The same question comes up in almost every first call with an IT company under 50 people. Here is the honest comparison, including where outsourcing is the wrong answer.
The short answer
An outsourced sales team produces first meetings in weeks and costs a fixed monthly fee that covers people, tooling and data. An in-house SDR takes three to six months to reach full output and costs salary plus tools plus the management time nobody budgets for. Most IT companies under 30 people start outsourced and hire once the motion is proven.
Side by side
| Outsourced team | In-house SDR | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first meetings | Two to four weeks | Three to six months including hiring |
| Cost structure | Fixed monthly fee, from €1,750 | Salary, tools, data, management time |
| What is included | Team, playbook, data, sequencing tools, CRM setup | One person, you buy the rest |
| Ramp risk | Carried by the provider | Carried by you if the hire does not work out |
| Flexibility | Scale up or down at the end of the term | Notice periods and severance |
| Markets and languages | Several markets from day one | One person, usually one language |
| Where knowledge sits | Documented playbook you keep | In one person's head until written down |
| Best for | Proving a motion, entering new markets | A proven motion you want to own |
Choosing
FAQ
Yes, and most teams end up there. The outsourced team proves the motion and covers new markets while your first hire owns the accounts that need deep product knowledge. The playbook is shared, so nobody starts from zero.
It stays with you. Contacts, sequences, notes and the playbook live in your CRM and your accounts from the first day, so ending the engagement does not erase the work.
It depends on the brief. A team that never talks to your product people will sound generic. We join your weekly sales routine and write from real objections, which is why the messaging holds up.
Count the SDR salary, employer costs, data and sequencing tools, the CRM seat and the hours a manager spends coaching. Then compare that monthly total to a plan with a committed number of qualified meetings.
When the same motion has produced predictable meetings for two or three quarters, your ICP is stable and you have someone who can manage a seller day to day. At that point owning it is cheaper.
Not sure which fits?
Current pipeline, target market, team size and the quarter you need results in. If hiring is the better answer for your situation, we will say so.