How much does an outsourced SDR cost?

There is no standard price, and published ranges vary by source. Most of the guides that publish ranges are written by outsourcing firms or sales data vendors, so read them as market signals, not neutral benchmarks. The table shows each range with its source and date.

The spread comes from what is being bought: how senior the SDRs are, where they are based, which channels they use, how strictly a meeting is qualified, and how much strategy and management sits on top. A cheap retainer and an expensive one can describe very different services, so compare scope before price. Location matters too: CIENCE’s own page lists the same SDR level at different prices for offshore, European and US SDRs.

Most firms quote after a call, but a few publish numbers. These come from each firm’s own pages, checked October 7, 2026. They change often, so confirm them before you buy.

Two things stand out. At SalesRoads, per-SDR prices fall as you add seats, so a one-SDR test costs the most per person. And setup fees, platform fees and per-meeting fees can sit on top of the headline number, so ask for the full first-year cost in writing.

Firms that do not publish prices usually list what sets the quote instead. SalesHive names team location, channel mix and daily volume; Belkins names company size, addressable market and the number of customer groups. Use those factors to ask every vendor for a quote on the same accounts, channels and volume.

A retainer buys capacity: a set amount of SDR time, tools and management each month. It is easy to budget and gives the vendor room to do research and multi-touch outreach, but you pay whether or not meetings come. Ask what volume of touches and what reporting the fee includes.

Per-meeting pricing looks safer because you pay only for results. The catch is the definition. A meeting can mean booked, held or qualified, and those are different numbers. Per-meeting deals can also push volume over fit, so agree on target profile, role, problem confirmed and attendance in writing, and agree how no-shows are handled.

Hybrid pricing, a lower base plus a fee per qualified meeting, splits the risk. You now have two things to define: what the base covers and what qualifies. Whatever the model, ask for the notice period, minimum term and exit terms, and get any promise about meeting counts written into the contract.

Start with independent data. The Bridge Group’s 2025 report, based on 351 B2B companies, puts median SDR on-target earnings at $80,000 ($55,000 base, $25,000 variable), median manager on-target earnings at $146,000, and 6.4 SDRs per first-line leader. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that benefits made up 30.0% of private-industry employer compensation costs in June 2026.

Set against that monthly figure, published outsourced retainers often look cheaper. The fair comparison is cost per meeting held, which the next sections cover.

The Bridge Group found an average ramp of 3.0 months, average tenure of 1.9 years and median annual attrition of 40% in the 2025 report, counting promotions. Those three numbers turn a salary into a recurring cost.

• Ramp: at about $12,240 a month, three months of ramp cost about $36,720 while output builds. Estimate: 3 × $12,240.
• Share of tenure spent ramping: about 13%. Estimate: 3 months ÷ about 23 months of average tenure.
• Turnover: a team of five SDRs at 40% attrition replaces about two people a year, which means about six months of ramp a year, before any time the seat sits empty. Estimate: 5 × 0.40 × 3 months.

That is the case for cover while hiring. An outsourced or external SDR can work an open seat until the new hire ramps, as long as the accounts and history stay with you for the handover.

Cost per meeting held is the fairest single number, because it puts retainers, per-meeting fees and salaries on one scale. Divide the full monthly cost of an option by the qualified meetings that actually took place that month.

For an in-house SDR, the Bridge Group reports a median quota of 10 held meetings a month. At our estimated $12,240 a month, an SDR at quota costs about $1,220 per held meeting. Estimate: $12,240 ÷ 10. In the same report only 60% of SDRs hit quota, so many teams pay more.

For an outsourced SDR, use the same formula with the full fee: retainer plus setup spread over the term, plus any per-meeting fees, divided by meetings that were held and fit your profile. Count your own time too, such as onboarding, reviews and handovers. A cheaper program that books meetings outside your target profile costs more per useful meeting than a pricier one that does not.

• Setup and onboarding fees, often charged once at the start.
• Platform, data or tool fees billed separately from the SDR time.
• Per-meeting or commission fees on top of a retainer.
• Your team’s time: onboarding the SDR, approving messages, joining reviews and taking handovers.
• No-shows and meetings outside your profile, if the contract still counts them.
• Sending infrastructure: who pays for domains, mailboxes and numbers, and who keeps them.
• Exit cost: what you lose if the history, lists and recordings stay with the vendor.
• Compliance: if calls break the rules, the company being sold can be held responsible too.

Ask each vendor to price all of these in one first-year figure. On the last point, the FCC ruled in 2013 that a seller may be held vicariously liable for calling-rule violations by a third-party telemarketer; our guide to B2B cold calling rules covers the detail.

SalesOne is software first, priced on qualified accounts per month. A SalesOne SDR is an add-on to a plan, sold as an SDR seat: an outsourced SDR who works inside your SalesOne workspace on the queue S1 agents have researched and drafted, alone or alongside your own SDRs. It is not an agency running outreach from its own systems.

The seat is quoted with your plan on the call. What sets the quote is how many accounts the seat covers, which channels it uses, and which way of working you choose: research checks only, follow-ups and no-shows, overflow, cover while you hire, a new segment, or work alongside your SDRs.

Because the SDR works in your workspace, every message is approved by a person on your team, outreach rules decide who may contact whom, and SalesOne keeps the accounts and their history with you when the seat ends. That removes the exit cost from the list above.