One of the most consequential decisions a B2B company makes is how to generate pipeline. Specifically: should you build an in-house SDR team or outsource appointment setting to a specialized agency? Both approaches can work. But the right choice depends on your budget, timeline, sales maturity, and growth goals.
Having built and managed both in-house teams and agency partnerships, I am going to lay out the honest trade-offs so you can make the right decision for your business in 2026.
The True Cost of an In-House SDR Team
When most founders think about hiring SDRs, they look at base salary and maybe a commission structure. But the real cost is significantly higher. Here is a realistic breakdown for hiring a single SDR in the United States in 2026:
- Base salary: $50,000 - $65,000 per year
- Commission/bonus: $15,000 - $25,000 per year
- Benefits and taxes: $12,000 - $18,000 per year
- Sales tools (CRM, email, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, intent data, dialer): $8,000 - $15,000 per year
- Training and onboarding: $3,000 - $5,000 (one-time)
- Management overhead: 15-20% of a sales manager's time
All in, you are looking at $90,000 to $130,000 per year per SDR. And that is before accounting for the biggest hidden cost: ramp time. A new SDR typically takes 3 to 6 months to become fully productive. During that period, you are paying full cost but getting a fraction of the output.
Then there is turnover. The average tenure of an SDR is 14 months. When they leave, you start the hiring, training, and ramp cycle all over again.
What Outsourced Appointment Setting Actually Costs
Agency pricing varies widely, but a quality B2B appointment setting agency in 2026 typically charges between $3,000 and $10,000 per month depending on the scope, channel mix, and meeting volume. Some agencies also offer performance-based models where you pay per qualified meeting.
For that investment, you typically get a dedicated team (or shared team depending on the model) that handles ICP research, list building, copy writing, multi-channel outreach, response management, and meeting booking. You also get the tools, infrastructure, and deliverability management included in the price.
Compare the math: a single in-house SDR costs $8,000 to $11,000 per month fully loaded, and takes 3 to 6 months to ramp. An agency costs $3,000 to $10,000 per month and can be running campaigns within 2 weeks.
Speed to Results
This is where outsourcing has a significant advantage. An experienced agency already has the processes, tools, templates, and data to launch quickly. At Dewx.io, for example, we typically have campaigns live within 10 to 14 business days of onboarding. First qualified meetings usually arrive within week 3.
An in-house SDR, by contrast, needs to be recruited (4 to 8 weeks), onboarded (2 to 4 weeks), and ramped (8 to 12 weeks). That is 14 to 24 weeks before you see meaningful output -- assuming you make a great hire on the first try.
Quality and Consistency
Here is where the comparison gets nuanced. A great in-house SDR who deeply understands your product, your customers, and your value proposition can outperform any outsourced team on a per-meeting basis. There is no substitute for genuine product expertise and company culture alignment.
However, consistency is a different story. In-house teams are subject to individual performance variation, sick days, vacations, turnover, and motivation cycles. An agency provides consistent output because they have systems, redundancy, and multiple people contributing to your campaign.
The quality concern most companies raise about outsourcing is meeting qualification. Will the meetings actually be good? This is a legitimate concern, and it is why choosing the right agency matters enormously. The best agencies have rigorous qualification frameworks and will replace meetings that do not meet criteria. The worst agencies book meetings with anyone who answers the phone.
When to Build In-House
Building an in-house SDR team makes sense when:
- You have a complex, technical product that requires deep domain expertise to explain in an initial conversation
- Your sales cycle is very long (6+ months) and requires relationship nurturing at the top of funnel
- You have the budget and patience to invest in 3 to 6 months of ramp time before seeing results
- You want full control over messaging, timing, and process
- You have sales leadership in place who can recruit, train, and manage SDRs effectively
When to Outsource
Outsourcing appointment setting makes sense when:
- You need results fast -- you cannot wait 6 months for an SDR to ramp
- You want to test outbound before committing to full-time hires
- You are scaling and need to increase meeting volume quickly without the overhead of recruiting
- You do not have sales management bandwidth to recruit, train, and manage SDRs
- Your product is relatively straightforward to position and your ICP is well-defined
- You want predictable costs rather than the variable costs of in-house teams
The Hybrid Approach
Increasingly, we see the smartest B2B companies taking a hybrid approach. They use an outsourced agency to handle the top of funnel -- prospecting, cold email outreach, and initial qualification -- while their in-house team focuses on the meetings and the rest of the sales process.
This model gives you the speed and consistency of an agency with the product expertise of an internal team. Your in-house salespeople spend their time selling, not prospecting. The agency handles the volume-intensive work they are built for.
The goal is not to choose between in-house and outsourced forever. The goal is to choose the right approach for where your company is right now -- and evolve as you grow.
Making the Decision
Ask yourself three questions. First, how quickly do you need pipeline? If the answer is "yesterday," outsource. Second, do you have sales leadership who can manage SDRs? If not, get in touch with a specialist until you do. Third, what is your monthly budget for pipeline generation? If it is under $10,000, outsourcing gives you more leverage than a single underfunded SDR.
There is no universally right answer. But there is a right answer for your company, at this stage, with your current resources. Choose deliberately, measure ruthlessly, and do not be afraid to change course when the data tells you to.