Business Development Representative (BDR)

Overview

You spend your day identifying and reaching out to universities and colleges to book qualified discovery calls for the Account Executive team. You're calling VPs of Enrollment, Deans of Students, and Retention Directors, trying to get them interested in a conversation about improving student persistence with AI-powered engagement tools. Most of your outreach is cold - you're interrupting busy higher ed administrators who get pitched constantly.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage growth (just raised $80M Series C/Growth from JMI Equity in Sept 2025)

Size: 65 employees

Growth: Sales team is expanding - they just hired two AEs (Sean and Roy) in May 2025 and now adding BDRs. Post-funding hiring mode.

Market Position: Leading AI-powered student engagement platform, but competing in a crowded higher ed tech market where universities are bombarded with vendor pitches.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 70% Cold Outbound - you're building lists of target universities, finding the right contacts, and reaching out cold via calls, emails, and LinkedIn
• 20% Warm Outbound - following up on conference attendees, webinar registrants, content downloads
• 10% Inbound - some hand-raisers from website, but these often go straight to AEs

SDR/AE Structure: You book meetings, AEs run them. You'll work closely with your AE (likely 1-2 AEs per BDR), coordinating on territory strategy and account prioritization.

Tools You'll Use: Salesforce (CRM), Outreach or SalesLoft (cadences), ZoomInfo or similar (contact data), LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Ocelot (student engagement platform)
• AdmitHub (chatbots for enrollment)
• Legacy retention systems universities already use

Your Job in This: You don't need to out-compete them yet - you just need to get prospects curious enough to take a meeting. Your value prop is "AI that identifies at-risk students and intervenes in real-time via SMS" - retention is a universal pain point.

Common Brush-Offs:

• "We already have something for this"
• "Send me some information" (translation: not interested)
• "Call me back next quarter"
• "We don't have budget right now"

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Calling/Emailing (60%) | Research & List Building (20%) | Admin/Meetings (20%)

Key Activities

• Cold Calling: Make 50-70 dials per day to university administrators. Most go to voicemail. You're leaving messages, getting gatekeepers, occasionally getting someone live. Your goal is to spark interest in a 15-minute exploratory call. You'll get hung up on, told to send an email, and hear "we're all set" a lot.

• Email Sequences: Write and send personalized emails to prospects in your territory. You're researching universities, mentioning specific retention challenges ("I noticed your 6-year graduation rate is 68%..."), and offering insights or case studies. Most emails get ignored. You'll A/B test subject lines and iterate on messaging.

• LinkedIn Outreach: Connect with prospects, engage with their posts, send direct messages. Some respond, most don't. You're trying to build familiarity before calling.

• Qualifying Conversations: When someone actually responds, you have a 10-15 minute call to understand their retention challenges, current tools, timeline, and budget authority. Your job is to determine if they're worth the AE's time and book a proper discovery call. You'll disqualify 30-40% of initial conversations.

• Research and Territory Planning: Build lists of target universities in your region or segment (e.g., community colleges, mid-size public universities, private liberal arts schools). Research org charts, identify the right contacts, understand their enrollment and retention data (often publicly available). This is less glamorous than calling but critical.

• CRM Hygiene and Reporting: Update Salesforce after every call/email, log activity, track meeting conversion rates. Daily standup with your manager, weekly 1-on-1s, monthly pipeline reviews.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Low response rates: You'll send 100 emails and get 2-3 replies. You'll call 70 people and talk to 5-8 live. Most of your day is rejection, voicemail, and silence. It's repetitive and requires thick skin.

• Gatekeepers and org complexity: Higher ed has layers. You're trying to reach a VP, but you're talking to an admin assistant or getting bounced to a "general inquiries" line. University org charts are complicated - is it Enrollment, Student Affairs, IT, or someone else who owns retention?

• Timing challenges: Universities operate on academic calendars. Summers are slow (people on vacation), fall/spring enrollment periods are chaotic (no one has time for vendor calls), budget cycles are rigid (if you miss the window, wait a year). Your pipeline will be feast or famine.

• Educating a market: Some prospects don't know they need this. You're not just booking meetings - you're often educating them on why AI-powered engagement matters. This adds friction.

What Success Looks Like

• Hitting 12-20 qualified meeting quota per month consistently
• 30-40% of your booked meetings convert to opportunities (AE accepts them as real pipeline)
• Building a repeatable process: knowing what messaging works, what call times get answers, what emails get replies
• Promoting to AE within 12-18 months (this role is explicitly a path to closing)

Who You're Reaching Out To

Primary Targets:

• VP of Enrollment / Chief Enrollment Officer
• VP of Student Affairs / Dean of Students
• Director of Retention / Director of Student Success
• Sometimes: CIOs or IT Directors (if leading with integration/tech angle)

What Gets Their Attention:

• Peer institution case studies ("University of X improved retention by Y% using EdSights")
• Data about their own institution ("I saw your 6-year grad rate dropped 3% last year...")
• ROI framing ("Every 1% retention improvement = $2M in tuition revenue for a school your size")
• Specific pain points ("How are you identifying at-risk students before they drop out?")

Requirements

• 0-2 years sales experience (BDR/SDR roles or other high-activity prospecting)
• High energy and resilience (you'll hear "no" 50 times a day)
• Curiosity and research skills (you need to understand each university before calling)
• Coachable and willing to iterate on messaging
• Comfortable with rejection and repetitive work
• SaaS sales experience helpful but not required
• Higher education background is a plus (you'll relate to prospects better) but not necessary
• Self-motivated for remote work environment