The true cost of a US SDR in 2026, and what the same seat costs in Cape Town or Manila

Every CFO I have worked with has asked the same question about sales headcount: what does one of these actually cost us? The honest answer is usually double what the hiring manager said.

The fully loaded US number

Take a mid-market B2B software company hiring an SDR in Dallas or Denver. The build-up looks like this:

Even at the conservative end, a US SDR costs over $90,000 a year once they are productive — and they are not productive for the first three to four months.

The tenure problem multiplies it

Average SDR tenure in the United States sits around 14 months. Ramp is three to four months. So a typical SDR delivers roughly ten productive months before you start again: new recruit, new ramp, new coaching, and a gap in pipeline while you do it. Spread the recruiting and ramp cost over ten productive months and the effective cost of a productive SDR-month is well above $10,000.

The offshore-delivered seat

An experienced, English-native SDR in Cape Town or Manila — delivered as part of a managed pod with a working team lead, tooling, backup power, QA and reporting — typically lands at a third to 40% of the US fully loaded figure. The salary component is 60–70% lower; the management and tooling are included in the pod rather than added on top; and retention is materially better, because a US-client SDR role is a sought-after job in both cities.

The comparison that matters is not salary to salary. It is cost per qualified meeting and cost per productive month. On both, the pod wins by a wide margin — before you count the management time you get back.

What the saving is not

The saving is not a reason to accept worse output. If an offshore seat books fewer qualified meetings than a US seat, you have bought a cheaper problem. The pod model exists to prevent that: a team lead inside the pod coaching daily, AI research and drafting so each rep produces more, weekly KPI reporting, and a replacement guarantee so a seat that misses target after ramp is swapped from the bench at no cost.

How to run the numbers for your team

Use our cost calculator to compare any role and team size. It shows the US fully loaded figure against a typical offshore-delivered equivalent. It does not show X77 pricing — that comes in writing after a scoping call, because every pod is different — but it will show you the size of the decision.