Why does this question keep coming up?
Every CRO we talk to has run this math before. Most run it wrong because they compare base salary to agency monthly rate. The real comparison is fully loaded cost including benefits, payroll taxes, tools, recruiter fee, and management time — against agency rate including all of those.
The numbers, side by side
An in-house SDR in the US costs $149,000–$189,000 fully loaded. A dedicated Axe Frontier SDR costs $120,000 all-in. The delta is not small.
Time to first booked meeting
In-house SDR: 4–7 months to first booked meeting once you start the hire. Agency: 3–5 weeks. If your board is measuring pipeline this quarter, in-house cannot catch up.
Retention and the real hidden cost
SDR tenure in the US is ~1.4 years. The second 1.4-year cycle costs another recruiter fee plus another ramp. Over three years, in-house is almost always 50%+ more expensive than an agency. The math gets worse if the first hire does not work.
When in-house wins anyway
Long sales cycles (12+ months), ACV above $500K, deep technical product, and AE feeder pipeline. If three of those four apply, build in-house.
Decision framework
- Is your ACV between $20K and $500K? → Agency usually wins
- Do you need pipeline this quarter? → Agency
- Have you churned an SDR hire already? → Agency, with a diagnostic first
- Is outbound an unproven channel for you? → Agency to test, in-house to scale