Why We Don't Have BDRs (And Why You Shouldn't Either)

"Business development is often framed as a numbers game: more dials, more emails, more sequences. But sheer activity without depth rarely builds trust, let alone a pipeline. That's why we stopped calling our entry-level salespeople "BDRs." In our organization, they are junior consultants. This change in title isn't cosmetic; it reflects a completely different approach to how we engage prospects and build meaningful conversations."

"A script and a list of targets are frequently given to traditional BDRs. We turned it upside-down. Our junior consultants don't touch the phone before they learn as much as possible about our services, products, industry, the industries we serve and, of course, our clients. Possessing 40% to 50% of the knowledge of the consultant themselves is enough to say, "Let me set you up with our expert to answer these questions.""

"Most sales teams still chase sheer activity. We've raised the volume, too: more than 100 calls a day and hundreds of LinkedIn touches each month. But the difference is that every outreach is tailored, contextual and timed. The payoff is clear. Personalized cold emails have been shown to deliver up to 32% higher response rates than generic blasts, and campaigns that lean into advanced personalization can hit reply rates of 18%, compared to just 5% for templated sequences."

Junior salespeople are retitled junior consultants and trained to research services, products, industries, clients, competitors, outcomes, terminology, use cases, and success stories before outreach. Junior consultants aim to possess 40%–50% of a senior consultant's knowledge and defer to experts when appropriate. Preparation is used to establish authenticity and credibility within seconds of a prospect interaction. High-volume outreach remains important, but each contact must be tailored, contextual, and properly timed. Personalized cold emails and LinkedIn messages significantly increase response and reply rates compared with templated sequences. The combined approach balances depth and scaled, targeted activity to build trust and pipelines.

Read at Forbes