Sales Development Representative

Position Overview

The Sales Development Representative (SDR) converts market intelligence, targeted prospect research, marketing-generated demand and identified business signals into qualified leads, while protecting seller capacity and maintaining pipeline momentum. The SDR ensures National Sales Directors, Account Executives, and Client Growth Managers engage only when there is real business signal. The role creates focus for sellers by combining disciplined lead qualification with targeted prospect research, personalized outreach, and clean lead handoffs.

Northstar Recycling and WTS, both operating under the Northstar Recycling umbrella, are hiring two Sales Development Representatives through this posting. One SDR will primarily support Northstar Recycling’s core business, while the other will primarily support WTS’s core business. Both positions share the responsibilities, qualifications, and performance expectations outlined below; candidates will be considered for the opportunity that best aligns with their experience and the needs of each business.

This role is essential to scaling qualified pipeline and is measured primarily on conversion quality, velocity, pipeline creation, and the quality of leads accepted by sellers, not simply activity volume. The ideal candidate is relentlessly organized, intellectually honest about fit, persistent through rejection, tech-savvy and comfortable working with data and automation tools and driven by velocity and conversion metrics.

This is not a traditional field seller, account management, or general marketing role. The SDR's primary purpose is to create clarity for the Company's sellers by converting both marketing-generated demand and market intelligence into relevant, well-researched, qualified leads. The role owns the critical work between initial signal and seller engagement—researching, targeting, qualifying, nurturing, and delivering leads with enough context for sellers to focus their time on deeper discovery, relationship development, and closing business.

Key Responsibilities

Rapid Follow-Up on MQLs and Inbound Activity

• Contact MQLs within the agreed SLA window.
• Receive and prioritize MQLs generated from demand generation campaigns, virtual and in-person events, webinar registrations, website submissions, and other inbound activity.
• Execute immediate outreach via phone, email, LinkedIn, and other appropriate prospecting channels with persistence and cadence.
• Maintain disciplined follow-up, cycling through proven sequences to establish contact and move viable prospects forward.

Market Intelligence & New-Logo Lead Development

• Mine internal market intelligence, e-Manifest data, structured datasets, public information, and other available sources to identify and prioritize high-value facilities and new-logo opportunities.
• Develop Lead Hypotheses: Develop fact-based hypothesis regarding a site’s likely waste streams, existing management approach, potential pain points and where Northstar/WTS can create financial, operational, compliance and sustainability value.
• Research likely waste-stream opportunities and identify the individual stakeholders in EHS&S, operations, supply chain, plant management who influence or own waste-stream, procurement, operational, or cost decisions.
• Build and maintain clean target lists that clearly document the account, site, contact information, lead hypothesis, source data, and recommended next action.
• Translate market intelligence, seller feedback, commercial priorities, and campaign results into improved targeting and prospecting priorities.
• Use automation, data-enrichment tools, spreadsheets, public records, and web research to scale prospect identification and outreach without sacrificing relevance or accuracy.
• Leverage approved AI-enabled tools to accelerate account and site research, analyze and synthesize market intelligence, identify patterns in complex datasets, prepare prospect-specific outreach and continuously improve prospecting productivity.

Personalized, Site-Specific Outreach

• Leverage brand messaging, prospect behavior data, company intelligence, site-specific research, market signals, and operational information to craft relevant and credible outreach.
• Reference the campaign, event, content, business signal, facility information, or market intelligence that prompted outreach to establish immediate relevance and credibility.
• Use marketing-provided messaging frameworks and value propositions, adapting them to the prospect's specific circumstances.
• Personalize at scale by customizing opening lines, company and site context, and value hooks while maintaining a disciplined, repeatable outreach structure.
• Draft and execute personalized, multi-touch outreach designed to convert researched targets into engaged prospects, replies, or meeting opportunities.

Light Discovery to Confirm Fit, Intent, and Timing

• Conduct brief, focused discovery conversations to assess whether the prospect meets SQL criteria before advancing to a seller.
• Ask focused discovery questions to confirm company size, current waste management approach, decision-making structure, regulatory environment, timeline, operational need, and fit against the Company's ideal customer profile.
• Maintain the appropriate boundary between SDR qualification and seller discovery. The SDR establishes sufficient business signal and context for the seller to move efficiently into deeper discovery.

Fast Disqualification of Non-Fit Leads to Protect Sales Time

• Confidently and quickly disqualify leads that do not meet established SQL criteria.
• Disqualify based on clear criteria such as company/site fit, lack of identified need or intent, timing, budget considerations, inability to reach appropriate decision-makers, regulatory/compliance barriers, or geographic/service fit.
• Document every disqualification in CRM with a specific, actionable reason code.
• Feed disqualification patterns and market findings back to Marketing, RevOps, and Sales to refine targeting, messaging, campaign strategy, market intelligence, and outreach playbooks.
• Treat both successful and unsuccessful outreach as useful market intelligence that can improve future targeting and qualification.

Clean Handoff of Qualified Opportunities to the Right Seller

• Prepare SQL and warm-lead handoffs with complete context, including prospect company/site and contact information, size, estimated waste volume or opportunity, stated or anticipated need, decision-making structure, timeline, budget information when known, regulatory considerations, engagement history, source intelligence, and SDR discovery notes.
• Route qualified leads to the appropriate seller based on territory, account type, seller focus, or other established routing criteria.
• Provide sellers with the information needed to move immediately into full discovery without unnecessarily repeating qualification work.
• Coordinate seller review when appropriate, manage outreach through prospect engagement or meeting request, and ensure a clear next step is established before handoff.
• Track SQL acceptance and seller feedback to evaluate qualification and handoff quality.
• Close the loop with sellers to understand which leads progress into opportunities, stall, or disqualify, and use that information to continuously improve targeting, research, outreach, and qualification precision.

CRM Discipline, Data Quality & Reporting

• Maintain real-time, accurate CRM records of prospect activity, outreach, discovery notes, qualification results, reason codes, lead context, and SQL handoffs.
• Maintain strong HubSpot/CRM data hygiene, including accurate contact and account information, activity tracking, workflows/sequences, dispositions, and reporting.
• Provide regular reporting on pipeline velocity and quality metrics, including MQL volume received, conversion rates by source, MQL-to-SQL timing, SQLs handed to sellers, disqualification reasons, new-logo opportunities developed, meetings generated, and pipeline attributable to SDR targeting and outreach.
• Identify patterns and blockers, including campaigns, segments, sources, industries, facilities, or outreach approaches that are converting well or poorly.
• Capture field, seller, and win/loss feedback to continuously improve targeting, messaging, market intelligence tools, and outreach playbooks.

Performance & Success Measures

• Speed to First Touch: Time from MQL creation to first outreach.
• MQL-to-SQL Conversion Rate: Percentage of MQLs that convert to qualified SQLs.
• Sales Acceptance Rate (SAR): Percentage of SDR-qualified opportunities sellers accept and move forward.
• Pipeline Dollar Value Created: Pipeline attributable to SDR-qualified and SDR-developed new-logo opportunities.
• Pipeline Velocity: Average time from MQL creation or initial prospect identification to qualification.
• New-Logo Pipeline Creation: Qualified new-site/new-logo opportunities attributable to SDR market intelligence, targeting, and outreach.
• Seller Leverage: Demonstrable shift of seller time toward customer conversations, meetings, discovery, and other high-value selling activities.
• Continuous Improvement: Demonstrated improvement in targeting, market intelligence, data quality, and outreach playbooks based on captured field and seller feedback.