Sales development representative (SDR)

A sales development representative (SDR) is a salesperson focused on the early funnel: prospecting, outreach, and qualifying leads before handing them to an account executive. SDRs generate and qualify pipeline rather than close deals.

Why it matters in B2B sales

The SDR role exists to keep the funnel full and to make sure AEs spend their time only on qualified opportunities. A good SDR motion protects the whole team's efficiency, because unqualified deals that slip through waste the most expensive resource, closing capacity.

Their qualification work sets up everything downstream, including which deals earn a proposal. By filtering hard at the top, SDRs ensure the sales pipeline that AEs work is dense with winnable deals rather than clogged with poor fits, which lifts the whole team's productivity.

Inbound vs outbound SDRs

SDR work splits into two motions. Outbound SDRs proactively prospect, researching accounts that match the ideal customer profile and running cold outreach. Inbound SDRs (sometimes called BDRs, though usage varies) respond to and qualify leads generated by marketing. Both aim at the same output, qualified meetings for AEs, but the sourcing differs, and many teams run both.

What an SDR does

Day to day, an SDR researches target accounts, runs multi-channel outreach (email, calls, social), qualifies interest against criteria like BANT, books meetings for AEs, and hands over context so the AE can pick up smoothly. Success is measured on qualified meetings or pipeline created, not closed revenue, which is the AE's domain.

A concrete example

An SDR researches accounts that fit the ideal customer profile, runs outreach, qualifies interest against lead qualification criteria, and books meetings for AEs, handing over only the opportunities worth an AE's time. The clean handoff is what lets the AE move fast on a genuinely qualified deal.

How it shows up in a modern proposal workflow

Clean SDR qualification means AEs only build proposals for real deals. When that handoff is solid, Cobl lets the AE turn each qualified opportunity into a tailored sales proposal fast, so pipeline converts instead of piling up.

Together, disciplined SDR qualification and fast proposal generation keep the whole funnel efficient: the right deals reach the AE, and the AE can act on them quickly rather than losing momentum to document work.