TL;DR
Outsourcing cold calling is almost always cheaper than building an in-house team when you factor in the real costs: salaries, benefits, tools, training time, management overhead, and turnover replacement. In-house teams give you more control and brand alignment, but they require months to build and cost significantly more per qualified meeting, especially for early-stage companies. The cost difference becomes clearer when you calculate what it takes to keep 3-5 SDRs productive versus paying an agency a flat monthly rate for the same output.
Hiring Cold Callers Is Expensive. And Most Founders Realize It Too Late.
Let’s be real: building an in-house cold calling team sounds great until you see the actual cost. The salaries, the software licenses, the training time, the inevitable turnover after three months when your best rep gets poached by a competitor offering equity.
For early-stage founders trying to hit aggressive pipeline targets without burning through runway, the question is not whether cold calling works. The question is whether you can afford to build the team yourself or if outsourcing makes more sense financially and operationally.
Both options work, but they work for different companies at different stages with different priorities. I’ll walk you through everything you need to know.
In-House Cold Calling Teams: What You're Really Signing Up For
Building an in-house cold calling team means hiring, training, managing, and retaining full-time reps who dial exclusively for your company. You own the process, control the messaging, and keep all the institutional knowledge inside your walls.
Pros
- Full control over messaging, tone, and how your brand is represented on every single call.
- Reps become product experts over time and can handle complex technical questions without escalating.
- Easier to align cold callers with your sales team, marketing campaigns, and company culture.
- Direct access to call data, recordings, and feedback loops that help you refine your ICP and messaging fast.
- No third-party dependency, which means you are not waiting on an agency to adjust strategy or replace underperforming reps.
- Long-term cost efficiency if you can retain reps for 12 months or longer and they grow into closing roles
Cons
- High upfront cost: salary, benefits, tools, training, and management time before you see a single meeting booked.
- Recruitment takes weeks or months, especially if you are hiring in competitive markets where good SDRs have multiple offers.
- Turnover is brutal: average SDR tenure is 14 to 18 months, which means you are constantly rehiring and retraining.
- Ramp time is slow: new hires need 30 to 60 days to get competent and 90 days to hit full productivity.
- You need a manager or team lead to coach, motivate, and keep performance consistent, which adds another salary to the budget.
- Scaling is expensive and slow because every new rep requires another round of hiring, onboarding, and waiting for ramp.
Outsourcing Cold Calling: The Scalable Alternative
Outsourcing cold calling means hiring an external team or agency that already has trained reps, proven processes, and the infrastructure to start dialing within days instead of months. You pay a monthly fee per caller and they handle recruitment, training, management, and performance tracking while you focus on closing the meetings they book.
Pros
- Speed to launch: you can have reps dialing within one to two weeks instead of waiting months to hire and onboard in-house.
- Lower cost: outsourced cold callers typically cost less. Cold calling agencies like RemoteAides charge €800 for a vetted and trained caller a month. This is a huge advantage compared to €3,000 to €5,000 for a full-time in-house SDR when you factor in salary, benefits, and tools.
- No management overhead: the agency handles coaching, performance tracking, and replacing underperforming reps without involving your team.
- Scalability: you can add or remove callers based on pipeline needs without worrying about hiring or layoffs.
- Access to experienced reps who have made thousands of calls across multiple industries and know how to handle objections, gatekeepers, and tough verticals.
- Lower risk: if it does not work, you cancel the contract instead of dealing with severance, equipment reclaims, and morale hits from layoffs.
Cons
- Less control over day-to-day execution, tone, and how reps represent your brand on calls.
- Reps are not embedded in your company culture, which can make them sound slightly less authentic or aligned with your internal messaging.
- Quality varies wildly by provider: some agencies deliver vetted, trained professionals while others send undertrained reps who burn through your list.
- Harder to build long-term product knowledge because reps are often working with multiple clients and may not go as deep on your offering
If you have a hard time deciding, I created a simple Cold Calling Checklist. You can take it and find out if you are due to outsource or if you want to keep it in-house.
So… Which Option Makes Sense for You?
In-house makes sense if you have the budget to absorb 6 to 12 months of ramp time, you need deep product expertise on every call, and you already have a sales leader who can manage and coach reps daily. It is the right play for companies with complex offerings, long sales cycles, and the financial runway to invest in building a team that pays off over time.
Choose Outsourcing If:
- You need pipeline in the next 30 to 60 days and cannot afford to wait months for hiring and training.
- Your budget is tight and you want predictable costs without the overhead of full-time salaries, benefits, and management.
- You want to test cold calling as a channel before committing to building an entire internal team.
If you are leaning toward outsourcing and want to skip the usual agency runaround, agencies like RemoteAides offer vetted, trained cold callers starting at €800 per month per caller. You can book a call with their team to see if it fits your pipeline goals and budget without the long-term commitment of hiring in-house.
