If you have just hired your first Sales Development Representative or thinking of hiring one, it can be surprisingly hard to know what “good” actually looks like.
We hear this a lot from founders and early sales leaders. You make the hire, you set them up with tools and a list, and then the questions start almost immediately. Should they be booking meetings in week one? How many is realistic? If the calendar is still quiet after a month, is that normal or a problem?
Most of the confusion comes from unclear expectations. Job descriptions tend to promise outcomes like “drive pipeline” or list a grab bag of sales tasks that sound impressive but offer no guidance on what progress should look like day to day or month to month.
We put this together to help with that gap. It breaks down what SDR work actually looks like in practice, how the role typically ramps, and what you should and should not expect early on.
The Real Purpose of an SDR
At its core, the SDR role exists to create qualified conversations for Account Executives. Not leads in the abstract. Not activity for the sake of dashboards. Not closing deals.
A good SDR focuses on:
- Identifying the right people at the right companies
- Starting relevant, timely conversations
- Qualifying interest and fit
- Booking meetings that are genuinely worth an AE’s time
This work compounds over time. Expecting meaningful results before SDRs have learned the market, messaging, and objections is one of the fastest ways to misjudge the role.
The Core SDR Workflow
While the details vary by company, market, and sales motion, most effective SDR roles are built around the same core workflows.
1. Research and Targeting
Before any outreach happens, SDRs need context.
This usually means:
- Working from a defined list of target accounts or a clear ICP
- Identifying the right roles and decision-makers
- Understanding the company’s product, market, or recent changes
- Spotting basic signals that make outreach relevant
Early SDRs spend a disproportionate amount of time here in their first weeks. That is not inefficiency, it is ramp. Without this foundation, everything downstream suffers.
2. Outbound Outreach
Outbound is still a core part of most SDR roles, especially early on.
That includes:
- Sending personalised emails
- Making outbound calls
- Using LinkedIn to support or warm up conversations
- Running sequences that span multiple touches
Outreach quality improves with repetition and feedback. Messaging that works in month three often looks very different from what went out in week one.
3. Handling Replies and Running Qualification Calls
When a prospect engages, the SDR’s job shifts quickly.
At this stage, the focus is on:
- Understanding the prospect’s role and priorities
- Identifying whether there is a real problem to solve
- Confirming basic fit with your ideal customer profile
- Deciding whether a meeting with an AE makes sense
These conversations are learned skills. New SDRs rarely get this right immediately, which is why early call coaching matters more than raw meeting counts.
4. Booking Meetings and Handover
Once a prospect is qualified, the SDR books the meeting and prepares the handover.
This typically includes:
- Scheduling the meeting on the AE’s calendar
- Sending a clear agenda to the prospect
- Logging notes and context in the CRM
- Giving the AE enough information to run a strong first call
Meeting quality tends to improve as SDRs hear feedback from AEs and see which conversations convert. That loop takes time to mature.
5. Follow-Ups, Admin, and Improvement
The rest of the work is less visible but still critical.
This includes:
- Following up with prospects who have gone quiet
- Confirming meetings to reduce no-shows
- Keeping CRM records clean and accurate
- Reviewing what messaging is working
- Learning from objections and patterns
Most early gains come from iteration rather than effort alone. This is where patience pays off.
A Day in the Life: What an SDR’s Day Really Looks Like
On a typical day, an SDR starts by checking replies from the day before and following up quickly with anyone who has engaged. That early responsiveness matters more than most people realise. The rest of the morning is usually spent on outbound work, researching a handful of target accounts and reaching out in focused blocks rather than firing off messages all day. Around the middle of the day, there are often a few qualification calls. These are not sales pitches, but straightforward conversations to understand the prospect’s situation and decide whether a meeting with an AE is genuinely worth booking. The afternoon is about follow-ups, confirming meetings, and keeping momentum going. Before finishing up, the SDR updates notes and reflects on what landed and what did not. In well-run teams, this rhythm develops over time. It is rarely perfect in the first few weeks.
What This Means If You Are Hiring Your First SDRs
If you are hiring your first one or two SDRs, the goal is not immediate output. It is to build a repeatable motion that improves month by month.
A few principles matter more than tooling or titles:
- Be explicit about what success looks like at 30, 60, and 90 days
- Expect ramp time before consistent meetings appear
- Invest early in training and feedback, especially around qualification
- Measure progress, not just raw activity
- Treat the SDR role as a long-term growth lever, not a quick fix
The SDR role is demanding. It requires resilience, judgement, and time to develop. Companies that understand this tend to build a durable pipeline. Companies that expect results from day one usually end up cycling through hires instead.
