Every B2B founder eventually hits the same fork. Pipeline is inconsistent. They need outbound. The question is who runs it.
The default answer is "hire an SDR." It feels like the cheaper, more controllable option. It is not.
Here is the actual math.
What an SDR really costs
Salary is the headline. The hidden costs are bigger.
- - Salary: $50K to $80K a year for a junior, $80K to $120K for someone with experience.
- - Payroll taxes and benefits: add 20 to 30 percent on top.
- - Sourcing and recruiting: agency fees of 20 to 25 percent of first-year salary, or 40 to 80 hours of your time.
- - Tools: sequencer, list provider, email warming, dialer. $300 to $800 a month.
- - Sending infrastructure: domains, mailboxes, warming. $200 to $500 a month if done correctly.
- - Manager time: at least 5 hours a week from a senior person to coach, review copy, and unblock.
- - Ramp time: 60 to 90 days before they are productive.
- - Churn: SDRs turn over fast. Average tenure is around 14 months.
True cost in year one for one SDR sits between $90K and $150K, plus your time. And you still have to build the playbook, the lists, the copy, and the deliverability infrastructure yourself.
What you are really hiring for
You are not hiring "a person." You are hiring an entire function.
That function needs: - Lead sourcing and list building - Email infrastructure and deliverability - Copywriting and angle testing - Daily sending operations - Reply handling and qualification - Reporting and iteration
One SDR cannot do all of that well. A good SDR does the sending and reply handling. The rest, you build around them.
Where in-house wins
In-house SDRs are the right call when: - You have an experienced sales leader who can manage them and own the playbook - You have an existing outbound motion that just needs more bodies - Your sales cycle is long and complex and SDRs need deep product knowledge - You are over $5M ARR and outbound is a permanent core function
If those are true, hire. Build the function properly. Give it 12 months.
Where outsourced wins
Outsourced is the right call when: - You do not have an outbound playbook yet and need one built - You are between $10K and $200K MRR and cannot justify a full team - You need pipeline in 6 weeks, not 6 months - You want a flat monthly cost that is easy to turn on and off - The founder is the closer and just needs the calls
In short, if you need pipeline and do not want to build an SDR function from scratch, outsourced is faster, cheaper, and lower risk.
The middle ground people get wrong
A lot of founders try to hire one cheap SDR overseas, give them a free tool, and hope it works. It does not. The SDR has no infrastructure, no playbook, no copy, and no reply qualification. Three months in, deliverability is shot, the SDR is demoralized, and the founder writes off outbound.
If you cannot afford to build the full function around the SDR, do not hire the SDR. Outsource the function. Buy the calls.
How to decide
Ask three questions.
- Do you already have a working outbound playbook, or do you need someone to build one?
- Can you absorb 90 days of zero pipeline while a new hire ramps?
- Do you want to manage a salesperson or do you want to take sales calls?
If your answers are "no, no, take calls" then outsourced is the right call. If they are "yes, yes, manage" then hire.
There is no wrong answer. There is only the wrong answer for your stage.