23 OCTOBER 2026 · 4 MIN READ · BEN FILDES
Outsourced SDR or in-house SDR? The 2026 numbers, side by side
Every sales leader with a team of closers eventually asks the same question. Hire an SDR, or pay someone to set the appointments? The honest answer is that both work, and the numbers decide which one works for you.
Here they are, with sources, and then the four situations where each wins.
The in-house SDR, costed
Salary. The Indeed UK average for a business development or sales development role is £42,625. Add employer National Insurance and pension and you are at roughly £4,100 a month. Commission, data, a dialler and a LinkedIn Sales Navigator seat are on top.
Ramp. The Bridge Group's 2025 report, across 351 B2B companies, puts ramp time at about three months. The first quarter costs around £12,000 and produces very little.
Output. The same report puts the median quota at ten held meetings a month, of which about six become opportunities. The median has fallen about 40% since 2018. Only around 60% of SDRs hit quota, the lowest share in the series.
Attrition. Median attrition is about 40% a year, and average tenure is under two years. When an SDR leaves, the sequences stop, the replies go unanswered, and the next person starts the ramp again.
Put together: from month four, about £410 a held meeting, if they hit quota. Across a typical year including the ramp and a replacement, closer to £550.
Appointment setting run for you, costed
A list rebuilt weekly from the companies showing a buying signal. Outreach from your reps' own LinkedIn profiles, with our salespeople alongside, carried to email and text. A British caller who rings every interested reply within 24 hours and books the time straight into the right rep's diary, with notes.
On one LinkedIn seat at three to five qualified meetings a month, that models at £98 to £197 a qualified meeting. No ramp: LinkedIn is live within a week, callers and CRM live by day 14, full pace by week four. Nobody to replace.
That is a model from our own campaign, not a promise. Our own three-profile campaign reached 5,950 people over three months, started 752 conversations and booked 65 meetings. Your market decides your number.
The volume gap
One month, side by side. The Bridge Group's daily medians for a full-time rep are 44 dials, 41 emails and 19 LinkedIn touches. Over twenty working days that is roughly 380 LinkedIn touches and 820 emails.
Our standard plan runs around 1,950 connection requests and up to 33,000 emails in the same month, across four channels at once. Not because the people are better. Because the work is split: the list, the writing, the sending and the calling are different jobs done by different people, and none of them has a quota call at four o'clock.
When the in-house SDR wins
Complex, consultative products. If the first conversation needs twenty minutes of product knowledge, a person who lives inside your business will have it and we will not.
A named-account list of fifty. If your whole market is fifty companies, you do not need volume. You need one person who knows all fifty.
You are building a sales career ladder. The SDR role is how a lot of great account executives start. If you want that pipeline of people, hire.
When appointment setting wins
Your closers are prospecting. If account executives spend their mornings on LinkedIn, you are paying closing money for SDR work. The cheapest fix is to take the top of the funnel off them.
You cannot afford the ramp. Three months of salary for almost nothing is a real bet for a team of three.
You have been burned by attrition. If the last two SDRs left at month nine, the problem is not the people.
You want four channels and a phone, now. LinkedIn, inboxes, SMS and a caller on day one, rather than one person learning each in turn.
Or both
The most common arrangement with larger teams is not either. Our callers fill the closers' diaries with first meetings, and the in-house SDRs work the named accounts that need a person all day. What a qualified meeting means, and why no-shows are never counted.
Appointment setting for B2B sales teams is the full picture on one page. Book a 1-to-1 and bring your current cost per meeting, and we run both options on your numbers live.
Sources
Salary: Indeed UK average, plus employer NI and pension, read August 2026. Ramp, quota, attainment, attrition, tenure and daily activity: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions and Metrics 2025, 351 companies. Ours: modelled on one LinkedIn seat at three to five qualified meetings a month, and campaign figures from our CRM, read September 2026. A model, not a promise of results.
Questions people ask
- Is an outsourced SDR worth it?
- It is when your closers are prospecting or you cannot afford a three-month ramp. An in-house SDR costs about £4,100 a month fully loaded and produces a median of ten held meetings a month once ramped. Appointment setting run for you models at £98 to £197 a qualified meeting, with no ramp and nobody to replace.
- Outsourced SDR or hire in-house?
- Both work, and the product and the list decide. Hire in-house for complex products, a named list of around fifty accounts, or to build a sales career ladder. Outsource when closers are prospecting, attrition has burned you, or you want four channels and a phone from day one. Larger teams often run both.
- How much does an in-house SDR cost in the UK?
- About £4,100 a month fully loaded, from the Indeed UK average salary of £42,625 plus employer National Insurance and pension. Commission, data, a dialler and a Sales Navigator seat are on top. From month four that works out at about £410 a held meeting, if they hit quota.
- How long does it take an SDR to ramp up?
- About three months, according to the Bridge Group's 2025 report across 351 B2B companies. The first quarter produces very little. About 40% of SDRs leave within the year, and the next hire starts the ramp again.
This is one of the long answers behind appointment setting for b2b sales teams. If you would rather we ran it for you, book a 1-to-1 and we work out your numbers live.
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