Job description - Sales Development Representative (SDR): missions & salary

Among the Sales & Business Development jobs, the Sales Development Representative intervenes at the beginning of the sales cycle. Its mission is to create and execute prospecting sequences to identify new business opportunities.

Often mistaken for his sidekick the Business Development Representative (BDR), the SDR is commonly responsible for find new prospects In order to qualify : in other words, it will determine if they have a Business potential.

Concretely, the SDR Then pass on the prospects (opportunities) to Account Executives, more experienced and specialists in Closing (the signing of contracts). Once the opportunity is converted into a customer, they will pass the baton themselves to the Account Managers, who are responsible for customer loyalty.

In any case, this is what happens in a well-organized commercial organization. A startup with 15 employees will be less processed, and the roles less segmented...

What does this job actually consist of? How do I become a Sales Development Representative? Discover the answers to all your questions in this 100% article Akimbo.

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Sales Development Representative: the definition

Word meaning, translation and meaning

SDR (Sales Development Representative) is a role that refers to a startup Junior Commercial hunting oriented. It is the most frequent way to join a sales team. Do you want to know more about the meaning of SDR ?

• In the theory, it is supposed to focus more on the qualification of incoming opportunities: it processes incoming requests from prospects (e.g. via a contact form) to qualify them and transmit them if necessary to more experienced Sales;

• In the practice (what interests us!), the SDR is a hunter who approaches, prospects and qualifies prospects. He comes into contact with a large number of potential customers (Leads) and determines whether they are relevant to the product or service offered. To do this, he is responsible for creating and running prospecting sequences. So he makes a lot of calls. Ideally and according to the company's Tech culture, these sequences will be as automated as possible.

In all cases, SDRs move prospects through the sales process. They establish contacts and learn about their activities and needs. If a prospect is qualified, then they plan the next steps and hand it over to Account Executives (more rarely to Business Developers) for the negotiation phase.

Akimbo offers you an intensive two-month training course. The Akimbo Bootcamp is the only sales training that guarantees a CDI.

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What are the role and missions of a Sales Development Representative?

The Sales Development Representative is placed at the beginning of the sales cycle. It intervenes after the Marketing team but before the Account Executives or Sales Managers of a structure. Its role is twofold: theInbound And theOutbound. In other words, he intervenes during incoming and outgoing commercial prospecting (more info below). However, the sales development representative is above all a specialist in Inbound Sales.

Concretely, the responsibilities of an SDR boil down to:

• Prospecting by exploiting the resources at your disposal (database, social selling, social networks,...) to identify new prospects and develop the generation of new commercial business;
• Get in touch with prospects identified via campaigns Outbound (cold calls and/or emails,...)
• Deal with Leads Inbound in order to qualify them;
• Qualify the Leads : identification of needs, presentation of the company, product/service, answers to objections, demo,...;
• Transmit the Leads skilled to Accounts Executives to move them forward in the sales cycle, from customer appointments to closing.

An SDR can also assist in customer appointments and the closing of opportunities created, but this is not systematic.

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💡 Let's focus on the difference between Inbound VS. Outbound because you often ask us this question.

• THEInbound refers to strategies for attracting prospects to your business. The objective? Let the contact come from them, for example via a form or an appointment request. This contact is obviously wanted, thanks to marketing strategies: webinars, SEO content, SEO content, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. Once the opportunity is qualified by an SDR (e.g. a budget and a need is evaluated), it is transformed into a commercial opportunity. We often talk about Marketing Qualified Lead transformed into Sales Qualified Lead. Then as a customer, ideally. Inbound is mainly the responsibility of marketing teams (not Sales & Business Development). On the other hand, once an incoming opportunity is detected, it is the SDR that qualifies it.

• THEOutbound directly concerns the Sales & Business Development teams. It refers to the strategy of winning prospects who have never been in contact with the company, its products or its services. The SDR then makes a contact. In the cold to determine the relevance of these contacts, via Cold Calling or Cold emailing for example.

In outbound, contact comes from the sales person. In inbound, it comes from the prospect himself.

SDR tools

An SDR prospects proactively to find qualified prospects and to pass the baton to AE/Sales Managers /BizDev for Closer. They should contact them and respond to those who have shown interest.

As the entire commercial prospecting process takes a lot of time, SDRs use several tools that allow them to gain efficiency, performance and productivity:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator : to create lists of relevant and interesting potential prospects to target;
• Data processing tools (Excel, Google Sheets,...) : to clean the collected data and use it for emailing campaigns;
• Emailing tools (Lemlist, Salesloft, Datanas...) : for creating prospecting sequences ;
• CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce,...): for the centralization of data, and the follow-up of prospects in the sales process.
  

SDR VS. BDR - Understanding the difference

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What is the role of a Business Development Representative (BDR)?

One Business Development Representative (BDR) focuses primarily on leads Outbound. It generates new relevant prospects to contact, and as a result, identifies new business opportunities. It is its only acquisition channel. Not to be confused with the job of Business Developer, which is more general and supports the prospect throughout the sales cycle (up to closing)

Often, he can also intervene in customer appointments and the closing of detected opportunities.

What is the difference between SDR and BDR?

Les differences between an SDR and a BDR can seem convoluted, especially since some businesses tend to combine these two positions into one. However, the difference between these two positions is mainly a matter of theory and not of practice. That said, it is very simple:

• A BDR is responsible for prospecting outgoing prospects (Outbound);
• An SDR is responsible for qualifying incoming prospects (Inbound).
  

What are the qualities of a good Sales Development Representative?

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What is a good Sales Development Representative?

• Demonstrate resilience, perseverance, determination and coachability

”No thanks”: these words are often heard by an SDR. The latter knows how to get rid of them and move forward. With a lot of perseverance, he goes on the hunt for another prospect to generate and transmit a quality lead to his team. An SDR is an expert in qualifying prospects. He must know how to quickly shorten an interview with a prospect who does not have the right profile.

To fully understand the concept of qualification, it is essential to understand the Lead Cycle in 5 steps:

1. Lead Unqualified

2. Lead MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) -> As soon as your prospect opens your emails, discovers your business, is interested in it and interacts with your content, he becomes MQL.

3. Lead SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) -> Your prospect has shown a particular interest in certain products or services, it is up to the Sales teams to analyze the data and take over.

4. Opportunity

5. Customer -> The prospect has made the purchase.

As soon as a lead can be used by the Sales teams, they say that it is SQL, that it has been qualified.

An SDR has a strong desire to improve and self-analyzes continuously. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and works on them. He is ready to try something new. He knows that his role is extremely valued in the Tech ecosystem and that it is the Royal front door from the Sales team. He must find meaning in his missions by marketing a product that he himself loves.

In addition, the ability to be coached is a real skill. As a “hunter,” an SDR wants to be the best, the first on his team. To achieve this, an SDR must rely on the recommendations of its colleagues. He then puts it into practice, works on what has been suggested, and follows the advice.

• Organizational and time management capacity

An SDR has a lot of Leads to process and lots of details to keep in mind. Strong organizational and time management skills are essential for lead generation and qualification. He is rigorous about himself. Professional.

The best have a system for keeping all the information in order. They use a CRM to organize their Leads, treat them in order of priority, and set follow-up tasks. That way, they're always on time, and have the right resources in hand.

Indeed, the sales pace can help, but the best SDRs develop habits to repeat the process (screening, information search, calls, followups,...) for each Lead. Sales speed can help improve productivity, but habits will always be much more powerful.

This process is refined over time to become more and more efficient. With organization comes time management.

• Curiosity: good knowledge of the product or service

It's hard to answer questions about something you don't understand. It's even more difficult to sell a product or service if you can't explain its benefits or features. If you are not really interested in the Tech ecosystem.

Good SDRs are always looking for information. They are always well-informed about what they are selling. It doesn't happen overnight, and the learning process never stops. There is always something new that will be useful to highlight.

• Active listening: to understand your prospect

Making your product or service known is essential for sales development. But understanding the pain and needs of prospects in order to provide them with a solution is the top priority. It involves good listening.

Indeed, when a prospect feels that they are being listened to, it reinforces their trust. Practicing active listening has a positive and significant effect on the client's expectation of future interaction.

How do I become a Sales Development Representative?

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Skills required

The skills required to become an SDR are:

• Good organization and time management;
• Good interpersonal and attentive;
• Demonstrate resilience;
• Creativity;
• Determination;
• Strong coachability and learning ability;
• Mastering office automation and CRM tools;
• Critical thinking;
• Team spirit;
• Commercial fiber.

Degrees, training and studies required

For Becoming an SDR salesperson, there is no specific university course for the exercise of this profession. The diplomas of the SDR currently in office come mainly frombusiness schools, ranging from one level bac +3 to bac +5. But profiles without a high school diploma can also do well, if they want to demonstrate their motivation and professional ambition.

Fortunately, numerous short and intensive professional courses have emerged to acquire all the tools, methods and processes to become SDR. For some, they lead directly to employment. Among them, we find the Bootcamp from Akimbo.

Akimbo you allows you to integrate training in the form of Bootcamp intensive. This course prepares you for Sales and Business Development jobs, including Sales Development Representative. The Bootcamp is based on a model that is unique in Europe: it is free for participants, as it is financed by partner companies. In return: admission is selective.

In a nutshell, the Bootcamp:

• Offers you two months of training to become efficient throughout the sales cycle, and to become SDR;
• Allows you to unhook a CDI thanks to interviews that We trigger among our 250+ partner startups;
• Brings you a big mastery of the tools required in the SDR profession.

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Adapted conversion profiles

The people most likely to become a Sales Development Representative are those who want to create a Career in Business Development, whether they have already worked in a company or not. They will want to acquire a good foundation in commercial prospecting.

To land an SDR role, the Soft Skills are essential. This is why former athletes, firefighters, soldiers, soldiers, but also lawyers, finances, etc. with a strong resilience are particularly successful in this position.

What career developments are there for this position?

An SDR, after a few years of experience, can aspire to evolve into positions of:

• SDR or BDR Team Lead In 18 months
• Account Executive in 2 years
• (Key) Account Manager in 2 years
• or even Head of Sales In 5 years
• Entrepreneur from 2 years
• CEO in 5 years

What is the salary for a Sales Development Representative?

How much does a Sales Development Representative earn?

On average, the Salary for a Sales Development Representative in France revolves around 40 to 65 thousand euros gross per year.

Attention: for Sales & Business Development jobs, salaries are composed of 2 parts:

• The fixed one, touched no matter what
• the variable, which is often referred to as 100% of the objectives achieved.

The variable portion can go up to 50% of the total salary, and is indexed to the performance of the SDR.

Job offers often talk about a package, i.e. the total remuneration that includes the fixed portion and the variable portion.

Junior Sales Development Representative Salary

For a Junior Sales Development Representative, the total remuneration is 30 to 50 thousand euros gross per year.

Senior Sales Development Representative Salary

Senior Sales Development Representative are rare because they are evolving into Account Executive roles. But with more than 5 years of experience, they can claim a salary ranging from 60 k€ to 100 k€ gross per year.

The different Sales Development Representative jobs

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Some rarer titles to keep in mind:

• Sales Development Manager;
• Sales Development Executive;
• Sales representative.

What is a Sales Development Manager?

The Sales Development Manager is in charge of recruitment, of Hiring And of Management Sales Development Representatives. Warning: this is a very infrequent profile, confused with the SDR/BDR Team Lead. It helps new hires identify new prospects and create new customer accounts.

What is a Sales Development Executive?

A Sales Development Executive is the person responsible for growth of a structure. Its main role is to find new targets and prospects to promote a given product or service.

What is a Sales Representative?

A Sales Representative, or Sales Representative, is the liaison officer of a company with customers who are commercial enterprises. He manages the accounts of current customers and ensures that he maintains a solid business relationship in addition to attracting new business customers in order to achieve sales goals.

Our tips for finding a SDR job

Finding relevant job offers is not easy. Indeed, finding the right job offer requires adopting a set of Best practices in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Keep in mind that a business is like an iceberg: you have to make an effort to get to the underwater part...

First, start by searching through platforms like Welcome To The Jungle, JobTeaser or LinkedIn. Once you are sure to use platforms that check offers in advance before publishing them, make sure that they are well presented, with more details about the position and the missions. But also on the relevance and credibility of the information put forward. They should follow a certain logic when you continue to read the offer.

We have listed the various information you need to correctly identify a job offer:

• Details about the company and the team : values, ambitions, vision,...
• The sector of activity : finance, HR, health,...
• Business size : number of employees, fundraising, internationalization,...
• Personal support : onboarding period, internal training,...
• Corporate culture : Team Buildings, afterworks, benefits,...
• Marketed product or service.

For the post itself:

• Responsibilities ;
• The missions ;
• The sales cycle ;
• The target ;
• The tools used.

By making sure to find this information on the job description, you will quickly identify what the recruiter is looking for as an ideal profile and quickly determine if you match the profile you are looking for.

How do you recruit a good Sales Development Representative?

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Recruiting a good Sales Development Representative (in France) to strengthen your company's Sales team requires validation of numerous skills. Beyond a score card, which is essential, the most essential qualities expected are the following:

• Ability to organize and prioritize tasks;
• Real commercial fiber, not afraid to call prospects on the phone;
• Methodology for prospecting and qualifying potentials Leads (expert in telephone prospecting, cold-emailing, etc.);
• Creativity and resilience;
• A good command of CRM;
• Good communication and relational skills.

To help you in your approach, you can adopt the reflex of building a practical case (also called Business Game) to put your candidates in a situation and test their hard skills. Obviously, cold call simulations and Writing prospecting emails are essential during the process

In order to gather more constructive opinions on your candidates for the final stage of your recruitment process, do not hesitate to organize a Team Fit interview with the rest of the team, to get to know the candidate about his personality. You should also contact its former managers as part of taking references. Even if it takes time... Candidates are highly sought after in France, you must agree to bequeath a significant amount of time to this task, it is the only solution and the most important!

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