A sales development representative (SDR) compensation plan outlines how you pay the reps who book sales meetings but do not close deals. A good SDR plan rewards reps for booking meetings that turn into real sales opportunities. SDR pay is distinct because it rewards pipeline creation (the early work that feeds future deals) rather than closed revenue, the way most sales roles do. A good plan gets that balance right, paying enough on the activities SDRs control to keep reps motivated, while steering them toward quality over volume. This guide covers how SDR pay is structured, what the benchmarks look like, and how to build a plan that works, with real examples you can copy.

SDR Compensation at a Glance

• Typical pay mix: Roughly 70/30, base to variable
• On-target earnings (OTE): $70K to $100K, by experience and region
• Most common structure: Pay per qualified meeting booked
• Metric that matters most: Qualified meetings that convert to opportunities

What Is an SDR Compensation Plan?

An SDR compensation plan is the full pay package for a sales development representative. It combines a base salary (which the rep earns regardless of performance) with variable pay for booking qualified meetings, i.e., meetings with genuine potential buyers. Many plans also include bonuses for hitting monthly targets and accelerators, which raise the pay rate once a rep passes quota. The variable part is often called the commission plan, since it pays out based on what the rep produces.

The same plan works for business development representatives (BDRs), too. Some companies split the two roles, with SDRs on inbound leads and BDRs on outbound prospecting, but the pay structure is the same for both.

An SDR compensation plan differs from an account executive's plan or other similar sales compensation plans in that SDRs earn their variable pay for booking meetings, not closing deals.

Typical SDR Pay Mix and OTE Benchmarks

SDR pay usually splits about 70/30, roughly 70% guaranteed base salary and 30% variable pay earned for booking meetings and opportunities. Those two parts add up to on-target earnings, or OTE, the total an SDR earns in a year when they hit their target. So a rep with an $85K OTE would earn around $60K in base and about $25K in variable pay at target.

The table below shows typical base salary and OTE ranges for SDRs by experience level, based on Betts Recruiting data.

SDR salaries climbed 5% to 10% from 2024 to 2025, according to Betts Recruiting. Across the wider market, RepVue puts the median SDR OTE at around $85K.

Common SDR Commission Structures

SDR commission structures fall into four types, adapting the same sales commission structures used across other sales roles to the early-funnel work SDRs do. Each one pays reps based on a different measure of success: qualified meetings, qualified opportunities, sourced pipeline dollars, or a blend of these. The best choice for your organization depends on how much control your SDRs have over deal quality.

Per Qualified Meeting

An SDR earns a flat amount for every qualified meeting they book, meaning a meeting with a genuine potential buyer who fits an agreed-upon criteria. This is the most common entry-level model, because meetings are easy to count and mostly within the rep's control. However, companies risk paying for meetings that get booked but never happen, or ones that turn out to be a poor fit.

Example: $130 per qualified meeting, with a monthly target of 16 meetings.

Per Qualified Opportunity

Here, the SDR gets paid only when a meeting turns into a sales opportunity. In other words, once an account executive accepts and starts working on that deal. It rewards quality over volume, so reps go after meetings that actually lead somewhere. But the trade-off is that SDRs have less control because whether a meeting becomes an opportunity depends partly on the AE.

‍Example: $245 per qualified opportunity, with a monthly target of six opportunities.

Per Qualified Pipeline Dollar

Under this model, the SDR earns a small percentage of the dollar value of the pipeline they source. It essentially means that bigger deals are worth more than smaller ones and suits teams that care about the size of the opportunities created. The catch is that pipeline value is an estimate. An account executive may resize a deal or lose it entirely, so an SDR can get paid on pipeline that never becomes revenue. It also takes longer to confirm than a meeting that simply happened or didn’t.

Example: 0.2% of sourced pipeline, with a monthly target of $315K in pipeline.

Blended

A blended plan combines two or more of the models above, often paying part on opportunities and part on sourced pipeline. It balances quantity and quality, which is why experienced and enterprise teams tend to use it. Combining several pay components makes the plan harder to design, so the challenge is keeping the rep's side clear enough that they can still see how their work turns into pay. Stick to just two models, like opportunities plus pipeline, so reps can do their own math.

Example: 70% of variable pay on qualified opportunities, 30% on sourced pipeline, with the same monthly targets as the two models above.

The table below compares each plan structure side-by-side. 

So which plan should you use? Most SDR teams pay early in the funnel. Bridge Group data shows about 43% of companies pay on introductory meetings, 42% on semi-qualified opportunities, and only 15% on fully qualified opportunities. Paying earlier keeps the target within an SDR's control, since a rep can book a meeting but cannot force it to become a closed deal.

Whatever structure you pick, make sure it pays reps well even when they fall short of quota. Only about 60% of SDRs hit quota in a typical period, according to Bridge Group. So a plan that pays little below target will leave most of your team underpaid.

Two Example SDR Comp Plans With Real Numbers

The two example plans below show how these structures work with real numbers. The first is an entry-level per-qualified-meeting plan, which is the simplest and most common starting point. The second is a blended plan for an experienced or enterprise SDR that mixes opportunity and pipeline pay. Both use a $25K variable target and are built so a rep who hits quota earns their full OTE.

Example 1: Per Qualified Meeting (Entry-Level)

The plan starts from the $25K variable target. Spread across 12 months, that is about $2,080 a month, and at a quota of 16 meetings, the rate works out to roughly $130 per qualified meeting. A rep who books 16 meetings a month hits their $25K variable and earns the full $85K OTE. Each meeting above quota pays $195, the 1.5x accelerator, so a rep who runs at 120% of quota all year earns about $92,400. The quota of 16 held meetings is the Bridge Group average for introductory-meeting models.

Example 2: Blended (Experienced or Enterprise)

This plan splits the same $25K variable target in two, 70%, or $17,500, is tied to converted opportunities. At a quota of six meetings a month (72 a year), that works out to about $245 per opportunity. The other 30%, or $7,500, rewards sourced pipeline at 0.2% of a $315K monthly target, which is the Bridge Group median of $3.78M per SDR per year split across 12 months. A rep who hits both targets earns the full $100K OTE, and hitting 120% on both lifts total pay to about $105,000. The six-opportunity quota is the Bridge Group’s fully qualified average.

Download the SDR Comp Plan Template

You don’t need to build your SDR compensation plan from scratch. Here’s a free template with a ready-made structure and the core components already laid out. It includes base salary, variable pay, OTE, quota, and the per-meeting or per-opportunity rates. Just plug in your base, variable, quota, and commission rates, and you have a complete SDR plan ready to share with your team. CaptivateIQ's team built it from the plan components most used by leading sales organizations.

Download the SDR Comp Plan Template.

Common SDR Comp Plan Pitfalls

SDR plans that reward the wrong behavior can backfire. Below are four common mistakes along with their fixes.

Over-weighting raw activity metrics. Some plans pay for phone call dials, emails sent, or general call volume. None of these activities will build a pipeline. In this case, reps optimize for the number. They send high-volume, low-quality outreach to clear an activity target. Instead, tie pay to booked meetings and opportunities, the outcomes that actually create pipeline, and keep activity metrics for coaching instead of commission.

Paying for meetings held instead of qualified. A plan that pays for any meeting that happens invites low-quality bookings, since a rep can book time with anyone willing to show up. Pay only on qualified meetings, ones that meet clear criteria for fit and intent, so reps go after real potential buyers rather than easy calendar holds.

Skipping a ramp period. New SDRs cannot hit full quota on day one. The average SDR takes three months to ramp, the according to Bridge Group, so a plan with no ramp allowance underpays new reps their entire first quarter and pushes some to quit before they reach full productivity. Build in a ramp with reduced quotas or guaranteed variable pay for the first few months, then step up to the standard target.

All-or-nothing thresholds. Some plans pay nothing until a rep reaches 100% of quota, which zeroes out everyone who falls short, and most reps fall short in any given period. Pay from the first meeting or opportunity, so reps earn for the work they do below target, and reserve steep drop-offs for genuinely poor performance, if you use them at all.

How CaptivateIQ Handles SDR Comp

SDR plans change more often than most sales plans. Quotas reset as targets move, qualification rules get tighter, and the definition of a good meeting shifts as a team learns what converts. Every change means reworking the formulas behind the plan, so the logic has to be easy to update and easy to audit when finance checks the math.

CaptivateIQ's Comp Builder Agent helps you update the formulas behind these changes. An admin describes the payout logic in plain language, like per-meeting rates, tiers, and accelerators. Then, the agent creates the formulas and columns behind it, explains what an existing formula does, and debugs errors before a plan goes live. All of this helps you catch broken formulas during the review stage instead of after a rep has been paid. The agent is in limited beta.

CaptivateIQ ranks #1 in Sales Compensation on G2, with 4.7 out of 5 stars across more than 3,400 reviews.

To see the agent work on your own plan, request a demo. When you are ready to build, the SDR comp plan template gives you a proven structure to start from.

FAQ

What is a typical SDR compensation plan?

A typical SDR compensation plan combines a base salary with variable pay and is usually split around 70/30. The base is guaranteed, and the variable rewards the meetings and opportunities a rep books rather than closed deals. Most SDRs earn total on-target earnings (OTE) between $70K and $100K, depending on experience and region.

How much commission does an SDR make?

An SDR's commission is the variable part of their pay, typically around 30% of their total on-target earnings. In a common plan, that comes to roughly $21K to $30K a year, on top of a base salary. Commission varies with how many qualified meetings or opportunities the rep books against quota.

How much do you pay for SDRs?

Most companies pay SDRs total on-target earnings of $70K to $100K a year, combining base salary and variable pay. Entry-level reps generally fall toward the lower end of that range, and experienced reps toward the top. The pay mix is usually around 70% base and 30% variable.

Do SDRs get bonuses?

Yes, SDRs often get bonuses on top of their regular commission. The most common are sales performance incentive funds (SPIFs), short-term rewards for a specific push like booking the most meetings in a month, and one-off bonuses for hitting a milestone. Both differ from commission, which is the recurring variable pay an SDR earns for every qualified meeting or opportunity they book.

Are SDR and BDR compensation plans different?

Business development representatives (BDRs) and SDRs do similar work, so their compensation plans work the same way in practice. Both earn a base salary plus variable pay for booking qualified meetings and opportunities, using the same structures and benchmarks covered above.