An SDR (sales development rep) works the leads that come to you: someone filled out a form, called, or replied, and the SDR answers fast, asks questions and books a meeting. A BDR (business development rep) works the opposite direction: they pick companies that never contacted you and reach out first. An AE (account executive) runs the meeting and closes the deal. Companies swap these titles all the time, so don't hire on the title. Hire on the job that isn't getting done.
That last part matters more for a small business than the vocabulary. You probably don't have any of the three roles on payroll. The owner does all of them in the gaps between real work. The useful question is which part of the chain is dropping the ball.
Who does what from first contact to signed deal
Here is the whole chain, step by step, with the title usually attached to each step. In a big company these are separate people. In yours they're likely all you.
| Step | What happens | Usual title | At a six-person electrical contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pick the names | Choose which companies to go after | BDR | Property managers within 30 miles |
| 2. First outreach | Email or call someone who hasn't asked | BDR | An email to a manager about panel upgrades |
| 3. Answer an inquiry | Reply to a form, call or message, fast | SDR | Someone fills in the "get a quote" form on a Tuesday |
| 4. Qualify | Ask what, when, who decides | SDR or BDR | "What's failing, and by when?" |
| 5. Book the meeting | Put a time on the calendar | SDR or BDR | A site visit on Thursday at 10 |
| 6. Run the meeting | Walk the site, scope the job | AE | The owner or lead estimator |
| 7. Quote and follow up | Send the price, chase it | AE | A written quote, a check-in on day 3 |
| 8. Close | Get the yes, sign, hand off | AE | Signed estimate, crew scheduled |
Steps 1 and 2 are outbound. Steps 3 to 5 can be inbound or outbound; the title SDR or BDR just depends on where the lead came from. Steps 6 to 8 are the closing work, and that's what the AE does.
An SDR handles leads that come in
The SDR's skill is speed and a decent telephone manner. A lead who just filled in a form is most open in the first few minutes, so the job rewards whoever replies first and asks good questions. Most of the value is in not letting inquiries sit. If you want to know why speed matters so much, speed to lead covers it.
A BDR starts conversations nobody asked for
The BDR's skill is research and patience. They pick companies that fit, find the right person, and write something specific enough to get a reply from a stranger. Most of the day is outreach and follow-up, and most of it gets no answer. The reply rate on a cold list is low whoever sends it, which is why this role burns people out and why companies hire more than one.
An AE closes
An AE takes a booked meeting and turns it into a signed job. They quote, handle objections and know your product well enough to answer technical questions. In a small business, this is nearly always the owner or the person who does estimates.
Which one a small business is actually missing
Take Tallgrass Electric, six people, a typical suburban contractor. Wes, the owner, does the estimates himself. He gets about 30 website inquiries a month and answers them whenever he's out of the truck, often the next morning. He does no outbound at all. Which role is he missing?
Both of the first two, partly. Use this as a quick test:
- Inquiries sit for hours or days before anyone replies: you lack SDR work.
- Your inbox and phone are quiet and the calendar has gaps: you lack BDR work.
- Meetings happen but few turn into signed jobs: that's an AE problem, and it's yours or your estimator's to fix.
For Wes, the closing is fine; he wins about half the quotes he sends. The leak is upstream. A third of inquiries go unanswered for a day, and he's never had a month of outbound. Hiring an AE would not help him. He needs steps 1 to 5 covered, and he doesn't need a person with a title to cover them.
What each role costs, at a glance
I won't put salary figures here, because they depend on your city and industry. What's constant is the shape of the bill. A hired rep costs base pay plus payroll taxes, tools, and some of the manager's time, and the first few months produce little while the person learns your business. A part-timer costs less and knows less. Hiring an SDR versus software walks through the arithmetic, and a cheap alternative to hiring a salesperson compares the four options side by side.
Where an AI worker fits
The outbound chain, steps 1 to 5, is repetitive and rule-based, which suits software. In Rocketship, an AI worker finds buyers by name, writes to them, emails from your own Gmail account, follows up, replies to answers, and books the meeting on a calendar, all by default without waiting for approval (you can turn on a "show me first" setting if you'd like). It doesn't run the site visit or write the final quote. That stays with you, which is the AE part. What an AI SDR actually does and AI SDR for small business go into where the name oversells.
If you're also deciding what a lead is versus a prospect, see prospect vs lead, and if you're wondering whether a hired rep would use qualified-lead labels, MQL vs SQL explains why a small team can skip them.
Steps 1 to 5 are the sensible place to start. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number works on Launch, with call minutes bought as you go ($15 for 50), and a dedicated line is $5 a month. More on how the AI workers split the work is on their own page.