Sales Development Representative (SDR)

The SDR works leads — inbound and outbound — toward a booked meeting. The role sits organizationally within the Marketing department, as the SDR output (meetings attended and qualified) depends on marketing's lead generation and activation work. See the SDR job description for the full role definition.

Bonus Structure

The SDR is compensated under a monthly bonus plan tied to a single goal: First Meetings, defined as meetings attended and qualified. Note that specific targets are subject to review at the start of each month.

Each qualifying First Meeting in the month earns a per-meeting bonus that increases with the SDR's running meeting count for that month, up to a cap. This formula applies from October 2026 onwards.

Variables

  • nn: the sequence number of the meeting within the month (1 for the SDR's first qualifying meeting that month, 2 for the second, and so on)
  • b(n)b(n): the bonus earned for that meeting
  • CC: Cap (the maximum bonus payable for a single meeting)
  • BB: Bonus (the full bonus earned for hitting quota)
  • MM: Meetings to full bonus (the number of meetings required to earn BB, i.e. quota)

First Meetings Bonus Formula

b(n)=min⁡(C, B⋅e1/M−1e−1⋅e(n−1)/M)b(n) = \min\left( C,\ B \cdot \frac{e^{1/M} - 1}{e - 1} \cdot e^{(n-1)/M} \right)

The monthly bonus is the sum of b(n)b(n) over all qualifying meetings in the month. The per-meeting bonus ramps up exponentially with each additional meeting until it reaches the cap CC at the MM-th meeting, after which every further meeting is paid at the cap.

For payout timelines and submission requirements, see Processing non-commission Bonuses.

CRM Hygiene

The SDR is responsible for keeping lifecycle stage and lead status current in HubSpot based on the outcome of each call. Lifecycle stage will be set to Disqualified and lead status will be set to Unqualified for all contacts that have no business relevance.

SDR Focus Areas

Warm outreach:

  • Webinar follow-up
  • Free trials that didn't convert
  • Tradeshow follow-up
  • Case study downloads

The SDR does not respond to "Book a Demo" form submissions — these are routed directly to the AE.

Cold outbound:

  • Cold calling
SDR Credit

The SDR has a 45-day protection window, which grants sourcing credit if a lead they worked re-enters the sales funnel through another method within that window.

Examples:

  1. An SDR follows up on a webinar lead, and that lead submits a "Book a Demo" form within 45 days.
  2. An SDR calls a cold lead, and that lead submits a "Book a Demo" form within 45 days.