An outsourced SDR is a sales development rep supplied by an agency, offshore staffing firm or AI provider to book meetings for your closers. In Australia, an in-house SDR on SEEK’s $78,340 median salary costs about $92,520 a year before commission and tools, and takes around 3 months to ramp. Outsourcing swaps that for a monthly fee and a contract term.
Outsourced SDR in Australia at a glance
- In-house floor: $78,340 median salary (SEEK) + 12% super (ATO) + 5.45% NSW payroll tax, if your total payroll is above the threshold = about $92,520 a year.
- Productive year one: about 8.1 months after a 3.0-month ramp (The Bridge Group) and 4 weeks of annual leave (Fair Work).
- Outsourced price points: A$12–$17 an hour for an offshore SDR (Offshore 24/7); A$1,500–$4,500 a month plus a share of closed deals, or A$800–$2,800 per attended meeting (VentureAscend).
- Contract terms: month to month from launch (SalesHive) or after a 90-day initial term (VentureAscend).
- The decision tool: the 90-Day Exposure Test, which adds up what each route commits you to before a quarter of results exists.
What an outsourced SDR is
An outsourced SDR (sales development representative) is a prospecting rep you rent rather than employ. The rep, or the AI agent doing the same job, finds and contacts target accounts, qualifies them against criteria you set, and books a meeting for your account executive or founder. The job ends at the held meeting.
- What you buy: prospecting capacity, a list, a dialler and email stack, scripts, and someone else’s management of the rep.
- What you keep: the offer, the qualification rule and the closing.
- What it is not: a lead list vendor (stops before the conversation) or an outsourced closer (starts after the meeting).
“Outsourced SDR”, “SDR as a service” and “outsourced BDR” are used interchangeably in Australia. The BDR job title moves advertised pay, which is covered in our guide to where to hire a B2B BDR team in Australia. This page is about whether renting the seat beats owning it, and on what terms.
How it works
How to decide whether to outsource an SDR
Price the in-house floor
Add super and payroll tax to the salary, then divide by productive months after ramp and leave.
Run the exposure test
Add up what each route commits you to pay in the first 90 days, before results exist.
Write the qualification rule
Put budget, authority, need, timing and disqualifiers on one page every provider must book against.
Judge on held meetings
Track qualified held meetings and cost per held meeting from the month you agreed, not dials.
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Outsourced SDR vs in-house hire vs AI SDR
There are three ways to fill an SDR seat in Australia: employ the rep, rent the rep, or replace much of the rep’s work with AI. Each puts the cost and the risk in a different place.
| Route | What you pay for | Who manages the rep | Ramp before meetings | Typical exit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR | Salary, super, payroll tax, tools, recruiting | You | 3.0 months average (The Bridge Group) | Employment law notice and any redundancy obligations |
| Onshore outsourced SDR agency | Monthly retainer per SDR, sometimes plus a performance fee | The agency | Vendor-stated: meetings from week 4 (UpliftSales) | Initial term, then month to month |
| Offshore SDR via staffing firm | An hourly rate | You, day to day | Depends on your training | Set by the staffing agreement |
| Pay-per-meeting provider | Each attended meeting | The provider | Set in contract | Initial term, then month to month |
| AI SDR software | Monthly subscription | You run the tool | Your build and test time | Monthly or annual plan |
The quotable reading: an outsourced SDR moves the management load off your desk; an offshore SDR moves only the salary. If nobody in your business has run outbound before, the hourly rate is not the saving it looks like. The cost side of AI against human reps is set out in AI SDR vs human SDR cost, and the mixed version in our hybrid AI and human SDR model.
Want this done for you? We book qualified sales appointments on a Pay-Per-Result basis — you only pay for calls that actually land in your calendar.
The fully loaded cost of an Australian SDR
The fully loaded cost of an in-house SDR in Australia starts at about $92,520 a year, before commission, software, recruitment or a manager’s time. Every input below is sourced so you can replace it with your own.
- Base salary: $78,340. SEEK’s median advertised salary for sales development representatives, from salaries disclosed in SEEK job ads. The typical band is $75,000 to $90,000. SEEK notes some advertised salaries already include super, so this can overstate base pay slightly.
- Super: $9,400.80. The super guarantee rate is 12% from 1 July 2025 (ATO).
- Payroll tax: $4,781.87, only if your business already pays it. In NSW the rate is 5.45% for 2026–27, and the $1.2 million threshold applies to your total Australian wages, not to one salary (Revenue NSW). Super counts as taxable wages, so the tax is on salary plus super. Below the threshold, this line is zero. Other states set their own rates and thresholds.
- Total floor: $92,522.67.
Then the productive time. Ramp averages 3.0 months (The Bridge Group, 2025), and full-time employees get 4 weeks of annual leave (Fair Work Ombudsman), which is about 0.92 of a month. That leaves about 8.1 productive months in year one. At the Bridge Group median quota of 10 held meetings a month, that is 80.8 meetings, or about $1,145 per held meeting, as a floor.
The floor flatters the in-house route in three ways: it assumes the rep hits quota (only 60% do, per the same study), it excludes commission, dialler, data and CRM seats, and it ignores attrition (40% median a year). The Bridge Group sample is 78% North American, so treat ramp and quota as imported benchmarks.
What an outsourced SDR costs in Australia
Outsourced SDR pricing in Australia comes in three shapes: a monthly retainer per rep, an hourly rate for an offshore rep, or a fee per attended meeting. Few providers publish prices. These do, as read on their own pages in October 2026:
| Provider (base) | Shape | Published price or terms |
|---|---|---|
| VentureAscend (Brisbane) | Retainer plus performance | A$1,500–$4,500 a month plus 15 to 20% of first-year contract value on closed deals, ex GST; 90-day initial term, then month to month |
| VentureAscend (Brisbane) | Per attended meeting | A$800–$2,800 per attended meeting, ex GST; no retainer; offered above about A$50,000 average contract value |
| Offshore 24/7 (Melbourne office, Philippines staff) | Hourly | A$12–$17 an hour for SDRs running full outbound sequences; A$16–$22 for senior SDRs; about A$20,800–$45,000 a year across its tiers |
| UpliftSales (Sydney campaigns) | Per dedicated SDR | Priced on scope, no published figure; states no set-up fees and that the monthly price is the total |
| Telemarketing Professionals (Sydney head office) | Outsourced SDR and BDR | No pricing published on its outsourced SDR page |
Two readings. First, an hourly rate and a monthly retainer are not comparable until both are converted to cost per held, qualified meeting; how to calculate cost per booked call shows the conversion. Second, if you are searching for the best outsourced SDR agency in Brisbane, Sydney or anywhere in Australia, publishing prices and terms is itself a signal worth weighting. Our ranked list of AI appointment setter agencies in Australia discloses that we appear in it.
If we can’t make you money, we don’t deserve yours.
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How long an outsourced SDR takes to ramp
An in-house SDR takes 3.0 months on average to ramp, according to The Bridge Group’s 2025 study, down from a peak of 3.8 months in 2014. Outsourced SDR providers claim faster starts because the rep, the dialler and the data already exist. Their claims, attributed:
- UpliftSales says calling begins at controlled volume in week 4, after list building, scripting and product training, and describes in-house ramp as 5–6 months.
- SalesHive, a US provider, says 2 to 3 weeks to launch, against 3 to 6 months to hire.
These are vendor statements, not measurements. The useful distinction is between launch (first dials) and ramp (meetings at a steady rate). Launch can be weeks; ramp still depends on how fast the provider learns your offer and which messages land. Ask every provider for a week-by-week plan to the first held meeting and to steady volume, in writing. If you are replacing someone who left, the immediate steps are in what to do when your appointment setter just quit.
Month-to-month outsourced SDR contracts and the 90-Day Exposure Test
“Month to month” in outsourced SDR contracts can mean from launch or only after an initial term. VentureAscend publishes a ninety-day initial term followed by monthly billing; SalesHive advertises month-to-month plans and says annual plans run at a lower monthly rate. The initial term is where your money is at risk.
The 90-Day Exposure Test: before you sign, add up what each route commits you to pay in the first 90 days, the period in which you cannot yet know whether it works. The lower the exposure, the cheaper it is to be wrong.
| Route | Committed in the first 90 days | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR | About A$23,000, plus recruitment | A$92,520 × 3 ÷ 12, the 3.0-month average ramp |
| Onshore agency retainer | A$4,500–$13,500 ex GST | 3 × A$1,500–$4,500 (VentureAscend’s published range) |
| Offshore SDR, staffed | A$5,928–$8,398, plus your management time | A$12–$17 an hour × 38 hours × 13 weeks (hours assumed) |
| AI SDR software | US$2,700, plus your build time | 3 × US$900, AiSDR’s middle plan |
| Per attended meeting | A$0 fixed | You pay only for meetings that happen |
Read this table as exposure, not value. A per-meeting provider has zero fixed exposure but the highest unit price; an in-house hire has the highest exposure but becomes the cheapest per meeting if the rep stays and hits quota. Ask for the notice period, the data you keep at exit, and whether the initial term can be shortened in exchange for a higher monthly rate.
What to measure with an outsourced SDR
Measure an outsourced SDR on held, qualified meetings and what they turn into, not on dials or emails sent. Activity metrics are what a provider controls; outcomes are what you pay for.
| Metric | Formula | Reference point |
|---|---|---|
| Held meetings per month | Meetings that took place | Median in-house quota: 10 (The Bridge Group) |
| Fully qualified held meetings | Held meetings meeting your written criteria | Median quota where meetings must be fully qualified: 9.0 |
| Show rate | Held ÷ booked, for meetings now in the past | Your own last 90 days |
| List-to-appointment rate | Appointments ÷ contacts on the list | Your own baseline |
| Cost per held meeting | All fees in the month ÷ qualified held meetings | In-house floor about A$1,145 (calculation above) |
| Pipeline per SDR | Opportunity value created per rep per year | US$3.78M (The Bridge Group, 2025) |
List-to-appointment rate is the one most buyers skip, and it decides how much data you need. As one reference point, our own AI outbound for SaaS-positioning work booked 1,425 appointments in 9 months at 3.9%; that is our internal figure, not a benchmark. At an assumed 3.9% list-to-appointment rate, ten appointments a month needs about 257 list contacts a month (10 ÷ 0.039). Clean data matters for that reason; see CRM data hygiene.
When an outsourced SDR beats hiring
An outsourced SDR beats hiring when you need fewer meetings than one full seat produces, need answers within a quarter, or have nobody to manage a rep. Hiring wins when demand is steady, the rep will stay, and you can manage them.
| Your situation | Better route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You need fewer than 10 held meetings a month | Outsource, or per-meeting | A full seat is built around the 10-meeting median; you would pay for idle capacity |
| Testing a new segment or market for one quarter | Outsource on the shortest term | A$4,500–$13,500 of exposure against about A$23,000 for a hire |
| No sales manager and no outbound playbook | Managed agency or done-for-you | An offshore rep will need management you cannot give |
| Average contract value above about A$50,000 | Per-attended-meeting providers become available | The deal value can carry a per-meeting fee |
| Steady need for 10+ meetings a month for 2+ years, with a manager | Hire | The ramp cost is spread over more months, though average tenure is 1.9 years |
For B2B offers specifically, our B2B appointment setting guide walks through the process once you have chosen a route.
Australian rules an outsourced SDR must follow
An outsourced SDR calling and emailing Australians on your behalf must follow the same rules you would. Two to check before the first dial, verified at ACMA:
- Do Not Call Register: after a number has been on the register for 30 days, telemarketers can only call it with consent or under an exemption. Ask the provider how and how often it washes lists.
- Spam Act 2003: marketing emails and SMS need consent, must identify the sender, include contact details and make it easy to unsubscribe. Consent is still required when someone else sends the message for you.
The practical checklist is in our do-not-call compliance guide. This is general information, not legal advice; if your campaign also calls the US or UK, those countries’ rules apply to those calls.
Where outsourced SDR engagements go wrong
Outsourced SDR engagements usually fail on the inputs you supply, not on the reps the provider supplies.
- No written qualification rule. The provider books meetings your closers then disqualify, and both sides argue about what counted.
- Judging week six. Launch is not ramp. Agree in advance the month at which you will judge results.
- Measuring activity. Dials and emails sent are inputs. Pay attention to held, qualified meetings and the pipeline they create.
- A slow hand-off. Meetings land without context, and the account executive opens cold.
- Offshore without management. The hourly rate buys dials, not meetings, if nobody sets the list, the script and the rule.
- Losing the asset at exit. Call recordings, notes and list work stay with the provider unless the contract says otherwise.
A worked example: cost per held meeting in year one
Here is year one for a business that wants 10 held meetings a month, using the published figures above. Where an input is not published, it is a labelled assumption you should replace.
| Route | Year-one cost | Held meetings (assumption) | Cost per held meeting |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR at quota | A$92,520 floor | 80.8 (10 a month for 8.08 productive months) | About A$1,145 |
| Offshore SDR, low output | A$33,592 (A$17 × 38 hours × 52 weeks) | 45 (5 a month for 9 months) | About A$747 |
| Offshore SDR, mid output | A$33,592 | 90 (10 a month for 9 months) | About A$373 |
| Offshore SDR, high output | A$33,592 | 135 (15 a month for 9 months) | About A$249 |
| Per attended meeting | Price × meetings | Whatever is held | A$800–$2,800, by definition |
The offshore rows look cheap, and the cost of the manager who makes them work is not in them. If that manager spends a day a week on the rep, add a fifth of their salary. The per-meeting row looks expensive, and it is the only one with no exposure to a bad quarter. The cheapest route on paper is the one that relies most on you.
What I’d fix first before outsourcing an SDR
If I were about to outsource an SDR seat in Australia, I would do these five things before speaking to a provider.
- Write the qualified-meeting rule. Budget, authority, need, timing and the disqualifiers, on one page.
- Work out my own in-house floor. Salary, super, payroll tax if it applies, divided by productive months. If it comes out near A$1,145 per held meeting, every quote now has something to beat.
- Run the 90-Day Exposure Test on every proposal, then negotiate the initial term down first, and the price second.
- Agree what I keep at exit: recordings, notes, the list work.
- Name the month I will judge it, and the metric: qualified held meetings, not dials.
How LeadsNow applies outsourced SDR work
LeadsNow does the SDR job as a done-for-you service, with AI doing much of what a rep would. We book calls using AI calling, SMS and DM follow-up. We have booked 50,769+ AI-booked sales appointments since 2017 and generated 1M+ leads.
- Outbound reference point: in our own AI outbound for SaaS-positioning work, our internal figure is 1,425 appointments in 9 months at 3.9%.
- Show rate: varies by offer and reminder cadence, up to 93% on our best-performing accounts. That is our best, not our typical.
- Against the 90-Day Exposure Test: no retainer, so no fixed monthly commitment, and you can cancel any time with 14 days notice.
The honest limit: if you want a named Australian rep working only your account and sitting in your Slack, an onshore SDR agency is the closer fit. The method is on our AI appointment setting page.
LeadsNow: a pay-per-result way to put this into practice
If the exposure test points you to paying on results, this is how we price. We charge 5–25% of the revenue we generate for you (revenue share), or an equivalent pay-per-appointment fee, and an engagement can be a revenue share, a fee per appointment, or a mix of both. Where you land depends on your lead volume, what you sell and its price, the type of product and business, and which part, or all, of the sales funnel we run.
- No-shows aren’t charged.
- Bad lists and the cost of contacting the thousands of people who never book are our cost, not yours.
- No retainer. Cancel any time with 14 days notice.
Clients have included Colliers, Foundr and Lambda Academy, and we publish 24 filmed client case studies. The model is on our pricing page, and you can book a call to run the numbers on your own seat.
Sources
- SEEK, sales development representative salary: $78,340 median; $75,000–$90,000 typical band.
- ATO, super guarantee rate rises to 12% on 1 July 2025.
- Revenue NSW, payroll tax thresholds and rates: 5.45% above $1.2 million of total Australian wages; super is taxable wages.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, annual leave: 4 weeks for full-time employees.
- The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Models & Metrics report: ramp, quota, attainment, attrition, tenure, pipeline per SDR.
- VentureAscend packages: retainer, per-attended-meeting pricing, 90-day initial term.
- Offshore 24/7, sales and lead generation staffing: hourly rates.
- UpliftSales: week-4 launch, scope pricing.
- Telemarketing Professionals, outsource SDR services.
- SalesHive pricing: month-to-month plans, 2 to 3 weeks to launch.
- AiSDR pricing: monthly plans.
- ACMA, Do Not Call Register.
- ACMA, avoid sending spam.
Outsourced SDR FAQ
How much does an outsourced SDR cost in Australia?
Published Australian examples include A$12 to A$17 an hour for an offshore SDR at Offshore 24/7, and A$1,500 to A$4,500 a month plus a share of closed deals, or A$800 to A$2,800 per attended meeting, at VentureAscend. Compare each against an in-house floor of about A$92,520 a year.
Can I get an outsourced SDR on a month-to-month contract in Australia?
Yes, sometimes from launch and sometimes only after an initial term: SalesHive runs month to month, while VentureAscend publishes a 90-day initial term, then month to month. Run the 90-Day Exposure Test on each proposal: multiply the monthly fee by three to see what you are committed to before you can judge results, and negotiate the initial term down first.
Is an outsourced SDR cheaper than hiring one?
Often in year one, not always over several years. An Australian in-house SDR costs about A$92,520 before commission and tools, and after a 3.0-month ramp and 4 weeks of leave produces roughly 81 held meetings at quota, about A$1,145 each. An outsourced SDR is cheaper when it beats that per held, qualified meeting.
How long does an outsourced SDR take to book meetings?
Providers claim weeks rather than months: one Australian agency says calling starts in week 4. That is launch, not ramp. For comparison, The Bridge Group’s 2025 report puts average in-house SDR ramp at 3.0 months. Ask for a written week-by-week plan to steady meeting volume.
Does an outsourced SDR have to follow the Do Not Call Register?
Yes. Once a number has been on the Do Not Call Register for 30 days, telemarketers can only call it with consent or under an exemption, according to ACMA. Ask the provider how often it washes its lists. This is general information, not legal advice.
What is the difference between an outsourced SDR and an AI SDR?
An outsourced SDR is a person employed by someone else who prospects for you. An AI SDR is software that handles first contact, follow-up and booking, which you either run yourself on a monthly subscription or buy as a done-for-you service. Many providers now mix the two.
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