Glossary · GTM roles and motions

What is an SDR (sales development representative)?

The short answer

An SDR, or sales development representative, is the salesperson who starts conversations with new buyers and hands the promising ones to an account executive. The SDR does not close deals: the job is to find the right people, get a reply and book a qualified first meeting. It is often an early-career role.

Updated
Read
4 min
Written by
Antoine Blitz
On this page8 sections
  1. Real data
  2. What does an SDR do?
  3. SDR vs BDR: what is the difference?
  4. Is SDR an entry-level position?
  5. How does an SDR hand off to an account executive?
  6. How do SDRs find the right people to contact?
  7. Related terms
  8. Questions people ask

Real data

The SDR and BDR titles in US job postings

US job postings from the 30 days through October 28, 2026 whose whole title is one of four forms of each title, such as "Sales Development Representative" or "SDR". Then what their descriptions say, and the experience they ask for.

Returned by the BlitzAPI API on

POST/v2/jobs/search

US job postings from the last 30 days, by title

Sales Development Representative (SDR)
1,074
Business Development Representative (BDR)
1,313

Exact titles, four forms each: the title, its Senior version, the title followed by "(SDR)" or "(BDR)", and the acronym alone. Postings, not companies: one company can post several roles.

POST/v2/jobs/search

What the descriptions say

SDR postings that say "outbound"
771 of 1,074
SDR postings that say "inbound"
364 of 1,074
BDR postings that say "outbound"
650 of 1,313
BDR postings that say "inbound"
292 of 1,313

A posting counts when its description holds the word. A description can hold both words, or neither.

POST/v2/jobs/search

Experience asked in the 1,074 SDR postings

0–2 years
787
2–5 years
278
5 years or more
9

The seniority band of each posting: the range of years of experience it asks for. The three bands add up to the 1,074 postings.

What does an SDR do?

An SDR works the very start of the sales process, before there is a deal. A typical week mixes four kinds of work:

  1. Research: pick target accounts, find the people likely to care, and look for a reason to reach out, such as a new hire or a new office.
  2. Outreach: run sequences of emails, calls and social messages, adapted to each account.
  3. Qualification: check, on the first reply or call, that the need, the budget and the timing are real, often with a checklist such as BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline).
  4. Handoff: book a meeting for an account executive and pass on what was learned.

SDRs are measured on meetings booked and on the pipeline those meetings create, not on closed revenue. The job sits at the top of the funnel, inbound or outbound, and most of its hours go into sales prospecting.

SDR vs BDR: what is the difference?

On paper, SDRs and BDRs are split by lead source. An SDR follows up on inbound leads, people who filled in a form or asked for a demo; a BDR (business development representative) prospects outbound, into accounts that have not engaged yet. Both hand their meetings to an account executive, who closes.

SDR BDR Account executive
Classic definition Qualifies inbound leads Prospects into new accounts Runs the sales cycle and closes
Starts from A form, a demo request, a trial A target account list A qualified meeting
Measured on Meetings and pipeline Meetings and pipeline Revenue closed

US job postings do not follow the split. If they did, SDR postings would talk about inbound leads and BDR postings about outbound prospecting. In the 30 days through October 28, 2026, 771 of the 1,074 SDR postings said “outbound” and 364 said “inbound”; 650 of the 1,313 BDR postings said “outbound” and 292 said “inbound”. Both titles lean outbound, and the line between them moves from one company to the next. Read the description, not the title.

Is SDR an entry-level position?

Mostly, yes: most SDR postings are open to people early in their career. Of the 1,074 US SDR postings above, 787 ask for two years of experience or less, 278 for two to five years, and 9 for five years or more: fewer than one posting in a hundred asks for a long track record.

The skills that matter (researching accounts, writing to people who did not ask, handling a first objection) are learned on the job.

A common next step is an account executive role, where the rep keeps the deals they open. Others move on to lead a team of SDRs, or into marketing, partnerships or RevOps.

How does an SDR hand off to an account executive?

The handoff to an account executive is where the SDR’s work on a deal ends. It comes in three pieces:

  • A qualified meeting on the calendar, with the right person, for a stated reason.
  • Notes in the CRM: who the people are, what they said, what they use today, and why now.
  • A warm introduction, by email or at the start of the call, so the buyer does not start over with a stranger.

What counts as qualified is agreed in advance between sales development and the account executives. A weak handoff costs twice: the buyer repeats the story, and the account executive spends the first call on questions the SDR already asked.

Check yourselfAn SDR books a first meeting with a VP of Finance who replied to a cold email. Who runs that meeting and works the deal to a close?
Show the answer key
  1. The SDR who booked itThe SDR's part ends at a qualified meeting; keeping the deal would leave no time to open new conversations.
  2. An account executiveThe account executive takes over at the first meeting: discovery, demo, proposal and close, with the notes the SDR passed on.
  3. A BDR, because the lead came from outboundWhere the BDR title differs from SDR, the BDR also stops at the meeting: the source of the lead does not change who closes.
  4. The RevOps teamRevOps runs the systems and routing rules behind the handoff, not the sales conversation.

How do SDRs find the right people to contact?

SDRs find the right people to contact by starting from accounts, not names. An ideal customer profile defines the companies; the people come next, by title and seniority inside each account, because a purchase involves several people, the buying committee. The decision makers guide walks through the method.

With BlitzAPI, People Search returns the people who match a title and company filters across many accounts in one call, and the find decision makers use case shows how to rank the contacts inside each account before the first sequence.

  • Full definitionOutbound sales

    Selling by reaching out first: the seller picks the companies and people to contact, instead of waiting for them to ask.

  • Full definitionSales prospecting

    Finding the companies and people who could buy from you, and checking that they fit, before anyone tries to sell to them.

  • Short definitionAI SDR

    Software that does the first steps of a sales rep's job: finding prospects, researching them and writing the first messages.

  • Full definitionBuying committee

    The group of people at a company who take part in a purchase: the one who signs, the ones who push for it, and the ones who can stop it.

  • Full definitionRevOps

    The team that runs the systems, data and processes behind a company's revenue, so that sales, marketing and customer success work from the same numbers.

All terms in the glossary

Sources and method

Written by
Antoine Blitz, Founder, BlitzAPI
Published
API calls run on

The calls ran on October 28, 2026 through the BlitzAPI MCP server, which calls the same endpoints; they are shown here as the equivalent REST requests.

Titles are matched exactly, four forms per title, so that a BDR posting with "Sales" elsewhere in its title is not counted as an SDR one. A keyword search returns more postings, with that overlap.

The counts are job postings, not companies or people. Experience bands are the ranges each posting asks for, as returned by the API.

Questions people ask

What does SDR mean in banking?

Special drawing rights. The SDR is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund for its member countries, and its value is based on a basket of major currencies. It has nothing to do with the sales role. In electronics, SDR also stands for software-defined radio, and in video for standard dynamic range.

What is the difference between a BDR and an AE?

A BDR opens the conversation; an account executive (AE) closes it. The BDR researches accounts, reaches out, qualifies interest and books the first meeting. The AE takes over from that meeting: discovery, demos, proposal, negotiation and the signed contract. The AE carries a revenue quota, while the BDR is measured on meetings and pipeline.

Are SDRs being replaced by AI?

Parts of the job are being automated. AI SDRs, software agents that build lead lists, research accounts and draft outreach, now take on some of the research and the first messages. Employers still hire people for the role: 1,074 SDR job postings located in the US, with a standard title, appeared in the 30 days through October 28, 2026. How the work splits between people and agents varies from team to team.

With BlitzAPI

Put it to work

ProductPeople Search APIPOST /v2/search/peopleUse caseFind the right decision makers inside every accountFind the right decision makers in every account with people search, ICP hierarchies, and enrichment APIs. Cleaner outbound and ABM workflows with BlitzAPI.

For your team

For builders

The calls behind the real data on this page, as REST requests. Send them with your API key, from any language or workflow tool.

Count the US SDR postings (the same request with the four BDR forms counts the BDR postings)

curl -X POST https://api.blitz-api.ai/v2/jobs/search \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "job": {
      "title": {"include": [
        "[Sales Development Representative]",
        "[Senior Sales Development Representative]",
        "[Sales Development Representative (SDR)]",
        "[SDR]"
      ]},
      "location": {"country_code": {"include": ["US"]}},
      "date_posted": {"last_days": 30}
    },
    "max_results": 1
  }'

API reference

Count the SDR postings that say "outbound" (the same request runs for "inbound", and for the BDR forms)

curl -X POST https://api.blitz-api.ai/v2/jobs/search \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "job": {
      "title": {"include": [
        "[Sales Development Representative]",
        "[Senior Sales Development Representative]",
        "[Sales Development Representative (SDR)]",
        "[SDR]"
      ]},
      "description": {"include": ["outbound"]},
      "location": {"country_code": {"include": ["US"]}},
      "date_posted": {"last_days": 30}
    },
    "max_results": 1
  }'

API reference

Count the SDR postings that ask for 0 to 2 years of experience (then 2-5, then 5-10 and 10+ together)

curl -X POST https://api.blitz-api.ai/v2/jobs/search \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "job": {
      "title": {"include": [
        "[Sales Development Representative]",
        "[Senior Sales Development Representative]",
        "[Sales Development Representative (SDR)]",
        "[SDR]"
      ]},
      "seniority": {"include": ["0-2"]},
      "location": {"country_code": {"include": ["US"]}},
      "date_posted": {"last_days": 30}
    },
    "max_results": 1
  }'

API reference

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