What Does a Business Development Representative Actually Do?
A business development rep (BDR) is focused on outbound prospecting — finding potential customers, qualifying them, and booking discovery calls for senior salespeople. They spend most of their day writing cold emails, making calls, working LinkedIn, and logging everything in a CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot. They report to a Sales Manager or Head of Sales Development. Tech companies, SaaS startups, staffing firms, and B2B services companies rely on BDRs as the top of the sales funnel engine.
Jack Morrison
Business Development Representative
📍 Reading, UK✉️ jack.morrison@email.com
Summary
High-energy Business Development Representative with 4 years of experience in enterprise SaaS sales. Consistently exceeds pipeline targets through creative outbound strategies and strong qualification skills.
Work Experience
Business Development Representative at OracleJun 2022 — Present
Generate 40+ qualified opportunities per quarter through multi-channel outbound prospecting
Exceeded pipeline generation targets by 135% in 2023, contributing £2.8M in qualified pipeline
Sales Development Representative at SAPSep 2020 — May 2022
Qualified 200+ inbound and outbound leads per month using BANT and MEDDIC frameworks
Achieved 142% of monthly meeting quota across 6 consecutive quarters
Skills
Cold OutreachLinkedIn Sales NavLead QualificationCRM ManagementPipeline BuildingEmail CampaignsDemo SchedulingMarket Research
What Recruiters Look For
BDR CVs need to scream activity and results. Recruiters want to see meetings booked, pipeline generated, quota attainment, and outreach metrics.
Not including your quota attainment. This is the single most important metric for a BDR and omitting it is a red flag.
Formatting Tips
One page. Keep it punchy and metric-heavy. Bold your quota numbers. Use a Key Metrics section at the top.
Average Salary — Business Development Representative
United States
$45,000 – $75,000
United Kingdom
$30,000 – $52,000
Germany
$32,000 – $52,000
UAE / Dubai
$36,000 – $60,000
Canada
$40,000 – $65,000
Australia
$45,000 – $68,000
Figures in USD. Ranges reflect mid-level experience (3–7 years). Senior roles and major metro areas typically sit at the top of these bands.
Top 5 Interview Questions — Business Development Representative
1How do you research a prospect before reaching out?
Mention specific signals — funding announcements on Crunchbase, job postings indicating growth, LinkedIn activity, or news coverage. Show you personalise outreach with intent data, not just a name and company.
2Walk me through a cold email you've written that got a reply.
Have a real example ready. Break down the subject line, the opening hook, the value proposition, and the CTA. If you can share open or reply rates, even better.
3How do you handle rejection and stay motivated after a difficult week of no responses?
Be honest but show resilience. Talk about the habits that keep you going — tracking activity metrics, finding patterns in what's not working, and focusing on what you control.
4What's your sequence strategy for a cold outbound campaign?
Describe a real multi-touch sequence — day 1 email, day 3 LinkedIn connect, day 5 follow-up, day 8 call. Tools like Outreach, Salesloft, or Apollo are worth naming if you've used them.
5Tell me about a time you hit or exceeded your quota. What drove it?
Give the number and the context — what quota was, what you hit, and the specific behaviours that got you there. Avoid generic answers like "I worked hard".
How to Tailor Your CV
Gartner, Salesforce, Twilio, and hundreds of Series A–C SaaS startups hire BDRs constantly. At Salesforce or Gartner, they want to see structured outreach methodology and CRM hygiene. Startups want scrappiness — someone who has built sequences from scratch in Apollo or Salesloft. Staffing firms like Michael Page or Robert Half want phone-heavy experience and the ability to work high call volumes. Any CV targeting SaaS should show outbound-to-meeting conversion rates prominently.