How to choose an outsourced SDR agency without getting screwed
Do not ask whether they use AI. Ask who picks up the phone when the campaign sucks.
Short Answer
Choose an outsourced SDR agency based on what work it actually owns, how it defines a qualified meeting, whether it uses the channels your buyers respond to, who performs the work, how campaigns change when performance is poor, and whether its pricing makes sense relative to your deal economics. Ask for operational specifics rather than promises about meeting volume.
I am going to make evaluating companies like mine slightly harder for companies like mine.
Seems fair.
Here are the questions I would ask before signing an outsourced SDR or appointment-setting contract.
1. Who actually does the work?
Do not ask only who your account manager is.
Who:
* builds lists? * writes copy? * makes calls? * handles replies? * manages infrastructure? * decides campaign changes?
Where are they?
Are they employees?
Contractors?
Shared across 15 accounts?
You do not necessarily need a dedicated full-time team.
You should know what you are buying.
2. What exactly is included in the price?
Data?
Email infrastructure?
Domains?
Sales Navigator?
Dialer?
Calling?
LinkedIn?
Copy?
Research?
CRM updates?
Setup?
Ask before the invoice develops hobbies.
3. Is cold calling actually included?
A surprising amount of “multichannel outbound” means:
Email.
LinkedIn automation.
And maybe someone thinks about using a telephone occasionally.
If your buyers can reasonably be reached by phone, calling should at least be part of the conversation.
4. Who owns the infrastructure?
If the relationship ends, what happens?
Do you retain:
* domains * mailboxes * campaign history * account data * lists * messaging * CRM records
Make sure the answer is not “good luck.”
5. How do you define a qualified meeting?
Get this in writing.
Not because contracts solve everything.
Because ambiguity gets expensive.
What has to be true before a meeting counts?
Correct company?
Correct title?
Confirmed need?
Held meeting?
If a 19-year-old intern books time, congratulations on your pipeline.
6. Do no-shows count?
They should definitely be reported separately.
A booked meeting is not the same as a held one.
If the provider guarantees “20 appointments” and 11 never happen, you bought nine conversations.
Use the number nine.
7. What happens if the first campaign fails?
This question matters more than asking for average response rates.
Bad campaigns happen.
What do they do next?
New list?
New segment?
New messaging?
More calls?
Different persona?
Or more of the exact activity that already failed?
You are hiring the judgment after the first plan meets reality.
8. How much will you need from us?
There is no zero-effort version of outsourcing.
The provider needs context.
Feedback.
Access.
Meeting outcomes.
Sales feedback.
But you should understand the workload.
If outsourcing your SDR program requires one of your employees to spend 25 hours per week managing the outsourced SDR program, somebody has misunderstood outsourcing.
9. What do you report?
Activity is fine.
I also want signal.
Which segments are responding?
Which job titles engage?
Which messages work?
What objections repeat?
Which channels are producing held meetings?
What percentage of meetings qualify?
What happens after the meeting?
A monthly PDF saying 12,482 emails were delivered tells me the internet remains operational.
10. What is the contract length?
Outbound needs enough time to work.
I like 90 days for that reason.
Long enough to build, execute, learn, and iterate.
I become less excited when an unproven provider needs an annual commitment before touching the account.
Maybe there is a good reason.
Ask.
11. Can they explain when they are a bad fit?
This is a useful test.
Ask:
Who should not hire you?
A provider that believes it can generate pipeline for every company, every market, every ACV, every product, everywhere on earth has either discovered something extraordinary or needs the contract.
12. Does the economics work?
Forget vendor comparisons for a second.
Suppose the engagement costs $8,000 per month.
Your average contract is $50,000.
Ten good meetings become two opportunities.
One in four opportunities closes.
The economics may work beautifully.
Now suppose your contract is $2,000.
They probably do not.
No agency can repeal arithmetic.
Then ask yourself one question
Do these people sound like they understand sales?
Not sales development terminology.
Sales.
Buyers.
Markets.
Economics.
Why companies purchase.
Why they do not.
What happens after the meeting.
The outbound function exists to create sales opportunities.
The machinery matters.
The result matters more.