What Does a Sales Development Representative Actually Do? A Day in the Life

A sales development representative (SDR) is an entry-level salesperson who finds potential customers, starts conversations with them, and books qualified meetings for account executives. On a normal day, an SDR researches prospects, makes cold calls, sends cold emails and LinkedIn messages, follows up, and logs it all in the CRM. SDRs don't close deals. They create the pipeline that account executives close.

Want to learn the job before you apply? We recommend the CourseCareers Technology Sales course. It's our course, so we're biased, but it's built around the exact work on this page: prospecting, cold calls, cold email, LinkedIn, sales tools, and the job search.

This page covers the job itself. For the full plan to break in, read our roadmap for getting into tech sales with no experience.

Key takeaways

• An SDR creates pipeline: finds the right buyers, starts conversations, qualifies interest, and books meetings for account executives (AEs), who close the deals.
• The median SDR logs about 112 calls, emails, LinkedIn touches, and texts a day and has about 4 quality conversations (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• SDRs are measured mostly on qualified meetings and opportunities. The median quota is about 10 a month, and about 60% of SDRs hit it.
• Median SDR on-target earnings (OTE) were $80,000 in The Bridge Group's 2025 report, about $55,000 base plus $25,000 variable. The usual next step is AE, but it isn't automatic.
• Our pick for learning the job: the CourseCareers Technology Sales course, our own $499 course on prospecting, cold outreach, sales tools, and the job search.

What's on this page

• What is an SDR?
• Daily tasks
• An hour-by-hour sample day
• How success is measured
• SDR tools
• SDR vs BDR vs AE
• SDR pay
• What's hard about the job
• Where the job leads
• What to do next
• Why we recommend our course
• FAQ

What Is a Sales Development Representative?

A sales development representative is usually the first salesperson a potential customer talks to at a business-to-business (B2B) company, most often a software company. The SDR turns cold contacts and early interest into qualified meetings for account executives, who run the rest of the sale.

Think of it as a relay. Marketing creates interest. The SDR finds and qualifies buyers by reaching out to people who've never heard of the company and by following up on inbound leads who asked for a demo. The AE runs the demo and closes.

The details vary by company. At startups, SDRs often help write the messaging and work closely with founders. At larger companies, teams are split by region, industry, or company size, with more process. The core job stays the same.

What SDRs Do Every Day: The Core Tasks

Every SDR day mixes three kinds of work: finding the right people, reaching out to them, and moving the interested ones to an AE. These are the core tasks, roughly in the order they happen.

1. Plan the day. Check replies, the calendar, and the task queue of calls, emails, and LinkedIn steps due today.
2. Research accounts and contacts. Find companies that fit the ideal customer profile, the right people there, and a reason to reach out now, like a funding round.
3. Build lists. Pull emails and phone numbers from a data tool and load new prospects into sequences.
4. Make cold calls. Open the call, ask a good question, and ask for a meeting. Many calls go to voicemail, so SDRs call in focused blocks.
5. Send cold emails. Short, specific messages tied to the prospect's role, with follow-ups in the same thread.
6. Reach out on LinkedIn. Connection requests, comments on a prospect's posts, and messages.
7. Work sequences. A sequence, or cadence, is a planned series of touches over a week or two, such as email, call, LinkedIn, call, email.
8. Qualify interest. When someone replies or an inbound lead comes in, ask questions to check need, authority, budget, and timing. Many teams use BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline).
9. Book and hand off. Send the invite, write up what you learned, and brief the AE so the prospect doesn't repeat themselves.
10. Update the CRM. Log every call, email, outcome, and next step so AEs and managers can see what's going on.

SDRs also join standups, review call recordings with their manager, and learn the product.

The volume is real. At the median, an SDR's 112 daily activities break down to about 44 calls, 41 emails, 19 LinkedIn touches, and 8 texts or other messages. All that effort produces about 4 quality conversations a day (The Bridge Group, 2025). For the skills behind each task, read the core skills every SDR needs.

A Day in the Life of an SDR: Hour-by-Hour Sample

A typical SDR day runs in blocks: research, a morning call block, follow-up emails and LinkedIn messages, a second call block, then handoffs and CRM updates. Here's a sample day for an outbound SDR at a software company. It's an example, not a rule, and times shift with your team and time zone.

Inbound-heavy SDRs spend more time answering demo requests quickly, since interest fades fast.

How the day changes as you get better

How SDR Success Is Measured

SDRs are judged mainly on the qualified meetings and opportunities they create. Activity numbers are the early sign of whether you're on pace.

A meeting with the wrong person, or one that never happens, usually doesn't count toward quota. That's why qualifying well beats booking anything you can. New SDRs get a ramp period before full quota kicks in, 3.0 months on average, and the median SDR supports about 2.4 account executives (The Bridge Group, 2025).

The Tools SDRs Use

Most SDRs work in four kinds of software every day: a CRM, a sales engagement platform, a contact data tool, and LinkedIn. Employers train you on their own setup.

You can practice for free in HubSpot's free CRM or on Salesforce Trailhead. See 10 essential tech sales tools every SDR should learn for the full list.

SDR vs BDR vs Account Executive

SDRs and BDRs both create pipeline, and many companies use the titles for the same job. Account executives take the meetings SDRs book and close the deals.

Read the job description, not just the title. For more titles to search, see 10 tech sales job titles beginners should target.

How Much SDRs Make

Median SDR on-target earnings were $80,000 in The Bridge Group's 2025 report, about $55,000 base plus $25,000 variable (The Bridge Group). RepVue, which collects pay data reported by sales reps, shows a $60,000 median base and $85,500 median OTE (RepVue, data updated October 2026).

OTE is your base salary plus the commission you'd earn at 100% of quota. Since about 40% of SDRs miss quota, budget around your base and treat commission as upside. Pay also varies by company and location.

What's Hard About the Job

The hardest part is the ratio of effort to results: lots of outreach, lots of no, and a fresh quota every month. Some people find that energizing. Others burn out.

• Rejection is constant. About 4 real conversations from roughly 112 daily activities means most outreach gets no answer or a quick no.
• The quota never stops. About 60% of SDRs hit quota, so many reps miss in a given period.
• The work repeats. Research, call, email, follow up, log it. You have to enjoy getting better at the same thing.
• Turnover is high. Median SDR attrition was 40% in 2024, including the 16% who left through promotion, and average tenure is 1.9 years (The Bridge Group, 2025).

Two myths to drop: it isn't telemarketing, since good SDRs research each account first, and you don't need to be technical. You need to understand the customer's problem and explain it clearly.

The job suits people who bounce back from rejection, like clear goals, write well, and stay organized. If you dread the phone or need quick wins every day, think hard first. Is tech sales a good career? covers fit in more detail.

Where the SDR Job Leads

Account executive is the usual next step for SDRs, but promotion takes time and isn't guaranteed.

Unify tracked about 180,000 U.S. professionals who began as SDRs or BDRs. For those who got promoted, the median wait for an AE role was 12 months. But by mid-2026, only 22.3% of the group had reached AE (Unify).

SDR experience also leads to account management, customer success, sales operations, recruiting, and marketing. Our tech sales career path and pay breakdown covers each step up.

What to Do Next if the Job Sounds Right

If the day above sounds like a good challenge, learn the skills SDR hiring managers test and build proof of them.

1. Learn prospecting, cold calling, cold email, and qualifying. Start with how to build SDR skills fast with zero experience.
2. Practice in a free CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce Trailhead so the tools aren't new on day one.
3. Build proof: a sample outreach sequence for a real company and a skills-first SDR résumé.
4. Reach SDR managers directly instead of only applying online. What it takes to get hired as a first-time SDR explains what they look for.

Our recommendation: for one structured path through all four steps, take the CourseCareers Technology Sales course. It teaches the SDR work on this page and then walks you through the job search. It's $499, with a free intro course.

Why We Recommend the CourseCareers Technology Sales Course

We built the CourseCareers Technology Sales course to get beginners ready for SDR and BDR jobs. It's self-paced and takes about 4 to 12 weeks. It covers sales basics, cold calling, cold email, LinkedIn outreach, CRM and sales engagement tools, discovery, and the job search through the Career Launchpad.

Your instructor, Trent Dressel, started in tech sales at a major SaaS company with no connections. He became a senior account executive within four years and has made more than 900 YouTube videos about tech sales careers. The course costs $499 one time or four payments of $150 every two weeks. You have 14 days to switch courses or get a refund, as long as you haven't taken the final exam.

Our 2025 Outcomes Report surveyed our graduates. Graduates of our Technology Sales course who landed a job reported an average starting OTE of about $68,000, up from about $45,000 before the course. OTE includes expected commission, so base pay was lower. These are self-reported answers from graduates who had landed a job, so they don't show what every student earns.

What it doesn't do: it can't guarantee a job or replace the reps you'll get in your first SDR role.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does SDR stand for in sales?
SDR stands for sales development representative, the entry-level tech sales job focused on finding prospects and booking qualified meetings for account executives. Some companies call the same job a BDR, or business development representative.

How many calls does an SDR make a day?
The median SDR makes about 44 calls a day, part of about 112 total activities including emails, LinkedIn touches, and texts, according to The Bridge Group's 2025 report. It varies by company.

Which SDR tasks are hardest for beginners?
Cold calling is usually hardest at first, because you face rejection live and have to think on your feet. Writing short emails that don't sound templated and asking qualifying questions naturally also take practice.

Do SDRs work from home?
Many tech companies hire remote or hybrid SDRs, while others want new reps in the office for training. Remote SDRs keep the same daily rhythm, which takes extra self-discipline.

Do you need a degree to become an SDR?
No. The job doesn't require a degree, though some employers still list one. Proof of your skills and direct outreach to hiring managers are the best way past that filter.

What's the best tech sales course for beginners?
We recommend our own CourseCareers Technology Sales course, so we're biased. It teaches prospecting, cold calling, cold email, LinkedIn outreach, CRM and sales engagement tools, discovery, and the job search. It costs $499, takes about 4 to 12 weeks, and starts with a free intro course.

Sources

• The Bridge Group: 2025 SDR Models and Metrics Report (published February 2025)
• The Bridge Group: 2026 AE Models, Motions and Metrics (published June 2026)
• RepVue: Sales development representative salaries (data updated October 2026)
• Unify: The Path to AE (August 2026)
• HubSpot: Free CRM
• Salesforce Trailhead
• CourseCareers Outcomes Report 2025 (survey of CourseCareers graduates)