What is a SDR is Sales? Its a position that ultimately boils down to three things: leads, qualified leads, and customers.

You have leads, you find the legit—or qualified—ones out of the leads, and then you turn them into customers. But how do you differentiate a “lead” from a “qualified lead”? Who qualifies as a lead?

Here’s where sales development representatives, or SDRs, step in.

In this post, we’ll explain the role of SDRs and how do they operate in a business’s sales pipeline. Ready? Let’s get down to brass tacks.

What is a SDR?

SDRs fall under two categories: Outbound and inbound. Outbound SDRs focus on emailing, cold-calling, and building businesses for the sales organization. On the other hand, inbound SDRs handle analyzing, qualifying, and disseminating inbounds leads from the business website.

The position of sales development reps is often regarded as an entry-level one. However, top sales teams depend on combining outbound and inbound SDRs for achieving their sales pipeline’s goals. Every SDR’s performance is measured by how effectively they help leads move ahead in the sales pipeline.

Now that you know who SDRs are, let’s focus on the role they play in building sales pipelines.

An SDR’s role in building a sales pipeline

A sales pipeline includes different stages where new leads start their journey toward becoming customers. With a sales pipeline, a sales team monitors the leads and predicts the company’s revenue. The six stages of a sales pipeline include Prospecting, Qualification, Consideration, Decision, Closure, and Post-Sale Services.

SDRs enter the sales pipeline in the Qualification phase and actively work in the Consideration, Decision, and Closure phases. SDRs help strengthen a sales pipeline by getting lead details from their marketing teams. In a sales pipeline, an SDR connects with prospects, understands their problems, and discovers ways to solve them. After receiving the lead information, an SDR helps qualify the leads and nurture them before they’re introduced to account executives who convert them.

Focusing on streamlining a sales pipeline, SDRs help avoid bottlenecks and develop an efficient sales process. SDRs make sure no unqualified opportunities leak into the sales pipeline and reduce the customer acquisition costs too.

Read: 5 Things You Should Look Out For When Hiring an Outsourced SDR

Partnering with an experienced SDR team

Doing the heavy lifting on behalf of SDRs will consume your time required for building your core competencies and growing your business. Here’s where having an outsourced SDR team becomes viable.

At LeadJen, we’re a trusted SDR partner for many startups and big businesses. We’re a trusted group of vetted and well-trained sales professionals who focus on developing leads, cold-calling, and scheduling meetings between prospects and your sales team.

We do the legwork of discovering the most qualified leads and accelerating the sales cycle. For more details, schedule a call with our SDR team today and discover how we’ll work to qualify leads and uncover growth opportunities.