SDR vs BDR: what is the difference?

Written by Madalena Rugeroni, founder of Mazo · Updated 10 November 2026

An SDR (sales development representative) and a BDR (business development representative) both book qualified meetings for account executives and leave closing to them. In most companies the SDR works inbound leads and the BDR prospects outbound, although many teams use the titles interchangeably.

SDR vs BDR side by side

	SDR	BDR
Leads come from	Inbound: demo requests, sign-ups, content downloads	Outbound: target account lists the rep researches
Main job	Respond fast, qualify, book the meeting	Start conversations, qualify, book the meeting
Measured on	Speed to lead, meetings booked, qualified opportunities	Meetings booked, qualified opportunities, pipeline created
Hands off to	An account executive (or the founder) who runs discovery and closes

Check what the title means at your company and in the job market you hire from. Some teams call every sales development rep an SDR.

Worked example

A fictional founder closes about 3 deals a month and spends half their week prospecting.

They hire a BDR to run the outbound playbook they've already proven: same segment, same messages.
Target: 10 qualified meetings a month after a 2-month ramp.
At the founder's 25% win rate, 10 meetings that mostly qualify add roughly 2 deals a month, and the founder gets back 2 days a week to close.

Why it matters from €0 to €1M ARR

Pre-revenue to ~10 customers: the founder does this job. Nobody else can learn the objections for you.
Repeatable motion: once one segment and message reliably produce meetings, a BDR can run it.
Inbound volume: an SDR makes sense when demo requests wait hours for a reply because nobody has time.

Mazo's rule of thumb: hire sales development to scale a playbook, never to find one. If you can't hand a new rep a list, three messages and a qualification checklist on day one, you're hiring too early.

Common SDR and BDR mistakes

Hiring before the founder has closed deals. The rep has nothing to copy.
Paying on meetings booked alone. Pay on meetings that qualify, or you'll get calendars full of the wrong people.
No closer to hand off to. A BDR booking meetings for a founder with no time loses deals.
Hiring one and expecting results in a month. Plan for a ramp of two to three months.

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FAQ

Is an SDR the same as a BDR?

Often the titles are used interchangeably. Where they differ, SDRs qualify inbound leads and BDRs prospect outbound. Both book meetings for an account executive or founder to close.

Should a startup hire an SDR or an account executive first?

Usually neither until the founder has closed enough deals to write down a repeatable process. After that, hire for the bottleneck: an AE if you have more meetings than you can close, a BDR if you have closing capacity and too few meetings.

How many meetings should a BDR book?

It depends on deal size, market and how strictly you qualify. Set a target from your own funnel math and measure qualified opportunities created as well as meetings booked.

Who wrote this

Madalena Rugeroni built Mazo. She's an ex-Googler, a startup advisor and investor, and runs a portfolio of internet companies. Before that, as Head of Growth at Amplemarket, she scaled a B2B SaaS to $10M ARR. LinkedIn

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Further reading. Splitting prospecting from closing was popularised by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler (Predictable Revenue). This is a published methodology credited to its authors; Mazo is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.