Business Development Representative

A Business Development Representative (BDR) is the person who finds and qualifies potential customers for a company's sales team - usually by cold-calling, emailing and messaging people at target businesses to see whether they have a problem the product solves. They don't normally close deals themselves; they book meetings and hand warm prospects over to more senior salespeople (often called Account Executives). The role is most common in business-to-business companies, especially software, recruitment, consultancy and financial services.

Starting salary: £24k–£32k
Live graduate jobs: 34 open now
Main way in: Direct application to an advertised BDR, SDR (Sales Development…
They usually ask for: Degree subject almost never matters

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £24,000–£32,000 basic to start, with on-target earnings (basic plus commission if you hit target) often advertised somewhere around £30,000–£45,000. These are broad approximations and vary widely by sector, employer size and location - London and tech sales sit at the higher end, and advertised on-target earnings are a target, not a guarantee.

What you'd actually do

Making a high volume of outbound calls to people at target companies - often to someone who wasn't expecting the call and has limited patience for it. The number expected varies a lot by employer and sector.
Writing and sending outbound emails and LinkedIn messages, usually working from a sequence or template but personalising the opening so it doesn't read like a mass mailout.
Researching accounts before contacting them: who the decision-maker is, what the company does, whether they've just raised funding, hired, expanded or changed systems - anything that gives a reason to get in touch now.
Qualifying inbound leads - people who downloaded a guide, requested a demo or filled in a web form - by phoning them quickly and working out whether they're a genuine prospect or just browsing.

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Logging every call, email and outcome in the CRM (customer relationship management system - the database where all customer and prospect activity is recorded, e.g. Salesforce or HubSpot). This is tedious but non-negotiable, because pipeline forecasts are built from it.
Booking meetings or demos into an Account Executive's diary, briefing them on what the prospect said, and often chasing to make sure the prospect actually turns up.
Daily or weekly team stand-ups and one-to-ones where your activity numbers and booked meetings are reviewed against target, plus call-listening or role-play coaching sessions.

How graduates get in

Direct application to an advertised BDR, SDR (Sales Development Representative) or 'graduate sales' vacancy. This is by far the most common route - these roles are advertised year-round rather than in an autumn graduate-scheme cycle, and hiring is often needs-driven and fast.
Structured graduate sales schemes at larger technology, telecoms, media or professional-services firms. These typically rotate you through BDR work before moving you into account management or closing roles, and do run to a more conventional application timetable with online tests and assessment centres.
Specialist graduate sales recruitment agencies that place people into tech sales roles and run their own short training bootcamps. Common and legitimate, but check whether you pay anything - reputable ones are paid by the employer.
Internal moves - starting in customer service, inside sales, marketing or an admin role at a B2B company and transferring into business development. Fairly common, as employers like people who already know the product.

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Internships or placement years in sales or marketing at a B2B business, which often convert into a graduate offer.
Sales apprenticeships or non-graduate entry. Worth knowing that this is a role many people enter without a degree at all, which affects how it's recruited and paid.

What employers ask for

Degree subject almost never matters. Employers hire across humanities, science, business and everything else; some advertise 'degree or equivalent' or no degree requirement at all.
A 2:2 or above is a common stated minimum where a degree is asked for, and plenty of employers set no grade bar. This is one of the less grade-sensitive graduate routes.
Evidence of resilience and of working to targets - part-time retail or hospitality work, charity fundraising, telesales, promotions work, competitive sport, running a society or a side business all count and are genuinely valued here.
No professional qualification is required to start. Some employers fund membership or training with a professional sales body, and some run accredited sales apprenticeships alongside the job, but this is optional rather than standard.

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Right to work in the UK - and be aware that whether these roles meet visa sponsorship salary thresholds varies, so check before applying if that affects you.
A driving licence in some sectors (field sales, recruitment, industrial or construction supply), but not for most office-based tech BDR roles.

Skills that matter

Tolerance for rejection

Most calls and emails get a no or no reply at all, and you have to make the next call with the same energy as the first - this is the single biggest reason people leave the role.

Asking diagnostic questions and listening to the answer

Qualifying means working out whether a prospect genuinely has the problem you solve, the budget and the authority to act - which comes from questioning, not from reciting product features.

Concise written outreach

A cold email has a couple of lines to earn a reply, so you need to write short, specific, non-salesy messages rather than long paragraphs about your company.

Research and information-gathering

Finding the right person at a company and a credible reason to contact them this week is what separates outreach that gets replies from outreach that gets ignored.

Self-management against a target

You usually control your own daily activity, and the maths of the role - calls leading to conversations leading to meetings - only works if you keep the top of the funnel full on quiet days too.

CRM discipline and basic data habits

Accurate records of who you contacted and what they said are what let you follow up at the right moment and what managers use to coach you and forecast revenue.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

BDR/SDR for roughly six months to two years, depending on performance and how quickly the company is growing. Fast-growing firms promote quickly; in slower or smaller businesses you may sit in the role longer simply because there's no closing seat free.
Senior BDR or team lead, often mentoring new starters and handling larger or more strategic target accounts.
Account Executive or equivalent closing role - running the whole sales process from first meeting to signed contract, with a larger commission opportunity. This is the standard next step and the main reason people take BDR roles.
From there, routes split: Account Manager or Customer Success (looking after existing clients and growing their spend), Sales Manager (running a BDR or AE team), or Enterprise/Strategic sales (fewer, much bigger deals).
Longer term, Sales Director, Head of Revenue Operations, or a sideways move into product marketing, partnerships or founding a business. Timelines here vary enormously and depend far more on results and company growth than on years served.

What people get wrong

“You need to be a loud, extroverted natural talker.”

The parts that actually drive results are research, preparation and asking good questions. Quieter, methodical people often do well because they listen properly and follow up consistently; relentless chat without a reason to call tends not to convert.

“It's a dead-end job with no skill in it.”

It's one of the more reliable routes into well-paid commercial careers without needing a specific degree, and it teaches commercial judgement, objection handling and pipeline maths that transfer into account management, marketing, partnerships and founding companies.

“You'll be closing deals and earning big commission straight away.”

BDRs usually don't close anything. Commission is typically tied to meetings booked or qualified opportunities passed on, and the big earnings sit with the closing roles you're aiming to be promoted into.

“All BDR jobs are broadly the same.”

The work differs sharply by sector. Tech BDR work is heavily email- and data-driven with long sales cycles; recruitment and some industrial sales are phone-dominated with faster turnover; and some employers are genuinely coaching-led while others are pure volume with high staff churn. Ask in interview what the day actually looks like.

Where this varies

The title varies: BDR, SDR, Sales Development Executive, Graduate Business Development and sometimes just 'Graduate Sales' can all describe the same job, while at some firms 'Business Development Manager' means a full closing role rather than a junior one - read the advert rather than the title. Sector matters a lot too: in software you'll usually be outbound-focused with a defined patch and a clear promotion path to Account Executive; in recruitment, business development is mixed with candidate sourcing; in professional services and finance it can lean more towards relationship-building, events and marketing support than cold calling. Culture also varies more than in most graduate roles - some employers invest heavily in structured sales training and coaching, others run high-pressure, high-turnover floors, so it's worth asking how long current BDRs have been there and how many have been promoted internally.

See all 34 live Business Development Representative jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.