Every founder who's tried outbound has asked the same question: "Should we just hire an SDR?"
On paper, an SDR looks cheaper than an agency. Paid $55K base, $15K variable, total $70K fully loaded — that's $5,833/month. Our Pipeline Engine is $997/month. Of course hire the SDR, right?
This post is the real math.
The loaded cost of one SDR
Start with the comp package: $55K base + $15K commission = $70K on-target earnings (OTE). That's what you budgeted.
Now add everything else that's not in the offer letter:
- Payroll taxes + benefits: ~20% loading. $14K.
- Tooling: Apollo ($99/mo), LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($99/mo), Instantly or similar ($97/mo), HubSpot Sales Hub ($90/mo/seat), a dialer ($75/mo), meeting scheduling ($12/mo). Round to $475/mo = $5,700/year.
- Onboarding + ramp: first 60–90 days, your SDR isn't generating booked calls. That's ~$15K of sunk comp before productivity kicks in.
- Management time: an SDR needs 5–10 hours/week of management. At your rate as founder ($150–$300/hr), that's $40K–$150K/year of your time diverted.
- Turnover: average B2B SDR tenure is 14 months. You replace them, you re-ramp, you re-sunk-cost.
The real annual cost
Conservative all-in: $110K–$180K in year one.
Aggressive all-in (Bay Area / NY SDR, heavy management): $220K+.
The Setorra math
Pipeline Engine at $997/mo for 12 months = $11,964/year. That's 6–12× cheaper than one in-house SDR, with:
- No ramp — we hit the ground running (campaigns launch in 7 days)
- No management overhead — zero hours of your time per week
- No turnover risk — our team is our team, you keep the output
- A written qualified-call definition, with misses replaced free. No SDR hire comes with that
When you do hire an SDR
Hire in-house when: you're consistently hitting 30+ calls/month from outbound and need someone dedicated to qualification + pipeline management. That's typically $5M+ ARR for a B2B service business.
Until then, the math says outsourced.
Next step
Want us to run the numbers for your specific stage and deal size? Book a 15-minute pipeline audit — we'll build a side-by-side comparison with your actual economics.