The two pricing models
Almost every provider uses one of two structures, and they fail in opposite directions.
| Model | How it works | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A fixed fee for a dedicated SDR and an agreed activity level | You carry the risk if the market is wrong, so the strategy work up front matters enormously |
| Pay per meeting | A fee for each booked appointment | It pays the provider to lower the qualification bar. You get volume and a calendar your AEs stop trusting |
Pay-per-meeting sounds like the safer deal and usually is not. The moment a meeting is the unit of payment, every ambiguous prospect becomes a meeting. We work on a retainer for that reason, and put the qualification bar in writing instead.
What moves your number
Five variables explain most of the spread between a £3,000 engagement and a £12,000 one.
- Buyer seniority. Reaching a CISO or a VP inside a 10,000-employee company takes far more attempts per conversation than reaching an owner-manager. Seniority is the single biggest driver.
- Market size. A tightly bounded market of 400 accounts is worked differently from one of 40,000. Small markets need more research per account and more patience.
- Call and send volume. Packages run at 1,500, 3,000 or 5,000 targeted calls a month. Volume is matched to what the market can absorb, not sold as a headline.
- Channel mix. Calling is more expensive per touch than email and converts at a far higher rate. The right blend depends on whether your buyers answer phones.
- Geography and language. Coverage across time zones, or selling into more than one region, adds real cost.
What a programme costs here
Our packages are built around meeting capacity rather than a rate card, because the honest answer to "what will this cost" depends on the market you want us to work.
We price against your specific market after the strategy session, so the number reflects real reachable volume rather than a guess. That session is complimentary and you keep the output whether or not you engage us.
The comparison most people get wrong
Companies weighing outsourcing against hiring usually compare a monthly retainer against an SDR's base salary. Those are not the same kind of number, and the comparison flatters the in-house option badly.
A fully loaded SDR includes employer national insurance, pension, tooling, data, phone system, recruitment cost amortised over expected tenure, ramp time before productivity, and the management time to coach them. Base salary is typically around half of the real annual cost.
The full build-up is on the outsourced SDR vs in-house page, including the two costs almost nobody models: ramp and attrition.
What should be included at any price
Whoever you choose, these should not be extras:
- A written qualification standard you agreed before launch
- Call recordings you can listen to, not summaries
- A named, dedicated rep rather than a shared pool
- Replacement cover at the provider's cost
- Reporting by role, region and message, not just totals
If a quote is materially cheaper than the market range, one of those is usually missing. Ask which.
Where the market figures come from: the £3,000-£12,000 monthly and £150-£400 per-meeting ranges are compiled from the rates UK outsourced SDR agencies publish openly on their own sites, surveyed September 2026. They are other firms' published prices, not ours, and not an industry study.