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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for BDR Manager

💰 $85,000 - $140,000 (base + OTE)

SalesBusiness DevelopmentManagement

🎯 Role Definition

The BDR Manager (Business Development Representative Manager) leads the sales development organization responsible for prospecting, qualifying inbound and outbound leads, and creating a predictable pipeline for Account Executives. This role combines team leadership, process design, performance coaching, recruiting, tooling ownership, and close alignment with marketing and sales leaders to hit monthly, quarterly, and annual pipeline and revenue targets.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior BDR / Senior SDR
  • Sales Development Representative (BDR/SDR)
  • Account Development Representative (ADR)

Advancement To:

  • Senior Manager / Director of Sales Development
  • Head of Sales Development / VP of Sales Development
  • Director of Revenue Operations / VP of Revenue

Lateral Moves:

  • Account Management / Customer Success Leadership
  • Demand Generation or Growth Marketing Leadership

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Build, lead, and scale a high-performing BDR team by recruiting, hiring, and onboarding top sales development talent to accelerate pipeline generation and meet quarterly quota and KPI targets.
  • Design and implement repeatable outbound prospecting strategies (email cadences, cold calling frameworks, LinkedIn outreach, account-based marketing touchpoints) to create a predictable sales pipeline for Account Executives.
  • Own day-to-day team management including setting individual and team goals, conducting 1:1 coaching, run-rate performance reviews, and development plans to increase conversion rates from outbound touches to qualified opportunities.
  • Establish, monitor, and optimize key metrics (MQL to SQL conversion, pipeline creation, meetings booked, win rates, average deal size, activity metrics) and produce weekly/monthly performance reports for Sales and Revenue leadership.
  • Create and maintain multi-channel outreach sequences using Sales Engagement Platforms (e.g., Outreach, SalesLoft) and ensure consistent A/B testing, subject-line optimization, and message personalization to improve response rates and pipeline quality.
  • Collaborate closely with Marketing to translate campaign insights into more effective lead scoring, qualification criteria, and follow-up workflows that shorten time-to-first-meeting and increase pipeline velocity.
  • Partner with Account Executives and Sales Managers to define ideal customer profiles (ICP), target account lists for outbound efforts, and alignment on handoff and follow-up processes that maximize conversion to opportunity.
  • Develop and run structured, data-driven coaching programs that leverage call recordings (Gong/Chorus), email analytics, and role-play to improve objection handling, discovery questioning, and demo handoffs.
  • Set and manage team quotas, territory assignments, ramp plans, and compensation structures that motivate performance and align incentives with company revenue goals.
  • Implement a rigorous hiring process including scorecards, structured interviews, and recruiting playbooks to shorten time-to-hire and increase new-hire ramp velocity.
  • Oversee CRM hygiene and governance (Salesforce, HubSpot), ensuring accurate lead/account ownership, activity logging, pipeline stage usage, and reliable forecasting inputs.
  • Create enablement materials — playbooks, objection libraries, call scripts, messaging frameworks, and battlecards — and deliver regular training sessions to keep the team current on product, competitors, and positioning.
  • Leverage analytics to identify pipeline leakage, improve conversion windows, and recommend process changes that materially increase pipeline coverage and forecast accuracy.
  • Collaborate with Product and Customer Success to surface market feedback, competitive insights, and buyer objections that inform product roadmap and messaging.
  • Run weekly stand-ups, pipeline reviews, and forecast cadences with Revenue leadership to provide timely insights on deal progression and risk.
  • Lead pilots for new outreach tools and technologies, evaluate vendor ROI, and manage relationships with external sales enablement partners.
  • Drive cross-functional programs such as account-based outreach, event follow-up playbooks, and SDR-led nurturing tracks to accelerate net-new and expansion pipeline.
  • Manage compensation, performance improvement plans (PIPs), and escalations; make hiring/firing decisions in partnership with HR to maintain a high-performance culture.
  • Design and maintain ramp and training metrics to ensure new BDRs hit quota within an established timebox and continuously improve the onboarding experience.
  • Forecast team capacity needs and present hiring plans and budgeted headcount requests to senior leadership aligned to revenue growth targets.
  • Coordinate with Legal and Compliance to ensure outreach and data usage adhere to GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CASL, and other regional regulations.
  • Own special projects such as territory realignment, outbound channel expansion (e.g., marketplace, partner-sourced leads), and sales-play rollouts that increase pipeline efficiency.
  • Drive continuous improvement by documenting processes, retrospectives, and lessons learned from lost deals and successful opportunities to scale best practices globally.
  • Act as an evangelist for the revenue organization: present results and strategy updates company-wide and influence cross-functional roadmaps that support scalable demand generation.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc reporting and exploratory analytics requests from Sales Ops and RevOps to improve targeting and territory planning.
  • Assist Marketing with creative brief development and campaign targeting when launching new outbound plays or ABM initiatives.
  • Maintain and update internal knowledge bases, playbooks, and training documents to ensure cross-team alignment and enablement consistency.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile-style cadences for cross-functional revenue projects to ensure timely delivery and iteration.
  • Represent Sales in customer-facing events and industry conferences to support lead capture, follow-up strategy, and executive-level introductions.
  • Provide input to compensation and quota design discussions to ensure alignment with market benchmarks and sales strategy.
  • Facilitate cross-department workshops to align messaging, ICP, and competitive positioning with product and marketing teams.
  • Support integration of new tools and data feeds into the CRM and engagement stack, including user acceptance testing and rollout communications.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Salesforce CRM administration and reporting (object management, dashboards, custom reports, validation rules).
  • Sales engagement platforms: Outreach, SalesLoft, or Groove — sequence design, analytics, and optimization experience.
  • Conversation intelligence tools: Gong or Chorus for call review and coaching.
  • HubSpot experience (for inbound routing, lead scoring, and marketing-sales handoffs).
  • Strong data literacy: building dashboards in Tableau, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, or advanced Google Sheets/Excel.
  • Experience with LinkedIn Sales Navigator and social selling tactics to generate meetings and nurture accounts.
  • Account-based marketing (ABM) tactics and tooling (terminus, 6sense, Demandbase) to coordinate targeted outreach.
  • Cold calling and email prospecting frameworks with demonstrated success improving outreach-to-opportunity conversion.
  • Forecasting, quota-setting, and territory planning methodologies with a track record of predictable pipeline growth.
  • Experience with recruitment and structured interviewing for SDR/BDR talent including scorecards and role-based assessments.
  • Familiarity with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CASL compliance in outbound communication and data usage.
  • Basic understanding of product positioning, value-based selling, and buyer personas in B2B SaaS environments.

Soft Skills

  • Coaching and mentorship: proven ability to develop sales reps through feedback, role play, and metrics-driven coaching.
  • Strong communication and presentation skills for cross-functional leadership and executive reporting.
  • Results-oriented mindset with bias for action and comfort operating in a fast-paced startup or scaleup environment.
  • Analytical thinker: able to translate data into actionable changes in process, messaging, and outreach cadence.
  • Emotional intelligence and resilience: manage performance conversations, conflict resolution, and team motivation.
  • Strategic thinker who can balance short-term pipeline delivery with long-term sales development strategy.
  • Collaborative partner: strong stakeholder management across marketing, product, sales, and customer success.
  • Time management and prioritization to balance hiring, coaching, reporting, and tactical execution.
  • Creative problem solving to iterate on outbound approaches and respond to market signals.
  • Adaptability: ability to pivot plays and messaging based on product changes or shifting market conditions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business Administration, Sales Leadership, or related discipline.
  • Certifications in Sales Management, Coaching, or Sales Operations are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Sales or Entrepreneurship

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5+ years in sales development or business development roles with 2+ years managing a BDR/SDR team.

Preferred:

  • 3–5+ years of direct people management experience, preferably in SaaS or enterprise B2B.
  • Proven track record scaling BDR teams from early-stage to predictable pipeline engines.
  • Experience working closely with RevOps and Marketing to implement lead routing, scoring, and enablement programs.
  • Demonstrable success hitting pipeline and revenue targets through outbound motion, ABM, and integrated demand generation strategies.
  • Experience managing remote or distributed teams and scaling processes globally is advantageous.
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