What is a Lead Development Representative (LDR)?
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering… “What’s the difference between an LDR and an SDR?” We get it. There’s confusion and overlap between various sales titles used at different organizations. What’s more, titles are often changing and adapting to industry trends.
The fast-growing, competitive nature of the SaaS industry has created an environment where new titles are needed to accommodate for completely new positions. What’s more, (slightly) different titles – à la Sales Development Rep vs. Business Development Rep – are created to sound more relevant, modern, and in line with company values and culture.
If you’re new to all this sales jargon, look no further! We’ve got you covered. Keep reading to find out exactly what a lead development representative does, average salary for LDRs, career outlook, and available LDR jobs.
In sales, the acronym LDR usually stands for Lead Development Representative. LDRs are generally part of inbound sales teams, and they are responsible for encouraging prospects down the sales funnel, closer to purchase.
Lead Development Representative Job Description
If you’re thinking to yourself, “What does a lead development representative do?” Keep reading! Lead Development Representatives (LDR) are key players in inbound sales, meaning they speak to prospects who are already qualified and know something about their organization. Often this initial qualification happens through marketing efforts, meaning LDRs speak with marketing qualified leads (MQL).
Each organization has a different set of criteria a lead must meet to be considered “qualified” or “marketing qualified” – for example, if someone downloads a PDF or signs up for a free trial, they may be considered a marketing qualified lead.
Unlike outbound sales representatives who may be prospecting and reaching out to completely cold leads, lead development representatives deal with warmer leads who have already found the company in some way – in that regard, they have come through an inbound channel. LDRs share information about the product or service they are selling, and try to create trusted, meaningful relationships with prospective customers.
Lead development reps have a challenging job – their chances of converting a lead to the next stage of the funnel decrease significantly the first 5 minutes after initial contact. If an LDR is doing their job effectively, hot leads who are excited about the product will be transferred to Sales or Account Executives to seal the deal.
Lead Development Representative Salary
The average base salary for Lead Development Representatives in the United States is $46,547 per year, with an average additional $25,772 in commission when sales goals are met (source: Glassdoor).
LDR Career Outlook
With the abundance of automation, software, and online marketing tools available on the market today, it may be worth wondering if sales positions will still be growing in a few years.
If you’re looking to grow your career in the sales industry, don’t worry – as the market outlook for sales representatives is positive! An estimated 4.5% growth for sales representative positions is expected between 2020 and 2030 (source: US News and World Report).
Lead Development Representative Jobs
Looking for available LDR jobs? Here are a few resources to help your search:
- Lead Development Representative Jobs on LinkedIn
- Lead Development Representative Jobs on Indeed
- Lead Development Representative Jobs on Glassdoor
Which sales role is right for me?
The right sales role for you depends on your experience and expertise, but sales can be a good industry to get your start if you are entering the job market for the first time!
Some key characteristics of great sales and customer support professionals include:
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Great communicators
- Passion for what they are selling
- Willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done
- No fear calling and following-up with potential clients
- Positive attitude
- Creative and passionate about helping others
- Ability to multi-task across different platforms and forms of communication
- Ability to work well under pressure and with a team
Does this sound like you? Kixie is hiring, and we’d love to hear from you! We are looking for jovial, hard-working colleagues to share our journey as we change the landscape of business telephony
