So you’re interested in breaking into SaaS sales, congratulations! You’re considering one of the most lucrative and rewarding career paths in tech. But as you start browsing job postings, you’ve probably noticed a confusing alphabet soup of titles: SDR, BDR, AE, and more.
What do these roles actually do? How do they differ? And most importantly, which one is the right fit for you?
In this guide, we’ll break down the three most common entry and mid-level SaaS sales roles, compare their responsibilities, earning potential, and career trajectories, and help you determine which path aligns with your skills and goals.
Understanding the SaaS Sales Structure
Before diving into individual roles, it’s helpful to understand how modern SaaS sales teams are typically organized. Most B2B SaaS companies use a specialized sales model where different team members handle specific stages of the sales process:
- Lead Generation & Qualification: SDRs and BDRs focus on identifying and qualifying potential customers
- Deal Development & Closing: Account Executives take qualified opportunities and close deals
- Account Management: Customer Success teams (not covered here) ensure customers succeed post-sale
This specialization allows team members to become experts in their specific area, ultimately driving more revenue and creating clearer career paths. Now let’s explore each role in detail.
Sales Development Representative (SDR)
What Does an SDR Do?
A Sales Development Representative primarily focuses on qualifying inbound leads—people who have already shown interest in your company’s product. These leads might have downloaded a white paper, requested a demo, attended a webinar, or filled out a contact form on your website.
Core Responsibilities:
- Responding to inbound inquiries quickly and professionally
- Qualifying leads through discovery conversations
- Understanding prospect pain points and business challenges
- Determining if prospects are a good fit for the product
- Scheduling qualified meetings for Account Executives
- Maintaining accurate records in the CRM system
- Meeting daily and weekly activity metrics
Day-to-Day Activities:
- Making 40-60 calls per day to warm inbound leads
- Sending personalized follow-up emails
- Conducting 15-20 minute discovery calls
- Researching prospects before reaching out
- Coordinating schedules between prospects and AEs
- Attending team meetings and training sessions
SDR Skills & Personality Traits
Key Skills:
- Active listening and asking thoughtful questions
- Quick learning and product knowledge retention
- Time management and organization
- Clear written and verbal communication
- Basic understanding of business operations
- Resilience and ability to handle rejection
Who Thrives as an SDR:
- People who enjoy helping others solve problems
- Those who are responsive and detail-oriented
- Individuals comfortable with structure and clear processes
- People energized by hitting daily metrics and goals
- Those who prefer warmer conversations over cold outreach
SDR Compensation
Salary Range (2025):
- Base Salary: $45,000 – $60,000
- On-Target Earnings (OTE): $60,000 – $85,000
- Top Performers: $90,000+
Most SDR compensation packages include a 50/50 or 60/40 split between base salary and variable compensation tied to meetings booked and opportunities created.
Career Path from SDR
The typical career progression for SDRs includes:
6-12 months: SDR → Senior SDR or Team Lead
12-18 months: SDR → Account Executive (most common)
Alternative paths: SDR → Customer Success, Marketing, or BDR role
Business Development Representative (BDR)
What Does a BDR Do?
A Business Development Representative focuses on outbound prospecting, proactively identifying and reaching out to potential customers who may not be familiar with your company yet. BDRs are hunters who create opportunities from scratch.
Core Responsibilities:
- Researching and identifying target accounts
- Creating lists of ideal prospects within target companies
- Conducting cold outreach via phone, email, and LinkedIn
- Crafting personalized messaging for different personas
- Breaking through to decision-makers
- Educating prospects about potential solutions
- Generating qualified meetings for Account Executives
- Tracking outreach metrics and optimizing campaigns
Day-to-Day Activities:
- Making 60-80 cold calls per day
- Sending 50-100 personalized prospecting emails
- Researching companies and building target account lists
- Developing creative outreach sequences
- Leaving voicemails and LinkedIn messages
- A/B testing different messaging approaches
- Collaborating with marketing on campaigns
BDR Skills & Personality Traits
Key Skills:
- Creativity in crafting outreach messages
- Persistence and thick skin for rejection
- Research and pattern recognition abilities
- Strategic thinking about target accounts
- Persuasive communication skills
- Self-motivation and discipline
Who Thrives as a BDR:
- Natural hunters who enjoy the chase
- Creative problem-solvers who like experimenting
- Self-starters who don’t need warm leads
- Competitive individuals driven by challenges
- People comfortable with higher rejection rates
- Those who enjoy research and strategic planning
BDR Compensation
Salary Range (2025):
- Base Salary: $50,000 – $65,000
- On-Target Earnings (OTE): $70,000 – $95,000
- Top Performers: $100,000+
BDR roles often pay slightly higher than SDR roles due to the increased difficulty of cold outreach and the strategic nature of targeting high-value accounts.
Career Path from BDR
The typical career progression for BDRs includes:
6-12 months: BDR → Senior BDR or Team Lead
12-18 months: BDR → Account Executive (most common)
Alternative paths: BDR → Sales Strategy, Partnerships, or Enterprise SDR/BDR focusing on larger accounts
Account Executive (AE)
What Does an AE Do?
An Account Executive is responsible for closing deals. They take the qualified opportunities generated by SDRs and BDRs and guide prospects through the full sales cycle, from discovery to negotiation to signed contract.
Core Responsibilities:
- Conducting comprehensive discovery calls
- Running product demonstrations and presentations
- Building business cases and ROI calculations
- Navigating complex buying committees
- Negotiating contracts and pricing
- Forecasting deals and pipeline management
- Coordinating with internal teams (solutions engineers, legal, etc.)
- Maintaining relationships through the sales process
- Meeting quarterly and annual revenue quotas
Day-to-Day Activities:
- Running 3-5 in-depth discovery or demo calls
- Preparing customized presentations and proposals
- Following up on proposals and addressing objections
- Coordinating multi-stakeholder meetings
- Internal forecasting and pipeline review meetings
- Collaborating with Customer Success on handoffs
- Strategic account planning for key opportunities
AE Skills & Personality Traits
Key Skills:
- Consultative selling and business acumen
- Relationship building at multiple organizational levels
- Negotiation and objection handling
- Presentation and storytelling abilities
- Project management and deal orchestration
- Financial modeling and ROI analysis
- Strategic thinking and problem-solving
Who Thrives as an AE:
- Strategic thinkers who enjoy complex challenges
- Relationship builders comfortable with longer sales cycles
- Patient professionals who can manage uncertainty
- Confident presenters and communicators
- People who enjoy consultative problem-solving
- Those motivated by larger commission checks
AE Compensation
Salary Range (2025):
- Base Salary: $65,000 – $100,000
- On-Target Earnings (OTE): $120,000 – $180,000
- Top Performers: $200,000 – $300,000+
Account Executive roles typically offer 50/50 base-to-variable splits, with commission based on closed-won revenue. Enterprise AEs handling larger deals can earn significantly more.
Career Path from AE
The typical career progression for AEs includes:
2-3 years: AE → Senior AE or Mid-Market AE
3-5 years: AE → Enterprise AE or Strategic AE
5+ years: AE → Sales Manager/Director → VP of Sales
Alternative paths include Sales Enablement, Revenue Operations, or transitioning to strategic roles at startups.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Factor | SDR | BDR | AE |
| Primary Focus | Qualifying inbound leads | Outbound prospecting | Closing deals |
| Lead Source | Warm inbound inquiries | Cold outbound outreach | Qualified from SDRs/BDRs |
| Sales Cycle Involvement | Beginning only | Beginning only | Full cycle |
| Deal Ownership | No | No | Yes |
| Typical Experience Required | 0-1 years | 0-1 years | 1-3 years |
| Base Salary Range | $45K-$60K | $50K-$65K | $65K-$100K |
| OTE Range | $60K-$85K | $70K-$95K | $120K-$180K |
| Daily Call Volume | 40-60 calls | 60-80 calls | 5-10 calls |
| Average Call Length | 10-15 minutes | 5-10 minutes | 30-60 minutes |
| Key Metric | Meetings booked | Meetings booked | Revenue closed |
| Rejection Rate | Moderate | High | Low-Moderate |
| Autonomy Level | Low-Moderate | Moderate | High |
| Deal Size | N/A | N/A | $10K-$500K+ |
| Travel Requirements | Rare | Rare | Occasional |
Which Role Is Right for You?
Choose SDR if you:
- Are brand new to sales and want a supportive entry point
- Prefer responding to inbound interest over cold outreach
- Enjoy helping people who are already interested
- Like structure, clear processes, and defined workflows
- Want to learn sales fundamentals with warmer conversations
- Prefer higher volume, shorter interactions
- Are detail-oriented and process-driven
Choose BDR if you:
- Love the challenge of creating something from nothing
- Are comfortable with rejection and high cold call volumes
- Enjoy researching companies and crafting creative messages
- Are self-motivated and don’t need warm leads
- Like experimentation and testing different approaches
- Prefer strategic, targeted outreach to specific accounts
- Want to develop grit and resilience quickly
Choose AE if you:
- Have 1-2+ years of SDR/BDR experience (or transferable sales skills)
- Enjoy longer, more strategic conversations
- Are comfortable managing complex, multi-stakeholder deals
- Like building relationships over weeks or months
- Have strong business acumen and consultative skills
- Want higher earning potential with larger commission checks
- Prefer fewer, deeper relationships to high-volume interactions
Important Considerations
Company Size Matters
The definitions and responsibilities of these roles can vary significantly based on company size:
Startups (1-50 employees):
- Roles may be less specialized
- SDRs/BDRs might handle full sales cycles
- More ambiguity but more learning opportunities
- Compensation might include equity
Mid-Size Companies (50-500 employees):
- Clear role specialization and career paths
- Established processes and training programs
- Balanced structure and autonomy
Enterprise Companies (500+ employees):
- Highly specialized roles with clear boundaries
- Extensive training and enablement resources
- More bureaucracy but more support
Industry and Deal Size Impact
- SMB (Small Business) Sales: Faster cycles, higher volume, less complex
- Mid-Market Sales: Balanced approach, 3-6 month cycles
- Enterprise Sales: Longer cycles (6-18 months), more complex, higher values
Match your personality and preferences to the pace and complexity level that suits you best.
The Truth About Career Progression
Reality Check: While many people start as SDRs or BDRs with plans to become AEs, not everyone makes the transition—and that’s okay. Some people discover they genuinely enjoy the prospecting process and become team leads, managers, or specialized senior BDRs earning six figures.
Typical Timeline:
- Fast Track: 12-18 months as SDR/BDR → AE promotion
- Average: 18-24 months in development role before moving to AE
- Strategic: Some stay 2-3+ years, becoming experts and mentors
Alternative Paths Worth Considering:
- Sales Operations/Enablement
- Customer Success Management
- Marketing (content, demand gen, product marketing)
- Sales Engineering/Solutions Consulting
- Partnerships and Business Development
Starting Your SaaS Sales Journey
If You’re Choosing Between SDR and BDR:
Most career advisors recommend starting as an SDR if you’re completely new to sales. The warmer leads and structured approach provide a gentler learning curve while you build fundamental skills.
However, choose BDR if you:
- Have some sales or business development experience
- Are naturally entrepreneurial and comfortable with ambiguity
- Want to develop advanced prospecting skills quickly
- Are targeting enterprise software companies (which often value outbound skills more)
Landing Your First Role
What Companies Look For:
- Coachability and growth mindset
- Resilience and positive attitude
- Strong communication skills
- Competitive drive and motivation
- Cultural fit with the team
How to Stand Out:
- Complete sales training (like Aspireship’s programs!)
- Practice cold calling and role-playing
- Demonstrate product/industry knowledge
- Show metrics from previous roles (even if not sales)
- Network with current SDRs/BDRs on LinkedIn
Final Thoughts
The beauty of starting in SaaS sales is that you don’t need to have everything figured out on day one. Whether you start as an SDR, BDR, or even find yourself in an AE role, you’ll develop transferable skills that open doors throughout your career.
The most important factors are:
- Start: Get into a role and begin learning
- Stay curious: Ask questions and seek feedback
- Build skills: Invest in training and development
- Be patient: Most successful AEs spent 12-24 months in development roles
- Stay flexible: Your interests and strengths may surprise you
Remember, there’s no “best” role, only the best role for you at this stage of your career. Each position offers unique learning opportunities and paths to success.
Ready to Launch Your SaaS Sales Career?
Whether you’re leaning toward SDR, BDR, or AE, the key to success is proper training and preparation. At Aspireship, we offer comprehensive SaaS Sales training programs designed to help career changers and aspiring sales professionals build the skills they need to land and excel in their first SaaS sales role.
Our training covers:
- Fundamental sales methodologies and best practices
- Role-playing and live practice scenarios
- CRM and sales tool proficiency
- Resume building and interview preparation
- Direct pathways to employment through partnerships like SV Academy
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