Earlier today I was talking with a couple of sales leaders about Sales Development Reps (SDRs). One leader was a big proponent of SDRs and the other didn’t have any experience with them. From the discussion, I took away four reasons to add an SDR team:
- SDRs help make the more expensive, and more experienced, account executives more productive
- SDRs, with their focus on appointment setting, are more efficient than full-stack sales reps, which are spread thin across a variety of functions (setting appointments, doing discovery calls, facilitating meetings, delivering proposals, and closing deals)
- SDRs are effectively a training ground for future account executives thereby acting as a talent development pipeline
- SDRs are also a training ground for non-sales roles like support and customer success
Startups should evaluate these four reasons to add an SDR team, and once a positive decision is made, review these 7 Quick SDR Tips for Startups.
What else? What are some more reasons to add an SDR team?
David Cummings on Startups 
Once you implement a sales specialization strategy the term “full-stack” no longer applies to your closing team. The AE’s role becomes that of a closer and perhaps in some instances an expander. Sales specialization once you can afford to do so is the only way to go.