What does an SDR actually do all day?

An SDR (Sales Development Representative) starts conversations with companies that might buy their product, and books meetings for the people who close deals. That's the whole job in one sentence. Here's what it looks like up close.

The short version

• Who you work for: a software company that sells to other businesses (B2B). Think payroll software, security tools, AI products.
• What you do: find the right companies and people, reach out by phone, email and LinkedIn, and book a meeting when there's real interest.
• Who gets the meeting: an Account Executive (AE), who runs the demo and closes the deal.
• How you're measured: usually qualified meetings or opportunities per month. That's your quota.

BDR (Business Development Representative) is almost always the same job with a different name.

A normal day

1. Morning research (an hour or so). You pick accounts to work on: companies that fit your ICP. You look for a reason to reach out: they're hiring, they just raised money, they use a competitor.
2. Call blocks (two or three hours). Dialing. Most calls go to voicemail. A good day might be 60–80 dials, 6–10 real conversations, and one or two meetings booked.
3. Emails and LinkedIn. You send short, specific messages as part of a cadence: a series of touches over a few weeks.
4. Inbound follow-up. If your team handles inbound leads, you call people who requested a demo, fast.
5. Admin and learning. Logging calls in the CRM, reviewing call recordings with your manager, practicing objection handling.

What makes someone good at it

It isn't charisma. Managers hire for:

• Coachability: you take feedback and actually change.
• Resilience: most people say no. You keep going and don't take it personally.
• Curiosity: good SDRs ask questions and listen. Bad ones pitch.
• Organization: you're juggling hundreds of people at different stages.

If you've worked in a restaurant, coached, taught, worked retail, served in the military or recruited, you've already practiced most of these.

What it pays

SDR pay is usually split into a base salary and commission. Across the US, $50k–$70k base with $70k–$95k OTE is common, higher in big cities and at bigger companies. You'll see the actual numbers on each job page here when the company lists them.

Where it leads

The usual path is SDR for 12–24 months, then a promotion to Account Executive, where pay jumps because you're closing deals. Some SDRs move into sales engineering, customer success, marketing or sales leadership instead. It's an entry point, not a dead end.

The honest downsides

• Rejection is constant, especially early on.
• Some companies run SDR teams like call centers with strict activity counts. Ask about it in your chats with insiders.
• Pay depends partly on hitting your number.

The upside: it's one of the few well-paid professional jobs that doesn't require a specific degree or experience, and the people who stick with it move up fast.

Your next step

Pick two or three companies you'd like to work at and talk to an SDR there. Ask them what a normal day looks like. You'll learn more in 15 minutes than from any article, including this one. Here's how to reach out.