Who to Hire for B2B SaaS Cold Outreach: A 2026 Guide

Updated October 2026. Every company’s price and terms read from its own site on October 25, 2026, unless a line says otherwise.

If your offer already sells and you want meetings without hiring, hire a done-for-you agency that runs cold email and LinkedIn: OneAway does it for B2B SaaS from $3,250 a month and goes live in 14 days. If your buyers mostly answer the phone, rent an outsourced SDR: Leadium from $3,500 a month, CIENCE from $4,249 with one offshore SDR. Hire your own SDR, at a median $80,000 a year and about 3 months to ramp, when you have a sales manager and a message that already works. And if you haven’t sold the product a few times yourself yet, start with founder-led outreach: an agency can scale a message that works, but it can’t find one for you.

OneAway wrote this guide and sells one of the options in it. Every other figure has a source at the bottom.

The options at a glance

1. Founder-led outreach: before the message works

If fewer than a handful of customers have bought from a cold conversation, write and send the first outreach yourself. You’ll learn which problem gets a reply, which title buys and what objection comes up, faster than any agency can learn it for you. Our cold email copywriting breakdown and LinkedIn templates are a place to start.

2. A done-for-you agency: when the offer sells and you want meetings

An agency builds the lists, writes the copy, sets up the sending domains and inboxes, sends, answers replies and books meetings onto your calendar. You keep one check-in a week or a month.

• OneAway: cold email and LinkedIn outbound for B2B SaaS, run with AI agents we built. Intro $3,250/mo, Managed $6,200/mo with LinkedIn on 5 accounts, Scale $11,500/mo. No setup fee, live in 14 days, a 3-month minimum and then month-to-month. A reply agent answers interested leads in under 2 minutes.
• Sales.co: $2,000 to $3,000/mo by email volume, month-to-month, live in 7 days.
• Built For B2B: from $3,000/mo for one channel, $5,000/mo for email and LinkedIn, plus a build fee; it says first meetings typically arrive within 14 days of going live.
• Danish Lead Co: $3,000/mo or $4,995/mo once live, with a three-month minimum.

For more, see our comparisons of cold email agencies and outbound agencies by operating model.

3. An outsourced SDR: when your buyers answer the phone

You rent a rep, or part of one, who works your accounts every day by phone and email. You set the targets; the company handles hiring, training and tools.

• Leadium: $3,500/mo for calling only, $4,000 to $5,000/mo multichannel, US-based SDRs, month-to-month.
• CIENCE: $4,249/mo with one offshore SDR or $5,999/mo with one US or Europe SDR, before a bonus and a setup fee. Month-to-month.
• EBQ: $10,000/mo for a full-time US-based rep or $5,000/mo half-time, on an annual contract.
• SalesRoads: $11,950 per 4 weeks for one SDR, which is 13 bills a year. Cancel any time.

All twelve options we compared are in our outsourced SDR companies guide.

4. Paying for meetings: when you want to pay for outcomes

• Per-meeting fees: Leadium’s cost guide puts them at $150 to $1,500 a meeting, and LeadHaste’s pricing guide at $200 to $500 per qualified meeting.
• A meeting count: Belkins starts “from $5,000” with 100 guaranteed appointments a year.
• A meeting floor: LeadHaste charges $4,500/mo plus a $1,000 setup and pauses payments if it misses the agreed floor.
• Per held meeting on top of a plan: OneAway’s warm calling add-on calls everyone who replied with interest, up to 6 times, for 2% of your ACV per held meeting, minimum $150.

Whatever you pay per meeting, the definition decides the bill. Ask whether a no-show counts. Our appointment setting comparison lists each agency’s definition.

5. A fractional sales team: when you need help closing too

Martal Group sells tiers that go past the first meeting: Tier 2 adds deal closing and onboarding, Tier 3 adds account management, with a commission on closed deals. Reviews put it at about $4,100 to $10,500 a month, with a 3- to 4-month pilot and a 60 to 90 day ramp. See our Martal Group alternatives for the details and sources.

6. An in-house SDR: when you have a manager and 12 months

The Bridge Group’s 2025 report puts median on-target pay at $80,000 a year ($55,000 base, $25,000 variable), an average ramp of 3.0 months, and 60% of SDRs hitting quota. Add benefits, tools, data and the manager’s time. Hiring wins when your deals need live phone calls, you want the skill to stay in the company, or you plan to grow SDRs into closing roles.

7. AI SDR software: when someone in-house can run it

AI SDR tools write and send for you, but someone still has to choose the list, check the copy, protect the sending domains and answer the replies that matter. Our AI SDR tools review covers what they do and don’t do.

What each option costs in year one

Five questions that decide it

1. Has the message worked yet? If not, founder-led first.
2. Do your buyers answer the phone? If yes, an outsourced SDR or a team with phone. If they live in email and LinkedIn, an agency.
3. Do you have a sales manager? Without one, an in-house SDR is hard to make work.
4. How soon do you need meetings? Agencies go live in 1 to 3 weeks; an in-house SDR takes about 3 months to ramp.
5. Do you want to pay for activity or outcomes? Retainers and seats pay for activity; meeting counts and per-meeting fees pay for outcomes, at a higher price per meeting.

FAQ

Who should I hire to do cold outreach for my B2B SaaS?

A done-for-you agency if your offer already sells and email and LinkedIn reach your buyers: OneAway from $3,250 a month, live in 14 days. An outsourced SDR if they answer the phone: Leadium from $3,500 or CIENCE from $4,249. An in-house SDR if you have a sales manager and 12 months.

How much does an outsourced SDR cost?

$3,500 to $11,950 a month in published 2026 prices: Leadium from $3,500, CIENCE from $4,249 with one offshore SDR, EBQ $10,000 for a full-time US rep, and SalesRoads $11,950 every 4 weeks for one SDR.

How much does a cold email agency cost per month?

$2,000 to $11,500 a month at agencies that publish a price. Our cold email agency pricing page compares them.

What does pay-per-meeting appointment setting cost for B2B?

Leadium’s cost guide puts per-meeting fees at $150 to $1,500, and LeadHaste’s guide at $200 to $500 per qualified meeting. OneAway’s warm calling add-on is 2% of your ACV per held meeting, minimum $150.

What does done-for-you LinkedIn and email outbound cost?

OneAway Managed is $6,200 a month for cold email to up to 20,000 leads plus LinkedIn on 5 accounts, and Scale is $11,500 for 40,000 leads and 10 accounts. Built For B2B runs both from $5,000.

Is there an outbound agency for SaaS with a 3-month minimum instead of a long contract?

OneAway, Built For B2B and Danish Lead Co start with three months, then go monthly. Sales.co, Leadium and CIENCE are month-to-month from the start.

How fast does an outbound agency book the first meetings?

OneAway goes live in 14 days and Sales.co in 7. Built For B2B says first meetings typically arrive within 14 days of going live. An in-house SDR takes about 3 months to ramp.

Talk to us

If you sell B2B SaaS and want to know whether outbound will work for you, book a 30-minute call. If another option in this guide fits you better, we’ll say so on the call.

Sources

• OneAway: pricing
• Sales.co, CIENCE and the in-house SDR figures (The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Metrics Report): see the sources on our cold email agency pricing page
• Built For B2B: pricing, cold email agency
• Danish Lead Co: pricing
• Leadium: outsourced SDR cost, pricing
• EBQ: pricing, appointment setting
• SalesRoads: pricing
• Belkins: appointment setting
• LeadHaste: leadhaste.com, pricing guide
• Martal Group (third-party): Cleverly’s review, LeadHaste’s review