The role of an outsourced SDR is to get in the door of prospects, make initial contact with potential customers, and determine whether or not they are qualified buyers for your company's product.
Once you've identified a qualified lead, your SDRs will either pass the information onto an internal sales rep or hand off the lead to a founder, a different sales rep, an account manager, and more. This information is stored either in the company's internal CRM, the outsourced SDRs own CRM via their employer or even both CRMs.
Outsourced SDRs then follow up with that lead by emailing them or making a phone call. If the potential customer is interested, they're added to your database and you can begin nurturing them through the sales cycle.
Outsourced SDRs make sure that a lead is never lost in the weeds as they always
re-engage with old leads and add new ones to the funnel. The process of re-engagement can include emailing, making a phone call, or both, but it depends on what stage in the sales cycle that lead is at.
There are many companies that use outsourced SDRs. If your startup isn't spending enough time and money on generating leads from marketing, maybe it's time to hire an outsourced SDR.