Articles·Go-to-market

What outbound costs: agency fees vs. an SDR’s salary vs. Clay and Apollo bills

Chris Cordon · 3 min read

Outbound costs a small agency one of three things: a monthly agency fee, an SDR’s salary, or software subscriptions plus somebody’s time to run them. A built system from DoBetter is a fixed fee, scoped after a $1,500 discovery.

What does a cold email agency charge?

A cold email agency typically charges $3,000 to $15,000 a month on retainer, according to IntentSignal’s 2026 pricing guide. Outsourced SDR firms run about $5,000 to $15,000 a month, often with a setup fee and a three-to-six-month minimum. You’re renting one channel. Cold email is one tool in a go-to-market system, and when the payments stop, the channel stops with it.

What does an SDR cost?

An SDR, or sales development rep, costs a median $55,000 base and $80,000 in on-target earnings, according to Bridge Group’s 2025 SDR report. That’s before benefits, taxes, and tools. Then there’s the ramp, the management, and the day they leave and take what they learned with them. An SDR makes sense when there’s enough volume to keep one busy full time. Most agencies under 10 people don’t have it yet.

What do Clay, Apollo, and Instantly cost?

The tools are the cheap part. Entry plans start at $167 a month for Clay, $47 a month for Instantly, and $49 per user per month for Apollo on annual billing. I’ve paid for all three. The expensive part is the hours to wire them together, write templates that don’t sound like a robot, and keep the sending domains out of spam. I spent months rejecting AI-written templates before one batch went out clean.

How does DoBetter price a build?

Every DoBetter build is fixed-fee and scoped after discovery, so the price matches the job. It works in four steps:

  1. A free 30-minute intro call.
  2. A $1,500 paid discovery. Half is credited to your first month, and it’s a full refund if I can’t help.
  3. A fixed-fee build.
  4. Optional monthly support.

Nothing is billed by the hour.

What makes an outbound build cost more or less?

The price of an outbound build moves with how much there is to connect and clean up:

  • How many systems it touches: your CRM, your sending tool, your data sources
  • Whether your ideal client is already defined, or whether defining it is step one
  • How messy your existing lists are
  • How many channels it runs: email only, or email, phone, and direct mail
  • How many people at the agency will use it

What does it cost to not do outbound?

The cost of no outbound is whatever a first meeting with your ideal client is worth to you, times every meeting you didn’t get. Volume takes the emotion out of sales. More at-bats, fewer feelings about any one of them. The at-bats are the leading indicator, and without them you can’t even smell your KPIs.

Quick answers

Is there a refund?
Yes. If discovery shows I can’t help, the $1,500 comes back in full.
Can I start small?
Yes. Most agencies start with one piece, usually the list and enrichment, and add from there.
Do you bill hourly?
No. Every build is a fixed fee agreed on before work starts.
Why no build prices on the site?
Because a small agency and a bigger one need different builds. Discovery is how the price gets set.