What Is ZoomInfo According to ZoomInfo?
Outsourcing vs In-House BDR Solutions
Choosing the right BDR strategy can make or break your sales pipeline. Whether you're considering contractors, in-house teams, or outsourced solutions, understanding the true costs and trade-offs is essential for sustainable growth.
The Reality of Part-Time Contractors
More Than Just Making Calls
There's often much more to a BDR's role than just making calls or sending emails. The day-to-day reality includes building daily prospect lists, writing personalized outreach messages, creating and testing sequences, researching accounts, and managing communication across LinkedIn, email, and phone—all of which require significant time and specialized skill.
The reality is simple: there are not enough hours in the day to do it all well. Even if you hire a part-time or contracted BDR, the costs can add up quickly, especially once you factor in the time and management effort needed to oversee their work effectively.

Results are rarely guaranteed, and outcomes vary widely depending on the individual's consistency, your data quality, and your lead targeting strategy.
Understanding the Complete Sales Funnel
Every sales pipeline requires certain critical steps. Whether those steps are owned by Marketing, a Business Development Rep (BDR), or an Account Executive (AE) depends entirely on how your organization structures the funnel and allocates resources.
01
Targeted Accounts
Marketing identifies and prioritizes accounts in integrated setups. In BDR-driven outbound models, the BDR performs this targeting. In pure AE models, the Account Executive owns it directly.
02
Targeted Opportunities
Marketing defines these based on campaigns and signals in integrated paths. In BDR outbound models, the BDR selects them through prospecting. In AE-only models, the AE does it all.
03
Detect Stage
Marketing uses data and signals to detect potential buyers in integrated setups. In outbound models, the BDR must find them manually. In AE-only approaches, detection falls on the AE.
04
Engage Stage
Marketing leads engagement through content, ads, and nurturing in integrated paths. In BDR-led paths, engagement happens through personalized outreach. In AE-only models, the AE handles all engagement directly.
05
Prioritize Stage
BDRs prioritize the warmest accounts coming from Marketing in integrated models. In outbound setups, BDRs prioritize their own research. In AE-only models, the AE decides what to focus on.
06
Qualify Stage
In both integrated and outbound BDR models, qualification is the BDR's primary role. In the AE-only model, the AE qualifies leads themselves.
07
Pipeline Stage
In all scenarios, the Account Executive ultimately owns the pipeline once opportunities become real and move toward closing.
Three Distinct Approaches to Pipeline Generation
Integrated Path
Marketing + BDR + AE
Relies on shared responsibility and coordinated signals across teams. Marketing provides high-quality leads and intent data, BDRs qualify and nurture, and AEs close deals.
  • Best for: Mature organizations with strong marketing infrastructure
  • Key benefit: Efficient resource allocation and clear handoffs
Outbound BDR Path
BDR-Driven Prospecting
Depends on human outreach and manual detection. BDRs own the entire top-of-funnel process from research to qualification.
  • Best for: Companies with defined ICPs but limited marketing automation
  • Key challenge: High resource intensity and burnout risk
AE-Only Path
Full-Cycle Selling
Shifts the entire top-of-funnel burden to the salesperson, reducing efficiency but saving on headcount costs.
  • Best for: Small teams or high-touch enterprise sales
  • Key tradeoff: Fewer opportunities but higher deal quality
Critical Questions to Ask Your Team
These are the questions that determine whether your pipeline will scale predictably—or stall. Honest answers reveal gaps in your current go-to-market strategy and highlight opportunities for improvement.
Marketing Support Structure
How much structured support are your reps getting from Marketing and RevOps? Are they building lists from scratch or leveraging curated account intelligence?
Intent Signal Usage
Is Marketing using intent or engagement signals to detect high-fit buyers? Are you acting on behavioral data or relying solely on demographic targeting?
Buying Committee Coverage
Are your campaigns actually reaching the full buying committee, or just one contact? Multi-threading is essential for complex B2B sales.
Opportunity Prioritization
Is Marketing prioritizing opportunities for the BDRs, or are they expected to do everything themselves? Clear prioritization drives focus and results.
Role Definition Clarity
Should your BDRs' role be limited to qualification, instead of doing full-cycle prospecting and engagement? Specialization often improves efficiency.
The True Cost of Part-Time BDRs
Do you really want to pay that much for half a BDR—or even one full BDR? Let's break down the actual numbers to understand what you're really investing in when you hire contractors at various commitment levels.
Activity Assumptions
75 contacts per day
Combining calls, emails, and LinkedIn touches
8-hour workdays
Standard daily commitment for productivity calculations
5 days per week
Typical weekly schedule for contractors
9K
20 Hours/Week
Annual contacts with part-time contractor (37.5 per day)
13.5K
30 Hours/Week
Annual contacts with three-quarter time (56 per day)
18K
40 Hours/Week
Annual contacts with full-time contractor (75 per day)
Contractor Cost Analysis: $75/Hour
Breaking Down the Numbers
At $75 per hour:
  • 20 hours/week = $1,500/week or $6,000/month ($72,000/year)
  • 30 hours/week = $2,250/week or $9,000/month ($108,000/year)
  • 40 hours/week = $3,000/week or $12,000/month ($144,000/year)
At $70 per hour:
  • 20 hours/week = $1,400/week or $5,600/month ($67,200/year)
  • 30 hours/week = $2,100/week or $8,400/month ($100,800/year)
  • 40 hours/week = $2,800/week or $11,200/month ($134,400/year)

Key Insight: Even a "fractional" or part-time BDR quickly reaches the cost of a full-time employee—with no benefits of guaranteed productivity, built-in team alignment, or consistent management oversight.
The Hidden Costs of In-House BDRs
When you move from contractors to full-time hires, the picture changes—but not always for the better. The recurring fixed costs remain even when pipeline production slows, creating financial pressure that many sales leaders underestimate.
1
Base + Benefits + Commission
In-house BDRs bring recurring fixed costs including base salary, commissions, bonuses, benefits, and management overhead. These costs persist regardless of performance.
2
Cost per Result Reality
Many sales leaders measure "cost per meeting" or "cost per qualified lead." If this exceeds alternative channels like marketing programs or outsourced appointment setting, ROI becomes difficult to justify.
3
High Fixed Costs
You pay salary, healthcare, and bonuses regardless of performance. With outsourced or fractional models, costs are typically tied to deliverables, not headcount.
4
Performance Uncertainty
Hiring full-time doesn't guarantee outcomes. Performance fluctuates with market conditions, lead quality, training effectiveness, or burnout. Predictability remains low, even with excellent hires.
5
Scalability Concerns
Scaling up or down based on campaign needs is difficult with full-time staff. Contractors and BDR-as-a-Service models allow you to flex capacity quickly without HR complexity.
Five More Critical Considerations
Alternative Solutions
Modern sales organizations are increasingly using automation tools, intent-data systems, and external SDR partners to fill their pipelines. These often produce better consistency with lower operational overhead.
Training and Ramp Time
It takes months for a BDR to ramp to full productivity. You're paying full cost during that period, and if the rep leaves early, the sunk cost is completely lost.
Turnover and Burnout
BDR positions have some of the highest turnover rates in sales. Every departure resets your ramp curve, consumes management time, and inflates the true cost of acquisition.
Alignment with Sales Goals
If your near-term goals center around closing deals, expanding accounts, or cross-selling, investing in AEs or Customer Success might yield more immediate impact than additional BDR headcount.
Opportunity Cost
Every dollar spent on a full-time BDR could instead fund better tools, richer marketing data, or outsourced teams that deliver faster, more measurable outcomes. If the internal BDR motion underperforms, the lost opportunity cost compounds quickly.
Making the Right Choice for Your Business
Whether you choose part-time contractors, full-time hires, or a BDR-as-a-Service model, the key question isn't just who does the work—it's how predictable, scalable, and cost-efficient your path to pipeline truly is.
A smart inside sales strategy balances ownership, cost, and accountability—ensuring the people doing the work are supported by systems that make every hour count. The most successful organizations don't just hire BDRs; they build comprehensive systems that combine the right people, processes, technology, and support structures.
Predictability
Can you forecast pipeline generation with confidence? The right model provides consistent, measurable results you can plan around.
Scalability
Can you flex capacity up or down quickly as market conditions change? Flexibility is essential in today's dynamic environment.
Cost Efficiency
Are you maximizing ROI on every dollar invested in pipeline generation? True efficiency goes beyond just headcount costs.
This Is Why We Built Our Appointment Setting Solution
After analyzing all these challenges with contractors and in-house BDRs, we developed a performance-based appointment setting service to give you the pipeline you need, without the traditional headaches.
Reduced Financial Risk
Pay only per qualified appointment delivered—reducing financial risk and ensuring you get what you pay for.
Competitive Output
Our specialized team delivers output competitive with top-performing SDRs, consistently generating high-quality leads.
Eliminated Overhead
Eliminates the fixed costs, lengthy training time, high turnover risk, and burdensome management overhead associated with in-house teams.
Predictable & Scalable Pipeline
Provides predictable, scalable pipeline generation without the traditional headaches of hiring and managing internal or contract BDRs.