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Business Development Reps BDRs Vs Sales Development Reps SDRs

Businesses will sometimes use BDRs and sales development representatives (SDRs) on the same activities, so it’s hard to always keep their differences distinct. Ideally, however, SDRs keep their focus on inbound leads while BDRs focus on the outbound opportunities. It’s easy to conflate business development representatives (BDRs) with sales development representatives (SDRs), and that’s fair. The positions are fundamentally similar — to the point that some companies don’t even distinguish between the two. A sales development representative (SDR) is an inside sales representative that focuses on outreach, prospecting, and lead qualification. SDRs don’t focus on closing business, but on connecting with as many leads as possible and determining if they’re good customer fits.

business development sales representative

Bad calls happen to the best of us, but we have to bounce back after each one. Whether a prospect was rude or you made a mistake, it’s OK to feel frustrated. However, allowing those feelings to prevent you from picking up the phone for the rest of the day will negatively impact your next 15 calls. In addition to the hard skills we’ve reviewed, staying positive is a soft skill that can’t be learned in a book. If you’re flat or discouraged one day, it will translate over the phone and your prospect will pick up on your low energy.

What Does a Sales Development Representative Do?

Ensure you’re not using the industry lingo during your demo – it won’t impress your prospect but only confuse them. It’s also a good idea to try and subtly mirror the common words and phrases they use, as the shared terminology will allow you to build rapport and better understanding. Those considerations can focus on certain metrics your company uses, a timeframe of the sales cycle, daily coverage, sales qualification, and pipeline tactics.

business development sales representative

This leaves open the possibility of adding full-time BDR and SDR roles to your marketing team in the future or growing your existing SDR SaaS team. To avoid misunderstandings when hiring a BDR vs SDR, make sure to specify exactly what you want your sales rep to do and what kinds of leads you want them to pursue. Inbound leads are leads that develop through the direct efforts of the sales and marketing departments. It’s a common misconception that sales reps do all the talking.

Sales Development Representative responsibilities include:

SDRs are evaluated on the number of qualified leads they move through the pipeline. Their commission is determined by the number of deals they pass compared to their target or quota. A great way to become an effective relationship builder is to build rapport with prospects. It’s easy to build rapport with prospects if you’ve done your research into who they are and what their business does because you can have conversations centered entirely around them and their needs. If you find common ground during your research, you can easily break the ice with casual conversation about your shared interests. It’s also important to have a level of emotional intelligence to connect with customers to empathize with customers, understand their goals and needs.

business development sales representative

So if you make sure you get this step right, you’ll be able to lay the foundations for recruitment. And you can provide relevant support and input throughout the entire recruitment process. You should look for BDRs who have the experience or mindset that will help them get a grip on the tools you use. If BDRs are able to quickly handle a new tool and get the highest level of performance possible from it, they’ll be more likely to hit their targets. BDRs should be able to understand their targets and find out what they need to do to (hopefully) exceed them. Without this mindset, BDRs often struggle to hit their targets.

SaaS SDR and BDR

Sales development representatives play an important role in the sales process, and they need a mix of skills to be successful. Excellent communication, research, and organizational abilities are essential for any SDR. With these sales development skills, you can help your team identify and pursue new opportunities successfully. Understanding the stages of a potential customer’s journey is essential to maximizing the effectiveness of your BDRs and SDRs.

BDRs have the potential to bring incredible value to all companies, no matter their size. The impact is easiest to see in larger, more established companies, but the influence of business development is evident everywhere. The term feels vague enough that people smile and nod—and promptly https://wizardsdev.com/en/vacancy/sales-development-representative/ change the subject. Business development (BD) didn’t really become mainstream in the sales industry until the 2000s, and even now, unless you work in BD, most people don’t know what it is. The point at which an SDR passes a lead to a salesperson will vary from company to company.

Conversational skills

The fundamental difference between the BDR role and the SDR role is that BDRs most often focus on outbound leads and SDRs most often focus on inbound ones. So, to fully understand these two positions, you must have a good grasp of the differences between these two types of leads. An excellent BDR will be able to hook new leads and give them a reason why they need what you’re selling. BDRs are usually the first point of contact a potential customer has with your business. Sales reps need to qualify leads and get certain questions answered.

  • According to Forbes, BDRs create “long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships.” These opportunities and values cover the full spectrum of your company.
  • Once they’ve compiled and analysed all customer data, BDRs turn to lead generation before coming up with a list of prospective customers that they hand over to the sales team to reach out to.
  • Below is a sample business development rep job description from Zendesk’s recent search for new BDRs.
  • However, allowing those feelings to prevent you from picking up the phone for the rest of the day will negatively impact your next 15 calls.
  • Share your open role with qualified sales development representatives using the world’s largest professional network.

Well, keeping them separate offers some attractive benefits to your company. Here, we’ll take a closer look at business development, see some key roles related to the practice, differentiate the concept from sales, and explore the interplay between the two elements. The differences between these two roles are not always as clear-cut as inbound vs outbound lead development. For example, the company Treeline refers to inbound lead developers as BDRs and outbound ones as SDRs. This is fundamentally opposite of the majority of SaaS companies.

Career-Defining Lessons from Trailblazing Women in Sales

As we can see, being a business development representative is tough! So While great BDRs are worth their weight in gold., but they’re hard to come across. For example, a business development representative might try to learn whether a prospect already works with a competitor. He or she might also ask about pricing, and find out when that contract cycle is going to come to an end. Explore sales development representative jobs, salaries, and career possibilities. Sometimes, sales development reps aren’t able to get in touch with a prospect by phone, so a voice mail is the next best alternative.

business development sales representative

The breakdown of a sales conversation should be 70% listening and 30% talking by the SDR. The most important aspect of SDR organization is the repeatable process. The sales cadence helps, but the best SDRs create a system that they can repeat for every lead. SDRs have a lot of leads to get through, and a lot of details to keep straight. Successful SDRs never stop learning about their product or service. This doesn’t happen overnight, and the learning process doesn’t end.

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