The Canary in the Coal Mine: Why SDR Alignment Demands a Rethink of B2B Revenue Teams in 2025

Executive Summary

The debate about where Business Development Representatives (BDRs) belong—sales or marketing—underscores deeper structural inefficiencies in traditional revenue teams. As companies approach 2025, the need to rethink these silos is critical. This article argues for a unified revenue model under a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), structured into three specialized departments: Demand Generation, Pipeline Management, and Customer Success.

We further explore nuances like whether to centralize BDRs across business units or embed them within each, how to structure inbound and outbound functions for greater efficiency, and the unique managerial needs of the BDR function.

The Structural Misfit: Why BDRs Struggle Under Sales or Marketing

BDRs Reporting to Sales

The challenges of embedding BDRs in sales are compounded by sales managers’ focus on short-term revenue objectives:

• No Dedicated Oversight: Sales managers, preoccupied with pipeline management, negotiations, and closing, rarely have the bandwidth to oversee the recruitment, training, and ramping of BDRs.
• Investment Without Accountability: The BDR function represents a significant investment in human capital, technology, and processes. Without a dedicated leader focused on optimizing this function, outcomes (discovery calls booked and held with ICPs) are inconsistent.
• Scattered Priorities: Sales teams prioritize closing over demand generation, leaving BDRs to operate without the development and strategic focus they need.

Key Insight: To effectively manage BDRs under sales, organizations would need to hire a BDR Manager solely responsible for overseeing the function—adding cost and complexity. Without this role, BDRs will remain under-supported and fail to reach their potential.

BDRs Reporting to Marketing

While marketing teams are better equipped to handle top-of-funnel activities, BDRs under marketing face their own challenges:

• Misaligned Goals: Marketing’s success is often tied to lead volume or engagement, while BDRs are measured on qualified discovery calls.
• Fragmented Processes: The lack of integration with pipeline management creates inefficiencies in the handoff between marketing-generated leads and sales-ready opportunities.

The Core Problem: Whether under sales or marketing, the BDR function lacks a centralized accountability structure for converting investments into measurable pipeline results.

The Unified Revenue Model: Three Specialized Departments

A unified revenue model under a CRO addresses these misalignments by creating dedicated departments with clear responsibilities:

1. Demand Generation: Turning Investment into Discovery Calls

Demand Generation is responsible for creating ICP discovery calls through four strategic pillars:

• Outbound Prospecting: Direct engagement to generate discovery calls.
• Owned and Earned Media: SEO, content, and PR efforts to attract and nurture leads.
• Peer-to-Peer Channels: Leveraging networks for authentic engagement.
• Paid Advertising: Scaling ICP engagement through targeted campaigns.

Inbound Lead Follow-Up: Beyond outbound efforts, Demand Generation teams also handle inbound lead follow-up. These leads are subjected to deeper qualification, ensuring meetings set for Pipeline Management align with ICP requirements. This dual role—outbound and inbound—is essential for converting a company’s investment into productive opportunities.

Centralized Leadership: The Demand Generation Manager oversees this entire function, ensuring financial efficiency across all pillars and accountability for discovery calls booked and held.

2. Pipeline Management: The Department Formerly Known as Sales

Pipeline Management focuses exclusively on converting ICP discovery calls into revenue. Key benefits include:

• Super Seller Efficiency: A smaller group of top performers increases close rates while reducing financial waste.
• Accelerated Time to Close: Streamlined processes and higher utilization of skilled closers ensure faster deal cycles.
• Labor Optimization: Consolidating closing responsibilities into Pipeline Management reduces the need for large, underperforming sales teams.

Key Insight: Pipeline Management reframes the sales function, eliminating distractions from demand generation while maximizing ROI on discovery calls.

3. Customer Success: Retention and Growth

Post-sale, Customer Success focuses on retention, upsell, and cross-sell opportunities. This team bridges the gap between client satisfaction and revenue growth, maximizing customer lifetime value.

Managing BDRs Across Multiple Business Units: Centralized vs. Embedded Models

For organizations with multiple business units, a common question arises: should BDRs be centralized under a single leader or embedded within each unit?

• Centralized Model:
  • Advantages: Creates a unified team under a single BDR leader with expertise in outbound and inbound processes. Centralization reduces redundancy, enables consistent training, and fosters economies of scale in technology investments. BDRs dotted-line reporting to business units ensures alignment with specific ICPs without sacrificing overall accountability.
  • Challenges: More robust systems may be required to align BDR efforts with each unit’s unique goals.
• Embedded Model:
  • Advantages: Embedding BDRs within business units ensures immediate alignment with unit-specific needs and ICP nuances.
  • Challenges: Risk of inefficiencies and inconsistent performance across units, as each BDR group may operate under varying standards and levels of support.

Recommendation: A centralized model with dotted-line reporting offers the best of both worlds, combining centralized accountability with localized alignment.

Why Rethinking Revenue Composition is Critical for 2025

Embedding BDRs in either sales or marketing has long exposed cracks in traditional revenue structures. A unified CRO-led model resolves these inefficiencies, ensuring:

• Ownership and Accountability: Dedicated leaders for Demand Generation and Pipeline Management drive focused outcomes.
• Financial Efficiency: Optimized resource allocation reduces waste across functions.
• Improved BDR Performance: Centralized management and clear KPIs ensure BDRs are supported, developed, and positioned to succeed.

Moving Forward: Building the 2025 Revenue Organization

1. Audit Revenue Operations: Identify inefficiencies and opportunities for alignment across teams.
2. Appoint a Demand Generation Manager: Centralize accountability for converting investments into discovery calls.
3. Integrate Technology and Data: Build a unified tech stack that supports both centralized and localized operations.
4. Refine KPIs: Evaluate success based on the financial productivity of demand generation and pipeline conversion.
5. Optimize BDR Placement: For organizations with multiple business units, adopt a centralized model with dotted-line reporting to ensure scalability and consistency.

The debate over BDR placement reveals the larger inefficiencies of siloed sales and marketing teams. A unified revenue model under a CRO, with dedicated Demand Generation, Pipeline Management, and Customer Success departments, creates the accountability and efficiency needed to thrive in 2025.

By addressing nuances such as inbound lead follow-up, the managerial needs of BDRs, and multi-unit organization structures, companies can transform their BDR functions from a weak link into a cornerstone of revenue success.

FullFunnel is a revenue operations services company that has operationally supported thousands of outbound programs over 10 years of service. Our teams work with clients to design, implement, staff, and continuously manage outbound teams located across the globe. Learn more about our unique RevOps approach, and request a consultation to get started.