SDR / BDR
Generates the sales pipeline: outbound prospecting, lead qualification and meeting booking for Account Executives.
Why this hire matters.
The SDR is your pipeline's faucet: without a steady flow of qualified meetings, your best AEs run dry and your revenue forecast becomes fiction. They're also the first human contact hundreds of prospects will have with your brand — a clumsy SDR burns a market faster than any campaign can repair it. The role is demanding (volume, daily rejection) and turnover is structurally high: the real hiring challenge isn't finding an SDR, it's turning the role into a machine that produces your future AEs — a scale-up's best salespeople are often former internal SDRs. AI is transforming the job: volume tasks are being automated, and value shifts to targeting relevance and conversation quality. Hire for coachability and resilience, not experience.
Key missions.
- Prospect target accounts (email, phone, LinkedIn)
- Qualify inbound and outbound leads
- Book meetings for AEs
- Personalize outreach sequences by segment
- Keep the CRM rigorously up to date
- Test and iterate messaging with marketing
- Feed back market signals (objections, competitors)
Skills.
Technical skills
- Multichannel prospecting techniques
- Qualification (BANT, light MEDDIC)
- Sales tooling mastery (CRM, sequencers)
- Outreach copywriting
Expected qualities
- Resilience to rejection
- Coachability
- Energy
- Listening
Common stack
Salaries 2025-2026
| Level | Experience | Annual gross base | Annual gross package |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR/BDR | 0-2 yrs | 28–40 k€ | 38–56 k€ |
| Senior SDR / Team Lead | 2-4 yrs | 35–45 k€ | 55–70 k€ |
Paris market ranges, 2025-2026.
Outside the Paris region, expect 10 to 15 % less.
Sources : Smile Talent 2026 · Rocket4Sales 2026 · Ignition Program 2026
Hiring this profile.
Typical background
Often a first job after business school or an atypical path. Potential (drive, coachability) matters far more than the CV.
When to hire
When founders and first AEs are saturated with prospecting and the outreach playbook starts being replicable — often post-seed.
Career path
SDR → Senior SDR/Team Lead → Account Executive (the main path), or growth/ops.