Compare · Agency vs in-house SDR

Lead generation agency vs in-house SDR — which one actually wins.

We're an agency. We still lose deals to great in-house SDRs, and we still win them from bad ones. Here's the honest breakdown, row by row, so you can pick the model that fits your stage — not the one whose salesperson answered first.

Updated July 2026Based on EU B2B benchmarks, ACV €5k+Founder POV

Pick an agency if…

· You need meetings this quarter, not H2.
· The market is <10k or >100k accounts.
· You want email + LinkedIn + intent without buying five tools.
· You can't stomach 6 months of ramp + hiring risk.

Hire an SDR if…

· Your product needs deep, embedded knowledge to sell.
· You want them joining discovery calls and Slack channels.
· You have a strong sales lead who can coach and manage.
· You're already past €2M ARR and outbound is your primary channel.

Dimension	Agency	In-house SDR	Edge
Time to first meetings	3-5 weeks	3-6 months (ramp)	Agency
Year-1 fully-loaded cost (EU)	€30-72k	€85-130k (salary + tools + mgmt)	Agency
Tooling included	List data, sending infra, LinkedIn tooling, CRM sync	You buy separately (~€8-15k/yr)	Agency
Channels covered day one	Email + LinkedIn + intent	Usually one (whichever they know)	Agency
Reply-handling capacity	Team rotation, no gaps	One person, one calendar	Agency
Institutional knowledge of your product	Grows over months	Deep after ~6 months	SDR
Cultural fit / customer voice	Reviewed by you, iterated	Native — they're in your Slack	SDR
Ability to sit in on discovery calls	Handoff only	Yes, joins live	SDR
Reversibility if it isn't working	Month-to-month exit	Hiring & firing risk	Agency
Ownership of accounts, domains, data	Yours — we build in your stack	Yours	Tie
Best when target market is <10k accounts	Strong — we go narrow fast	Works, but slower to reach coverage	Agency
Best when target market is >100k accounts	Strong — parallel workstreams	One person can't cover it	Agency

→ Run the numbers for your team → See the underlying benchmarks