SDRs and BDRs who create qualified opportunities from a standing start. The front line of your revenue engine — and the role most people hire badly.
Sales Development is where pipeline is born. SDRs qualify the inbound interest your marketing creates; BDRs generate demand from cold — cold calls, sequences, social selling. Both feed your AEs the opportunities that become revenue. Starve this function and everything downstream stalls.
It's also the role with the highest volume of applicants and the widest quality gap. Advertise an SDR seat and you'll drown in CVs, most of them wrong. The signals that predict a great SDR — grit, coachability, curiosity — barely show up on paper. That's the whole problem, and it's exactly what a specialist screen is for.
Twenty years and 2,000+ placements have taught us the traits that separate a hire who performs from one who churns. Here's what we test for.
They take daily rejection and start the next day fresh — the non-negotiable SDR trait.
They want feedback and apply it immediately. The single strongest predictor of ramp.
They ask real questions about a prospect's business before pitching.
They manage hundreds of touches without letting follow-ups slip.
Clear, concise and compelling on the phone and in writing.
SDR potential barely shows on paper. Screening for traits, not keywords, is the job.
Inbound qualifying and cold generation are different muscles — brief the wrong one and it fails.
SDRs are an investment that compounds with coaching. Hire and abandon and you'll churn them.
Illustrative UK ranges for SaaS companies from Seed to Series C. Actual packages vary by stage, location, vertical and deal size — we benchmark your specific role against live market data.
These are general guide ranges, not a quote — we give you a precise, benchmarked figure for your specific role. Packages can run well above these in high-value verticals such as fintech and legaltech, where deals are large and multi-year. We charge our fee on base salary and guaranteed earnings — never on inflated OTE or commission. A genuinely strong SDR selling £250k+ multi-year deals in fintech or legaltech, for example, can command £60–70k base and around £100k OTE — well outside the entry ranges above. Aspiring SDR? Explore the free SDR Launchpad →
An SDR typically qualifies inbound interest — demo requests, content downloads. A BDR typically generates new pipeline from cold — outbound calls, sequences, social. Some teams use the terms interchangeably; we hire to your actual definition.
Huge applicant volume, high turnover, and the fact that the traits that predict success — grit, coachability, curiosity — don't show up on a CV. A specialist trait-based screen is what separates signal from noise.
A feasibility read on day one and a first shortlist of relevant SDRs within five working days.
Yes — we built a free SDR Launchpad for aspiring SDRs to get ahead before day one. It's linked above.
A common ratio is one to three SDRs per AE, depending on deal size, cycle length and how much of your pipeline is inbound versus outbound. We'll help you model the right number for your motion.
Typically £30k–£45k base with £45k–£65k OTE. Specialist SDRs selling high-value, multi-year deals in verticals like fintech or legaltech can command considerably more.
We screen for the traits that actually predict ramp — grit, coachability, curiosity and organisation — because those beat a thin CV every time. It's why a specialist trait-based screen matters for this role.
Tell us what you need and we'll come back with a feasibility read and a shortlist plan — usually same day.
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