Option 1: hire an SDR
A junior SDR in the US typically runs $55k–$75k base, plus payroll tax, benefits, a dialer/sequencer seat, a data tool seat, and management time. All-in, that's commonly $90k–$120k/year loaded cost — before the SDR has booked a single qualified meeting. Ramp is real: most SDRs need 60–90 days before output stabilizes, and quota attainment in year one is inconsistent. You're also buying hiring risk — a bad SDR hire costs you the ramp time and the search cost of doing it again.
Option 2: retain a flat-fee cold email agency
Flat retainers (commonly $1,500–$5,000/month) buy you "we'll send emails on your behalf." The failure mode here is accountability: if a retainer agency sends 10,000 emails and books zero meetings, you've still paid the full retainer. Watch for agencies that report emails sent or open rate as the headline metric — open tracking is increasingly unreliable post-iOS Mail Privacy Protection and Gmail's image proxy, and "emails sent" is a cost driver, not a result.
Option 3: pay for infrastructure plus the result
The model we use — a smaller monthly infrastructure fee ($600/mo) plus a fixed price per qualified call that actually shows ($200/call) — splits the cost into what's fixed (the system: domains, inboxes, list-building, copy, deliverability monitoring) and what's variable (results). No-shows and off-ICP meetings don't bill. This isn't the cheapest option on a per-email basis, and it isn't meant to be — it's priced so the incentive is a qualified conversation, not a sent volume.
| Model | What you're buying | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR Full-time hire, 60–90 day ramp | Headcount + management time | $90k–$120k/yr loaded |
| Flat-fee agency Retainer regardless of outcome | Sending activity | $1.5k–$5k/mo |
| Infrastructure + per-call Fixed system cost, variable result cost | A qualified call that shows | $600/mo + $200/call |
Red flags, regardless of pricing model
- No definition of "qualified." If a vendor can't tell you upfront what makes a lead or meeting count, you'll argue about it later — or just get billed for noise.
- Unverified or bought lists. Ask what verification tool they use and what their bounce-rate threshold is before a list ships. "We scrape and send" is a deliverability time bomb.
- No secondary sending domains. Sending cold outbound from your primary company domain risks your main domain's reputation and deliverability for everything else you send — invoices, product emails, the works.
- Reply-rate promises with no ICP discussion. A high reply rate on the wrong audience is worse than a modest reply rate on the right one — it just means more time spent disqualifying.
See it in numbers