Hiring SDRs Looks Straightforward… Until You Do The Maths
- Sara Osterholzer
- Jul 31
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 1
You’ve finally convinced the board to invest in outbound.
The plan? Hire a couple of SDRs, give them some tools, and get that pipeline flowing.
Fast-forward six months - and now you’re onboarding your third hire, someone’s still waiting on a ZoomInfo login, and you’re wondering how on earth this is costing more than your entire marketing budget.
Sound familiar?
We run outbound SDR teams in-house - on behalf of our clients. That means we carry the cost, the setup, the training, the risk, and the team dynamics - all the stuff that’s invisible at the planning stage, but painfully obvious when you’re actually doing it.
So here’s the reality we’ve learned the hard way: a “£30k SDR” is never just £30k. Not by a long shot.
📊 The Numbers You Don’t See on the Job Spec
Let’s break it down.
Year 1 Cost of 1 SDR? Between £104,560 and £185,104.
That’s not a padded figure. It’s the actual, operational cost of:
Hiring
Training
Tools
Commission
NI + pensions
Office space or remote kit
Management time
Ramp-up
Attrition
Compliance
Pipeline downtime
If you’ve ever hired, onboarded, lost, and rehired an SDR, you’ll know -— this isn’t theoretical.
🧠 What We’ve Learned by Running SDR Teams Ourselves
We’ve done this enough times to know where the real pain lives.
Here’s what no one tells you upfront:
1. You pay thousands before they’ve even logged in
Recruiter fees, job ads, screening, admin. Hiring one SDR can cost £6k - £10k just to get someone in the door.
2. Ramp-up takes months and costs pipeline
Most SDRs take 3–6 months to become consistently productive. That’s half a year of full salary for part-time performance and a pipeline that’s nowhere near forecast.
💡 Translation: You're spending £6k/month for someone still learning your CRM.
3. Turnover stings every time
30–40% of SDRs leave within a year. Replacing them means lost momentum, lost meetings, and another £30k–£40k down the drain.
❝ If you’ve ever lost a promising SDR just as they were ramping - you’re not alone. It’s gutting, and expensive. ❞
4. You didn’t hire a Sales Leader to run SDR 101
Even if you’ve got a great manager, someone senior always ends up stepping in. Reviewing calls, fixing issues, motivating the team. It’s a full-time job - not a side task.
Guess who ends up managing your SDR? You.
5. The tech stack is a beast
CRM, sequencing tools, data providers, call recording, analytics, permissions, compliance... it’s not just buying licenses - it’s integrating, training, and maintaining them.
🤯 The Silent Killers? Time, Churn, and Distraction
You can’t always see it on a spreadsheet, but here’s what really hurts:
The 10 hours/week your Head of Sales spends coaching SDRs instead of closing deals.
The 3–6 months of lost pipeline during every hire-replace-ramp cycle.
The drain of trying to make it all work when outbound isn’t your core business.
We feel that every day - so our clients don’t have to.
✅ Why Clients Hand Us the SDR Function (and Don’t Look Back)
We’re not cheaper because we cut corners - we’re more efficient because we carry the corners.
We’ve built the hiring process, onboarding framework, training programme, tech stack, and management infrastructure - and we run it in-house, every day.
So when you outsource to us, here’s what you’re really getting:
Instead of... | You Get... |
Hiring delays | A trained rep, ready from week one |
Ramp-up faff | Immediate activity and pipeline |
Attrition chaos | Zero downtime if someone leaves |
Cost creep | One predictable monthly fee |
Internal distraction | Focus where it matters — sales, strategy, growth |
It’s not a magic bullet but it is a fully built machine. And it works.
🔍 Thinking About Building Internally?
No pressure either way. But before you commit, make sure you’re factoring in the full picture - not just salary and software.
There’s a big difference between “how it looks on paper” and “how it plays out in real life.”
Already building your own team?
Still figuring out what’s working (and what’s not)?
We’re always happy to soundboard ideas, share what’s worked for us, or help spot any blind spots. No pitch - just perspective from people who do this day in, day out.
