Business Development Representative

A Business Development Representative (BDR) is responsible for generating qualified sales pipeline by identifying, researching, and engaging prospective customers. BDRs ensure that the sales team has a steady flow of well-qualified opportunities that align with the company’s ideal customer profile.

What does a Business Development Representative do, typically?

Prospects and generates pipeline

BDRs research target accounts, build prospect lists, and run outbound outreach through email, phone, LinkedIn, and other channels to open new conversations with decision-makers.

Qualifies leads and books meetings

BDRs engage inbound and outbound prospects, ask discovery questions to assess fit, and schedule qualified meetings for Account Executives to advance through the sales cycle.

Manages CRM and outreach cadences

BDRs maintain accurate account and contact data, execute multi-touch sequences, and track activity and conversion metrics to continuously improve messaging and targeting.

A Business Development Representative is not:

An Account Executive

An Account Executive owns the full sales cycle from qualified opportunity to closed deal, while a BDR focuses on the top of the funnel — sourcing and qualifying prospects before handoff.

A Marketing Coordinator

A Marketing Coordinator supports campaigns, content, and demand-generation programs that create awareness at scale, whereas a BDR conducts one-to-one outreach to convert interest into booked meetings.

Important metrics for a Business Development Representative

BDRs are commonly evaluated based on activity volume, meeting production, and pipeline contribution. Simplified, standard metrics cover:

• Qualified meetings booked and held

• Pipeline generated (sourced opportunity value)

• Outbound activity (calls, emails, LinkedIn touches)

• Conversion rates (contact-to-meeting, meeting-to-opportunity)

• Response and connect rates on outreach