What does an in-house SDR really cost?
Salary is the smallest surprise. Add burden, tools, hiring, management time and ramp, then see your cost per booked meeting next to an outsourced program. Your numbers, no email required.
- Salary, variable and burden$0
- Tools and data$0
- Recruiting$0
- Manager time$0
- Meetings booked in year one0
- Cost per meeting$0
- Flat monthly$5,000
- What you getdedicated U.S.-based SDR at 50% capacity
- Hiring, training, managementours
- Guaranteeactivity or appointments, in writing
- Flat monthly$8,500
- What you getdedicated U.S.-based SDR at 100% capacity
- Hiring, training, managementours
- Guaranteeactivity or appointments, in writing
What goes into the in-house number
- Pay and burden: base plus variable, plus payroll taxes and benefits as a percentage of that pay.
- Tools and data: dialer, data, sequencing and CRM seats, monthly times twelve.
- Manager time: hours per week times the manager's hourly cost, across 50 working weeks.
- Meetings: dials per day times 21 working days, for the months after ramp (ramp months count at half pace), divided by the dials per appointment for your trade from Abstrakt's sales center benchmarks.
- Not included: the cost of replacing a rep who leaves, which repeats recruiting and ramp, or the revenue from meetings that never get booked.
Questions about SDR cost
How much does an SDR cost?
More than the salary. A full in-house cost adds variable pay, payroll taxes and benefits, sales tools and data, recruiting, the manager time it takes to coach and review calls, and the ramp months before the rep books at full pace. Turnover restarts the hiring and ramp costs. Enter your own numbers above to see the total for your company.
What does an outsourced SDR program cost at Abstrakt?
Foundation is $5,000 a month with a dedicated U.S.-based SDR at 50% capacity; Growth is $8,500 a month with a dedicated SDR at 100% capacity; Enterprise is custom. Pricing is flat monthly, and every program guarantees the activity or qualified-appointment number agreed in writing before launch: if Abstrakt misses it, it keeps working at no additional cost until it hits it.
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 abstraktsales.com/sales-benchmarks.
When does an in-house SDR make more sense?
When you already have a sales manager who can hire, coach and review calls every week, a proven playbook, and enough volume to keep a rep busy for years. If those are missing, the cost is usually not the salary: it is the months spent hiring, ramping and replacing reps while no meetings get booked.
This is a lot of work. Who is going to do it?
Hiring, ramping, managing and replacing reps is a second business. We run that business every day, and we love it, so your team can focus on selling.