Business Development Representative (BDR)
A Business Development Representative (BDR) is a sales role focused on outbound prospecting — generating net-new pipeline by proactively reaching accounts that have not raised their hand. BDRs research target accounts, run cold outreach across channels, and book qualified meetings for account executives.
How it works
BDRs build targeted account lists against an ideal customer profile, run multichannel cold sequences (email, calls, LinkedIn), and qualify interested prospects against fit and need before handing an opportunity to a closer.
Why it matters
Outbound BDR motion creates pipeline that marketing inbound alone can't — it lets you go after specific high-value accounts on your own timing. Success depends on tight targeting and disciplined multichannel follow-up, not spray-and-pray volume.
How Autocloz handles it
Autocloz equips outbound BDR teams with warmed mailboxes, a power dialer, LinkedIn, SMS and WhatsApp in one sequence — plus a compliance gate — so cold prospecting stays coordinated and within safe limits per channel.
FAQ
Is a BDR the same as an SDR?
They are close and companies use the terms interchangeably. The common distinction: BDRs run outbound cold prospecting into new accounts, SDRs qualify inbound marketing leads. Both hand qualified opportunities to account executives.
What channels does a BDR use?
Modern BDRs run multichannel outreach — cold email, cold calls, LinkedIn touches and sometimes SMS — because buyers rarely respond to a single channel. Coordinated sequencing across channels lifts reply and meeting rates.
Related terms
Multichannel sequencing is automating a coordinated outreach cadence across more than one channel — for example email, then a LinkedIn touch, then a call, then a WhatsApp follow-up — from a single sequence, with per-channel timing and safety rules.
A sales sequence is an automated, pre-defined series of outreach steps — emails, calls, LinkedIn touches, texts — that fire on a schedule to move a prospect from cold to a conversation. Each step specifies a channel, a delay and often a branching condition (like skip if the prospect already replied), so follow-up happens consistently without a rep remembering every touch.
A sales cadence (or sequence) is a structured, time-based series of outreach touches — emails, calls, LinkedIn actions, texts — designed to reach a prospect across multiple channels and attempts before disqualifying or moving on. It defines what to send, on which channel, and when.
A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales role focused on inbound lead qualification and top-of-funnel prospecting rather than closing. SDRs respond to and qualify marketing-generated leads, then hand qualified opportunities to account executives who run the deal to close.