Hiring an SDR looks like one salary. It isn't. You pay for recruiting, months of ramp before full output, tools, and someone to manage them. Enter your numbers to see your real first-year cost and when the team reaches full output.
The average SDR takes about three months to ramp, after one to two months of hiring. That means a first-year budget pays for hiring, onboarding and learning before it pays for meetings. And none of this tells you whether outbound works for your market at all.
If outbound already works for you, with a proven message, a proven list and proven conversion, hiring in-house makes sense. If you haven't proven it yet, hiring SDRs is an expensive way to run the test.
The Proof Sprint runs live outbound campaigns for your firm first, so you know what creates pipeline before you commit to headcount.
Sources: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Metrics & Compensation, 2025 (ramp, quota); US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026; SHRM 2025 cost-per-hire benchmark. Defaults are averages. Your numbers will differ, so change them.
Base salary is only part of it. Once you add variable pay, benefits, recruiting, tools, management and ramp, the real cost is well above the offer letter. Use the calculator above with your own numbers.
About three months on average, according to The Bridge Group's 2025 research. It's often longer for complex or high-value offers.
It depends on whether you already know what works. If you don't, validate first. Hiring before you have a proven message means paying to learn on a full salary.
Both. The cost inputs are the same. Consulting firms often have longer sales cycles and higher contract values, so adjust ramp and contract value to match.
