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Hiring guide · Sales Development Representative

Hiring a Sales Development Representative?

What the role costs to hire, why ramp takes longer than the average tenure, and the AI role that runs the top-of-funnel motion in 30-60 days.

Also searched as: SDR · BDR · Business Development Representative · Outbound SDR

See the AI Sales Development Representative →Book a 30-min call

Two ways to fill the role.

Same scope of work. Different operating model. Different cost basis.

Option 1 · Hire a human

Sales Development Representative

€45,000–€65,000 / year, fully loaded

Capacity
60-100 quality sequences started per week at steady state, less during ramp.
Onboarding
4-9 months to fully ramped against the ICP, message, and disqualification rules.
Coverage
Standard hours. Time-zone coverage requires multiple hires.
Cost basis
Fully-loaded cost (base + OTE × 1.35-1.65) per year, plus recruiting fee.
Hiring timeline
8-14 weeks to start date, plus 4-9 months to ramp
Annual attrition
35-50% (industry average for this seat)

Option 2 · Deploy the AI role

Sales Development Representative

Anchored to the human cost. Launch fee + monthly retainer + role-level usage.

Capacity
Scales to your TAM and meeting capacity. Adds throughput without adding headcount.
Onboarding
30-60 days from scoping to live. Sequences and qualification rules authored in writing.
Coverage
Continuous outreach window. Replies handled inside SLA across time zones.
Cost basis
Launch fee + monthly retainer + role-level usage. Anchored to the human cost.
Deploy timeline
14 days
Operational guarantee
90-day KPI guarantee. We keep working free until the contracted KPI hits.
See Sales Development Representative →

The job description

What a Sales Development Representative actually does.

Responsibilities

  • Run multi-channel outbound sequences (email, LinkedIn, phone) against the ICP defined by Sales leadership.
  • Qualify inbound leads from marketing campaigns within the SLA window (typically 5-15 minutes).
  • Book qualified meetings for Account Executives; protect AE calendar from low-fit accounts.
  • Maintain CRM hygiene: enrich accounts, deduplicate contacts, log every touch.
  • Hit weekly activity quotas (calls, emails, sequences started) and monthly meeting quotas.
  • Coordinate with marketing on campaign feedback; flag dead segments and high-converting messaging.
  • Prepare account briefs for AE before the first meeting.

Must-have experience

  • 1-2 years in an SDR / BDR seat at a B2B SaaS or services company.
  • Comfortable inside a CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive) and a sequencer (Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo).
  • Written communication that clears spam filters and earns a reply.
  • Comfort on the phone — most SDRs don't last 18 months because they avoid the dial.

Nice to have

  • Domain experience in your target vertical.
  • Background in customer-facing roles outside sales (CS, support, account management).
  • Experience with sales engagement analytics (Gong, Chorus).

Tools they need to know

  • CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive
  • Sequencer: Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, Lemlist
  • Calendaring: Chili Piper, Calendly, HubSpot Meetings
  • Enrichment: Clearbit, ZoomInfo, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Why this role is hard to hire well.

SDR is the highest-attrition seat in B2B sales. Average tenure runs 12-18 months, and ramp to productivity takes 4-9 of them. Most SDRs leave just as they start to compound — the math on the role rarely works without a deep bench and a recruiting team.

The AI SDR runs the outbound sequences and inbound qualification motion against the ICP your Sales leadership defines, books meetings on the AE calendar, and keeps the CRM clean. Live in 30-60 days. Doesn't dodge the hardest accounts. Doesn't churn at month 14.

See Sales Development Representative →See full pricing

Questions about hiring a Sales Development Representative.

Can the AI SDR replace our entire SDR team?

Most operators don't run it that way. The pattern that works: AI SDR handles the high-volume, well-documented outbound motion (cold sequences, inbound qualification, CRM hygiene); human SDRs focus on named-account outbound, complex objection handling, and the warm-account follow-up that benefits from a relationship. A smaller, more senior SDR team plus an AI role usually outperforms a bigger junior bench.

How does the AI SDR maintain message quality without sounding like spam?

The role is briefed with your existing ICP, message library, and disqualification rules — not generic templates. Every sequence is reviewed in scoping. Replies route to a human for any nuanced response. Reply-rate and meeting-conversion are the contracted KPIs.

What happens to AE calendars — do they get junk meetings?

Calendar quality is the biggest deployment risk and the one we instrument hardest. Disqualification rules are signed in scoping, weekly review of AE meeting feedback in the first 90 days. If AE feedback flags low-quality meetings, the disqualification rules tighten in writing.

Does it work with Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, and Salesforce?

Yes — the role reads and writes to the major sequencers and CRMs. No replatforming. Your existing reporting on activity, reply rate, and meeting conversion stays intact.

What's the cost compared to an SDR hire?

A fully-loaded SDR in Western Europe (base + OTE) runs €60k-€90k per year, plus 15-25% recruiting fee on the base. The AI role is priced as a launch fee + monthly retainer + role-level usage, anchored to that human cost so the savings read directly. Most deployments target 50-70% total cost reduction at steady state.

90-day operational guarantee. We agree on the outcome KPI before launch. If we haven't hit it by day 90, we keep working free until we do.

How it works →

Ready to compare in detail?

30-minute call. We'll model the AI role against your actual volume, your existing baseline, and your hire-or-deploy decision.

Book a 30-min callSee the AI role