How to Hire a BDR/SDR: A Guide for Startups

Imagine it: pipeline is growing, but your team is maxed out. Good leads slip through the cracks while unqualified leads suck up precious time.

Maybe you don’t have to imagine it, and if that’s the case, then it’s time to beef up your sales team and hire BDRs/SDRs.But here’s the catch: hiring the right sales rep is hard, especially at a startup.

The BDR/SDR role is notoriously tricky to define. It touches sales, marketing, and customer experience — and in an early-stage company, the needs shift fast. Make the wrong hire too early, and you’ll stall momentum instead of gaining it.

This guide will help you cut through the confusion. Whether you’re hiring your first sales development professional or figuring out how to scale the team, we’ll walk through when to hire, what to look for, and how to find someone who can actually move the needle.

 

What Does a BDR/SDR Do?

A BDR/SDR is the spark that gets new business rolling.

They’re usually the first person a potential customer hears from in your organization, whether that’s through a cold outreach or by following up with someone who reached out to your startup on their own.

BDR/SDRs kick off conversations, identify which leads are worth pursuing, and set up meetings so the sales team can focus on closing deals.

Many startups — and even some larger companies — don’t treat BDRs and SDRs as separate roles, and use the titles interchangeably. Technically, though, they cover different sides of the sales funnel: outbound (BDR) and inbound (SDR).

Let’s explore the basic ins and outs of BDRs and SDRs first, then dive into how to combine them into one singular BDR/SDR role effectively.

 

Roles and Responsibilities of a BDR

Business Development Representatives are like hunters.

They proactively seek out new business opportunities to bring back to the sales team. This takes strategic thinking and strong business instincts. BDRs are all about spotting potential where no one’s looking yet — researching target accounts, identifying decision-makers, and spotting creative ways to get a foot in the door.

This kind of proactive lead generation is known as outbound prospecting. And it takes hustle. BDRs use everything from cold emails and phone calls to LinkedIn messages and even the occasional well-timed text to spark conversations and turn total strangers into sales opportunities.

A BDR’s core responsibilities include:

• Research: Digging into target accounts to understand their business needs, who the decision-makers are, and whether they’re a potential fit for your product or service.
• Pipeline generation: Consistently creating new points of contact and sales opportunities to keep the pipeline full and healthy.
• Cold outreach: Initiating contact with prospects through emails, calls, or messages — often with little or no prior relationship.
• Multi-channel communications: Navigating and using a mix of outreach platforms, including email, phone, LinkedIn, and more to meet prospects where they are.
• Staying current on industry trends: Understanding the market landscape to make outreach more relevant and strategic.

 

Roles and Responsibilities of an SDR

Meanwhile, a Sales Development Representative is a kind of matchmaker.

Generally, SDRs are responsible for top-of-funnel leads — the ones marketing generates through things like webinars, lead magnet downloads, or demo requests. From there, the SDR determines whether an incoming lead matches your ideal customer profile and has genuine buying potential for your organization’s products and services.

In marketing, this is known as “warming” leads. Once an SDR identifies these warm leads, they get passed along to the sales team, which is generally an account executive.

Core responsibilities of SDRs include:

• Lead qualification: Assessing whether inbound leads fit the ideal customer profile and are ready for a sales conversation.
• Product knowledge: Knowing your products and services inside and out — well enough to speak to their value and answer basic questions from potential customers.
• Bridging sales and marketing: Acting as the link between marketing-generated leads and the sales team to ensure smooth handoffs.
• Using sales tools and automation platforms: Leveraging tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach, or Salesloft to manage workflows and track performance.

 

When to Hire a BDR/SDR

Hiring the right person to be your BDR/SDR starts with understanding your sales processes, goals, and budget.

Whether you’re trying to drive growth or simply keep up with rising lead volume, bringing on a dedicated person to cover both inbound and outbound lead generation can make a big difference.

 

When to Split Up The BDR and SDR Roles

If you’re seeing real traction and have the resources to build a more specialized sales team, it may be time to split inbound and outbound responsibilities between two roles. Instead of one person juggling both, each can focus on their core function — outbound prospecting (BDRs) and inbound lead qualification (SDRs) — to maximize impact and efficiency.

You should consider splitting the roles when:

• Your inbound lead flow is steady, but your team can’t keep up: Bringing in an SDR ensures that inbound leads coming in through your marketing channels get timely follow-up and are appropriately qualified before reaching your closers.
• You want to scale outbound efforts in a focused way: A BDR can identify, research, and engage with high-potential prospects you haven’t reached yet.
• You’re launching into new markets or testing new products: BDRs are great at pressure-testing messaging, gathering feedback, and building early awareness in unknown territory.
• You have the budget to invest in specialization: As your go-to-market strategy grows more complex, having the resources to hire both BDRs and SDRs allows for greater focus and specialization across your sales strategy. Larger teams with bigger budgets can afford to split responsibilities, enabling deeper training, clearer performance tracking, and more precise optimization.

 

When to Hire One Person for a BDR/SDR Role

For early-stage companies, especially those under $5M in annual revenue, it usually makes sense to combine inbound and outbound into one role. If your budget or team size doesn’t allow for separate SDR and BDR roles, hiring a seasoned hybrid that can handle both inbound and outbound responsibilities may be the smartest move.

This individual should have proven experience in lead qualification and outbound prospecting, along with excellent communication and presentation skills, since they’ll represent your brand at multiple touchpoints in the sales funnel.

Situations where it makes sense to keep the BDR and SDR functions combined:

• You’re still building a repeatable sales process: If you’re not yet sure what channels or tactics work best, one person handling both inbound and outbound can spot patterns and adapt quickly.
• You want to scale but need to stay lean: A hybrid BDR/SDR can generate pipeline and qualify leads without the budget strain of having multiple team members.
• You have a clear ICP but not enough volume yet: If your targeting is solid but lead flow isn’t overwhelming, one person can manage the full top-of-funnel effectively.
• You’re not ready for full sales ops and enablement: Until you’ve nailed onboarding, training, and handoffs, it’s easier to manage and coach one hybrid rep.
• You want to develop internal talent: A hybrid role is a great entry point for ambitious reps who can grow into sales, marketing, or leadership roles once your team structure matures.

Now that we’ve covered what the BDR/SDR role looks like and how to determine the right fit for your startup, read on to learn about how we get the right candidates through the door with an effective job posting.

 

How to Write a Job Posting for a BDR/SDR

Your job posting will dictate the type of candidate that you attract and bring into your hiring funnel. Bland or generic job postings may appeal to a broader audience, but they won’t necessarily appeal to the right hire that your team needs.

A good job posting begins with a job description that covers the responsibilities and duties of the role. Start by describing the role, challenges the hire will work on, and skills they will need. Then move on to write your job posting, which you will use to market the role and attract ideal candidates.

When writing a job posting, I like to start with the following:

• A company description: Go beyond the basics and use clear, descriptive language to give your prospective candidates a taste of what your company culture is like.
• Summarize the role: Make sure to include a brief description of the role, key responsibilities, and type of experience you’re looking for. Make sure to define success for the role, too, and the team structure.
• Skills: Do you need more attention on inbound or outbound? Is your startup only able to hire one person who needs to know how to handle both? What’s shaping your sales strategy? The answers to these questions will dictate what skills you need. We’ll cover specific skills shortly!
• Benefits and location: Include where the job is (if it’s not remote), expectations around being in the office, and benefits that come with the job.
• Compensation: I’m an advocate for being upfront about compensation. Pay will depend on location and experience. According to Payscale, you can expect to offer a base salary between $42,000-$78,000, not including commission. Sales salaries are heavily driven by commission, which is worth its own section below.

And from there, I consider the following when writing the job description:

• Assess the needs of my team
• Define the ideal candidate profile I want to hire
• Note the roles and responsibilities

 

Building a Commission Structure for BDR/SDRs

Commission structures for BDR/SDRs should be simple, motivating, and based on achieving meaningful sales milestones.

A commission structure usually contains at least four key components:

1. On-Target Earnings (OTE): What your BDR/SDRs should expect to be paid if they hit their sales goals and quotas.
2. Pay splits: The percentage of a BDR/SDR’s pay that is base salary versus the percentage they make from commission. The splits typically range from 50/50 to 70/30. Generally, more junior BDR/SDRs have a higher percentage of base salary to provide stability while they get up the curve on their sales quotas.
3. Defined quotas and commission rates: The commission should reward BDR/SDRs for hitting key milestones. The rate for each commission depends on several factors, including your industry, the type or complexity of tasks your BDR/SDR completes, and the role’s seniority or experience level. It should also take into account busier sales periods (also called “ramp periods”). Remember to differentiate between outbound and inbound, especially if you plan on splitting the BDR/SDR role as you set quotas. Quotas include:
   1. Activities: Calls booked or meetings scheduled; qualified opportunities; average lead response time
   2. Outcomes: A percentage paid out based on the number of deals closed or revenue generated by opportunities that were originated by the BDR/SDR.
4. Incentives: Bonuses and perks are most effective when tied to meaningful sales behaviors across the entire funnel. The best plans use tools like SPIFs (Sales Performance Incentive Fund) — a short-term bonus used to quickly motivate sales teams to hit specific goals, such as booking calls with prospects for a specific service offering or meeting seasonal targets. This helps spur BDR/SDRs, reinforce company goals, and drive consistent performance.

The bottom line on commission structures is to be transparent and fair about how it works, and to keep it directly tied to rewarding activity that strengthens your pipeline.

The Hiring Process for Hiring a BDR/SDR: What to Expect

Interviewing is a key step in any hiring process, but many companies aren’t using their interviews strategically.

This especially goes for BDR/SDR interviews, where you can gauge whether a candidate is truly the right fit for your company. When interviewing a BDR/SDR, I recommend involving multiple team members in the interviews for a set of diverse, informed perspectives on each candidate.

At a high level, the typical BDR/SDR interview process looks like this:

• A recruiter screen: Make sure the candidate meets the minimum requirements for the role and is likely to be a fit for the organization. Focus on their expectations for the role, basic skill questions, personality fit, and their interview timelines.
• Technical interview with the hiring manager: Ensure the candidate is a strong fit for the role. Focus on getting to know the candidate at both a technical and personal level to ascertain whether they match the role needs and your internal culture.
• A “meet the team” interview: This could be a full-day or a half-day, depending on the size of your company and sales/marketing organization. This is typically made of two parts:
  • A take-home project that the candidate presents.
  • 1:1 interviews with potential colleagues to assess the candidate’s skills, thought processes, business sense, and approach to sales.

 

The Take-home Project

It’s worth calling out a quick note about the take-home project.

This is your chance to gauge whether the person you’re interviewing is a good fit for the role, and not just a good fit on paper. Make expectations clear upfront: what the task is, how to submit it, and when it’s due. You’re not looking for perfection; you’re looking for curiosity, coachability, and how they think on their feet. If feedback is part of the process, make sure you deliver it and give them a chance to respond constructively — that’s where you’ll really see their potential.

An example assignment might look something like asking the candidate to:

• Research four of the company’s competitors and analyze what customers are saying, along with the pros and cons of each.
• Build a target list of five companies you’d pursue as a BDR/SDR, including key contacts and their titles (note, with AI, this could take a few minutes, so make sure to ask about their thought process and not just for the end result).
• Write tailored outreach emails based on those prospects.
• Pitch one of the company’s products to your team in a brief presentation.

After the interview process, you will review the candidate’s performance with your team to make a final hiring decision.

You may want to include the following as you evaluate and compare candidates:

• A post-interview panel to discuss, followed by a decision by the hiring manager.
• Reference checks to ensure the candidate has good character and standing, and to make sure you haven’t missed anything across the hiring process.
• Make an offer!

Now that we’ve explained the interview process at a macro level, we need to specify how to engage BDR/SDR candidates through specific questions, skill-based assessments, and team needs.

The devil is always in the details!

 

How to Interview a BDR/SDR

Interviewing a BDR/SDR isn’t just about finding someone who can talk the talk — it’s about identifying a candidate who can help you get a handle on your pipeline, build trust with prospects, and adapt quickly in a fast-moving environment.

The best candidates aren’t just energetic and personable — they’re coachable, organized, skilled, and strategic.

I like to split the BDR/SDR interview into two parts:

• Seeking out the required skills (again, these should be based on your company’s needs)
• Specific questions to assess those skills and competencies

You want to invite the candidate to share real-world examples that reveal their technical skills, ability to drive growth, and communication style.

Let’s walk through each one.

 

Skills to Look for

When hiring a BDR/SDR, it’s important to look for the following key skills:

• Lead qualification mastery: The foundation of the BDR/SDR role is knowing how to assess whether a lead is worth pursuing. Ask candidates how they define a qualified lead and what frameworks they use (e.g., BANT, FAINT, MEDDIC). Look for a structured thought process and the ability to balance inquisitiveness with qualification criteria.
• Product knowledge: They can quickly grasp and communicate the value of your products and services.
• Research: Effective outbound efforts depend on thoughtful research. Can they dig into an account, find a decision-maker, and craft a personalized message?
• Presentation and communication: Great BDRs/SDRs know how to earn attention quickly and keep conversations flowing. You want to assess both written and verbal skills. Clear, confident, and concise communication is key.
• Time management: The role demands juggling multiple tasks — outreach, follow-ups, CRM updates, and internal communication — often under pressure. Ask how they plan their day or how they stay organized when working with large volumes of leads.
• Resilience: This is a high-rejection role. You want someone who doesn’t get rattled by “no” and can stay upbeat and focused through setbacks.
• Multichannel fluency: Today’s outbound motion isn’t just cold calls — it’s email, LinkedIn, video calls, and even texting in some industries. Determine how they vary messaging across platforms.

 

Questions to Ask a BDR/SDR Candidate

The exact questions you ask during the interview process depend on the specific role. As a general rule, you can break questions down into the following categories:

• Business-centered mindset
• Technical skills
• Presentation and communication
• Startup culture

Whenever asking questions, no matter the scope, I try to focus on outcomes rather than inputs in earlier-stage companies and startups. In HR terms, we call this the Competency-Based Interviewing framework — what I believe to be the right way to interview, especially at the startup phase. Each employee can have an outsized impact on your success; therefore, prioritizing outcomes over “just getting the work done” needs to be a priority.

 

Business-centered Mindset

Look for candidates who understand the bigger picture: how their role connects to business goals, customer needs, and the competitive landscape. A strong BDR/SDR should be curious about how deals are won and lost, and show maturity when discussing wins, failures, and competition.

Recommended questions:

• When you reflect on your best and worst sales experiences, what impact or positive outcomes did you deliver, and what did you learn that continues to stick with you?
• When do you stop pursuing a client, and how do you stay positive when faced with rejection?
• Select a competitor for our product. How would you talk about them when discussing the value our company provides to a prospect?

 

Technical Skills

A top-performing SDR/BDR should be comfortable using sales tools, monitoring the pipeline, and executing smart, efficient inbound and outbound strategies. Look for process-minded candidates who are confident in their ability to build and move leads through the funnel.

Recommended questions:

• How would you go about building a pipeline of new prospects? Explain the channels you would use to make first contact, and why.
• What software/tools do you use in your daily activities? How do you use them across the sales funnel?
• What questions would you ask to understand a prospect’s needs and pain points? How do you determine if they are a good fit for your product or service?

 

Presentation and Communication

The best sales professionals are strong communicators who can clearly articulate value, tailor their language to the audience, and keep prospects engaged. Pay attention to how they think about tone, structure, and preparation.

Recommended questions:

• How do you prepare before reaching out to a new prospect?
• Share an example of the strategies you have used to keep a prospect engaged during a call or email exchange.
• What kind of language or messaging do you think would resonate with our target customers, and why?
• Share an example of how you struck the right balance between being persistent and respectful when reaching out to prospects and communicating with leads?

 

Startup Culture

Can you envision working with this person and fitting into the overall environment at your company? Can they slot into your sales strategy and work seamlessly across teams? This is a chance to determine your candidate’s character, in addition to their sales skills.

Recommended questions:

• Tell me about your current or most recent team. What works about the current dynamic, and what do you find challenging?
• Share an example of how you handled shifting priorities, project and time management, and workflows that may vary in pace.
• Share how you stay current with the latest trends and advancements in the industry, and give an example of how you’ve applied new knowledge or practices to your prospecting and outreach.

 

What Makes Someone a Good Fit for a Startup BDR/SDR Role?

Nearly every tech company calls itself “agile and fast-paced,” but this is especially true for early to mid-stage startups. What’s more, BDR/SDRs tend to be involved with core pieces of your organization’s sales strategy.

One moment, they’ll be checking on cold, inbound leads and evaluating how they can be moved down the pipeline, and the next, they’ll work on drumming up outbound activity by focusing on the top of the funnel and making cold calls.

Keep in mind that even the most seasoned salesperson may not be the right fit for a startup environment.

Beyond the core skills listed above, look for someone who:

• Brings a self-starter mentality: A seasoned professional capable of working independently. They can run their inbound and outbound responsibilities by taking initiative and proactively engaging with prospects.
• Demonstrates adaptability: Capable of shifting gears quickly and confidently. You want a candidate who doesn’t lose focus or get rattled when objectives, priorities, or strategic direction change.
• Shows versatility: A true Swiss Army knife. Someone who can jump from evaluating data in the CRMs to executing on the sales strategy. Someone capable of delivering results, whether they’re researching clients or conducting cold outreach via calls and emails.
• Possesses resourcefulness and resilience: They ask insightful questions, explore new tools and ideas, and approach challenges with creative problem-solving. They also know how to roll with the punches — they don’t get discouraged when a prospect goes silent or tells them “no”. They’re always motivated and hungry.

 

Hiring Is Just One Part of HR: Download the Startup HR Survival Guide for the Rest

Hiring is a key piece of your startup’s success, but it’s only one element of a robust and effective HR strategy.

The most successful startups know that their path to scaling from seven to nine figures will be made possible by the practices they follow to attract and retain top performers in their company.

I mapped out this and more in my Startup HR Survival Guide.

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• How HR can drive growth
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