A fractional BDR is a Business Development Representative who works with your company on a part-time or retainer basis rather than as a full-time employee. They prospect into your target accounts, qualify leads, book meetings, and build pipeline for your sales team, without the overhead, risk, and long ramp time of a full-time BDR hire.
For B2B companies trying to scale outbound without committing to a $70,000 to $90,000 per year salary plus benefits, a fractional BDR is often the fastest and most cost-effective way to generate consistent qualified pipeline.
What a Fractional BDR Actually Does
The day-to-day work of a fractional BDR mirrors that of a full-time BDR, just scoped to a retainer rather than a 40-hour week. Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Account research: Identifying target accounts that match your ICP, pulling contact data, and building enriched prospect lists using tools like Apollo, Clay, or LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
- Outbound prospecting: Sending personalized cold emails, LinkedIn connection requests, and follow-up sequences designed to generate replies and book meetings.
- Cold calling: Depending on your market, this may include phone prospecting into target accounts and inbound leads who have not yet engaged.
- Meeting booking: Qualifying prospects, confirming fit, and scheduling discovery calls or demos for your account executives or founders.
- CRM hygiene: Logging all activity, tracking pipeline stages, and keeping your CRM clean and accurate.
- Reporting: Providing weekly or biweekly updates on outreach volume, reply rates, meetings booked, and pipeline generated.
Fractional BDR vs Full-Time BDR
The biggest difference is cost and risk. A full-time BDR in the US costs $70,000 to $90,000 in base salary, plus benefits, equity, recruiting fees, and ramp time. You are looking at $120,000 to $150,000 all-in for the first year before you see consistent pipeline output. And if the hire does not work out, you have lost six to twelve months and a significant amount of money.
A fractional BDR costs $3,000 to $7,000 per month depending on scope. You get dedicated prospecting hours, no ramp risk, no benefits overhead, and the ability to scale up or down based on your pipeline needs. For most early-stage and growth-stage B2B companies, this is a significantly better risk-adjusted approach to building outbound pipeline.
Who Needs a Fractional BDR
Fractional BDR engagements work best for companies that:
- Have a proven product but inconsistent pipeline
- Are doing founder-led sales and need to scale outbound without hiring full-time
- Have tried hiring a BDR full-time and experienced high turnover or slow ramp
- Want to test outbound as a channel before committing to a full BDR team
- Are between $1M and $10M ARR and cannot yet justify a fully-staffed sales development team
What You Should Expect in 90 Days
A well-structured fractional BDR engagement should produce measurable results within 90 days. Depending on your ACV and market, you should expect 8 to 20 qualified meetings per month, a growing pipeline of accounts in active conversation, and a documented outbound playbook that captures what is working. If you are not seeing these results by day 60, something is wrong with the ICP, the messaging, or the engagement itself.
Ready to explore whether a fractional BDR is right for your company? Book a strategy call or visit the fractional BDR page to learn more about how engagements are structured.