Business Development Representative (BDR)

A business development representative (BDR) is the person responsible for generating new business opportunities in an organization. The BDR will usually be a sales representative who focuses on generating new, qualified prospects by using tactics including networking, cold email, and social selling. After identifying a potential lead, the BDR will approach them to proactively move the sales conversation forward.

A BDR will not usually focus on inbound leads — i.e., leads that have been engaged by the content or other marketing collateral that an organization publishes. This is because converting qualified prospects and engaged inbound leads falls under the remit of a sales development representative (SDR) and the wider sales team.

A BDR is a critical part of any organization and can be the key to generating more qualified prospects through careful prospecting and lead nurturing. You can think of BDRs as the people on the “front line” who help to generate interest in your product or service from people who didn’t know about it or realize that they have a need for it.