Business Development Representative

Overview

You're the first BDR hire building the outbound engine for Videowise. You're prospecting into mid-market ecommerce brands (Shopify, Magento, Adobe Commerce), qualifying if they use video in marketing, and booking meetings for AEs. Target is 12-15 qualified meetings per month through cold calling, email sequences, and LinkedIn outreach.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Likely bootstrapped or early Series A (profitable, 35 employees)

Size: 35 employees

Growth: You're the first or second BDR hire - they're building the outbound motion from scratch

Market Position: Mid-tier player in shoppable video space. Competing against Tolstoy, Firework, and DIY solutions.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 100% Outbound - You're building lists of Shopify stores, researching brands that use video, and reaching out cold. No warm inbound leads flowing to you.

SDR/AE Structure: You're building the BDR function. First hire or close to it. Expect loose processes, changing playbooks, and figuring out what messaging works. You're booking for 1-2 AEs.

SE Support: No SE involvement at your stage. You qualify, book, hand off.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Tolstoy, Firework, VIMMI, Livescale, plus brands just embedding YouTube/Vimeo videos manually.

How They Differentiate: Native Shopify integration, combined shoppable video + live shopping + analytics. Easier content management than competitors.

Common Objections:

• "We already have videos on our site" (don't understand shoppable video)
• "Send me some info" (not interested, being polite)
• "Not interested right now" (budget, timing, priorities)
• "Call back next quarter" (real objection or brush-off)

Your Job: Get past the brush-off, qualify if they're actually using video, and book a meeting if there's any interest in improving video performance.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Calling (50%) | Email/LinkedIn Outreach (25%) | Research & List Building (15%) | CRM/Admin (10%)

Key Activities

• Cold Calling: 50-70 calls per day to ecommerce directors, heads of growth, marketing managers. You're getting past gatekeepers (many brands use answering services), leaving voicemails, calling back. Connect rate is 5-10%. Most people don't pick up.
• Email Sequences: Running multi-touch sequences (6-8 emails over 3-4 weeks). Personalization is key - you need to reference their product, their current video usage, their competitors. Generic emails get ignored.
• LinkedIn Outreach: Connection requests, InMails, commenting on posts. Building relationships with ecommerce marketers. Response rates are low (2-3%), but warmer than cold email.
• List Building: Researching Shopify stores using tools like BuiltWith, manually checking if they use video, finding the right contacts. This is tedious work but critical - bad lists = wasted calls.
• Meeting Qualification: When you get interest, you're asking qualifying questions: revenue size, current video usage, decision-making process, timeline. Booking meetings that AEs will actually show up for (not tire-kickers).

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Most of your day is rejection. 90%+ of calls go nowhere. People hang up, ignore emails, say they're not interested. You need thick skin.
• Ecommerce buyers are hard to reach. They're busy, they get tons of sales calls, and "not another marketing tool" is a common reaction.
• You're the first or second BDR, so there's no proven playbook. You're testing messaging, cadences, and targeting. What works will change month to month.
• "High-volume, fast-paced environment" means they expect a lot of activity. 50+ calls per day, every day. It's repetitive.
• Qualifying is tricky. Lots of small brands are interested but can't afford $20K+. You need to filter for $5M+ revenue brands without wasting AE time.
• When something works, you'll be asked to do more of it. Found a good list? Make 10 more. Got a response to an email? Send 100 more like it.

What Success Looks Like

• Booking 12-15 qualified meetings per month (3-4 per week)
• 50-70 calls logged daily in CRM
• 20-30% of your booked meetings convert to opportunities (AE validates them as real deals)
• Building repeatable lists and sequences that consistently generate interest

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Ecommerce Managers/Directors (day-to-day owners of the site)
• Heads of Growth/Marketing (focused on conversion and retention)
• Digital Marketing Managers (running campaigns, managing content)

What They Care About:

• Is this going to move the needle on conversion rates?
• How much work is it to implement?
• Do we have bandwidth to manage more content?
• What's the cost vs. what we're doing now (free YouTube embeds)?

Requirements

• 0-2 years in BDR/SDR role (or this is your first SDR job)
• Comfortable making 50+ cold calls per day
• Resilience and persistence - high rejection tolerance
• Basic understanding of ecommerce or willingness to learn quickly (conversion rates, AOV, site performance)
• Coachable and adaptable - first BDR means lots of iteration
• Self-motivated in remote environment (no one watching over your shoulder)