Five common mistakes people make when hiring an outsourced SDR team

I hear it all the time: “We tried outsourcing our sales development team, and it just didn’t work.” That’s usually followed by a long list of frustrations—bad hires, missed quotas, and money down the drain. But here’s the truth: outsourced SDR programs fail when companies pick the wrong partner or don’t set themselves up for success.

If you’re thinking about outsourcing, you need to know what pitfalls to avoid. Over the years, I’ve seen the same mistakes trip up companies again and again.

Here are the top five mistakes, along with practical advice to help you avoid them.

1. Assuming outsourced SDRs automatically understand your product

The biggest mistake? Expecting outsourced SDRs to immediately grasp your product or service without a thorough onboarding process. Your team has years of experience with your solution—your outsourced SDRs won’t. However, don’t overload them with unnecessary technical details. Instead, focus your onboarding sessions on essential business pains and values. Prospects primarily care about what’s in it for them and how they’ll benefit, not the specific functions of every feature on your dashboard.

How to fix it: Provide comprehensive sales enablement sessions involving the right people (AEs, marketing, not just senior executives). Keep it high-level and business-focused. After every meeting, always close the feedback loop. Provide prompt and detailed feedback—good or bad—and complete surveys or NPS forms. Good feedback helps replicate success; constructive feedback helps correct issues quickly.

2. Choosing a vendor based solely on price

Focusing exclusively on budget when selecting an SDR partner is a common mistake. While cost management is important, picking a vendor because they’re the cheapest often means compromising on quality. This approach usually results in lower-quality meetings, inexperienced SDRs, and ultimately, additional costs down the road as you try to correct these issues.

How to fix it: Evaluate vendors based on their track record, reputation, and ability to deliver results—not just their price tag. Opt for quality over short-term savings. Selecting a high-quality provider often means better ROI and fewer headaches in the long run.

3. Failing to set clear expectations and goals

“I don’t know if outsourcing worked for us.” I’ve heard this before, and when I dig deeper, I usually find the company never clearly defined success metrics. Without specific goals like meetings booked, conversion rates, or pipeline influenced, there’s no concrete way to measure success.

How to fix it: Before you outsource, establish clear KPIs and review them regularly. Hold your outsourced SDR team accountable just like an in-house team. Insist on regular reporting and transparency to track performance in real-time.

4. Ignoring turnover and training gaps

SDRs churn—whether they’re in-house or outsourced. The difference with a good outsourcing partner is built-in recruitment and training. Vendors without these processes will struggle with constant ramp-up delays, inconsistent messaging, and performance dips.

How to fix it: Before choosing a vendor, ask them directly:

• Do you have a dedicated SDR training program?
• How do you manage SDR turnover?
• Can we hire high-performing SDRs permanently?

At memoryBlue, SDRs (and their managers) undergo comprehensive training before they ever engage prospects. If turnover happens, replacements are quickly trained and deployed, ensuring your momentum isn’t lost.

5. Expecting AI and automation to replace SDRs

Let’s be realistic: AI can enhance your SDRs’ effectiveness, but it won’t replace them entirely. Relying solely on generic, automated outreach results in lower-quality meetings and weaker engagement with prospects.

How to fix it: Use AI to support, not substitute. AI is valuable for data analysis, task automation, and suggesting personalized messaging. But SDRs must still engage personally, handle objections thoughtfully, and guide prospects through nuanced conversations. Successful teams leverage both human expertise and AI capabilities.

The bottom line: Set yourself up for outsourcing success

Outsourcing your SDR team can significantly boost your pipeline if executed properly. To maximize your chances of success:

• Choose a vendor with relevant industry expertise.
• Properly onboard and integrate your outsourced team.
• Clearly define goals and regularly measure performance.
• Ensure your partner has robust training and recruitment capabilities.
• Leverage AI strategically, but don’t depend solely on it.

Better yet, work with a partner experienced in doing this right. At memoryBlue, we’ve built, trained, and scaled high-performing outsourced SDR teams for over 20 years. Our SDRs consistently perform so well that our customers frequently hire them directly—and we celebrate those successes.

If you are still grappling with the idea of outsourcing and think an in-house team makes more sense to help grow your sales pipeline, here’s a piece I wrote on that topic. Holler if you aren’t convinced or have other considerations we should think about.