The short answer: on monthly cost alone, an in-house SDR in India is usually cheaper than an outsourced programme: roughly $1,200–$1,800 a month fully loaded, against an indicative $3,000–$10,000 a month (Wisemonk, October 2026). Outsourcing only wins if it books more qualified meetings for the money or gets you calling sooner, so compare on cost per qualified meeting.
We sell outsourced outbound, so read this with that in mind. The numbers below are other people's published figures, and the sums are shown so you can redo them with your own.
What does each option cost?
| Cost | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| SDR base salary, India | ₹7.3 lakh average a year; ₹3.46–10 lakh range | Payscale, 71 profiles, May 2026 |
| SDR total pay, India | ₹3.83–20 lakh a year, with bonus and commission | Payscale, May 2026 |
| Senior SDR, fully loaded | $1,200–$1,800 a month, Bangalore | Wisemonk, October 2026 |
| Outsourced programme | $3,000–$10,000 a month; often from about $5,000 | Wisemonk, October 2026 |
Treat these as planning figures, not quotes. Payscale's sample is small, Wisemonk sells hiring and employer-of-record services, and most Indian agencies quote rather than publish rates.
What does a booked meeting cost?
Belkins analysed 175,000+ dials logged in 2025 and found a 9.9% per-dial connect rate, with 58% of connects becoming conversations and 4.6% of conversations becoming meetings. That is roughly 370 dials per meeting. It is one vendor's data and isn't specific to India, but it is a clear, public starting point.
Here is a worked example. Assume one SDR makes 60 dials a day for 22 days, which is 1,320 dials a month. At 370 dials per meeting, that is about 3.6 meetings. At $1,500 a month, each meeting costs about $420.
At that cost per meeting, a $3,000-a-month programme has to book about 7 qualified meetings a month to match it, and a $5,000 programme about 12. Those are the numbers to put to any agency. The dial count is our assumption, so replace it with your own.
Count only meetings your sales team accepts. As Understory points out, if only some booked meetings become accepted opportunities, the true cost per opportunity can be several times the cost per meeting.
What does the salary figure leave out?
The example above flatters in-house in three ways. It counts a fully productive rep, when new SDRs often take months to get there. It leaves out the manager's time spent on coaching, scripts and call reviews. It also ignores replacing people, in a role with high attrition, which restarts the ramp each time.
Outsourcing has its own hidden costs. An outside team won't pick up your product the way a hire sitting with your founders does, you have less control over how you sound on the phone, and what the team learns can leave when the contract ends.
When should you choose each one?
| Your situation | Better fit |
|---|---|
| Outbound is unproven for your offer | Outsourced pilot, then hire once it works |
| No one has time to manage an SDR | Outsourced |
| Selling into US or UK hours | Outsourced, or an in-house shift you can staff |
| Script already books meetings, and you have a manager | In-house |
| Complex product with long technical conversations | In-house, or in-house closers with outsourced list building |
What should you ask an outbound agency?
Can I hear the recordings? If you can't hear calls made in your name, you can't judge the work.
What counts as a qualified meeting? Get the definition in writing before the first dial.
Who writes the script, and is it reused for other clients? Reused scripts are a common reason outbound sounds generic.
What is the minimum commitment? A short pilot lets you test the channel before you commit further.
What did a comparable client pay per qualified meeting? This turns a monthly fee into a number you can compare.
Where does Closemint fit?
Closemint is the outsourced option: trained cold callers, scripts approved by you, every call recorded, and weekly reports, starting with a 30-day pilot. If you want the whole path to a meeting handled, see appointment setting. Pricing is scoped to the channel, so ask on the call. If the sums above favour hiring, we'll tell you that.
About the author
Dhairya Jain is the founder of Closemint, with five years in sales, including building and scaling an EdTech business on cold calling. LinkedIn