Every sales outsourcing proposal you read is one of four pricing models wearing a different name.
The model matters more than the number. It decides what the provider optimises for, and that is what you will get.
Retainer
A fixed monthly fee for a defined scope. The most common model for work that goes beyond booking meetings.
It buys you attention and continuity. The team plans a quarter instead of chasing this month's number, and it is the only model that works when the sales cycle is longer than the contract.
Where it goes wrong: a retainer with no committed output is a subscription to effort. If the contract does not say what has to be produced, you are paying for people to be busy.
Ask for the commitment in writing. A minimum number of qualified meetings per month, and a written definition of qualified that you agree with before signing.
Per meeting
You pay for each meeting that happens. Clean, easy to compare, and the model most likely to disappoint.
It buys you volume. It also creates a direct incentive to book meetings that technically qualify and commercially do not.
Where it goes wrong: the definition of a meeting. If it counts when the prospect shows up, you will get people who show up. If it counts when the prospect is a real buyer with a real budget, the price is higher and the model works.
If you use this model, insist on a no show clause and a rejection window, and expect to spend real time on the qualification criteria.
Commission only
The provider takes a percentage of closed revenue and nothing up front. It sounds like perfect alignment.
In practice it is rare and it is rare for a reason. Nobody funds six months of work on the promise of a percentage unless the deal size is very large, the cycle is very short, or the product sells itself.
Where it goes wrong: whoever carries the risk sets the terms. A commission only partner will pick the easy accounts, drop the slow ones, and leave when the pipeline gets hard. You are also handing over the attribution argument for every deal that closes in the next year.
If a provider offers commission only on a complex enterprise product, ask how they are funding the first six months. The answer tells you what you need to know.
Hybrid
A smaller retainer plus a success fee. Most serious providers land here once both sides have been burned by the pure models.
It buys you shared risk. The base covers the cost of doing the work properly and the variable keeps the outcome in view.
Where it goes wrong: complexity. Two moving parts means two arguments. Keep the success trigger to one event that both sides can see in the CRM without discussion.
The numbers to hold a proposal against
Whatever the model, the comparison that matters is the cost of doing it yourself.
In The Bridge Group's 2025 study of 351 B2B companies, the median on target earnings for one sales development rep was 80,000 dollars. That is salary and commission for one person, before the manager, the tools, the data and the software.
The same study puts the median ramp at 3.0 months before a new rep is productive, median tenure at 1.9 years, and the share of reps hitting quota at 60 percent.
Read those three together. You pay for three months of learning, you get roughly twenty two productive months, and there is a four in ten chance the person misses quota anyway. That is the risk an outsourcing contract is actually pricing.
Source: The Bridge Group, Sales Development Models, Metrics and Compensation, 2025 Research Report, 351 B2B companies. US benchmark.
How to choose
If you know what you need and the cycle is long, take the retainer with a written commitment.
If you want to test a market cheaply and you can afford to throw some meetings away, per meeting is fine for a quarter. Do not build a year on it.
If someone offers commission only, find out who is funding the runway before you celebrate.
Our own model and the numbers behind it are public on the pricing page, and the comparison with building the function in house is set out in outsourced sales versus an in-house SDR.