Choosing Between Sales Development Reps (SDRs) and Account Executives (AEs)

In a world where outbound sales strategies remain essential to B2B growth, assembling the right team can make or break your pipeline. For early-stage startups and scaling enterprises alike, a critical decision arises: Should you rely on Sales Development Reps (SDRs), Account Executives (AEs), or a combination of both?

Understanding the difference between these roles—and how to structure your sales team for success—can help you improve lead conversion, reduce sales cycle times, and increase revenue per rep.

In this blog, we break down the functions of SDRs and AEs, explore the pros and cons of different team structures, and offer guidance to help you build the ideal outbound sales team for your business goals.

Understanding the Roles: SDRs vs. AEs

What Does an SDR Do?

Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are typically responsible for top-of-the-funnel activity. Their core focus is lead generation, qualification, and booking meetings for AEs or closers. SDRs don’t close deals—they open doors.

Key responsibilities:

• Prospecting new leads (cold calls, cold emails, LinkedIn outreach)
  
• Qualifying inbound and outbound leads
  
• Nurturing leads until they’re sales-ready
  
• Booking discovery calls or demos for AEs
  
• Maintaining CRM hygiene and tracking outreach activity
  

SDRs are often measured by metrics like:

• Number of meetings booked
  
• Number of qualified leads passed to AEs
  
• Outreach volume (calls, emails, touchpoints)
  
• Lead conversion rates
  

What Does an AE Do?

Account Executives (AEs) handle mid-to-bottom-of-funnel activities. Their job is to run sales calls, build relationships, overcome objections, and close deals.

Key responsibilities:

• Running product demos
  
• Managing sales pipelines
  
• Negotiating pricing and contracts
  
• Closing new business
  
• Forecasting revenue
  
• Collaborating with customer success post-sale
  

AEs are measured by:

• Closed-won deals
  
• Revenue generated
  
• Win rates
  
• Average deal size and sales cycle length
  

When You Need SDRs, AEs, or Both

Choosing how to structure your team depends on your sales model, deal size, cycle length, and team maturity.

1. Use SDRs When:

• Your team needs to scale lead generation
  
• Your AEs are overwhelmed with top-of-funnel activities
  
• You have a high-volume sales model with a wide TAM (total addressable market)
  
• Your product requires educating cold prospects
  
• You need a steady pipeline of qualified leads to prevent AE downtime
  

SDRs are ideal for specialized outbound prospecting and high-velocity outreach across multichannel touchpoints.

2. Use AEs Alone When:

• You have short sales cycles and small deal sizes
  
• Your sales team is lean and needs to operate as full-cycle reps
  
• You’re still validating product-market fit and want reps to own every step
  
• Your inbound volume is low and quality is manageable
  
• You’re focusing on fewer, highly qualified enterprise deals
  

In this model, AEs prospect and close deals themselves—a good approach for startups and founder-led sales.

3. Use Both SDRs and AEs When:

• You want to scale efficiently by dividing labor
  
• You’re targeting mid-market or enterprise buyers with longer sales cycles
  
• You’ve identified a clear ICP and want SDRs to book meetings that AEs can convert
  
• You have enough inbound and outbound motion to support a split-funnel model
  

Pairing SDRs and AEs allows each role to specialize, resulting in better performance across the pipeline.

Pros and Cons of Each Team Structure

Structure 1: Full-Cycle Sales Reps (AE Only)

Pros:

• Simpler team structure
  
• Easier communication (one person owns the whole process)
  
• Great for early-stage validation
  
• Lower headcount costs
  

Cons:

• AEs spend less time on closing and more on prospecting
  
• Prospecting often gets deprioritized
  
• Risk of inconsistent pipeline generation
  
• Can lead to burnout and low productivity over time
  

Best for: Startups, low-complexity sales, short cycles

Structure 2: SDR-to-AE Handoff

Pros:

• Clear role specialization = greater efficiency
  
• SDRs master prospecting; AEs master closing
  
• Consistent top-of-funnel activity
  
• Easier to scale and onboard new reps
  
• Helps build a predictable pipeline
  

Cons:

• Requires strong communication and handoff processes
  
• Risk of lead quality mismatch between SDR and AE expectations
  
• More costly (two roles instead of one)
  
• Needs a defined ICP and sales process to be effective
  

Best for: Growth-stage companies, longer sales cycles, outbound-heavy models

Structure 3: Hybrid or Pod Model

In a hybrid model, each AE is paired with a dedicated SDR (and sometimes a Customer Success Manager), forming a mini sales unit.

Pros:

• Tight alignment between SDR and AE
  
• Easier feedback loop and accountability
  
• Increased focus on account-based selling
  
• Ideal for ABM and multichannel outreach
  

Cons:

• Resource-intensive
  
• Performance may vary across pods
  
• Not ideal for high-volume transactional sales
  

Best for: ABM, verticalized sales teams, high-value deals

How to Structure Your Outbound Team: Key Considerations

1. Deal Size and Complexity

If your deals are high-ticket and involve multiple stakeholders, splitting prospecting (SDRs) and closing (AEs) allows each team to go deeper in their craft. SDRs can research and personalize outreach, while AEs focus on stakeholder alignment and solution selling.

Smaller, low-complexity deals may not justify the extra cost of SDRs—one rep can own the process end-to-end.

2. Sales Cycle Length

A longer sales cycle benefits from handoffs and pipeline stage ownership. You don’t want AEs wasting time sourcing leads if closing a deal takes 60–90 days. SDRs can keep the top of the funnel full while AEs advance deals.

Short sales cycles (under 30 days) favor full-cycle reps who can move quickly from outreach to close.

3. Lead Volume and Quality

If your inbound volume is high but not highly qualified, SDRs can act as a filter before passing leads to AEs. Similarly, if you’re doing outbound at scale, you need SDRs to maintain outreach volume and cadence.

Low volume but high-quality inbound leads can go directly to AEs.

4. Available Resources

If you have a limited budget, full-cycle reps may be the only viable option. But if you’re investing in growth and want to build a scalable, predictable sales engine, investing in SDRs can yield long-term gains.

Consider outsourcing SDR work initially if hiring in-house is not feasible.

Metrics to Measure Success in Each Role

To ensure your structure is effective, monitor the following KPIs:

SDR Metrics:

• Number of outreach activities (emails, calls)
  
• Connection and response rates
  
• Meetings booked per week/month
  
• Qualified leads passed to AEs
  
• Conversion from meeting to opportunity
  

AE Metrics:

• Win rate
  
• Average deal size
  
• Sales cycle length
  
• Revenue closed per month
  
• Forecast accuracy
  

Team Metrics:

• Pipeline coverage (pipeline vs. quota)
  
• Conversion rates by funnel stage
  
• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
  
• Lead-to-close ratio
  
• Revenue per rep
  

A strong SDR-AE collaboration should show healthy conversion rates across the funnel—not just activity at the top.

Making the Right Choice for Your Company

Here’s a simple framework to guide your decision:

The right structure evolves as your company grows. Start simple, test what works, and adjust based on your revenue targets, buyer journey, and rep productivity.

Final Thoughts

Choosing between SDRs and AEs—or deciding how to combine them—isn’t just a question of headcount. It’s about designing a revenue engine that matches your product, audience, and growth goals.

• Use SDRs to scale outreach, fill the pipeline, and qualify leads.
  
• Use AEs to build relationships, run demos, and close deals.
  
• Use both when your sales motion demands specialization and scale.
  

Get the structure right, and you’ll enable reps to focus on what they do best—and drive more consistent, predictable outbound success.