Outsourced SDR for LinkedIn: hire, agency, AI SDR, or Gigi AI
An outsourced SDR is an external person or system that prospects and starts sales conversations for you. You can get one in four ways. You can hire in-house, retain an agency, buy an AI SDR tool or use a managed service. Gigi AI is a LinkedIn outreach service where AI researches each prospect and a person approves every message.
What does an outsourced SDR actually do?
An outsourced SDR does the first half of selling. They find the right people, contact them and pass on the replies worth your time. That job turns over fast in-house, with average SDR tenure at 1.9 years and ramp at 3.0 months (Bridge Group, 2025).
You will see the same service sold as a fractional SDR, SDR as a service or outsourced SDR services. The label changes. The work is the same five tasks:
- Build a target list from a defined ideal customer profile.
- Research each person well enough to say something true.
- Write and send the outreach.
- Handle replies and objections.
- Qualify the lead and book the call, or hand over a warm conversation.
Channel matters too. Cold email replies average 0.45% of emails sent across 7.5 million emails in 2025 (Belkins, as of October 2026). This page covers outsourced SDR work on LinkedIn, where Gigi operates.
What does an in-house SDR cost in 2026?
The Bridge Group's survey of 351 companies puts SDR base pay at $55,000 and median on-target earnings (OTE) at $80,000 (Bridge Group, February 2025). Salary is only part of the bill.
Cleverly, an outsourcing vendor, estimates a fully loaded in-house SDR at $6,000 to $8,500+ a month (Cleverly, page updated October 2026). That is Cleverly's table estimate, and its intro gives $140,000 to $160,000 a year, so treat it as a rough guide from a vendor that sells the alternative.
Tenure is the hidden cost. An SDR who leaves takes the list and the learning with them, and the ramp starts again. Founders tell us: "I hired an SDR and they left after four months." In-house still has real strengths: one person who learns your market and can phone as well as message.
What do outsourced SDR agencies charge?
Revnew's March 2026 guide puts outsourced SDR retainers at $4,000 to $18,000 a month, or $150 to $600 per appointment (Revnew, 13 March 2026). Cleverly quotes $3,000 to $15,000+ a month, or $200 to $800 per qualified meeting (Cleverly, October 2026). Both are vendor figures, as of October 2026.
Per-meeting pricing sounds safe, but the definition of a meeting then carries all the weight. Before you sign with any agency, ask four things:
- What counts as a qualified meeting?
- Who writes each message, and does anyone at your company see it before it sends?
- Whose LinkedIn account sends the outreach, and who owns the prospect data if you leave?
- What happens to replies after the first call is booked?
What do AI SDR tools cost, and what should you ask them?
11x lists its Alice agent from $3,750 a month, billed annually (11x, as of October 2026). AiSDR charges $1.50 per prospect pay-as-you-go, or $2,500 a month fully managed (AiSDR, as of October 2026). As of October 2026, Artisan does not publish pricing.
11x's own page also states $36,000 a year, which does not match $3,750 a month, so get any quote in writing.
The question that matters most is who reads each message before it sends. A model will occasionally write a confident, wrong sentence about a prospect, and that sentence carries your name. Ask any vendor whether you can approve every message, and what the tool reads about each prospect.
TechCrunch reported that one AI SDR vendor was temporarily banned from LinkedIn in late 2025 and later reinstated (TechCrunch, 7 January 2026). We draw no conclusion about the cause. We compare Gigi with one such tool on the Gigi versus Artisan page.
How does Gigi compare?
One Gigi AI managed account contacts about 500 new prospects a month, from $2,500 a month in the US or EUR 1,500 in Europe. Gigi campaigns typically see 40 to 47% connection acceptance (Gigi case-study data, October 2026). The best-performing campaigns are in the results table further down.
Vendor figures below are as of October 2026.
| Option | Monthly cost | What you get | Who approves messages | Time to first conversations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR | $6,000 to $8,500+ fully loaded (Cleverly's table estimate; Cleverly, Oct 2026) | One person, multichannel, full control. The SDR sends | You or a manager, if set up | Hiring time plus 3.0 months average ramp (Bridge Group, Feb 2025) |
| SDR agency | $3,000 to $18,000+ retainer, or $150 to $800 per meeting (vendor figures: Revnew, Mar 2026; Cleverly, Oct 2026) | A team and a process, often multichannel. Agency staff send | Set by contract | Varies by agency |
| AI SDR tool | From $2,500 managed or $1.50 per prospect (AiSDR); from $3,750 billed annually (11x) | Software that writes and sends sequences | Varies; ask the vendor | Not published |
| Gigi managed | From $2,500 per account (US) or EUR 1,500 (Europe) (Gigi pricing, Oct 2026) | Brief, research, drafts, sending, reply handling. LinkedIn only, through your own LinkedIn session | Irina, against a brief you sign off | Live in about a week; conversations depend on your market |
What is included in managed outreach?
Irina builds the target profile and messaging brief from your last ten customers. Gigi then reads each prospect's LinkedIn profile and company page, scores fit from 0 to 10 and drafts three messages in your voice. The managed LinkedIn outreach page covers the six steps.
Irina approves every managed message before it sends. Sending runs through your own session from the cloud, at no more than 25 new connection requests a working day per account, with follow-ups outside that cap. Gigi does not read posts or comments. Clients get a weekly report.
No account running Gigi has been restricted to date. That is a track record, not a guarantee.
What have campaigns produced?
Results depend on timing, industry and offer, and we control none of them. None of it is a promise about your campaign. These are the best-performing campaigns across all accounts with 50 or more people contacted, pulled in October 2026. Clients are named only where we have permission.
| Campaign | Requests sent | Accepted | Replied | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career Shift, HR and L&D leaders and coaches, Romania and UK, Aug to Oct 2026 | 1,357 | 766 (56%) | 330 (43%) | 114 people asked for a call; first certification sold during the pilot |
| Of which: UK coaches, coach to coach, Sep to Oct 2026 | 413 | 236 (57%) | 106 (45%) | Included above |
| Payroll outsourcing company, HR decision makers at companies already outsourcing payroll, Romania, Oct 2026 (anonymised) | 199 | 154 (77%) | 71 (46%) | 15 companies into the pipeline in the first five days |
| Coaching practice, founders and independent professionals, Romania, Sep to Oct 2026 (anonymised) | 128 | 102 (80%) | 41 (40%) | Not shown |
| Founders' community, invitations to a closed event for tech and infrastructure leaders in London, Sep to Oct 2026 (anonymised) | 202 | 92 (46%) | 36 (39%) | Not shown |
| R&D funding consultancy, Finnish SMEs, Jul to Oct 2026 (anonymised) | 480 | 183 (38%) | 64 (35%) | Calls booked with companies worth EUR 1M+ in funding each |
| Gigi's own outbound, AI search specialists, EU and US, Sep to Oct 2026 | 77 | 37 (48%) | 27 (73%) | 16 calls booked |
| Gigi's own outbound, tech founders in Cluj, event invitations, Oct 2026 | 273 | 138 (51%) | 72 (52%) | 30 calls booked |
| Gigi's own outbound, staffing and recruitment firms, Europe, Mar to Oct 2026 | 333 | 141 (42%) | 74 (52%) | 17 calls booked |
| Gigi's own outbound, second and third degree contacts, all campaigns, Feb to Oct 2026 | 1,657 | 735 (44%) | 284 (39%) | 83 calls booked |
| Gigi's own outbound, existing connections messaged directly, Feb to Oct 2026 | 1,177 contacted | Not applicable | 232 (20% of contacted) | 69 calls booked |
Reply rates on this page are replies as a share of accepted connections. Acceptance is accepted as a share of requests sent. Left out: campaigns under 30% acceptance, and campaigns with high acceptance and nothing behind it. Sources: Gigi campaign data and Career Shift's call tracker. A coaching company selling to C-suite buyers in DACH and CEE also booked 47 meetings in 90 days from one account; see the DACH and CEE case study.
The Career Shift case study shows that funnel step by step.
When is each option the right one?
A 3.0-month ramp against a 1.9-year average tenure (Bridge Group, 2025) means about 13% of a typical SDR's time in the seat goes on ramping, by our arithmetic. The right option turns on team size, deal size, volume and control.
| Option | Pick this if | Skip it if |
|---|---|---|
| In-house SDR | You need three or more senders, want phone and email too, sell deals big enough to carry $6,000 to $8,500+ a month (Cleverly's table estimate), and have someone to coach | Nobody can manage them, or you need conversations within weeks |
| SDR agency | You need multichannel volume beyond one LinkedIn account and have a retainer budget | You want to approve every message and the contract won't allow it |
| AI SDR tool | Someone on your team will configure, monitor and review what goes out in your name | Nobody has time to check the output |
| Gigi managed | You are a founder or head of sales, deals are worth $5,000+ a year, you know your buyers, and you want approval before every send | You are pre-revenue, sell B2C, have deals under $5,000, want thousands of contacts a month, or need phone and email |
| Gigi self-serve | You want to approve every message yourself, from a free tier | You would rather hand the whole job over |
Fractional CMOs and CROs often fit the Gigi row, and our fractional executives page covers that. Self-serve tiers sit on the pricing page.
How do you switch from an SDR who left or an agency that did not deliver?
With average SDR tenure at 1.9 years (Bridge Group, 2025), most teams face a handover sooner than they plan. Launching with Gigi takes about a week: a 30-minute intro call, sample drafts for real prospects, then a live campaign on day eight.
In our experience, the switch goes best when you first export what you own: prospect lists, reply history and notes on what was tried. Answer open conversations first, so nobody gets a cold message after a warm chat.
Then bring your last ten customers, your offer in your own words and about two hours in week one. We send sample prospects with scores, reasoning and all three drafts, and revise the brief until they read like you. Nothing sends until you sign off.
If the last campaign failed because the offer or the timing was wrong, a new sender won't fix that. We'll say so on the first call.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
An outsourced SDR is a person or team you contract to prospect for you, such as an agency or a managed service. An AI SDR is software that writes and sends outreach. Ask whether a person approves each message before it goes out in your name.
Agency retainers run $3,000 to $18,000 a month in vendor figures from Cleverly and Revnew, as of October 2026, or $150 to $800 per meeting. AiSDR's managed plan is $2,500 a month. Gigi AI managed outreach starts at $2,500 a month per account in the US and EUR 1,500 in Europe.
Yes. Some outsourced SDR services run only LinkedIn, and others add email and phone. LinkedIn only suits a founder or sales lead who sells to named decision makers and wants conversations rather than volume. Gigi works on LinkedIn only, through your own account. If you need phone or email at volume, an agency or in-house hire covers more channels.
With Gigi AI managed outreach, you sign off the messaging brief and sample drafts, and Irina then approves every message before it sends. Nothing goes out unapproved. Self-serve users approve their own. With agencies and AI SDR tools it varies, so ask before you sign.
With Gigi, a campaign usually goes live about a week after the intro call. How soon conversations follow depends on your market, offer and timing, and we control none of them. A new in-house SDR averages 3.0 months to ramp (Bridge Group, 2025).
Gigi tracks every reply, classifies it as positive, neutral or negative, and stops the sequence once the prospect answers. On managed plans, warm conversations are handed to you or handled through to a booked call, as agreed in the brief. Replies land in your own LinkedIn inbox, because the outreach runs from your account.
Next step
Book an intro call with Irina.
Thirty minutes, no deck.
Bring your last ten customers.