Free tool. Runs in your browser.
What outbound actually costs you in year one
i built this because every SDR cost number i see stops at salary. Year one also carries benefits, a slice of a manager, tools, ramp, and backfills when 40% of reps leave. Enter your headcount and comp. You'll get year-one cost, cost per held meeting, break-even, time to first meeting, and year two. Nothing leaves your browser.
How to use it
- Pick what you're costing: a BDR team, a GTM engineer, or both.
- Change any default. Each one shows its source, or says it's my assumption.
- Read year-one cost, cost per held meeting, meetings to break even, months to first meeting, and year two.
Run your numbers
In-house BDRs
In-house GTM engineer
Your deals
Break-even meetings are year-one cost divided by deal size times this win rate. Change both to your funnel.
In year one, 2 BDRs cost you $315,870 fully loaded, about $1,595 per held meeting. Year two is $293,870.
| Result | Your hire |
|---|---|
| Year-one cost | $315,870 |
| Held meetings, year one | 198 |
| Cost per held meeting | $1,595 |
| Meetings to break even | 63 |
| Months to first meeting | 1 |
| Year-two cost | $293,870 |
- Salary$160,00051%
- Benefits$52,48017%
- Management$60,59019%
- Tools + data$12,0004%
- Recruiting + backfills$30,80010%
Months to full output: 3. Reps produce meetings during ramp when ramp output is above zero, so the first held meetings land in month 1. Break-even uses $50,000 average deal size and a 10% win rate from held meeting to closed-won ($5,000 per held meeting).
Why the numbers look like this
Bridge Group's 2025 study puts median SDR OTE at $80K with a 3 month ramp and 40% annual attrition. BLS says benefits add about a third on top of wages for sales roles. Those three facts are most of the gap between the offer letter and the real bill.
Tools sit on top of that. If cold email is part of the motion, mailbox and domain spend belongs in the tools field. The setup i use is on the cold email infrastructure page.
The GTM engineer default is the US median total comp from the GTME Pulse 2026 survey. For a band by region and seniority, use the GTM engineer salary calculator. The role itself is written up in what a GTM engineer is.
When hiring in-house is the right call
If your motion is proven, you'll run 3 or more reps, and you have a manager with time to coach, year two is the number to plan around. Ramp and the first recruiting bill sit mostly in year one. i'd tell you that on a call too.
A worked example of the output, not the payroll, is Coastal Recruiting: accepted intros went from 72 a month to 340, a 4.7x change. The rest of the work is on case studies.
Sources and assumptions
- The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions and Metrics 2025. Median OTE $80K on a 68:32 split ($55K base, $25K variable), ramp 3.0 months, attrition 40%, held Stage 0 quota 10 a month, 60% of reps at quota, manager OTE $146K, 6.4 BDRs per manager, sample median ASP $50K.
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4, June 2026. Sales and related: benefits are 24.7% of total comp and wages 75.3%, so benefits are 32.8% of wages. Management and professional: benefits 31.5% of total comp and wages 68.5%, so benefits are 46.0% of wages.
- GTME Pulse, State of GTM Engineering 2026 (n=228). US median total comp $132K. Glassdoor lists a higher $192K median total pay.
- Fields marked "My assumption" are mine: headcount, ramp output, tools, recruiting percent, GTM engineer ramp, meetings a GTM engineer adds, and the held-meeting win rate. Change them to yours.
SDR and GTM engineer cost FAQ
How much does an SDR cost in year one?
How long does a new SDR take to ramp?
What is SDR attrition?
How many meetings should one SDR book?
What does a GTM engineer cost?
Is a GTM engineer a replacement for SDRs?
Does this calculator include an agency fee?
Is my data stored?
Want a second set of eyes on the hire?
Bring your headcount and the numbers this page produced. The call is 20 minutes, with me.