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Outbound Sales

The True Cost of In-House Sales Team vs Outsourcing

··6 min read

Every B2B company eventually asks the same question: should we hire sales reps or outsource outbound?

The math isn't even close.

Most founders underestimate the true cost of building an in-house sales team. They see a $70K salary and think that's the investment. But that's just the beginning.

Let's break down the real numbers.

The Real Cost of In-House Sales

When you hire a Sales Development Representative (SDR), the salary is only part of the equation.

Here's what you're actually paying:

Base salary: $70,000 per year (that's the average for a mid-level SDR in most markets)

Benefits and taxes: Add another 20-30% for health insurance, payroll taxes, 401(k) matching, PTO, and other benefits. That's $14,000-$21,000 per year.

Tools and software: Your SDR needs LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($100/mo), an email platform like Apollo or Outreach ($100-200/mo), data providers for lead lists ($200-500/mo), and CRM access. That's $5,000-$10,000 per year in software alone.

Training time: The average SDR takes 3-6 months to fully ramp up. During that time, they're learning your product, testing messaging, and figuring out what works. You're paying full salary for minimal output.

Management overhead: Someone needs to manage this person. That's at least 10-15 hours per week of a sales manager's or founder's time. If you don't have a sales manager yet, you'll need to hire one eventually.

Add it all up: $100,000+ per year for ONE rep who may or may not deliver results.

And that assumes they stay. Average SDR tenure is 14-18 months. When they leave, you start the cycle again.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About

Beyond the direct costs, there are risks that can damage your business:

Domain reputation risk: Your in-house SDR sends emails from your primary business domain. If they send too many cold emails, hit spam traps, or get reported, your entire company's email deliverability suffers. Customer emails, support tickets, and transactional messages all go to spam.

Limited campaign expertise: Most SDRs have never run thousands of A/B tests. They don't have data from successful campaigns across multiple industries. They're learning on your dime.

No testing infrastructure: Want to run 5 different message variations simultaneously? Test different subject lines? Compare LinkedIn vs email performance? Your SDR can't do that alone. You need dedicated tools and expertise.

Single point of failure: What happens when your SDR is sick, on vacation, or quits? Your pipeline stops immediately.

Vetting and setup overhead: Choosing between 50+ sales engagement platforms takes weeks. Setting up proper email infrastructure (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) requires technical knowledge most teams don't have.

These hidden costs add up fast. And they create risk that most companies don't account for until it's too late.

The Outsourcing Model

Here's the alternative: fixed monthly cost with zero hiring, training, or management overhead.

At Lumos, LinkedIn outreach starts at $297 per month. That includes:

  • 1 LinkedIn profile sending 1,000+ messages monthly
  • Unlimited campaigns, lead lists, and messaging sequences
  • Unlimited A/B testing and strategy sessions
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Real-time monitoring through a client portal
  • Dedicated residential proxies (so your campaigns never get flagged)

For companies that want to add cold email campaigns, the investment is $1,997 per month. That includes:

  • 30,000+ emails sent monthly
  • Private sending infrastructure (protecting your main domain)
  • Done-for-you copywriting and AI-personalized messaging
  • Domain and mailbox setup with proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC configuration
  • Weekly inbox placement tests to ensure deliverability
  • Unified inbox management with automatic lead routing

No hiring process. No 3-month ramp time. No management overhead.

Launch in days, not months. And if it doesn't work? Cancel anytime. No long-term contracts.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Let's compare one year of in-house vs outsourcing:

In-House SDR:

  • Cost: $100,000+ per year
  • Ramp time: 3-6 months before productive output
  • Infrastructure: Single email domain (puts your business email at risk)
  • Testing: Limited A/B testing capability
  • Management: Requires 10-15 hours/week of oversight
  • Expertise: Learning as they go
  • Risk: High turnover, domain reputation damage

Outsourced (Lumos):

  • Cost: $3,564-$23,964 per year depending on tier
  • Ramp time: Launch within days
  • Infrastructure: Multiple dedicated domains and inboxes
  • Testing: Unlimited A/B tests powered by data from 10,000+ campaigns
  • Management: Dedicated account manager included
  • Expertise: Team with years of experience across 200+ businesses
  • Risk: None — cancel anytime, no contracts

The numbers speak for themselves. You save $76,000+ per year compared to hiring one in-house SDR.

And you get better results. Lumos has booked 4,500+ meetings for clients across those 200+ businesses. That's data-driven optimization you simply can't replicate with one or two in-house reps.

When In-House Makes Sense

Let's be fair: outsourcing isn't always the answer.

In-house sales teams make sense when:

You're operating at massive scale: If you need 50+ SDRs, building an internal team with dedicated infrastructure becomes cost-effective.

You have extremely complex product knowledge requirements: If it takes 6+ months just to understand the product well enough to sell it, you might need dedicated internal reps who live and breathe the product daily.

You have very long sales cycles with deep relationship building: If your sales cycle is 12-18 months and requires ongoing relationship nurturing with the same prospects, having consistent internal reps can help.

But here's the reality: most B2B companies don't fit those criteria.

If you're a startup, small business, or mid-market company trying to scale outbound without hiring an entire sales organization, outsourcing wins every time.

You get professional infrastructure, proven messaging frameworks, dedicated management, and real-time optimization. All for a fraction of what one in-house SDR would cost.

The Bottom Line

Hiring an in-house sales team costs $100,000+ per year with significant risk and overhead.

Outsourcing with Lumos costs $3,564-$23,964 per year with zero risk and immediate results.

The math is simple. The choice is clear.

If you're ready to scale your outbound sales without the overhead of hiring, training, and managing an in-house team, book a free consultation.

Or view our pricing to see exactly what you get at each tier.

No long-term contracts. No hidden fees. Just results.