Scope
What a Sales Development Representative actually owns
The question this role exists to answer: Of everything that came in this week, which are real and which are noise.
Owns
- Inbound lead qualification and response speed
- Discovery conversations that establish fit before an account executive is booked
- Meeting volume from marketing sourced demand
- Data quality on the records they touch
Shares
Does not own
- Outbound prospecting into cold accounts
- Closing and commercial negotiation
- Campaign strategy
Timing
When to hire a Sales Development Representative
Too early
Before marketing is producing enough inbound to fill a day, this person will invent outbound work and become a BDR.
The right window
$3 million to $50 million in ARR, once inbound volume outpaces what account executives can triage themselves.
Outgrown
At scale this specialises by segment and by product line.
How much work this actually is
At Series B, with none of it covered today, the functions in this role’s scope represent roughly 1.3 full time equivalents. One hire covers this.
| Function in scope | Group | Full time equivalents |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline generation and outbound Prospecting, cold outreach, list building, meeting setting, top of funnel sales activity. |
Sales and revenue | 1.28 |
Run your own coverage grid to see what this number looks like at your stage, with your team and your existing coverage.
Compensation
What a Sales Development Representative costs
Structure matters as much as the number
A meaningful variable component tied to team or company performance, with base carrying the majority of on target earnings.
Equity: Commonly 0.01 to 0.03 percent at Series B.
These bands are specific to cybersecurity go to market roles, not general B2B SaaS. Security pays above the cross industry midpoint: the buyer is technical, the cycle is longer, and the pool with real security context is small. Figures are directional, for scoping a description or a target range rather than making or accepting an offer. Live posted ranges come from GTM Radar and appear once enough matched postings exist to be meaningful.
Title confusion
Titles a Sales Development Representative gets confused with
Most mis hires in go to market are not bad candidates. They are the right candidate for a different job than the one the company actually needed.
Sales Development Representative versus Business Development Representative
The split matters and conflating them is a real mis scope. A BDR works outbound into named accounts that have shown no interest. An SDR works inbound that marketing produced. Different skills, different day, different person. One job description asking for both usually gets neither done well.
Sales Development Representative versus Account Executive
The SDR qualifies and books. The AE runs the cycle and closes. Asking an SDR to close is how good SDRs are set up to fail.
Requirements
What to actually require
Non negotiable
- Worked inbound volume against a response time standard
- Held qualification conversations rather than reading a script
- Kept CRM records clean under volume
Genuinely optional
- Security literacy sufficient to hold a first conversation
- Sales engagement platform experience
- Worked with a defined qualification framework
Everything in this column belongs under a preferred heading, or out of the description entirely. Requirements lists that mix these two columns filter out strong candidates who self select away.
Tools this role works in
- CRM
- Sales engagement and sequencing
- Data and enrichment
- Conversation intelligence
Name the specific platforms in the description. Platform experience is not fully transferable in operations and automation roles, and candidates screen themselves in or out on exactly this detail.
Before you post
Red flags in a Sales Development Representative job description
Screening
Interview questions that reveal fit
| Area | Question |
|---|---|
| Qualification | How do you decide in the first five minutes whether a lead is worth an account executive’s time. |
| Volume | How did you handle a day where inbound outpaced your capacity. |
| Security | A prospect mentions they are evaluating for compliance reasons. What do you ask next. |
| Handoff | What did you put in the CRM before booking a meeting. |
Measure the role on
- Qualified meetings booked from inbound
- Speed to first response
- Meeting to opportunity conversion
- Record quality on touched accounts
First 90 days
First 30 days
- Learn the qualification criteria and the product well enough to ask real questions
- Meet the account executives and understand what they consider a good meeting
By day 60
- Hit a consistent response time standard
- Book meetings at target volume with acceptable conversion
By day 90
- Deliver against the full quarterly meeting number
- Feed back to marketing on what inbound is actually converting
Questions
Sales Development Representative hiring questions
What does an SDR do?
They work inbound demand: qualifying what marketing produced, holding a first conversation to establish fit, and booking meetings worth an account executive’s time. The measure is qualified meetings and response speed, not dials.
What is the difference between an SDR and a BDR?
An SDR works inbound that marketing generated. A BDR works outbound into named accounts that have shown no interest. Different skills and a different day: inbound is triage and speed, outbound is research and persistence. A job description asking for both usually results in inbound response time slipping, because outbound is easier to postpone.
When should a cybersecurity company hire an SDR?
Once inbound volume is greater than the account executives can triage themselves, usually $3 million to $50 million in ARR. Hiring one before marketing produces steady inbound means they will invent outbound work and become a BDR with the wrong title.
What should an SDR be measured on?
Qualified meetings booked, speed to first response, and how many of those meetings become opportunities. Activity counts measure effort and are easy to hit without producing anything.
Next step
Turn this into a job description scoped to your company
The reference above describes the role in general. The builder takes your stage, your team, your existing coverage, your territory and your stack, and produces a description scoped to the gap you actually have, with a scope load check before you post it.
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