BDR (Business Development Representative)

A BDR is a hunter. They contact companies that don't know theirs yet, in a new market, a new segment or a list of large accounts. Their job stops at the meeting: an account executive runs the sale from there.

In teams that separate the two roles, the SDR qualifies inbound leads, people who came on their own, while the BDR does outbound. That line isn't universal. Some companies call SDR what others call BDR. What matters is where prospects come from and who decides to contact them.

The role exists because outbound prospecting takes time and consistency. A salesperson already juggling negotiations always pushes it to next week.

They start from an account list built from the ICP. In each account they map the useful people: the one who decides, the one who will use the solution, the one who can champion the project internally. On a large account they contact several of them, with different messages.

Then they look for a reason to write now. An open job posting, a recent job change, a funding round, an expansion, a post by the prospect. That reason feeds the first message and avoids the generic opener.

Next comes the sequence: LinkedIn invitation, first message, spaced follow-ups, sometimes a call or an email. When someone replies, the BDR qualifies, then books a meeting with a clear handover note.

On long sales cycles they also go back to accounts that said "not now". A follow-up on the date the prospect asked for is often worth more than a new cold account.

Good metrics follow the account rather than the message: accounts reached, contacts engaged per account, qualified meetings, opportunities opened and pipeline value generated. The number of messages sent is for diagnosis, not evaluation.

News-based signals help, without working miracles. In the MimikFlow 2026 Observatory, a job change, a funding round or an open role lifted the reply rate to 40.9%, against 37.1% without any news, and observed meetings to 6.8%, against 5.8%.

The biggest gap came from where the prospect was found. People who had reacted to a post replied 74.6% of the time, against 35.6% for strangers found through search. A BDR who works first on accounts where someone has already interacted with their company starts with a clear edge.

Sending the same message to every contact in an account. They talk to each other, and three identical texts in one team scream badly tuned automation.

Stretching the list to off-target accounts to hit a volume target. The meetings don't turn into opportunities, and the account executive stops trusting the handovers.

Measuring the BDR on meetings booked rather than held and qualified. Then booking anyone becomes the easy way to hit the number.

Giving up after one message on heavily solicited decision-makers. And working apart from marketing: people who downloaded content or reacted to a post are often the best way into an account.

MimikFlow automates the mechanics of outbound prospecting on LinkedIn. It turns the target into searches, rates each profile and keeps the reason for its decision, sends invitations at the pace the account allows, writes the first message and runs up to eight follow-ups. The AI Setter then replies, qualifies and books real time slots.

A BDR working an account list can import LinkedIn URLs or a CSV file: those contacts go through the same deduplication, qualification and volume rules. People who like or comment on a post can also join the campaign after the same check. The BDR keeps strategic accounts and phone calls in their own hands.