Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
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An SDR turns target accounts and inbound interest into meetings your account executives accept. It is an entry-level seat with a fast ramp and an unforgiving number, so we screen for meetings that held, a live cold call on your buyer, and how fast someone takes coaching.
Ramp is where SDR hiring succeeds or quietly fails. Each stage below has a signal that predicts it, and we test for that signal before you meet anyone.
The ramp, and the test behind each milestone
Weeks 1 and 2
Product, ICP, personas and the three objections your team hears most. Shadows calls, rewrites the opening sequence in their own words and pitches the product to their manager.
On track looks like can explain who you sell to and why they buy in two minutes, without notes.
How we test for it before you meet them
A short live call on a persona from your brief, inside our screen. We score the opener and the first objection, not the polish.
Weeks 3 to 6
Sequences live, calls daily. Early meetings land, some with the wrong people. The useful SDR notices which ones and fixes the list before anyone asks.
On track looks like a steady weekly rhythm of conversations and first meetings on AE calendars.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask what they changed in their first month at their last job when the numbers were low, and check the answer with a former manager.
Weeks 7 to 10
The measure moves from booked to held and accepted. Qualification tightens, no-shows drop, and the AEs start asking for this SDR's meetings by name.
On track looks like most meetings are held and accepted by the AE, not just booked.
How we test for it before you meet them
We collect held and accepted meetings against target for the last four quarters. Booked-only numbers are where we dig.
Weeks 11 to 13
Hitting the meeting target with the team's messaging, plus one experiment of their own. Feedback lands as a change in next week's activity, not a debate.
On track looks like at or near target, with a pipeline contribution the sales leader can see.
How we test for it before you meet them
A reference call with a former manager about one specific piece of feedback and what changed after it.
After day 90
Strong SDRs start running a segment, onboarding new hires or taking first calls themselves. Plan the next seat early, or a competitor will offer it.
On track looks like a promotion conversation you started, not one they had to raise.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask where they want to be in eighteen months. An answer tied to sales is a good sign for both ramp and tenure.
Five responsibilities. If the seat also owns closing, it is an account executive role with a junior title.
Researching accounts and contacts inside your ICP, keeping the CRM clean and dropping accounts that will not buy.
Calls, email and social sequences at a steady cadence, personalized where it changes the reply rate and templated where it does not.
Replying to demo requests and trial sign-ups within minutes, while the buyer is still on your site.
Asking the questions your AEs need answered and recording them, so a meeting arrives with context rather than a name.
Booking the meeting, briefing the AE and making sure the buyer turns up. The number is meetings held, not invites sent.
Three neighboring seats absorb work people assume belongs here. Drawing the line wrong is how an SDR hire burns out in month four.
That seat ownsNew-logo prospecting into accounts that have never engaged, usually outbound only and often account-based.
Hire it instead whenyour problem is accounts that will never fill in a form, not slow follow-up on the ones that do.
That seat ownsDiscovery, demos, negotiation and the close, against a revenue quota.
Hire it instead whenyou already have meetings and nobody to convert them.
That seat ownsCreating the inbound interest an SDR responds to: campaigns, content, paid media and events.
Hire it instead whenyour SDRs are idle because nothing is coming in, not because nobody is following up.
The title stays the same; the motion does not. Pick the one that matches your pipeline.
Responds to people who raised their hand: demo requests, trials, webinar and content leads.
Opens conversations with people who did not ask: lists, sequences and cold calls at a steady cadence.
Works a short list of named accounts in depth: research, multi-threading and personal outreach to committees.
The questions we ask in our own screen. Use them in yours; the warning signs are as useful as the answers.
Every candidate we put forward is scored on these five, and the scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included. Four out of five with a named weakness beats a clean sweep you cannot verify.
| What we score | Weak evidence | Strong evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings held against target | Activity totals, or meetings booked with no held or accepted figure. | Held and accepted meetings by quarter, with the misses explained. |
| A live call on your buyer | Reads a script and rushes past the first objection. | Opens with the buyer’s problem, asks two good questions and earns a next step. |
| Messaging they own | Uses templates without knowing why they work. | Shows a sequence they wrote and the reply rate it earned. |
| Coachability | Defends past results and cannot name feedback that changed anything. | Names the feedback, the change and the effect, and a former manager confirms it. |
| Fit with your motion | An inbound-only background for a cold outbound seat, or the reverse. | Has run your motion, to a buyer like yours, at a similar deal size. |
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. SDR pay is a base salary plus a variable paid on meetings or pipeline, so total pay runs well above base. BDRs sit a step higher, and the account executive row is the usual next seat.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryAverage total pay, base plus variable
SDR
Salary.com base, Built In total
$56,156 to $67,489 base$83,110 average total
BDR
Salary.com base, Built In total
$72,007 to $87,689 base$91,805 average total
Account Executive
Salary.com base, Built In total, the usual next seat
$87,513 to $111,393 base$212,849 average total
Bars: base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, Salary.com benchmarks for the United States as of October 1, 2026. Rings: average total compensation (base plus additional cash, self-reported) from Built In, reviewed September 30 and October 1, 2026. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
An SDR, or sales development representative, turns target accounts and inbound interest into qualified meetings for account executives. The day is research, calls, email and social outreach, fast replies to inbound leads and qualification against an agreed standard. The SDR’s number is meetings held and accepted by sales, not deals closed.
Salary.com puts SDRs at $56,156 to $67,489 base, with a median of $63,189 (October 2026). Self-reported data on Built In shows a $55,000 median base and $83,110 average total compensation once commission is included. BDRs sit higher, at $72,007 to $87,689 base on Salary.com. Location, deal size and how the variable is weighted move the number.
Set it on meetings held and accepted by an account executive rather than on activity, and work back from the pipeline your AEs need. Most teams pay the variable on held meetings or on the pipeline those meetings create, and ramp the target over the first quarter. We will sanity-check a quota as part of the brief.
For a first SDR seat, look for evidence of resilience and coachability rather than years: customer-facing work, a previous sales internship, anything with a target and a scoreboard. For outbound or enterprise seats, a year or two of quota-carrying SDR or BDR experience shortens the ramp. Industry fluency helps, but a strong SDR from an adjacent market often beats a weak one from yours.
Outsourced SDR agencies can test a market quickly, but the learning stays with the agency and the messaging rarely survives the handover. An in-house SDR builds knowledge of your buyer that compounds, and often becomes your next account executive. Our SDR recruiting is for in-house seats, and if a short market test is what you need, we will say so on the first call.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates. Interview speed decides the rest: good SDR candidates rarely run one process at a time, so a decision within a week of the first interview keeps them. Most SDRs then need two to four weeks before they can start.
Against the five criteria in the scorecard on this page: meetings held against target, a live call on your buyer, messaging they wrote, coachability checked with a former manager, and fit with your motion. The scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included, so you can see why each person is on it.
Tell us the motion, inbound, outbound or enterprise, and the meeting target. We come back within one business day with how we would run the search and what the seat pays.
We build shortlists from people doing this work now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for sales development roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
The SDR is one of six seats in this function. If the gap sits at a different stage, start there.