Hiring an SDR
Hire an SDR once someone can run more first meetings than you get, and you already have a message that gets replies. Write the role around the work, interview by having candidates do it, and plan the first month before they start. Then keep outbound running during the search, because that is the part of the gap with no output at all.
An SDR books meetings; someone else has to run them and close. Hire an SDR first when you or an AE can take more first calls than you get, and the gap is the top of the funnel. If nobody has time to run the meetings an SDR books, the first hire is probably a closer.
A new SDR ramps faster on a message that already gets replies than on a blank page. Before they start, you want three things written down: who you sell to, the problem you open with, and a few emails that got answers. If you do not have those yet, getting them is the founder's job, not the hire's.
Say who they will email, from which inbox, with what tools, and what a good week looks like in meetings booked. Say who answers the replies they get, and who runs the meetings. A vague description attracts people who interview well, not people who prospect well.
Give candidates a real reply from your inbox, a no, a not-now or a question, and ask them to write the answer. Ask them to research one account and write the first email. Writing to strangers who did not ask is the job, so watch them do it.
Access to the mailbox and the CRM, the list, the campaigns already running, the replies so far, and a target that rises over the ramp. Written down, dated, before they start.
The search and the ramp together cost close to three months of a ramped SDR's meetings at benchmark figures. The search is the part with no output at all, so cover it.
How long it takes to hire and ramp an SDR
SHRM's 39-day time to fill and the Bridge Group's 3.0-month ramp, with sources.
Open SDR seat cost calculator
What the gap costs in meetings and revenue, with your own numbers.
How to cover an open SDR seat while you hire
Five options compared, and what the new SDR inherits from each.
Hire an SDR, an agency, or an AI SDR
Who sends, who keeps the replies, and how to choose.
New SDR handover handbook
A dated, week-by-week checklist from two weeks before day one.
Handing campaigns to your new SDR
What a new SDR should find running on day one.
When someone can take more first meetings than the company gets, and the founder already has a message that gets replies. An SDR multiplies outbound that works; it rarely finds the message for you.
If you have more meetings than you can run, hire someone to close. If you can run more meetings than you get, the gap is the top of the funnel and an SDR fits.
SHRM's 2026 benchmark puts median time to fill for nonexecutive roles at 39 days, to an accepted offer. The Bridge Group's 2025 report puts average SDR ramp at 3.0 months after that.
Access to the inbox and CRM, the list, campaigns already running, every reply so far, a written description of who you sell to and why, and a first-month plan with targets that rise over the ramp.
Usually it stops, or the founder does it in gaps between interviews. The options are to send it yourself, hire a contractor or agency, use an AI SDR, or wait. Whichever you pick, judge it by what your new SDR inherits.
Before you book
The price
$1,399 a month. No setup fee.
Prices shown in USD. Billed in the same currency at checkout.
If it does not work
Cancel inside 30 days and your payment comes back in full. No usage deduction, no form to fill in.
How you leave
Monthly, and you cancel from inside the product. No contract, no notice period, no minimum term — the tools this replaces mostly ask for a quarter or a year up front.