Sales Development Manager Job Description Templates
6 free templates for companies hiring their first pipeline leader: standard B2B, outbound, inbound, player-coach, services and distribution, and head of function. Download as DOCX.
The first sales development manager job description I ever wrote was the representative job description with the word manager added to the top and a slightly higher salary at the bottom. The person we hired figured out within a month that nothing about the job had actually changed, and we had converted our best prospector into an expensive one.
That mistake is easy to make because the two roles share a vocabulary. Both are measured in meetings. Both live in the same tools. But one job is producing pipeline and the other is producing people who produce pipeline, and a posting that blurs them attracts senior representatives who want a raise rather than managers who want a team.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for companies without an HR department, where the founder or the head of sales writes the posting personally. The six below cover the versions of this role that small companies actually hire, each with the span of control, the metrics, and the overtime classification stated instead of assumed.
TL;DR
A sales development manager leads sales development representatives and owns the qualified pipeline they create, rather than closing deals. Plan on six to eight reports per manager. Exempt status is not automatic: the executive test requires two or more full-time reports and management as the primary duty. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
What a Sales Development Manager Actually Owns
A sales development manager owns two things: the qualified pipeline number at the top of the funnel and the people who produce it. Everything else on the job description is a means to one of those, which is a useful test when you are deciding what to cut.
In practice the week splits four ways. Hiring and ramping representatives. Coaching calls and messaging one-on-one. Maintaining the sequences, lists, and qualification standards the team works from. Reporting what the function produced and defending it to leadership. A posting that names all four filters correctly on the first read.
Outbound team
Cold pipeline creation
The manager owns target accounts, sequence design, and call coaching. The hard part is the phone: most managers will happily review email copy for an hour and avoid listening to a single recorded call.
Inbound and lead response
Speed and qualification
The manager owns response time, routing, and the qualification definition. Success looks like minutes, not days, and the working relationship with marketing decides whether the number moves.
Player-coach, first leadership hire
Prospects and builds
Carries a personal quota while standing up the function. This is the common small business version, and it is also the version where the overtime classification most often goes wrong.
Services and distribution
Appointment setting
An inside team fills the calendars of field sellers and estimators. The vocabulary changes, the job does not: lists, calls, appointments held, and an hourly team whose time has to be tracked.
Decide the Motion Before You Write the Title
Outbound and inbound are different jobs wearing the same title. An outbound manager coaches cold calls, argues about list quality, and lives with a low connect rate as normal. An inbound manager coaches discovery, argues about lead scoring, and treats a slow response time as an emergency. A manager who is excellent at one is often mediocre at the other, and candidates self-select accurately if you say which one you mean. Write the primary motion into the responsibilities section, and list the secondary one as secondary.
Sales Development Manager vs Representative vs Sales Manager
The clean line is which end of the funnel each role owns. A sales development manager owns prospecting, qualification, and meetings booked for someone else. A sales manager owns opportunities, forecast, and closed revenue. A representative owns their own activity and their own quota, with nobody reporting to them.
Responsibility
SDR
Sales development manager
Sales manager
Carries a personal prospecting quota
Manages direct reports
Owns qualified pipeline created
Owns closed revenue and the forecast
Hires and ramps representatives
Runs weekly recorded call reviews
Typically exempt under the executive test
Two adjacent roles cause most of the confusion in a posting. A sales coach develops skill across a team without carrying management authority over it, and a sales operations manager owns the systems and the data rather than the people. If your posting lists coaching, tooling, reporting, and hiring in one paragraph, you are describing three jobs and will hire none of them well.
What Belongs in a Sales Development Manager Posting
The posting has four jobs: sell the opportunity, filter out senior representatives looking for a raise, protect you legally, and give a strong manager enough detail to say yes. Most postings do only the first, which is why they generate volume and few real conversations.
The parts strong candidates read first
Team size today and the hiring plan behind it
Who the role reports to and who it partners with
Inbound, outbound, or both, stated plainly
Whether the role carries a personal quota
The parts that filter applicants
Years leading representatives, not years selling
The tools the team actually runs on
Coaching expectations stated as a weekly cadence
Whether hiring authority sits with this role
The parts that protect you
FLSA classification decided before the posting goes live
A note that variable pay lives in a separate signed plan
Essential functions written plainly
Equal opportunity statement
The parts that close the hire
Base and on-target earnings, shown separately
The pipeline number the role owns
How performance is measured, in metrics
A named person and a real timeline to apply
The section small companies skip most often is team size. Experienced managers read it before anything else, because leading six representatives with a hiring plan is a different job from leading one representative with a promise. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure, and job posting requirements by state covers what you are legally obliged to disclose.
6 Sales Development Manager Job Description Templates
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary with the reporting line stated, responsibilities, required and preferred qualifications, a section on how success is measured, a classification and compensation note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you rewrite. More postings are in our hiring templates library.
Download All 6 Sales Development Manager Job Descriptions
Standard B2B, outbound, inbound and lead response, player-coach first hire, services and distribution, and head of sales development. All in one download.
Standard B2B
The default variant
A first-line manager leading a small team against a qualified pipeline number, with hiring, ramp, coaching, and handoff quality all named as duties.
Outbound Team
Cold motion
For a team that creates demand rather than answering it: target lists, multichannel sequences, call coaching, and connect-rate reporting.
Inbound and Lead Response
Speed to lead
For a queue that goes cold: routing, coverage windows, a written qualification standard, and a service level marketing can hold you to.
Player-Coach, First Hire
Prospect then build
For the founder handing off pipeline creation, with a two-phase plan and the non-exempt classification stated instead of assumed.
Services and Distribution
Appointment setting
For staffing firms, distributors, and commercial services: booked appointments for field sellers, show rate, and an hourly inside team.
Head of Sales Development
Manages managers
For a function that has outgrown one team: capacity modeling, manager development, tooling budget, and a defended pipeline forecast.
Template 1: Sales Development Manager, Standard B2B
The default variant. A first-line manager leading a small team against a qualified pipeline number, with hiring, ramp, coaching cadence, and handoff quality all written in as duties rather than left implied.
Sales Development Manager Job Description (Standard B2B)
SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [VP of Sales / Head of Revenue / Founder]
Direct reports: [number] sales development representatives
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus $_ variable at target
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] sells [product or service] to [buyer] at [company type]. Our
sales team is [number] people: [number] account executives and [number] sales
development representatives. We are hiring a Sales Development Manager to own
the top of the funnel and to build the team that fills it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Sales Development Manager leads a team of sales development
representatives, owns qualified pipeline created for the account executive
team, and is accountable for hiring, ramping, coaching, and retaining the reps
who produce it. This is a people-leadership role, not a senior prospecting
role.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Lead a team of [number] sales development representatives day to day
•Own the monthly and quarterly qualified pipeline number for the team
•Hire, onboard, and ramp new representatives to full productivity in
[number] days against a written ramp plan
•Run [weekly] one-on-ones, call reviews, and pipeline reviews with each rep
•Design and maintain outbound sequences, call frameworks, and objection
handling, and retire the ones that stop working
•Define the qualification standard with the account executive team and hold
both sides to it
•Own the handoff: meeting quality, no-show rate, and accepted-opportunity rate
•Maintain accurate CRM hygiene, activity data, and weekly reporting to
leadership
•Partner with marketing on lead follow-up speed, list quality, and campaign
timing
•Manage the team within the approved headcount and tooling budget
•Track hours and approve time for non-exempt reps in line with company policy
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in sales development, with at least [number] years leading or
formally coaching representatives
•Demonstrated record of building pipeline in [inbound / outbound / both]
•Working command of a CRM and a sales engagement tool
•Ability to read activity and conversion data and act on it
•Written communication strong enough to build sequences and enablement content
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Experience hiring and ramping representatives from scratch
•Experience selling to [buyer persona] in [industry]
•Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience
HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED
•Qualified meetings or opportunities created per month by the team
•Accepted-opportunity rate and pipeline value sourced by the team
•Percent of representatives at or above quota
•Ramp time to full productivity for new hires
•Voluntary attrition on the team
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION NOTE (read before posting)
Classification turns on duties, not the title. The federal executive exemption
requires management as the primary duty, customary and regular direction of the
work of two or more full-time employees or the equivalent, real weight in hiring
and firing decisions, and salary at or above the federal threshold. A manager
with one report, or one who spends most of the week prospecting personally,
usually fails that test and is non-exempt. Sales development representatives
selling by phone and email from a desk are inside sales and are non-exempt
regardless of how the manager is classified. Variable pay is documented in a
separate signed compensation plan. This is general information, not legal
advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, $_ variable at target, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a short note on a
team you ramped.
Template 2: Sales Development Manager, Outbound Team
For a team that creates demand rather than answering it: target account lists, multichannel sequences, call coaching, and connect-rate reporting. If you are hiring the representatives themselves, use the sales development representative templates.
Sales Development Manager Job Description (Outbound Team)
SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (OUTBOUND)
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [VP of Sales / Head of Revenue / Founder]
Direct reports: [number] outbound representatives
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus $_ variable at target
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] grows through outbound. We build target account lists, run
multichannel sequences, and book first meetings with people who were not looking
for us. We are hiring a Sales Development Manager to run that motion and the
team behind it.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Sales Development Manager, Outbound owns cold pipeline creation: target
account strategy, sequence design, call coaching, and the performance of the
representatives who execute it.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Lead [number] outbound representatives against a monthly meetings target
•Build and maintain the target account list with [marketing / sales operations]
•Design multichannel sequences across [call, email, social, direct mail] and
test them deliberately rather than all at once
•Listen to [number] recorded calls per rep per week and coach against a
written call framework
•Own connect rate, positive reply rate, meetings booked, and meetings held
•Manage data sourcing, list hygiene, and the tooling budget
•Keep outreach compliant with company policy on contact data, consent, and
do-not-contact requests
•Report weekly on cohort performance and sequence performance
•Track hours and approve time for non-exempt representatives
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in outbound sales development, including [number] years
leading representatives
•Personal record of booking meetings cold, and the willingness to demonstrate
it on a live call
•Command of sequencing, list building, and CRM reporting
•Comfort coaching phone work, which most managers avoid
HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED
•Meetings held per representative per month
•Accepted-opportunity rate from outbound meetings
•Connect rate and positive reply rate by sequence
•Percent of representatives at or above quota
•Ramp time for new hires
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION NOTE
Outbound representatives who sell by phone, email, and social from a fixed
location are inside sales. The federal outside sales exemption does not reach
them, and any fixed site used for telephone or internet solicitation, including
a home office, is treated as the employer's place of business. They are
non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week, with commissions folded
into the regular rate. The manager's own classification is decided separately
against the executive exemption. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, $_ variable at target, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
Template 3: Sales Development Manager, Inbound and Lead Response
For a lead queue that goes cold before anyone calls: routing rules, coverage windows, a written qualification standard, and a service level marketing can hold you to. Pair it with the demand generation manager templates if the lead supply itself needs an owner.
Sales Development Manager Job Description (Inbound and Lead Response)
SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (INBOUND)
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [VP of Sales / Head of Marketing / Founder]
Direct reports: [number] inbound representatives
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus $_ variable at target
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] generates [number] inbound leads a month through [content, paid
search, events, referrals]. Too many of them go cold before anyone calls. We are
hiring a Sales Development Manager to fix response speed, raise qualification
quality, and lead the team that works the queue.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Sales Development Manager, Inbound owns the speed and quality of lead
follow-up: routing rules, response time, qualification standards, and the
performance of the representatives who work inbound demand.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Lead [number] inbound representatives working the lead queue
•Own first-response time and set the standard in minutes, not days
•Define routing, coverage windows, and escalation for [after-hours / weekend]
inbound
•Agree the qualification definition with marketing and the account executive
team, in writing
•Coach discovery calls and inbound call handling weekly
•Report on lead source quality back to marketing with evidence, not opinion
•Manage speed-to-lead, contact rate, qualification rate, and meetings held
•Keep the CRM and marketing automation handoff clean and auditable
•Track hours and approve time for non-exempt representatives
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years working or leading inbound sales development
•Experience running a lead queue with a service-level standard attached
•Ability to work with marketing without turning lead quality into a blame loop
•Command of CRM reporting and routing configuration
HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED
•Median first-response time
•Contact rate and qualification rate on inbound leads
•Meetings held and accepted-opportunity rate
•Percent of inbound leads worked to the agreed cadence
•Percent of representatives at or above quota
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION NOTE
Inbound representatives are inside sales and are non-exempt. If you set coverage
windows outside standard hours, build the schedule so it does not create
unplanned overtime, and pay overtime when it happens. The retail and service
establishment commission exemption rarely applies to business-to-business
sellers, so do not assume it. The manager's classification is decided separately
against the executive exemption. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, $_ variable at target, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 4: Player-Coach Sales Development Manager, First Hire
For the founder handing off pipeline creation, with a two-phase plan, a personal quota in phase one, and the non-exempt classification stated rather than assumed. This is the most common small business version of the role.
Player-Coach Sales Development Manager Job Description (First Hire)
PLAYER-COACH SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [Founder / CEO / Head of Sales]
Direct reports: [number, starting at 1 or 2 and growing to [number]]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Likely non-exempt at the start (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus $_ variable at target
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is [size] and the founder still books a share of the meetings.
We are hiring our first sales development leader: someone who will prospect
personally in the first [number] months, then hire and lead a small team as the
pipeline requirement grows. Be honest with yourself about wanting both halves of
that job.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Player-Coach Sales Development Manager carries a personal prospecting quota
while building the sales development function: the process, the sequences, the
first hires, and the reporting that leadership will run the number from.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Phase one, first [number] months, personal production:
•Carry a personal quota of [number] qualified meetings per month
•Document the sequences, call frameworks, and qualification criteria that work
•Set up or clean up the CRM, sequencing tool, and reporting
Phase two, from month [number], team building:
•Write the representative job description and run the hiring process
•Onboard and ramp [number] representatives against a written plan
•Shift personal quota down to [number] as team quota comes up
•Run weekly one-on-ones, call reviews, and forecast reporting
Throughout:
•Report weekly on pipeline created, source, and conversion
•Keep an accurate record of your own hours while the role is non-exempt
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in sales development with a personal record you can evidence
•Willingness to prospect personally for the first phase, in writing, not as a
temporary inconvenience
•Process instinct: you leave behind a documented system, not tribal knowledge
•Comfort working without an HR department or a sales operations team
HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED
•Personal qualified meetings in phase one
•Documented playbook accepted by leadership
•First [number] representatives hired and ramped
•Team pipeline created against target in phase two
•Founder hours spent prospecting, reduced to [number] per week
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION NOTE (read carefully)
This variant is the classification trap. The federal executive exemption
requires management to be the primary duty and requires customary and regular
direction of the work of two or more full-time employees or the equivalent. A
player-coach with no reports fails both prongs, and a player-coach with one
report fails the second. Exempt managers may perform non-exempt work
concurrently, but an employee whose main work is ordinary production, which for
this role means prospecting, does not become exempt by occasionally directing
others. Plan for non-exempt during phase one: track hours, pay overtime past
forty in a week, and fold commissions into the regular rate. Re-run the test in
writing when the team reaches two full-time representatives. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, $_ variable at target, [equity], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and the pipeline number
you personally produced last quarter.
Template 5: Sales Development Manager, Services and Distribution
For staffing firms, distributors, manufacturers reps, and commercial services companies: booked appointments for field sellers, show rate, quote follow-up, and an hourly inside team. Related work sits in the inside sales job descriptions.
Sales Development Manager Job Description (Services and Distribution)
SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (SERVICES AND DISTRIBUTION)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Owner / General Manager / Sales Director]
Direct reports: [number] inside sales and appointment-setting staff
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ base plus $_ variable at target
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] is a [staffing firm / distributor / commercial services company /
manufacturer's rep] serving [market]. Our outside sellers and estimators are at
their best in front of customers, not on the phone chasing appointments. We are
hiring a Sales Development Manager to run the inside team that fills their
calendars.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Sales Development Manager leads the inside appointment-setting team, owns
booked appointments and qualified opportunities for the field sales team, and
manages lists, calling schedules, and follow-up on quotes and dormant accounts.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Lead [number] inside representatives and appointment setters
•Own booked appointments per week for [number] field sellers
•Build calling lists from [customer database, quote history, trade lists,
local permits, association directories]
•Set the follow-up rhythm on open quotes and dormant accounts
•Coach phone work: opening, qualification, and appointment confirmation
•Coordinate with the field team on territory, routing, and appointment windows
•Track show rate, quote rate, and conversion from appointment to order
•Manage schedules and time records for an hourly team
•Keep the CRM or order system current and usable
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in inside sales, telesales, or appointment setting, with
[number] years supervising
•Familiarity with [industry] buying cycles and seasonality
•Comfort managing an hourly team, including schedules and timekeeping
•Practical CRM or ERP reporting skills
HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED
•Qualified appointments booked and held per week
•Show rate and conversion from appointment to quote to order
•Revenue influenced by the inside team
•Dormant accounts reactivated per quarter
•Turnover and attendance on the inside team
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION NOTE
Appointment setters and inside representatives are non-exempt hourly employees
in nearly every case. Track hours, pay overtime past forty in a workweek, and
include commissions and non-discretionary bonuses in the regular rate used for
the overtime calculation. Some states also require daily overtime or paid rest
breaks, so check your state rules before writing the schedule. The manager is
exempt only if management is the primary duty and the executive test is met in
full. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, $_ variable at target, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: Head of Sales Development, Senior Manager
For a function that has outgrown a single team: capacity modeling, manager development, tooling budget, and a pipeline forecast defended to the executive team. If the scope is new logo ownership instead, see the business development manager templates.
Head of Sales Development Job Description (Senior Manager)
HEAD OF SALES DEVELOPMENT JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State] / [Remote / Hybrid])
Reports to: [Chief Revenue Officer / VP of Sales / CEO]
Direct reports: [number] managers or team leads, [number] representatives total
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Exempt (executive; confirm against the duties test)
Compensation: $_ base plus $_ variable at target, [equity]
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Company Name] has outgrown a single sales development team. We are hiring a
Head of Sales Development to run the function across [number] segments or
regions, to lead the managers who lead the representatives, and to own the
pipeline number the whole revenue plan rests on.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Head of Sales Development owns the sales development function end to end:
pipeline targets, team structure, manager development, capacity planning,
tooling, and the operating cadence that connects the function to marketing and
to closing sales.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Own the qualified pipeline number for the company and defend it in the
forecast
•Lead and develop [number] front-line managers; run their one-on-ones and
performance reviews
•Build the capacity model: representatives needed, ramp assumptions, attrition
assumptions, and the hiring plan behind them
•Set segmentation, territory, and account coverage with sales operations
•Own the tooling stack and budget, and defend the spend with evidence
•Define the career path from representative to senior representative to
manager or account executive, and publish it
•Run the operating cadence with marketing and closing sales on definitions,
service levels, and handoff quality
•Report to the executive team on capacity, conversion, and cost per
opportunity
•Ensure timekeeping and classification practices are followed across the
function
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years leading sales development, including managing managers
•Record of scaling a team through at least one doubling
•Capacity planning and forecasting fluency
•Executive communication: you can defend a number to a board
HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED
•Qualified pipeline created against plan, by segment
•Cost per qualified opportunity
•Manager retention and representative attrition
•Internal promotion rate out of the function
•Forecast accuracy on pipeline contribution
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPENSATION NOTE
A head of function leading managers and representatives normally satisfies the
executive exemption comfortably: management is the primary duty, the role
directs the work of well over two full-time employees, and hiring and firing
recommendations carry particular weight. Confirm the salary basis and threshold
anyway, and document the analysis once. The representatives below this role
remain non-exempt. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ base, $_ variable at target, [equity], [benefits]
To apply, email __ with your resume and the capacity model
you built for your last team.
Span of Control and the Numbers the Role Manages
Plan on six to eight representatives per manager, and fewer while the team is new. The binding constraint is coaching time, not headcount: weekly one-on-ones, recorded call reviews, and pipeline review do not compress, so every added report subtracts from all three.
Run the arithmetic before you publish. Multiply your intended one-on-one length, call review time, and pipeline review time by the number of reports, then look at what is left of the week for hiring, sequence work, and reporting. If nothing is left, lower the ratio or cut a responsibility from the posting.
What the manager owns
How to state it in the posting
Why candidates read it
Team size
Reports today plus the hiring plan for the next two quarters
Separates a real management job from a title change
Pipeline target
Qualified meetings or accepted opportunities per month for the team
Tells a manager whether the number was set or is being outsourced to them
Coaching cadence
One-on-one frequency and calls reviewed per representative per week
The clearest signal that coaching is expected, not optional
Ramp standard
Days to full productivity and who owns the ramp plan
Experienced managers ask about ramp in the first interview
Handoff quality
Meeting show rate and accepted-opportunity rate
Shows whether the role is measured on volume or on outcomes
Tooling
CRM and sales engagement tools the team runs on
Reveals how much rebuilding the manager is inheriting
Hiring authority
Whether the manager selects and interviews their own reports
Managers who cannot pick their team rarely stay
Personal quota
Stated in hours or meetings, or explicitly stated as none
Decides both the candidate profile and the overtime classification
Write the variable pay plan as a separate signed document and reference it from the job description rather than reproducing it there. Our commission agreement template covers the terms, and the guide to how commission pay works covers the tax treatment and the overtime interaction.
Exempt or Not: the Executive Test Decides
A sales development manager is not automatically exempt from overtime. The title is irrelevant to the analysis, and the small business version of this role fails the test more often than it passes it.
The relevant standard is the executive exemption, which requires four things at once: payment on a salary basis at or above the federal threshold, a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a customarily recognized department, customary and regular direction of the work of two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent, and either hiring and firing authority or recommendations on hiring and firing that are given particular weight. Every prong has to hold, and the third one is arithmetic rather than judgment.
Two reports is a hard floor, not a guideline
The executive exemption requires the employee to customarily and regularly direct the work of two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent, which the regulation measures as eighty hours of subordinate work a week. Two half-time representatives count. One full-time representative does not, no matter how senior the manager is or how the offer letter is worded. Small companies trip on this constantly, because the first sales development manager is often hired before the second representative exists. The honest sequence is to write the duties, count the subordinate hours, apply the test, and classify accordingly. If the answer is non-exempt for the first two quarters, run it as non-exempt for the first two quarters and re-test in writing when the team grows.
Management has to be the primary duty
Even with enough reports, the exemption requires management of the enterprise or of a customarily recognized department to be the primary duty of the role. Department of Labor regulations do allow an exempt manager to perform non-exempt work at the same time as managing, so a manager who takes calls is not automatically disqualified. The limit is real, though: an employee whose main work is ordinary production does not become exempt by occasionally directing other people, and in sales development, prospecting is the production work. A manager who spends four days a week on the phone hitting a personal number and half a day coaching is running a production job with a management title attached.
The team below is inside sales and non-exempt
The manager's classification and the team's classification are separate questions, and the team's answer is usually simpler. Sales development representatives who prospect by phone, email, and social media from a desk are inside sales. The outside sales exemption reaches only employees who customarily and regularly work away from the employer's place of business, and any fixed site used for telephone or internet solicitation, including a representative's home office, is treated as the employer's place of business. That makes the typical representative non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours in a week, with commissions folded into the regular rate before the overtime premium is calculated.
The salary thresholds you are testing against
The federal salary floor for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions is $684 per week, equal to $35,568 a year, with the highly compensated employee threshold at $107,432 a year. The Department of Labor's 2024 rule raising those levels was vacated by a federal court in Texas in November 2024 and formally rescinded on May 15, 2026, which restored the earlier figures. Several states set higher salary floors of their own, and a role that clears the federal threshold can still be non-exempt under state law. Check both, and remember that clearing the salary test proves nothing on its own: the duties test still has to be satisfied independently.
The player-coach variant deserves its own analysis. The regulation on concurrent duties confirms that performing exempt and non-exempt work at the same time does not by itself defeat the exemption, but it also states that an employee whose main work is ordinary production does not become exempt by occasionally directing other people. Prospecting is the production work of this function, so a manager who spends most of the week on their own quota is running a production job with a management title attached.
The team below the manager is a simpler question. Representatives who prospect by phone, email, and social media from a desk are inside sales, and the outside sales exemption (DOL Fact Sheet 17F) reaches only employees who customarily and regularly work away from the place of business of the employer. They are non-exempt and owed overtime past forty hours a week. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through the tests, and the Fair Labor Standards Act guide covers coverage and recordkeeping.
Classify Before the Posting Goes Live, Not After the Offer
Classification describes the duties you are about to advertise, so the honest sequence is to write the duties, run them against the test, and then publish. Employers that reverse the order end up defending a job description written to justify a decision already made, which is exactly what a wage and hour investigator reads it as. Two practical habits: keep the written analysis on file with the date, and re-run it whenever team size changes, because the day the second full-time representative starts is the day the answer can legitimately flip.
What to Pay a Sales Development Manager
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a wage estimate for sales development manager as a separate occupation, so benchmark against the closest official classifications and adjust for company size. Two are relevant, and they sit far apart.
Closest Federal Benchmarks
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), sales managers earned a national median of $148,270 a year, with the 10th percentile at $73,170 and the 25th at $100,360. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers, generally the closer match for a first-line manager of an inside team, reported a median of $87,520, a 25th percentile of $63,940, and a 75th percentile of $122,050 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Benchmark occupation
National figure (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
When it is the right comparison
Sales managers, median
$148,270 per year
A head of sales development reporting into the executive team
Sales managers, 25th percentile
$100,360 per year
A first-line manager at a company with a real sales organization
Sales managers, 10th percentile
$73,170 per year
Base pay in a plan weighted heavily toward variable
First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers, median
$87,520 per year
The closest match for most first-line sales development managers
First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers, 25th percentile
$63,940 per year
A realistic base anchor for a small business player-coach
First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers, 75th percentile
$122,050 per year
A proven manager in a high-cost metro or a technical market
Sales representatives of services, except advertising and insurance, median
$69,990 per year
What the representatives reporting to this manager benchmark against
Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, except technical, median
$72,080 per year
The distribution and services equivalent for the team below
Demand context helps calibrate the offer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections program counts 619,500 sales manager jobs in 2024 and expects roughly 49,000 openings a year through 2034, with about 24,800 annual openings for first-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers. Competition is steady rather than frantic, which favors employers who can decide quickly. Show base and on-target earnings separately, and publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply.
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Hiring a Sales Development Manager Without an HR Department
Three failures account for most bad sales development manager hires at small companies: promoting the top producer as a reward, hiring a manager before there is a team, and letting the paperwork behind a commissioned hire scatter across five places. Each has a cheap fix.
You promote your best representative and lose your best representative
The default move at a small company is to promote the top producer, because it is fast, it is cheap, and it feels like a reward. It also removes your highest performer from the phone and hands them a job nobody has taught them. The posting is where you decide whether that is a real promotion or a title change: if the job description lists a personal quota, weekly coaching, hiring authority, and a team pipeline number, everyone can see the job is different. If it lists the same duties plus the word manager, you have paid more for the same output and lost the production. Write the two roles as two documents, and if you do promote internally, give the new manager a ramp plan the way you would give a new hire one.
The manager is hired before there is a team to manage
Small companies routinely hire a sales development manager to lead a team of one, or of zero, with the second and third representatives budgeted for later. That is a legitimate plan, but it makes the role a producer with a leadership horizon rather than a manager, and both the job description and the classification have to say so. Use the player-coach template, split the responsibilities into a phase one and a phase two with dates attached, set the personal quota for phase one explicitly, and classify against the duties of the first phase rather than the ones you hope for. Re-run the exemption test in writing on the day the second full-time representative starts, and keep the analysis on file.
The paperwork behind a sales hire arrives in five places at once
A sales development hire brings more documents than most roles: the offer letter, a separate signed variable compensation plan, a confidentiality and customer non-solicitation agreement where your state allows one, a CRM and data handling acknowledgment, the handbook sign-off, and a timekeeping acknowledgment for anyone non-exempt. Then the ramp plan, the call framework, and the product training all have to land in the first two weeks or the ninety-day number slips. FirstHR runs that as one sequence: the onboarding wizard assigns each step, built-in e-signature captures the plan and policy acknowledgments, document management stores the signed copies against the employee profile, and training modules deliver the product and process content before the first live call. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so the commission calculation itself stays in payroll.
Once the offer is accepted, the same details become the contract and the ramp. The offer letter template handles base and on-target terms, the onboarding checklist covers the general sequence, and our guide to sales onboarding covers the ramp specifics that decide whether the ninety-day number lands.
One sequencing note for anyone running this without a recruiter. Write the job description first, then build the interview loop from the metrics inside it, so a candidate is assessed against the number the role owns rather than against how well they interview. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, and until it ships a shared spreadsheet with the same scorecard for every candidate does the job better than a shared inbox.
Key Takeaways
A sales development manager owns the qualified pipeline number and the people who produce it, while a sales manager owns opportunities, forecast, and closed revenue.
Name the motion in the posting: outbound, inbound and lead response, player-coach, appointment setting for a field team, or head of function, because each changes the coaching load and the candidate profile.
Plan on six to eight representatives per manager, since coaching time rather than headcount is the binding constraint on span of control.
Exempt status is not automatic: the executive test requires two or more full-time reports, management as the primary duty, salary at or above the federal threshold of $684 per week, and real weight in hiring decisions.
Sales development representatives who prospect from a desk are inside sales, non-exempt, and owed overtime past forty hours a week with commissions folded into the regular rate.
Benchmark pay against sales managers (median $148,270) and first-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers (median $87,520) per BLS OEWS, May 2025, and quote base and on-target earnings separately.
A commissioned sales hire brings more paperwork than most roles, and it all has to land in the first two weeks. FirstHR runs it as one sequence: onboarding steps assigned automatically, e-signature for the compensation plan and policy acknowledgments, document storage against each employee profile, and training modules delivered before the first live call. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a sales development manager do?
A sales development manager leads a team of sales development representatives and owns the qualified pipeline that team creates for the closers. The job has four parts: hiring and ramping representatives, coaching them weekly on calls and messaging, designing and maintaining the outreach sequences and qualification standards, and reporting pipeline created to leadership. They do not close deals themselves, which is the cleanest line between this role and a sales manager. In practice the day is one-on-ones, recorded call reviews, sequence and list decisions, arguments with marketing about lead quality, and arguments with account executives about meeting quality. At a small company the same person often carries a personal prospecting quota alongside the team, which is a legitimate structure but changes both the job description and the overtime classification.
What is the difference between a sales development manager and a sales manager?
The difference is which end of the funnel each one owns. A sales development manager owns the top: prospecting, qualification, and meetings booked for someone else to run. A sales manager owns the bottom: opportunities, forecast, and closed revenue, leading account executives who carry a bookings quota. The metrics differ accordingly, with meetings held and accepted opportunities on one side and win rate and closed revenue on the other. The coaching differs too, because prospecting coaching is call and message coaching in high volume, while closing coaching is deal strategy and negotiation in low volume. Many small companies have one person doing both, and that is fine, but the job description should say so explicitly rather than leaving the new hire to discover it in month two.
Is a sales development manager exempt from overtime?
Not automatically, and the title carries no weight in the analysis. The federal executive exemption requires four things at once: payment on a salary basis at or above the federal threshold, management of the enterprise or of a recognized department as the primary duty, customary and regular direction of the work of two or more full-time employees or their equivalent, and hiring and firing authority or recommendations given particular weight. A manager leading one representative fails the third requirement outright. A player-coach who spends most of the week prospecting personally usually fails the second, because prospecting is the production work of this function and an employee whose main work is production does not become exempt by occasionally directing others. Decide the classification from the duties before the posting goes live, document the analysis, and re-run it when the team size changes. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a sales development manager make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a wage estimate for sales development manager as a separate occupation, so benchmark against the closest official classifications. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), sales managers earned a national median of $148,270 a year, with the 10th percentile at $73,170 and the 25th at $100,360. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales workers, generally the closer match for a first-line manager of an inside team, reported a median of $87,520, a 25th percentile of $63,940, and a 75th percentile of $122,050. For a small business the realistic planning band on base pay sits between those 25th percentile figures, with variable pay carrying the offer to a competitive on-target number. Quote base and on-target earnings separately in the posting, because a range that shows only base while the market quotes on-target earnings reads as a lowball.
How many SDRs should one manager have?
Plan on six to eight representatives for an established manager and fewer while the team is new, because the constraint is coaching time rather than headcount. Real coaching means weekly one-on-ones, several recorded calls reviewed per representative per week, and live pipeline review, which does not compress. A manager with twelve reports is an administrator who signs off on numbers, not a coach, and the ramp times and attrition figures usually show it within two quarters. Run the arithmetic before you write the posting: multiply your intended one-on-one length, call review time, and pipeline review time by the number of reports, and see what is left of the week for hiring, sequence work, and reporting. If the answer is nothing, either lower the ratio or drop a responsibility from the job description rather than pretending both fit.
Should I promote an SDR to sales development manager or hire externally?
Promote when the person has already been coaching peers informally and you can afford to lose their personal production; hire externally when you need someone who has built a function before and you have nobody producing at a level worth protecting. The common mistake is promoting the top producer as a reward, which removes your best representative from the phone and hands them a job they have never been taught. Whichever route you take, write the manager role as its own document with its own quota, coaching cadence, hiring authority, and metrics, then give the new manager a ramp plan the way you would give any new hire one. If you promote, decide in advance how much personal quota the new manager keeps, because an unstated expectation that they will keep producing at the old level is what causes most of these promotions to fail.
What should a sales development manager job description include?
Seven things: the team size today and the hiring plan behind it, the pipeline number the role owns, whether the motion is inbound, outbound, or both, whether the role carries a personal quota, the coaching cadence stated as a weekly commitment, the FLSA classification decided from the duties, and base plus on-target earnings shown separately. Add the tools the team runs on, because experienced managers read that section to judge how much rebuilding they are inheriting. Keep the variable pay mechanics out of the job description itself and reference a separate signed compensation plan, which avoids a contract argument and lets you change the plan next year without rewriting the posting. Finish with the equal opportunity statement, a named person to apply to, and a real timeline.
