Most Business Development teams focus on inbound leads with a sprinkle of outbound responding to what Marketing warmed up. Yet we often see Business Development tucked under Sales by default, like a forgotten middle child in the GTM family tree.
But if the BDR’s entire job is to convert Marketing-driven interest into conversations, pipeline, and revenue, then putting them under Sales creates undue friction and disconnect.
Here’s the case for why BDRs belong under Marketing.
- Alignment stops being a quarterly kumbaya session and becomes daily reality
Sales and Marketing alignment looks great on a slide. But when BDRs roll up to Sales, the alignment breaks at the exact moment it matters, the first human touch. Putting BDRs under Marketing fuses demand creation and demand conversion, making the funnel a single system instead of a diplomatic negotiation. Research shows that tighter alignment improves revenue, conversion, and deal velocity. - Handoffs get cleaner because one team owns the entire front of the funnel
Nothing kills momentum faster than a messy handoff. When Marketing owns the Business Development function, the same people who designed the campaigns and intent signals also create the playbooks, SLAs, and routing rules. Leads stop disappearing into the abyss. The buyer experience stops feeling like a relay race run by strangers. And instead of the classic “your leads are bad,” you get clear definitions, faster fixes, and a unified funnel. - Marketing finally gets unfiltered truth regarding lead quality
Marketers can’t optimize if all they hear is “leads are meh.” BDRs becomes Marketing’s on-the-ground intelligence unit instead of a sales-adjacent complaint channel. That intel makes targeting sharper, scoring smarter, and campaigns more effective. Marketing gets real-time, honest feedback like: - Who’s converting.
- Who’s ghosting.
- Which campaigns hit.
- Which ones need to disappear quietly.
- Speed to lead skyrockets
Marketing keeps a close eye on intent: demo forms, surge scores, page views, webinars, events. Putting Business Development in that same org means hot leads get acted on fast. And speed matters. A lot. Responding within minutes can multiply conversion rates. Responding within hours can tank them. Research from Harvard Business Review and others has shown repeatedly that most companies are painfully slow, and it costs pipeline. - Messaging stays consistent from ad click to first call
Busines Development is the first human embodiment of your marketing. If Marketing says one thing and BDRs say another, the buyer feels the whiplash. Putting BDRs under Marketing ensures the talk track matches the narrative, the positioning, and the persona research that shaped the campaign. No more “Wait, who told you that” moments. - The whole early funnel becomes experiment-friendly
Marketing tests everything: copy, offers, timing, audiences. When BDRs sits\ under Marketing, you can test messaging in campaigns and in BDR outreach, then watch how it affects meetings set and pipeline created. BDRs stop being a downstream dependency and becomes a co-owner of early-funnel optimization. - Coaching and career paths actually align with the work
Inbound-heavy BDR teams need persona knowledge, objection handling, lead qualification, and content-driven conversations. That’s Marketing’s wheelhouse. When BDR reports to Marketing, they get more relevant coaching, faster development, and a clearer career path, whether they want to move into demand gen, RevOps, or Sales down the line.
The Exception
If your BD org is a true outbound machine, working a tight account list, deeply aligned to AEs, and executing ABM plays all day, Sales leadership might make sense. That’s the exception. Many orgs split it: inbound under Marketing, outbound under Sales. It works because it reflects the work.
If 80 percent of your Business Development team’s world is responding to demand generated by Marketing, then the BDR team belongs under Marketing. It creates alignment, improves speed, produces better data, and delivers a smoother buyer experience.