a minute, with email, phone, WhatsApp and social profiles gathered from Google Maps, Bing Maps, national business directories and the businesses' own websites.

From there the businesses go into a CRM with a dashboard and a kanban board, where you move each one through your stages. The AI can write and send emails, WhatsApp messages, Instagram DMs and LinkedIn messages that mention each business's real problem, and it can handle follow-ups. In SDR terms, it covers the list, the research, the qualification signal and the first touch, so your time goes to the calls and meetings.

A scraper gives you rows you still have to clean, qualify and contact. An agent gives you qualified businesses with a reason to talk to them. If you want to see this split in detail, our guide to the AI SDR walks through what an AI SDR does step by step and which tasks to hand over to it.

How to run the SDR process yourself when you sell to local businesses

You do not need an SDR team to run an SDR process. A freelancer or a small agency can run a lean version in a few hours a week by following the same steps a sales development team uses.

1. Write a one-line profile. Business type, city or metro area, and the problem you fix. Example: "Family restaurants in San Antonio whose reviews complain about online ordering."
2. Find businesses with visible pain. Reviews are the best public signal for local businesses. A pattern of complaints about slow replies, a broken website or no-shows tells you who needs help now.
3. Collect working contacts. Owners of small businesses answer WhatsApp, Instagram and direct phone lines more than generic inboxes.
4. Write one specific first line per business. Mention what their customers say, then offer one small, concrete next step.
5. Sequence three to five touches over two weeks. Mix channels and leave a few days between touches, so each one adds something new instead of repeating the last.
6. Call the ones who opened or replied. Before you dial, read our cold calling rules, which include the US Do Not Call rules that apply to phone prospecting.
7. Track everything in a CRM. One board, clear stages, and a next step on every card.

Before you write to anyone, run a quick qualification check. A local business is worth a sequence when you can answer yes to most of these four questions:

• Need: do recent reviews mention a problem your service fixes, not just once but as a pattern?
• Decision maker: can you reach the owner or manager directly, by name?
• Ability to pay: are there signs of an active business, such as steady new reviews, current opening hours or more than one location?
• Timing: are the complaints recent enough that the owner is likely feeling the pain right now?

Illustrative example (an invented business, shown only to make the steps concrete). A web agency targets family restaurants in San Antonio. One restaurant has several recent reviews saying the online ordering page crashes at checkout. The first message could read:

It works because the first line is about their customers, the offer is one small step, and saying no is easy. Every part of it came from public information that took a minute to find. If you want more structures like this one, our collection of cold email templates for local agencies matches five templates to the service you sell.

How does an SDR keep emails out of the spam folder?

Good sending habits are what get an SDR's emails into the inbox instead of the spam folder. Google's email sender guidelines for Gmail ask every sender to authenticate their domain with SPF or DKIM, and to always give recipients an easy way to unsubscribe, noting that letting people opt out can improve open rates, click-through rates and sending efficiency.

In practice that means three simple habits: set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on the domain you send from, add a clear unsubscribe line and your business address to every template from day one, and keep each message relevant to the person who gets it. Short, personal emails sent to well chosen accounts get more replies and keep your domain healthy.

The short version

• A sales development representative finds, contacts and qualifies prospects, then books meetings for closers.
• Held meetings are the usual quota. Activity numbers only matter as an explanation.
• SDR usually means inbound, BDR usually means outbound, and many companies mix the two.
• Official pay data does not track SDRs directly. Use it as context, not as a target.
• AI agents now handle the list, the research and the first message. People still win the conversation.