Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Development Representative

🎯 Role Definition

A Business Development Representative (BDR) is an early-stage, quota-bearing sales professional focused on top-of-funnel activities: prospecting, qualifying, and creating sales opportunities for account executives and field sellers. The BDR role requires disciplined outreach (cold calls, multi-channel email sequences, social selling), expert use of CRM and sales engagement tools, and strong research skills to target high-value accounts. Successful BDRs consistently exceed activity and pipeline KPIs, convert inbound leads to qualified opportunities, and accelerate sales velocity by delivering well-vetted, demo-ready prospects.

Core keywords: Business Development Representative, BDR, lead generation, prospecting, cold calling, sales development, pipeline generation, Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, Salesloft, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, quota.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Sales Development Intern or Campus Sales Intern
Customer Success or Account Coordinator (early cross-over)
Marketing Demand Gen or SDR Apprentice program

Advancement To:

Account Executive (AE) / Sales Executive
Senior Business Development Representative / Team Lead
Enterprise Sales Development / Field Sales
Sales Manager / Sales Enablement

Lateral Moves:

Customer Success Manager
Partner / Channel Development
Revenue Operations / Sales Operations

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Prospect, research, and qualify high-potential leads using a combination of cold calls, personalized email cadences, social selling on LinkedIn, and inbound lead follow-up to generate qualified opportunities for account executives and field sales.
Manage an assigned territory or segment to consistently grow pipeline and hit weekly, monthly, and quarterly activity and conversion KPIs (calls, emails, meetings set, opportunities created, pipeline value).
Execute multi-touch outbound campaigns using sales engagement platforms (e.g., Outreach, Salesloft), tailoring messaging to buyer personas, industry verticals, and account intelligence to maximize response rates.
Qualify inbound leads with a repeatable framework (MEDDICC, BANT, CHAMP, or equivalent), documenting qualification details and next steps in the CRM to ensure smooth handoffs to AEs.
Maintain an accurate, up-to-date sales funnel in CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar), logging all activities, contacts, and opportunity attributes to enable reliable forecasting and analytics.
Conduct research on target accounts and decision-makers using public records, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, news sources, and internal intelligence to identify pain points and purchase triggers.
Schedule and prepare account executive demos by aligning prospects’ priorities to the product’s value proposition and creating tailored collateral or meeting agendas.
Meet or exceed quota for qualified opportunities or meetings set, and proactively suggest improvements to messaging, playbooks, and target account lists based on results.
Use sales playbooks and enablement materials to continuously refine outreach sequences, objection responses, and value props across industries and buyer roles.
Collaborate with marketing to provide feedback on campaign performance, refine ICP (ideal customer profile), and leverage marketing assets to accelerate conversions.
Leverage sales enablement and call recording tools (Gong, Chorus) to review performance, implement coaching feedback, and iterate on pitch effectiveness and objection handling.
Track and report weekly metrics (calls, emails, connection rates, meetings booked, pipeline dollars) and participate in performance reviews and pipeline planning sessions.
Build and maintain a pipeline of warm prospects through consistent nurture and follow-up sequences to sustain a steady flow of opportunities.
Coordinate multi-stakeholder outreach for committee buys, engaging with procurement, technical evaluators, and business sponsors to advance complex accounts to the AE.
Maintain up-to-date product knowledge and competitive positioning to articulate value, rebut objections, and triage fit for technical or strategic escalation.
Personalize outreach at scale by leveraging templates, dynamic content, and account-level insights while preserving authenticity and relevance.
Execute territory planning and account prioritization, balancing inbound demand with outbound prospecting to maximize conversion efficiency.
Participate in cross-functional meetings with product, marketing, and customer success to surface win/loss insights and customer pain points that inform GTM strategy.
Drive continuous improvement by A/B testing subject lines, email copy, call scripts, and sequence timings to optimize touchpoints that generate meetings and conversions.
Ensure compliance with GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and regional data privacy rules in outreach practices; responsibly manage contact data and opt-outs.
Ramp quickly on new products and verticals by completing certification, role-play scenarios, and shadowing sessions with senior reps and AEs.
Escalate complex technical or procurement questions to Sales Engineers or Solutions Specialists and coordinate follow-up activities to keep the opportunity moving.
Maintain a proactive, coachable mindset: solicit feedback, implement coaching actions, and document experimental outreach tactics and outcomes for team learning.
Support periodic sales events, trade shows, and executive outreach campaigns by generating meeting pipelines and qualifying attendees before handoffs.

Secondary Functions

Maintain and enrich lead and account metadata in CRM (SIC codes, ARR estimates, org charts) to improve segmentation and scoring.
Assist RevOps with data hygiene projects, lead routing rules, territory alignments, and campaign tagging to improve attribution and reporting.
Create and contribute to a library of outreach templates, case studies, and ROI calculators specific to target industries and buyer personas.
Provide input on ICP refinement based on field intelligence around buying signals, ideal verticals, and non-starter use cases.
Participate in onboarding and mentoring new BDR hires; share best practices, call recordings, and sequence performance learnings.
Support ABM and account-based marketing initiatives by conducting targeted outreach to named accounts and coordinating with marketing and AEs.
Conduct win/loss interviews on closed deals to identify messaging or process gaps and contribute insights to the product and marketing teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proficiency with CRM platforms (Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics) for activity logging, pipeline management, and reporting.
Experience using sales engagement tools (Outreach, Salesloft) to build multi-touch cadences, automate sequences, and measure performance.
Strong command of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and other social selling tools for prospecting and company/role discovery.
Familiarity with call recording and conversation intelligence tools (Gong, Chorus) to analyze talk-time, objection handling, and demo readiness.
Ability to leverage data enrichment tools (ZoomInfo, Clearbit, Apollo) and intent signals to prioritize outreach and target accounts.
Competence with basic analytics and reporting (Excel, Google Sheets, or BI dashboards) to track KPIs and derive actionable insights.
Experience qualifying leads with a formal framework (e.g., BANT, MEDDICC); translating customer needs into opportunity scoring and qualification notes.
Knowledge of outbound sales best practices: scripting, objection rebuttals, discovery questioning, and meeting framing.
Familiarity with product demos and technical triage workflows to route prospects to Sales Engineers when necessary.
Understanding of GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and email deliverability best practices to maintain compliant outreach.

Soft Skills

Exceptional verbal and written communication with ability to craft personalized messages that drive response and meeting conversions.
High level of resilience, persistence, and coachability—comfortable with high-volume outreach and frequent rejection while maintaining motivation.
Strong time management and organizational skills to juggle prospecting, follow-ups, CRM hygiene, and internal collaboration.
Problem-solving mindset and curiosity to research complex accounts and uncover latent needs that create new opportunities.
Active listening and consultative questioning to quickly identify buying intent, budget, and decision-making authority.
Collaborative team player who partners effectively with AEs, Marketing, RevOps, and Customer Success.
Results-driven orientation with a focus on measurable outcomes (pipeline generated, meetings set, conversion rates).
Adaptability to new tools, changing processes, and iterative sales playbook updates.
Professional presence and credibility when representing the company in initial customer interactions.
Strong attention to detail for accurate qualification notes, follow-up timing, and CRM data integrity.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in business, communications, marketing, technology, or related fields (many organizations accept equivalent work experience in lieu of degree).

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Economics, or Computer Science, or completion of relevant sales certification programs.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration / Sales
Marketing / Demand Generation
Communications / Public Relations
Information Systems / Technology (for technical selling roles)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

0–3 years in sales, inside sales, customer-facing roles, or internship programs. Entry-level BDRs often come from SDR internships, retail, or customer support backgrounds.

Preferred:

1–3+ years of direct BDR/SDR experience with demonstrated quota attainment, familiarity with CRM and engagement tools, and documented success in outbound prospecting and pipeline generation.
Experience selling into target markets (SaaS, FinTech, Healthcare, Enterprise IT) or working with mid-market/enterprise accounts is a plus.