SDR and BDR: what they do and how they differ

Definitions of these two roles are easy to find and mostly interchangeable. What is harder to find is what the job looks like in numbers: how many activities a day, how long it takes to ramp, how long people stay. This page uses the Bridge Group's 2025 research for those numbers and ends with a question small teams should ask first.

What does an SDR do?

An SDR turns interest into a qualified meeting. Classically, the SDR works inbound leads: form fills, trial sign-ups, webinar attendees. They respond quickly, check whether the lead fits, and book a call for an account executive (AE) when it does. The output is a meeting the AE accepts, not a closed deal.

The role grew out of telemarketing. Trish Bertuzzi's The Sales Development Playbook traces it to reps who booked appointments for field sellers, a division of labour that let expensive closers spend their time closing.

Speed is the SDR's main lever. An inbound lead that waits hours for a reply cools quickly, so SDR teams are often measured on time to first response as well as on meetings booked.

What does a BDR do, and why are the titles mixed up?

A BDR creates conversations that did not exist. In the classic split, the BDR prospects outbound: builds a list, writes the first messages, calls, and books meetings with companies that never contacted the business. The titles get mixed because many teams have one person doing both, and because companies name roles after their own history rather than a standard. Read the job description, not the title.

Ramp figure from Bridge Group, SDR Tenure and Ramp Time (2025). Input, output and reporting lines describe the classic split; real teams vary.

What does an SDR's day look like in numbers?

The day is mostly volume. Bridge Group's 2025 SDR report puts the median at 112 activities a day: 44 calls, 41 emails and 19 social touches, plus other tasks. Those activities produce a median of 4.1 conversations.

The target is meetings, not activities. Cience reports a median quota of 10 meetings held per month, and on-target earnings of about $80,000 split 68:32 between base and variable pay. Read the ratio of 112 activities to 4.1 conversations as the core of the job: most of the effort goes into reaching people, very little into talking to them.

The numbers on this page come from two research series. The Bridge Group's SDR Tenure and Ramp Time and SDR Models, Motions and Metrics reports (2025) cover ramp, tenure and daily activity. Cience covers quota and pay. For the history of the role, see Trish Bertuzzi's The Sales Development Playbook (2016).

How long does an SDR stay in the role?

Not long. Bridge Group's 2025 research puts average tenure at 1.9 years, with 58 % of companies reporting tenure of 12 to 23 months. With a ramp of 3.0 months, a typical SDR spends a meaningful share of their time in the role either learning it or preparing to leave it, usually for an AE job. Teams that hire SDRs should plan for that turnover: written playbooks, shared templates and a list-building process that does not live in one person's head.

Turnover also explains why ramp time matters so much. Every new SDR spends roughly the first quarter producing less than a fully ramped colleague. A team that loses half its SDRs each year is permanently paying for that learning curve, which is a strong argument for keeping the list-building and messaging work in shared, documented processes rather than in individual habits.

Does a small team need an SDR at all?

Often not as a first hire. The SDR role exists to absorb volume: hundreds of touches so that a few conversations reach an AE. A small team with a narrow list does not have that volume. It needs one person who can pick the right companies, run the sequences and answer the replies.

Leadspicker's guidance is that one person can run campaign setup and inbox management for an entire team, while everyone else keeps working in the CRM and chat tools they already use. That person is doing the SDR's work, without the 112 manual activities a day. Hire a dedicated SDR when replies outgrow what one operator can answer the same day.

Frequently asked questions

Is an SDR the same as a BDR?

In many companies, yes in practice. In the classic split an SDR works inbound leads and a BDR prospects outbound. Both hand qualified meetings to an account executive.

How many activities does an SDR do per day?

Bridge Group's 2025 research puts the median at 112 activities a day: 44 calls, 41 emails and 19 social touches, plus other tasks. That produces a median of 4.1 conversations.

What comes after the SDR role?

Most often an account executive role. Average SDR tenure is 1.9 years according to Bridge Group, and promotion into closing roles is a common reason people move on.