An in-depth review
For CROs and sales leaders, one question comes up time and again when building pipeline:
Should you hire and manage an in-house SDR team, or outsource to a specialist lead generation agency?
Both approaches can deliver results, but the difference in cost, effort and scalability is substantial.
But before we continue, we want to address the elephant in the room…
It’s no secret that Gungho is a specialist lead generation agency — and naturally, outsourcing is what we do. But this analysis isn’t just opinion-led. It’s based on real data from our clients’ in-house teams, combined with market benchmarks and our own financial modelling on what it costs to deliver an effective SDR operation. We’ve worked to keep this comparison as factual and transparent as possible, while acknowledging every client is unique — and the findings speak for themselves. As we’ve worked with over 200 GRC/RegTech vendors, the research is based on companies within this space.
This article lays out the full picture, including all the hidden costs (so often overlooked) that come with building and maintaining an in-house SDR team, or, even more surprising, using your sales team to generate their own leads.
1. The True Cost of In-House SDRs
Hiring an in-house team looks simple on paper — until you factor in areas such as recruitment, training, benefits, tools and management time.
Our latest research shows that employing even a single in-house SDR can cost around £275,000 per year once all real-world costs are included.
By comparison, working with Gungho delivers the same output for half the cost.
Think those numbers sound insane? Let’s break it down…
True Costs (Direct expenditure)
| Cost area | Annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries (1 x £40k OTE) | £48,000 | Salary per year + ER costs |
| Recruitment & Onboarding | £9,429 | £5k training + 15% recruitment fees |
| Sales tool licence | £750 | Licence per head |
| CRM licence | £1,500 | Licence per head |
| Data Licences | £1,500 | Company-level subscription |
| Overheads & Misc | £5,000 | Office space, equipment, management time |
| Manager Time Allocation | £6,000 | 8 hours per week of management support |
| Subtotal (True Cost): £72,179 | ||
Opportunity Costs (Lost revenue potential)
| Cost area | Annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Opportunity Cost – Ramp-Up | £37,500 | Lost booked revenue contribution |
| Opportunity Cost – Holiday/Sick | £67,500 | Lost booked revenue contribution |
| Opportunity Cost – Notice/Rehire | £75,000 | Lost booked revenue contribution |
| Opportunity Cost – Unmanaged Sales Function | £22,500 | Additional lost revenue from reduced oversight |
| Subtotal (Opportunity Cost): £202,500 | ||
Total cost per year £274,679
| Model | Cost per lead | Relative efficiency |
|---|---|---|
| In-house SDRs | £1,346 | |
| Gungho Outsourced | £750 | 1.8x more cost-efficient |
Every pound invested in outsourcing goes towards generating opportunities — not overheads.
Example assumptions behind this model:
While the “true cost” of an in-house SDR function looks manageable, the real financial impact comes from opportunity cost — the lost revenue potential caused by time away from selling, ramp-up delays, and turnover.
That’s before you factor in attrition. With an average SDR tenure of just nine to eleven months, you’ll be recruiting again within the year — losing not just hiring costs, but months of pipeline momentum. Add in extra management time for coaching, reviews, and one-to-ones, and the total investment grows further.
To provide a realistic comparison, our analysis is based on a typical internal SDR setup:
| Metric | Example Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lead per week wanted | 4 | Typical appointment target for an experienced SDR |
| Calling days per week | 5 | Full-time outbound focus |
| Calculated SDR heads | 1 | Single dedicated SDR |
| Average SDR tenure | 9 months | Common industry average before turnover |
| OTE (£) | £40,000 | Industry benchmark (Average UK salary. Significantly higher in the US) |
| Average Deal Size (£ARR) | £36k + ARR | Example deal size |
| Average Sales Cycle | 6-9 months | Typical GRC SaaS tech sales cycle |
*Please note: the figures in this section are drawn from Gungho’s own client research and financial modelling based on our experience working with over 200 RegTech/GRC clients, but are examples for illustrative purposes only. Actual costs are unique to each client and will vary depending on campaign scope, deal size, region, industry, target audience, etc.
2. The Outsourced Advantage
Outsourcing removes the recruitment, onboarding and retention headache.
You get a trained team ready to go — equipped with the tools, processes and data needed to start generating appointments immediately.
With Gungho, you don’t just get callers; you get a specialist lead generation engine powered by:
- A dataset of more than 800,000+ risk and compliance decision-makers
- Proven GRC outreach strategies aligned to your ICP
- 18+ years of industry experience, doing lead gen for hundreds of GRC vendors
Typically, outsourcing achieves the same — or greater — output for 40–70% less cost than building in-house capability, with zero ramp-up delay.
3. Recruitment and Training: The Hidden Time Cost
Recruiting the right SDRs takes time and energy — from writing job specs to interviewing, onboarding and training. Even once hired, internal teams need continuous training on product updates, compliance requirements and objection handling.
Every new hire means several unproductive months while they ramp up. Each departure resets that clock.
When you outsource to specialists like Gungho, training, skill development and retention are managed for you — so your pipeline growth never pauses.
4. Motivation, Retention and Productivity
Keeping an SDR team motivated is a full-time job. You’ll need incentives, competitions, and reward programmes to maintain performance. Even with that, average turnover rates remain high, which can disrupt campaign momentum.
At Gungho, we handle this internally — managing incentive schemes, career progression, and ongoing coaching.
Our average team tenure is 60 months — over five times the industry average — meaning our clients benefit from consistent, high-quality performance without the management burden.
5. Benefits, Overheads and Tooling
An in-house team means a long list of ongoing costs beyond salaries:
- Pensions, national insurance, holiday pay and sick leave
- CRM and dialler software licences
- Sales enablement platforms and data subscriptions
- Laptops, desks and office costs
- Compliance and security monitoring tools
Each of these adds complexity and administrative load.
By contrast, outsourcing consolidates everything into a single fixed agency fee — simpler to budget, easier to forecast, and fully performance-linked.
6. Time and Opportunity Cost
Every month spent recruiting, onboarding, or managing SDRs is a month without consistent lead generation.
While internal teams ramp up, outsourced partners are already delivering pipeline.
In-house SDRs often take three to six months to reach full productivity. Our team can deliver qualified appointments within weeks — reducing your time-to-pipeline by more than 50%.
7. “But We Already Have an SDR Team…”
Many CROs hesitate to outsource because they already have internal SDRs, but this doesn’t have to be an “either/or” decision – you can combine both models.
Outsourcing doesn’t replace your internal resource — it strengthens it.
Many of our clients already have in-house SDRs or salespeople, and we work side by side with them to extend reach, improve consistency and fill pipeline gaps.
Gungho’s model is designed to plug directly into existing sales structures — providing additional bandwidth, market reach and data-driven insight that help internal teams perform at their best.
8. The Hidden Cost of Sales Doing Their Own Lead Gen
Cost Model Assumptions
Some organisations ask Account Executives (AEs) to generate their own leads, believing it saves money. In reality, it’s one of the most expensive and least scalable ways to fill pipeline.
Gungho’s research shows that having just one AE generating their own leads costs just under £475K per year. An outsourced campaign delivering the same volume of qualified appointments will cost typically 1/3 less than that!
| Metric | Example Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lead per week wanted | 4 | Average AE target for self-generated pipeline |
| Calling days per week | 5 | This assumes AEs spend their whole week prospecting. The reality is probably less than half that. |
| Calculated sales heads | 1 | Single AE |
| AE turnover (months) | 18 | Typical tenure before replacement |
| OTE (£) | £80,000 | Industry benchmark (Average UK salary. Significantly higher in the US) |
| Average Deal Size (£ARR) | £36k + ARR | Example deal size |
| Average Sales Cycle | 6-9 months | Typical GRC SaaS tech sales cycle |
True Costs per AE (Direct Expenditure)
| Cost area | Annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Base + OTE + ER Costs | £96,000 | Salary per year + ER costs |
| Onboarding, Training & Recruitment | £10,200 | £5k training + 15% recruitment fees |
| Sales tool licence | £750 | Licence per head |
| CRM licence | £1,500 | Licence per head |
| Data Licences | £1,500 | Company-level subscription |
| Overheads & Misc | £5,000 | Office space, equipment, management time |
| Manager Time Allocation | £24,000 | 8 hours per week of management support |
| Subtotal (True Cost): £138,950 | ||
Opportunity Costs (Lost Revenue Potential)
| Cost area | Annual cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Opportunity Cost – Ramp-Up | £37,500 | Lost booked revenue contribution |
| Opportunity Cost – Holiday/Sick | £67,500 | Lost booked revenue contribution |
| Opportunity Cost – Notice/Rehire | £50,000 | Lost booked revenue contribution |
| Opportunity Cost – Selling Time Lost to Lead Gen (40%) | £180,000 | AEs prospecting instead of closing |
| Subtotal (Opportunity Cost): £335,000 | ||
Total cost per year: £473,950
| Model | Cost per lead | Relative efficiency |
|---|---|---|
| AEs Doing Own Lead Gen | £2,323 | |
| Gungho Outsourced Model | £750 | 3.1x more cost-efficient |
While salaries and tools are fixed costs, the biggest loss comes from the revenue that isn’t closed — every hour an AE spends prospecting instead of selling directly reduces pipeline performance.
Making sense of the numbers
At first glance, a total cost of £473,950 for an AE generating their own leads might seem incredibly high — but it makes sense once you see where their time goes.
If an AE earning £80,000 OTE spends half their week prospecting — researching data, crafting outreach and making calls instead of progressing deals. Combine that with the everyday realities of holidays, sick leave, onboarding, admin, notice periods etc, and the true productivity loss compounds quickly.
The result? Each AE costs the business nearly half a million pounds a year once lost selling time is included — and every lead they generate costs more than three times as much as one delivered through outsourcing.
By contrast, Gungho’s model keeps your salespeople focused on what they do best — closing deals — while we deliver a steady flow of qualified, compliant, and relevant appointments.
It’s the simplest path to lower cost per lead, higher ROI and faster revenue growth.
9. Common Arguments for Keeping Lead Gen In-House – and Why They Don’t Always Hold Up
| The Argument | The Reality |
|---|---|
| In-house teams know the product better | Product knowledge doesn’t replace prospecting skill. Gungho’s team are trained to master your messaging within days, hitting the ground running. |
| It gives us more control | True – but it adds management burden. Gungho provides full visibility without slowing execution. |
| Our SDRs and sales teams collaborate better internally | Many of Gungho’s clients already have SDRs or marketing teams; we integrate directly into their workflows for seamless alignment. Close collaboration and feedback is key to our success. |
| Building internal capability is a long-term investment | High turnover and long ramp-up times mean many teams never reach full maturity. Gungho provides stable, scalable delivery. |
| It’s cheaper if sales handle their own outreach | Once you factor in lost selling time (something many managers never consider in cost analysis), it’s actually over 3x more expensive per lead. Gungho turns that inefficiency into ROI. |
Final thoughts
Running your own SDR team gives you control — but also complexity, cost and constant management.
Outsourcing to a trusted partner like Gungho gives you instant scalability, predictable ROI and freedom to focus on closing deals.
Whether you’re scaling globally or complementing your existing team, we act as an extension of your sales organisation — delivering qualified appointments that turn into revenue.
Book a call with our team to explore how outsourced lead generation can accelerate your growth while reducing cost and effort.
Disclaimer: All figures presented in this article are based on example modelling, industry benchmarks, and Gungho’s financial analysis. Actual costs and ROI are unique to each client and will vary depending on campaign objectives, geographic focus, and internal resource allocation. The key takeaway is the scale of cost efficiency achievable when outsourcing compared with building in-house capability.
