What a sales development representative does, and when an outsourced SDR makes sense
A sales development representative (SDR) finds and qualifies prospects, then books meetings for the account executives who close the deals. Most SDRs don't close anything themselves. Their job is to keep the closers' calendars full of the right people.
An outsourced SDR makes sense when you know who you sell to and what a good meeting looks like, but can't hire and keep the people to book them. We'll go through the work, SDR vs BDR, the numbers to watch, what an in-house SDR costs in Australia and the UK, and what you give up when you outsource.
Serkan Honeine, Co-founder, CoSauce
Published · Last updated
What an SDR does all day
The role sits between marketing and sales. Marketing or a list brings in names. The SDR turns some of those names into conversations, works out whether each one is worth a salesperson's time, and books the ones that are. A typical day looks like this:
- Research accounts and contacts that fit the profile your sales team has agreed.
- Work a sequence: calls, emails and LinkedIn messages spread over a few weeks for each contact.
- Answer inbound enquiries quickly and ask the qualifying questions.
- Book a meeting in an account executive's calendar, with notes on who the prospect is and why they took the call.
- Log every attempt and outcome in the CRM so the next person can pick it up.
Qualifying means asking whether the prospect has a real problem you solve, whether they can buy, and roughly when. Some teams use a framework such as BANT (budget, authority, need, timing). The framework matters less than agreeing it with your account executives before the SDR starts. If you want the narrower job of filling calendars, our guide to appointment setting goes into that.
SDR vs BDR
The usual split is direction. ZoomInfo puts it as "SDRs qualify inbound demand; BDRs create outbound pipeline" (ZoomInfo). An SDR follows up people who downloaded something, filled in a form or asked for a demo. A business development representative (BDR) goes after accounts that haven't raised their hand.
In practice the titles aren't standard. Plenty of companies call their outbound callers SDRs, and in a small team one person does both. Read the job description, not the title. For the wider question of where outbound fits against marketing, see our piece on B2B lead generation.
The metrics that matter
Activity is easy to count. It tells you whether someone is working, but not whether the work is any good.
| Measure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Meetings held | Meetings that took place, not meetings booked. The gap between the two is your no-show rate. |
| Meetings accepted by sales | How many the account executive agrees were worth the time. This stops an SDR booking anyone with a pulse. |
| Pipeline created | The value of opportunities that came from SDR meetings. It ties the role to revenue. |
| Activity | Calls and emails sent. Useful for coaching a new SDR, but a poor target on its own. |
The tools an SDR uses
Three tools do most of the work. A CRM such as Salesforce or HubSpot holds the contacts and every call note. A sequencing tool, such as Outreach or Salesloft, schedules the emails and reminds the SDR when to call. A dialler places the calls and records them, either built into the CRM or bought separately. Whoever does the work, it should all live in your CRM, so you keep the history if the SDR leaves.
Ramp time and turnover
The Bridge Group's 2025 report, a survey of 351 B2B companies published in February 2025, found the average SDR takes 3.0 months to ramp and stays 1.9 years (Bridge Group). It also found only 60% of SDRs hit quota, the lowest in the study's history.
Out of roughly 23 months in the seat, about three are spent learning. Then the SDR leaves and you hire and ramp again. That cycle is the hidden cost of the role, and it's the main reason companies look at outsourcing it.
What an in-house SDR costs in Australia and the UK
Payscale puts the average SDR base salary in Australia at AU$60,412, from 11 salary profiles, last updated 30 May 2026 (Payscale Australia). That's a small sample, so check it against current ads. In the UK the average is £30,002, from 54 profiles, last updated 17 August 2026 (Payscale UK). Commission usually comes on top.
Then the on-costs. In Australia the super guarantee is 12% for 2026-27, and since 1 July 2026 it's paid each payday under Payday Super (ATO). In the UK, employer National Insurance for 2026 to 2027 is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (GOV.UK, employer rates). The minimum employer pension contribution is 3% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 (GOV.UK, workplace pensions).
Here's a worked example on a round base salary in each country:
| Cost | Australia | UK |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary used here | AU$60,000 | £30,000 |
| Retirement on-cost | Super at 12%: AU$7,200 | Pension at 3% of £23,760: £712.80 |
| Employer tax on pay | Payroll tax depends on your state and total payroll | NICs at 15% of £25,000: £3,750 |
| Total before commission and tools | AU$67,200 | £34,462.80 |
The UK figure falls if you can claim the Employment Allowance, which is £10,500 for 2026 to 2027 and comes off your employer NICs bill. The Australian figure leaves out workers' compensation and payroll tax, which vary by state. Neither includes commission, recruitment fees, the CRM and sequencing licences, or the manager's time.
Now add ramp. At AU$67,200 a year, three months of learning costs about AU$16,800 before the SDR is fully productive. If they leave after 1.9 years, you pay that again for the next one.
Outsourced SDR models, and what you give up
Outsourced SDR work comes in two broad shapes. Some agencies charge per meeting booked. That looks safe, but it pays them to book anyone who'll say yes, so define a qualified meeting tightly or you'll pay for no-shows. The other shape is a dedicated team that works only on your campaigns, inside your CRM, against targets you set. You pay for the team, and you get people who learn your product over months.
Either way, three things need work:
- Product knowledge. An outsourced SDR starts knowing nothing about your product. Plan for them to learn it from your account executives and recorded calls, and expect the first weeks to be slower.
- Brand voice. Someone outside your business will sound slightly different from your own team. Give them your messaging, the phrases you never use, and real objections with your answers.
- Handover. The meeting is only as good as the notes that come with it. Agree what a qualified meeting is, what goes in the CRM, and who follows up if the prospect goes quiet.
Our telesales and outbound teams are the dedicated kind. They're based in South Africa, work in your CRM and on your targets, and go live in about four weeks, and a co-founder joins your weekly review. For Nectr, an Australian solar provider, we fixed lead follow-up and appointment booking (Nectr case study). On DStv's dedicated sales team, agent attrition is under 5% (DStv case study). South Africa is about eight hours behind Sydney, nine in Australian daylight saving, so calls into Australian mornings take planning. It sits much closer to UK hours, and our UK page covers that.
When an outsourced SDR makes sense
Outsource when your account executives close well but spend half their week prospecting. It also fits when you've lost two SDRs in a row to the ramp-and-leave cycle, or want to test a new market before hiring for it. Keep it in-house when you haven't yet worked out who buys or why. An outside team can run a process that works. It can't find product-market fit for you. Our method starts by mapping that process with you.
Questions
Is an SDR an entry-level job?
Usually it's an early-career role, and the salaries above reflect that. Budget for training whoever you hire, and for hiring again when they move on.
How many SDRs does one account executive need?
It depends on how many meetings your account executives can run and how many SDR meetings turn into opportunities. Work back from the number of qualified meetings each closer can handle in a week, then divide by what one SDR books.
Can an outsourced SDR use our email domain and CRM?
They should. If the outreach comes from your domain and every note sits in your CRM, prospects deal with your brand and you keep the history when the contract ends.
Next step
If your closers are doing their own prospecting, book a call with me. Bring who you sell to, what a good meeting looks like and how many your team can take in a week. We'll work out whether a dedicated outbound team would help.