Leads By Me vs hiring an SDR

If you need more B2B sales conversations, you have two main options: hire a sales development rep (SDR) or bring in an outbound partner. Here is how the two compare on cost, speed, risk and fit, including when hiring is the better call.

Side by side

	Hire an in-house SDR	Leads By Me
Monthly cost	Around CA$7,500 in pay at typical on-target earnings, before payroll costs, tools and management time	CA$249, CA$900 or CA$2,500, depending on the plan
Time to first replies	Hiring time, plus a ramp period that benchmarks often put at around three months	First replies in 14 days or less
Lists, copy and deliverability	The SDR and your team, using tools you buy and set up	Depends on the plan. Fully Managed includes list building, copywriting, deliverability and reply handling
Management	You recruit, coach, review calls and set targets	We run the program. You get weekly strategy reports and a live dashboard
Channels	Phone, email and LinkedIn	LinkedIn and cold email. No cold calling
If it does not work	Severance or a difficult conversation, then hiring and ramping again	Month to month. Cancel any time
When someone leaves	Knowledge and relationships leave with them. SDR tenure is often reported at 14 to 18 months	The playbook, reports and portal stay with you. Foundation and Partnership run in your own HeyReach and Instantly accounts

SDR figures are planning estimates from public salary and benchmark sources, not quotes. Your market, city and comp plan will change them.

What an SDR really costs in year one

Salary is only part of the cost. Here is a simple worked example. Swap in your own numbers.

Cost line	Planning assumption	Year one
On-target earnings	Base pay around CA$55,000 to CA$70,000, plus commission, for roughly CA$90,000 at target	CA$90,000
Payroll costs and benefits	Assume about 15% on top of pay. Use your own figure	CA$13,500
Tools and data	Sequencer, LinkedIn tools, contact data, dialer	Varies
Recruiting and management time	Hiring process, onboarding, weekly coaching	Varies
Total before tools and time		about CA$103,500

Most of the first quarter is usually ramp: learning the offer, building lists and warming up sending accounts. So the first few months of that spend produce little pipeline.

For comparison, a year of Leads By Me is CA$2,988 on Outbound Foundation, CA$10,800 on Outbound Partnership or CA$30,000 on Fully Managed Outbound. Foundation and Partnership also need your own HeyReach and Instantly subscriptions. See what each plan includes.

When hiring an SDR is the better choice

An outbound partner is not the right answer for everyone. Hiring usually makes more sense when:

• Your sale depends on the phone. We run LinkedIn and cold email. If your buyers are best reached by cold calling, you need someone who dials.
• You have someone to manage the role. An SDR without a sales leader to coach them tends to stall.
• You want to build a sales team. SDRs often become account executives. If you are building a bench, hiring is part of the plan.
• Your deal size supports it. If one closed deal pays for a year of salary many times over, the cost matters less than the capacity.

Some teams do both in order: prove the market, the list and the message with an outbound partner first, then hire once they know what works.

When Leads By Me is the better fit

• You need qualified conversations now, not after a hiring cycle and a ramp period.
• No one on your team has time to manage outbound day to day.
• You want to test a market or offer without committing to a salary.
• You want targeting done properly. We score prospects for fit with PipelineIQ, our lead scoring system, before anyone is contacted.

Related: How much does outsourced lead generation cost in Canada?

Frequently asked questions

Is an outbound agency cheaper than hiring an SDR?

Usually, yes, for the first year. In our planning example an in-house SDR in Canada costs about CA$103,500 in year one before tools and management time. Leads By Me costs CA$2,988 to CA$30,000 a year depending on the plan. The right comparison is cost per qualified conversation, so track both.

How quickly does each option start producing conversations?

With Leads By Me, first replies usually arrive within 14 days of kickoff. A new SDR first has to be hired, then ramp, and benchmarks often put the ramp at around three months.

Can an outbound agency fully replace an SDR?

For LinkedIn and cold email outreach, yes. Leads By Me does not cold call, so if phone prospecting is central to how you sell, you still need someone on the phone.

What happens to the work if we stop working with Leads By Me?

All plans are month to month. Your playbook and reports stay with you, and Outbound Foundation and Outbound Partnership run in your own HeyReach and Instantly accounts, so you keep your data and sender reputation.

Do I need to hire anyone to work with Leads By Me?

No. On Fully Managed Outbound we handle list building, messaging, sending and reply handling, and hand you warm conversations. Your team takes the sales calls.