What is an SDR? The sales development representative role explained

SDR stands for sales development representative. The role sits at the top of the B2B sales funnel. An SDR researches target accounts, contacts the right people by phone, email and LinkedIn, works out whether there is a real need, and books a meeting with an account executive when there is.

The role grew out of a simple observation. When the same salesperson both prospects and closes, prospecting loses, because a deal about to close always feels more urgent than a cold call. Splitting the job means someone is always building next quarter's pipeline. The idea was popularised by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler in Predictable Revenue (2011), based on the outbound team Ross built at Salesforce, and it is now the standard structure in B2B software and services.

Most of an SDR's day is outreach and the preparation that makes outreach work. A typical day splits into research, calling blocks, follow-up and admin. The calling blocks are the core. Everything else exists to make those blocks more productive.

• Research. Choosing which accounts to call today and finding a reason each one might care: a new hire, an expansion, a change in regulation, a competitor's move.
• Calling. The main channel for most Australian B2B SDRs. In Nousu's data, phone takes 77 cold calls per booked meeting, against 1,100 cold emails or 240 LinkedIn messages.
• Email and LinkedIn. Follow-up and warm-up around the calls, not a replacement for them. Templates in our sales email template library are built for this.
• Qualification. A few sharp questions to check the meeting is worth the account executive's time. See the sales qualification frameworks.
• CRM updates. Logging every activity and outcome so the pipeline is visible and the next touch is planned.

For a closer look at a working week, read what an outsourced SDR team does day to day.

The titles overlap and companies use them differently, so look at what the person is measured on rather than what the title says.

If you are weighing the two most confused titles, our appointment setter guide and the post on the difference between an appointment setter and an SDR cover the line between them.

Good SDRs are not the loudest people in the room. They are curious, organised and comfortable hearing no forty times before lunch. The skills below matter more than product knowledge, which can be taught in weeks.

Australian buyers are quick to spot a script being read and a caller who is not local. In Nousu's data, the median time for an Australian buyer to identify an offshore caller is 11 seconds. Tone, pace and local knowledge are part of the skill set.

The headline number is qualified meetings held, because a meeting that is booked but never happens creates no pipeline, and a meeting with the wrong person wastes an account executive's hour. Activity numbers sit underneath and explain the result.

• Qualified meetings held per month. Most Nousu campaigns book about 8 qualified meetings a month once running, within a range of 6 to 20.
• Meetings per 100 dials. 1.3 meetings per 100 dials, against 0.3 for offshore teams.
• Show rate. 75% to 85% of booked meetings held is a well run program.
• Meeting to opportunity. 50% of phone-sourced meetings become opportunities.

Plug your own rates into the meetings per dial calculator to see where an SDR's funnel leaks. For a fuller benchmark set, see how many meetings an SDR should book a month.

The SDR role is usually the entry point to a B2B sales career. The common path runs from SDR to senior SDR, then either to account executive or to SDR team lead and manager. Strong SDRs who learn discovery and qualification early tend to make better account executives, because they already know what a real buying signal sounds like.

1. SDR. Learns the market, the product and the phone. Measured on meetings.
2. Senior SDR. Works harder accounts, mentors new SDRs and helps refine the script.
3. Account executive or team lead. Moves into closing, or into coaching and running a small SDR team.
4. Sales manager. Owns hiring, coaching and the numbers for a team. See our sales management guide.

Pay is usually a base salary plus commission or bonus tied to qualified meetings or pipeline. In Australia, commissions count as ordinary time earnings, so the super guarantee (12% from 1 July 2025) applies to them as well as to base salary. Check the current rules with the ATO or your adviser.

A first in-house SDR is a good fit when you have a proven message, someone who can manage and coach them, and the patience for a ramp. An outsourced SDR team fits when you need meetings sooner, want to test a market before hiring, or do not have a sales manager with time to run a calling team.

If you are hiring, our guide to building an SDR team in Australia covers hiring, ramp and management. If you are comparing costs, start with the outsourced SDR pricing guide.

It helps to see what the benchmarks mean for one person. Take a single SDR making 100 dials a day for 20 working days, at Nousu's all-dials averages.

That is the full-volume picture on a broad list. Real campaigns book fewer, because lists narrow, qualification tightens and some of the month goes on research, email and LinkedIn. That is why most Nousu campaigns settle at about 8 qualified meetings a month once running, within a range of 6 to 20. If an SDR is well below that, one stage is usually the culprit. The meetings per dial calculator shows which.

A meeting is only as good as the brief the account executive receives. A name and a time is not a handover. The account executive should walk into the meeting knowing why the buyer agreed, what they said and what would make the meeting worth their time.

Meeting: {{day}} {{time}}, {{prospect_name}}, {{title}} at {{company}}

Why they took the meeting: {{reason_in_their_words}}

What they told us:
- Current approach: {{how_they_do_it_now}}
- Problem: {{problem_and_its_impact}}
- Timing: {{timing_signal}}
- Others involved: {{other_people_named}}

Qualification against our definition: {{criteria_met}}

What to avoid: {{sensitivities_or_competitor_mentions}}

Confirmed by: {{sdr_name}} on {{confirmation_date}}

If you need help writing the definition, our post on how an outbound agency defines a qualified meeting has a version you can adapt.

Every mistake in that table is fixable with coaching, and most of them show up in the first fortnight. Our sales coaching guide sets out a weekly rhythm that catches them early.

How AI is changing the SDR role

AI has changed the preparation around calls more than the calls themselves. In Nousu's testing, AI account research before each call lifted the qualified conversation rate by an estimated 14%, and AI-ranked call lists produced 22% more meetings per dial hour. AI call coaching cut new SDR ramp time by 30%. Fully automated outreach did far worse: AI voice agents reached a live person on 16% of dials, similar to humans, but had decision-maker conversations on under 1%. The practical lesson is to use AI to make human SDRs better prepared, not to replace the conversation.

An SDR's tools exist to do three things: find the right people, make contact quickly and remember everything. A small, well used stack beats a large one nobody has time to learn.

Our LinkedIn Sales Navigator playbook covers the research side, and the sales tools page lists the stack Nousu runs.