Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Overview

You're prospecting into mid-market and enterprise companies to book demos for Account Executives who sell Navan's travel and expense management platform. You'll talk to CFOs, finance directors, and travel managers—people who currently use competitors like SAP Concur or TripActions, or are still doing expense reports manually. Your success is measured by how many qualified meetings you book per month, typically 15-20+ depending on your segment.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage private (Series G+, $2B+ valuation)

Size: 3,257 employees

Growth: 10,000+ customers including Canva, DoorDash, Duolingo. Actively hiring across sales org.

Market Position: One of the top players in business travel/expense management, competing directly with SAP Concur, TripActions (now Navan acquired TripActions' brand actually—this IS TripActions rebranded), Brex, Ramp.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 30-40% Inbound - demo requests from the website, content downloads, people researching alternatives to Concur. Quality varies—some are just tire-kickers, others are active evaluations.
• 50-60% Outbound - you're building lists in your territory, cold calling, running email sequences, LinkedIn outreach. You're targeting companies with 200+ employees who likely have messy expense processes.
• 10% Partners/Referrals - some from implementation partners or existing customer referrals.

SDR/AE Structure: Dedicated SDRs feed meetings to AEs. You don't carry deals—once you book the meeting, you hand it off.

SE Support: AEs have SE support for technical demos and POCs. Not your concern as an SDR.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: SAP Concur (the old incumbent), Brex, Ramp (cards + expense), TravelPerk (travel-only)

How They Differentiate: All-in-one platform—travel booking + expense management + corporate cards in one system. Better UX than Concur, more comprehensive than point solutions.

Common Objections: "We already use Concur and it works fine," "We just rolled out Brex," "Our finance team doesn't want to change systems," "How do you integrate with NetSuite/our ERP?"

Win Themes: Concur replacement angle is strong. User adoption rates, finance team time savings, better travel inventory/pricing, automated expense reporting.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (50%) | Following up on leads (30%) | Internal meetings (20%)

Key Activities

• Cold Calling: 50-80 calls per day to CFOs, controllers, finance directors, travel managers. Most go to voicemail. You're trying to catch them at the right time or get past gatekeepers to explain why they should look at alternatives to their current system.
• Email Sequences: Running automated cadences through Outreach or Salesloft. Researching companies to personalize emails about their travel program or expense process pain points. Response rates are 2-5% typically.
• Inbound Lead Follow-up: Calling/emailing people who filled out a demo form within 5 minutes (speed to lead matters). Qualifying if they're real buyers or just researching. Some are ready to meet right away, others are "just looking."
• Meeting Qualification: Getting enough info to pass to the AE—company size, current tools, timeline, who makes the decision, budget reality. You're not trying to do a full discovery, just enough to make sure it's worth the AE's time.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Most prospects aren't actively looking to change their expense system. You're interrupting their day to pitch a meeting about a problem they may not think they have.
• High call volume gets monotonous. You'll hear "we're all set" or "send me an email" 50 times a day. Rejection is constant.
• Inbound leads aren't always qualified—you waste time chasing people who aren't real buyers or are just doing research for their boss.
• You're measured on meetings booked, but if your meetings don't convert for the AE, you'll hear about it. There's pressure to pass quality, not just quantity.
• The "launchpad to AE" pitch is real here, but you still have to hit your number for 12-18 months as an SDR first. It's not a 6-month springboard.

What Success Looks Like

• Consistently hitting 15-20+ meetings per month
• 60%+ of your meetings show up (no-shows kill your conversion)
• AEs accept 80%+ of your meetings as qualified (not junk)
• Moving to AE or other roles after 12-18 months of strong performance

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• CFOs and Controllers at 200-2,000 employee companies
• Finance Directors and Travel Managers at larger enterprises
• Sometimes HR/Ops leaders who own employee experience

What They Care About:

• Reducing finance team workload on expense approvals and reconciliation
• Better visibility into travel spend and policy compliance
• Employee adoption (if the tool sucks, people won't use it and finance still has a mess)
• Integration with their ERP/accounting system (NetSuite, QuickBooks, SAP, etc.)
• ROI and contract terms—this isn't a small purchase

Requirements

• 1-2 years in a customer-facing role (prior SDR experience preferred but not required)
• Comfortable making 50-80 calls per day and hearing "no" constantly
• Ability to research companies and personalize outreach (not just blasting templates)
• Coachable and willing to follow the process—they have a structured playbook
• Wants to move into closing or management within 12-24 months (they promote from within)