Short answer
SDR stands for sales development representative: the salesperson who finds and qualifies potential customers and books first meetings for account executives, who run the deal and close it. SDRs research accounts, call, email and message prospects, and screen out poor fits. They're measured on qualified meetings and the pipeline those meetings create, not closed revenue. In The Bridge Group's 2025 survey of 351 B2B companies, the median SDR quota was 10 meetings held a month.
- SDR means sales development representative: the role that creates first meetings, not closed deals.
- Judge SDRs on qualified meetings held and the pipeline they become, not on activity counts.
- The Bridge Group's 2025 study puts the median quota at 10 meetings held a month and average ramp at 3.0 months.
- SDR and BDR often name the same job; ask whether the role works inbound leads, outbound accounts or both.
- Outside sales, SDR usually means the IMF's Special Drawing Rights.
On this page
This page is for anyone who has met "SDR" in a job ad, an org chart or a sales tool and wants the exact meaning: candidates, founders hiring a first sales team, and marketers who work alongside one. It covers what SDRs do, how they're measured, the arithmetic behind a quota and how the role differs from its neighbors.
What SDR stands for in sales
In sales, SDR stands for sales development representative. An SDR works the top of the funnel: they find companies and people who might buy, start a conversation, check whether there's a real fit, and hand qualified prospects to an account executive (AE), who runs the rest of the deal. The SDR doesn't negotiate or close. Their output is a qualified first meeting, and the pipeline value that meeting turns into.
The split exists because prospecting and closing are different jobs. Prospecting is high-volume and rewards persistence and research; closing is low-volume and rewards depth. Separating them lets each person get good at one thing.
What an SDR does day to day
- Researches accounts. Picks companies that match the ideal customer profile, finds the right people, and looks for a reason to reach out now: a new location, a hire, a funding round, a leadership change.
- Reaches out. Runs sequences of calls, emails and LinkedIn messages, usually several touches per person over two to three weeks.
- Qualifies. Asks enough questions to know whether there's a problem worth solving, someone who owns it and a plausible timeline. Many teams use a framework such as BANT for this.
- Books and hands off. Sets the first meeting with an AE and writes a handoff note so the prospect never has to repeat themselves.
- Keeps the CRM honest. Logs every conversation, disqualifies poor fits with a reason, and feeds back what prospects actually say.
Most of the time goes on step 1. At volume, that research is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in a list and writes a playbook with the people, the trigger and the angle, so an SDR's hours go into conversations.
How SDRs are measured
The most useful benchmark is The Bridge Group's 2025 study of 351 B2B companies, 83% of them SaaS and 78% based in North America. Treat its figures as a reference point for software sales teams, not a universal standard.
| Metric | What it tells you | The Bridge Group, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings held per month | The SDR's core output | Median quota of 10, down 40% since 2018 |
| Share of SDRs at quota | Whether quotas are realistic | 60%, the lowest in the study's history |
| Ramp time | Months until a new SDR is productive | 3.0 months on average |
| Tenure | How long people stay in the seat | 1.9 years on average |
| SDRs per AE | How much meeting volume each AE gets | 1 SDR to 2.4 AEs |
| On-target earnings (OTE) | Pay at 100% of quota | Median $80K, split $55K base and $25K variable |
Count meetings held, not booked, and agree with the AEs what "qualified" means before the quarter starts. A meeting the AE disqualifies in five minutes shouldn't count.
Worked example: the arithmetic behind a quota
Illustrative example. The company and numbers are invented to show the method.
Clausewise (clausewise.example) is a legal tech startup selling contract review software to law firms with 20 to 99 staff. Its first SDR has a quota of 10 meetings held a month. Working backward:
| Step | Assumption | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings held | Quota | 10 |
| Meetings booked | 20% of booked meetings don't happen | 10 ÷ 0.8 = 12.5, so 13 |
| Conversations | 1 in 4 real conversations books a meeting | 13 × 4 = 52 |
| Accounts worked | 1 in 5 accounts produces a conversation | 52 × 5 = 260 a month |
| Accounts per day | 20 working days | 13 new accounts a day |
Thirteen fresh, researched accounts every working day is a lot. Now suppose better targeting (firms that just hired a legal operations manager, say) lifts the conversation rate from 1 in 5 accounts to 3 in 10. The SDR needs 52 ÷ 0.3 = about 174 accounts a month, or 9 a day, for the same 10 meetings. Better accounts beat more activity, which is why the research step matters so much.
SDR vs BDR vs AE
| Role | Main job | Measured on | Typical handoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR | Qualifies inbound leads or prospects target accounts | Qualified meetings held, pipeline created | Passes the meeting to an AE |
| BDR | Usually outbound prospecting, often into new markets | The same as an SDR at most companies | Passes the meeting to an AE |
| AE | Runs discovery, demos, proposals and negotiation | Closed revenue against quota | Hands the customer to account management |
Some companies use SDR for inbound and BDR for outbound; others use the titles interchangeably. Read the job description, not the title. The SDR vs BDR comparison covers the differences in detail, and the guide to the AI SDR covers what software can and can't take over.
The handoff note
The handoff is where a good SDR earns the AE's trust. Every booked meeting should come with a note like this:
Account: [company, website, size, location] Contact: [name, title] (also involved: [names, titles]) Why we reached out: [the trigger, with its date and source] What they told us, in their words: [the problem as they described it] How they handle it today: [current process or vendor] Qualification: problem [yes/no], owner [name], timeline [when], budget [known/unknown] What they want from the meeting: [their stated goal] Watch out for: [objections or sensitivities raised]
Other meanings of SDR
If you searched "SDR meaning" outside a sales context, you probably want one of these:
| Field | SDR means | In one line |
|---|---|---|
| International finance | Special Drawing Rights | An international reserve asset the IMF created in 1969, valued against a basket of five currencies |
| Radio engineering | Software-defined radio | A radio that handles signals in software instead of fixed hardware |
| Video and displays | Standard dynamic range | The conventional brightness and contrast range, as opposed to HDR |
Next step: read the full sales development representative role guide for the day-to-day work, career path and how to do the job well.
Sources
- Sales Development Models, Metrics & Compensation: 2025 Research Report (10th ed.), The Bridge Group, 6 February 2025
- Special Drawing Rights (SDR) factsheet, International Monetary Fund, 7 October 2023
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Last updated .
Questions people ask
What does SDR stand for in sales?
SDR stands for sales development representative. It's the sales role responsible for finding and qualifying potential customers and booking first meetings for account executives, who then run the deal and close it. SDRs work by phone, email and LinkedIn, and they're measured on qualified meetings held and the pipeline those meetings create rather than on closed revenue.
What is the difference between an SDR and a BDR?
At many companies there's no difference: both titles describe a rep who prospects and books first meetings for account executives. Where the titles are split, SDRs usually handle inbound leads such as demo requests and content downloads, while BDRs (business development representatives) prospect outbound into target accounts or new markets. Check the job description for which leads the role works and how it's measured.
How much does an SDR make?
Pay varies by company, industry and city. In The Bridge Group's 2025 study of 351 B2B companies, mostly North American software firms, median SDR on-target earnings were $80,000, split $55,000 base salary and $25,000 variable pay tied to meetings or pipeline. The study notes that median OTE has been unchanged since 2022. Smaller companies and non-software industries often pay less.
Is an SDR an entry-level job?
Usually, yes. Many people start their sales career as an SDR because the role teaches prospecting, qualification and objection handling with less risk than closing deals. The usual next step is an account executive role. The Bridge Group's 2025 study put average SDR tenure at 1.9 years and average ramp time at 3.0 months, so most SDRs move on or up within about two years.
What is a typical SDR quota?
Most SDR quotas count qualified meetings held with account executives, sometimes alongside pipeline value created. The Bridge Group's 2025 study found a global median quota of 10 meetings held a month, down 40% since 2018, with 60% of SDRs reaching it. Set your own quota by working back from AE capacity and your real conversion rates rather than copying a benchmark.
What does SDR mean outside of sales?
The most common other meaning is Special Drawing Rights, an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969 and valued against a basket of five currencies. Engineers use SDR for software-defined radio, and in video and displays it means standard dynamic range, the conventional picture range that HDR improves on. Context usually makes the meaning clear.