The outsourced SDR contract: ten things to check before you sign.

Before signing an outsourced SDR contract, check ten things: how a qualified meeting is defined, whether meetings are counted when booked or when held, the minimum term and notice period, any set-up fee, what is included in the monthly figure, who the rep is and how much of their time you get, how results are reported, who owns the data, domains and mailboxes, what happens if the targets are missed, and what you keep when you stop. Published UK terms commonly include a minimum of six to twelve months and a set-up fee of £3,000 to £5,000, so these are worth reading closely.

The ten clauses

1. The meeting definition.

   Title, company size, the problem they have confirmed, what they agreed to. If it is not written down, “qualified” means whatever is convenient at invoice time.

2. Booked or held.

   A booked meeting that does not happen costs your closer an hour. Count what took place, or at least agree how no-shows are rebooked.

3. The minimum term.

   Published UK terms often run six to twelve months. Outbound compounds over the first quarter, so a term shorter than that tells you little; one much longer than a year asks for trust the provider has not yet earned.

4. The notice period, and an early exit.

   How much notice, and whether there is a way out if agreed numbers are not met in the first month or two.

5. Set-up fees.

   Commonly £3,000 to £5,000 in published UK pricing. Ask what it buys - list building, domain set-up, messaging - and whether it is refundable.

6. What the monthly figure includes.

   The rep, the manager, the data, the dialler, the sequencing and the reporting, or some of them. Data charged separately can add several hundred pounds a month.

7. Who the rep is, and how much of them you get.

   Dedicated to your market, or shared across clients; days a month; whether you can meet them; who replaces them if they leave.

8. Reporting.

   Weekly dials, conversations, meetings booked and held, and what changed - and whether you can see the same screen the provider works from.

9. Data, domains and mailboxes.

   Who owns the contact data, the call recordings, the sending domains and the mailbox history, and what is handed over at the end.

10. Compliance.

    Who screens against the TPS and CTPS, who keeps the suppression list, and who is the data controller. Since February 2026 the fines for getting it wrong match UK GDPR.

The red flags

• No written meeting definition, or one the provider can change.
• A long minimum term with no exit if agreed numbers are missed.
• Meetings counted when booked, with no rebooking for no-shows.
• The data, domains or mailboxes stay with the provider when you leave.
• No named rep and no way to hear the calls.

How we write ours

Work is agreed in writing with each client before it starts: the qualification criteria from the brief, a first quarter as the suggested length because that is the fair time to judge a market, and what you keep afterwards - the board, the data, the mailbox history - set out before the first dial. After that it is your call. The rest is in the help centre, and the pricing models themselves are compared in outsourced SDR pricing in the UK.

Sources: Air Marketing, SDR outsourcing costs in the UK; Whistle, outsourced SDR pricing guide 2026; ORRJO, outsourced SDR cost guide. Figures are the providers’ own published ranges. This is not legal advice.