What does an in-house SDR really cost?
Salary is the smallest surprise. Add the tools, hiring, turnover, coaching, call review and ramp, then compare the true monthly cost and cost per meeting with an outsourced program. Every input is yours to change, and the math does not pick a winner for you.
$0 a month
- Pay, commission and burden$0
- Technology$0
- Hiring and training$0
- Turnover (expected replacements)$0
- Management, QA and admin$0
- Pay during ramp and vacancies, not at full pace$0
- Productive months in year one0
- Meetings booked in year one0
- Cost per meeting$0
One dedicated SDR at full capacity, with everything below included. Ask us for a quote on your numbers.
- A U.S.-based SDR teamincluded
- Hiring, training and management of that SDRincluded
- Replacing the SDR if they leaveincluded
- Target list and dataincluded
- Phone, email and LinkedIn outreachincluded
- Every dial, email and meeting in the Results Portalincluded
- An appointment guarantee based on your industryincluded
You are not choosing between us and another vendor
Most companies weigh outsourced sales development against one of these. Each has a place.
- Do nothing
Works: No new cost.
Watch for: Pipeline depends on referrals and repeat work, so growth stops when either slows down.
- Have account executives prospect
Works: No new hire, and the people who close also open.
Watch for: Prospecting is the first thing that slips when deals need attention, so activity drops in exactly the months you need it.
- Hire SDRs in-house
Works: Full control, and the knowledge stays inside the company.
Watch for: You take on recruiting, coaching, call review, tools and turnover. It works best with a manager who has run an SDR team before.
- AI-only prospecting tools
Works: Low cost per touch and high email volume.
Watch for: Volume is not a conversation. Facility, operations and finance buyers still decide on a call with a person who knows their building or business.
- Freelance callers
Works: Flexible and quick to start.
Watch for: Quality and continuity vary, and someone on your side still has to manage the list, the script, the follow-up and the data.
- Offshore SDR teams
Works: Lower hourly cost.
Watch for: U.S. buyers notice. Market knowledge, accents, calling hours and compliance take more management, not less.
- Buy software and expect reps to use it
Works: Better data and sequencing.
Watch for: Tools multiply the effort of people who already prospect every day. They do not create the habit.
What goes into each number
- Pay and burden: base plus commission and bonus, plus payroll taxes and benefits as a percentage of that pay.
- Technology: the six monthly tool lines times twelve.
- Hiring and training: one hire at the start of the year.
- Turnover: the share of reps who leave in a year times the recruiting and training cost of replacing them.
- Management, QA and admin: coaching and call-review hours per week times the manager's hourly cost over 50 working weeks, plus tool and data admin hours per month.
- Ramp and vacancies: productive months are twelve, less the ramp months not worked at full pace, less the expected months without a rep and the re-ramp after a departure. The pay cost line shows what those non-productive months cost.
- Meetings: dials per day times 21 working days times productive months, divided by dials per appointment for your trade from Abstrakt's sales center benchmarks (national, internal data). Your own conversion may differ.
This calculator costs one in-house SDR. To price an outsourced appointment setting program against the meetings you want, your deal size and your close rate, use the appointment setting cost calculator. It runs this same engine for its in-house comparison, so the two give the same answer for the same inputs.
Questions about SDR cost
How much does an SDR cost?
More than the salary. The full cost adds variable pay, payroll taxes and benefits, a CRM, dialer, data and email stack, recruiting and training, the manager and QA time it takes to coach and review calls, and the ramp months before the rep books at full pace. Turnover repeats the hiring, training and ramp. Enter your own numbers above to see the total for your company.
When does building an in-house SDR team make more sense?
When you already have a manager who has run an SDR team, a playbook that books meetings today, the volume to keep reps busy for years, and the patience to absorb turnover. If the calculator shows in-house costing less on your numbers and those pieces are in place, building can be the right call.
When does outsourcing SDRs make sense?
When you need meetings sooner than you can hire and ramp a rep, when nobody on your team has the time to manage outbound every week, or when turnover has already restarted your program more than once. Outsourcing turns a hiring and management problem into a flat monthly cost with an appointment guarantee based on your industry.
How many dials does it take to book a meeting?
It depends on the trade and the buyer. Across Abstrakt's sales center data it runs from 78 to 169 dials per appointment depending on the vertical. Pick your trade above, or see the full benchmarks at abstraktmg.com/sales-benchmarks.
This is a lot of work. Who is going to do it?
Hiring, ramping, coaching, reviewing calls and replacing reps is a second business. We run that business every day, and we love it, so your team can focus on selling.
