You're the only person who wins new business and you can't keep doing it. So do you hire a salesperson, or pay an agency to fill your diary? Here's the honest comparison.

Every founder hits this wall. You're doing the delivery, the admin and the selling. Referrals have been carrying you, but they're slowing down. One month you're flat out, the next you're staring at an empty pipeline wondering where the next job is coming from.

So you decide something has to give. And you land on the same fork in the road everyone does: hire a salesperson, or outsource the lead generation to an agency?

In this blog I'll walk through the in house vs outsourced lead generation decision properly. What each really costs, what each can and can't do, the risks nobody mentions on the sales call, and a clear verdict on which to choose and when. I'll use real UK salary data where I have it and label anything illustrative so you can plug in your own numbers.

In house vs outsourced lead generation: what you're actually choosing between

First, let's be clear about what's on each side, because people often compare the wrong things.

An in house salesperson is an employee. Depending on the role they might find leads, book meetings, run the sales process and close deals. In bigger firms those jobs get split between an SDR (sales development rep, who books meetings) and an account executive (who closes). In a small business it's usually one person doing all of it.

Outsourced lead generation is an agency or freelancer who generates interest and books meetings for you. That might be cold email, LinkedIn outreach, cold calling or a mix. Some offer an outsourced SDR, which is basically a person on their payroll working your account. Most do not close deals. They hand you the meeting and you do the rest.

That last point matters more than anything else in this article. Which brings me to the uncomfortable bit.

The real cost of hiring a salesperson in the UK

The median advertised salary for a B2B sales executive in the UK is £31,000, based on vacancies in the six months to November 2026. That's the starting point, not the total.

On top of salary you pay employer National Insurance. Since April 2025 that's 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year. On a £31,000 salary that's (£31,000 minus £5,000) x 15% = £3,900. So you're at £34,900 before pension, commission, a laptop, a CRM seat, travel or anything else. Smaller employers may be able to claim the Employment Allowance (£10,500) to reduce their NI bill, so check with your accountant.

Then there's the bit that doesn't show up on a payslip: time. A new salesperson needs to learn your product, your market and your way of selling. Who teaches them? You. And who manages them once they're up and running? Also you.

This is the trap I fell into. I grew SPOR to around £5m in about three years, then got stuck trying to reach £7.5m. I hired a sales team to break through. What actually happened was I stopped being a seller and became a manager, and we went round in circles for two years. The hire wasn't the problem. Hiring before I had a system for them to run was. I've laid out the full maths in the real cost of hiring a salesperson in the UK.

What outsourced lead generation costs in the UK

Here I have to be straight with you: I couldn't find a reliable, verified UK benchmark for agency or outsourced SDR pricing. Pricing models vary wildly. Some charge a monthly retainer, some charge per appointment, some charge a setup fee plus a retainer.

So rather than make up a figure, here's how to compare like for like. Take any quote and work out:

• Annual cost: monthly fee x 12, plus any setup fee.
• Cost per qualified meeting: annual cost divided by the number of meetings they'll commit to (in writing).
• Cost per won deal: cost per meeting divided by your own close rate.

For example (illustrative): if an agency charges £2,500 a month and books 8 qualified meetings a month, that's £30,000 a year and roughly £312 a meeting. If you close 1 in 4, each won deal cost about £1,250 in lead generation. Whether that's good or terrible depends entirely on what a client is worth to you.

In house sales hire vs agency: side by side

The case for outsourcing lead generation

Outsourcing gets a bad name, sometimes deservedly (I've written about why lead generation agencies fail small businesses). But it has real strengths:

• Speed. A decent agency already has the tools, data and people. You can be running in weeks, not months.
• Flexibility. If it doesn't work, you can usually stop. Try doing that with an employee.
• Testing. It's a cheaper way to find out whether outbound works in your market at all before you commit to a hire.
• Volume. Agencies can run more outreach than one person can.

Who it's NOT for: businesses that can't explain who their ideal client is in a sentence, or who don't have the capacity to follow up the meetings they get. An agency amplifies your message. If the message is fuzzy, they'll amplify fuzz.

The case for hiring a salesperson

• They close. This is the big one. A good salesperson takes the whole thing off your plate, not just the first conversation.
• They learn your business. Over time they understand your clients better than any agency could.
• Relationships stay with you. Your pipeline, your data, your reputation.
• Culture. A salesperson in the team hears what delivery is saying and feeds back what clients want.

Who it's NOT for: founders who haven't yet worked out how they win business themselves. If you can't write down your sales process, you can't hand it to someone else. You'll end up with an expensive person who's busy but not productive, and a founder who's now a part time sales manager too. That was me.

Can you do both?

Yes, and for a lot of businesses past about £1m it ends up being the right answer. An agency (or an outsourced SDR) fills the top of the funnel, and an in house salesperson closes the meetings. That way the expensive closer isn't spending half their week cold calling.

But don't start with both. Start by building your own system first. When Squaredot built theirs, they went from £800k to £1.2m in three months and the share of work coming from cold leads rose from 6% to 59% (The Growth Engine, Business Simplified, 2026). The system came first. People and partners plug into it. If you want the nuts and bolts, start with how to create a lead generation process and then read about building a lead generation machine that runs without you.

The verdict on in house vs outsourced lead generation

Choose outsourced lead generation if you know exactly who you sell to, you can close the meetings yourself (or someone in the team can), you want to test outbound before committing to a hire, and you need flexibility to stop.

Choose an in house salesperson if you've already proven how you win business, you can write that process down, you've got the time to train and manage them for the first few months, and you want someone who closes, not just books.

Choose neither yet if you can't describe your ideal client and your sales process clearly. Fix that first. And if what you really need is someone senior to build the sales function rather than run it, look at my comparison of a fractional sales director vs full time. More comparisons like this live in our Head to Head section.

Frequently asked questions

Is it cheaper to outsource lead generation?

Often in the short term, because there's no recruitment, no NI and no long notice period. But compare cost per won deal, not monthly fee. A cheap agency that books poor meetings is more expensive than a good salesperson.

When should I hire my first salesperson?

When you can write down how you win business, you have enough demand for them to work on, and you have time to train and manage them. Hiring to escape selling before those things are in place usually turns you into a sales manager instead.

Can an agency close deals?

Most lead generation agencies don't. They book meetings and hand them over. Some offer closing services, but for most small service businesses the client wants to buy from someone inside the business.

What does an outsourced SDR cost?

I couldn't find a reliable UK benchmark, and pricing models vary (retainer, per meeting, setup fees). Get quotes, then work out the annual cost and cost per qualified meeting so you can compare against a hire.

Can I do both?

Yes. A common setup is an agency or outsourced SDR booking meetings and an in house salesperson closing them. Just build your own sales process first so both have something to plug into.