An experienced India-based SDR who already prospects into US or UK accounts costs roughly INR 8-14 lakh all-in per year (about USD 9,500-17,000) versus USD 70,000-110,000 fully loaded for a US SDR, a 40-60% saving. The best ones sit in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram and Chennai, write clean English, and work an IST shift that overlaps your morning. Hire them as contractors to start (no India entity needed), screen hard for written outbound and US-market familiarity, and expect a 30-45 day ramp. GTMly typically places a vetted SDR in about 14 days.
When an India-based SDR makes sense
Outbound is the single most cost-sensitive role on a GTM team. You are paying a person to send sequences, book meetings, and feed the pipeline, and the unit economics only work if cost-per-meeting stays low. That is exactly where India talent changes the math: you get someone who can run the same Outreach or Salesloft cadences into the same ICP for less than a fifth of a US loaded cost.
It makes sense when your motion is mostly asynchronous prospecting (email, LinkedIn, multichannel sequences) with calls clustered into a few hours of overlap. It makes less sense if the role is 80% live cold-calling into US prime-time hours, although plenty of India SDRs do exactly that on an evening-IST shift. The deciding factor is not geography, it is whether the person has genuinely sold or prospected into Western buyers before.
What an India SDR actually costs
Compensation in India is quoted as an annual CTC (cost to company) in lakh, where one lakh equals INR 100,000. A capable SDR with one to three years of B2B SaaS outbound into US accounts typically lands in the INR 8-14 lakh range, with a base/variable split closer to 70/30 than the 50/50 you see in the US. Junior SDRs (under a year) start nearer INR 5-7 lakh; senior or team-lead SDRs reach INR 16-20 lakh.
| Role level | India all-in (INR) | India all-in (USD approx) | US loaded equivalent (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior SDR (<1 yr) | INR 5-7 lakh | $6,000-8,500 | $55,000-70,000 |
| Experienced SDR (1-3 yr, US accounts) | INR 8-14 lakh | $9,500-17,000 | $70,000-110,000 |
| Senior SDR / Team Lead | INR 16-20 lakh | $19,000-24,000 | $110,000-140,000 |
USD figures are approximate at roughly INR 83-85 to the dollar and will move with the exchange rate. Even at the top of the India range, you are paying well under half of a comparable US hire once you include the US employer's benefits, payroll taxes, equipment and overhead.
Where to source
India has a deep, mature SaaS outbound talent pool because so many global software companies run their inside-sales engines from there. The strongest concentrations:
- Bangalore - the largest SaaS hub; densest supply of SDRs who have prospected into US mid-market and enterprise.
- Hyderabad - strong inside-sales centers for global vendors; good written English and night-shift tolerance.
- Pune - large pool of B2B SDRs, often slightly cheaper than Bangalore for similar experience.
- Gurugram (Delhi NCR) - many North America-facing sales teams; comfortable with US time zones.
- Chennai - growing SaaS scene and reliable, lower-cost supply.
What to screen for
The resume tells you almost nothing about whether someone can prospect. Screen for the actual work:
- Written English under pressure. Ask them to rewrite a weak cold email live, or send a real prospecting scenario. You are checking for clean, natural, jargon-free copy, not perfect grammar on a polished resume.
- US/UK market familiarity. Have they sequenced into US titles and verticals? Do they know what a VP of RevOps does versus a Head of Demand Gen? This is the single biggest separator.
- Tooling fluency. Salesforce or HubSpot for the CRM, plus Outreach, Salesloft or Apollo for sequencing. Ask them to walk you through a cadence they built.
- Metrics they actually owned. Meetings booked per month, reply rates, conversion to SQL. Vague answers are a red flag.
- Timezone willingness. Confirm the shift up front. An IST morning start overlaps the UK workday; an afternoon-to-evening IST shift overlaps US business hours.
Practical tip: the IST-to-US overlap is real and usable. An SDR working roughly 2pm-11pm IST covers the entire US East Coast morning and a chunk of the West Coast afternoon, so live call-backs and warm hand-offs to your US AEs happen in real time, not the next day.
Ramp, quota and tooling
Expect a 30-45 day ramp before an India SDR is at steady-state, the same as anywhere. Front-load product training, ICP definition, objection handling and your messaging in the first two weeks, then ramp quota over the following month. A reasonable steady-state target for outbound-only SDRs is 12-20 qualified meetings per month depending on deal size and motion.
Tooling is identical to your US setup, that is the point. Provision them the same Salesforce or HubSpot seat, the same Outreach/Salesloft/Apollo logins, Gong or Chorus for call review, and a dialer that supports US numbers. There is no technical reason an India SDR runs a different stack.
Contractor vs EOR
Most companies start by engaging an India SDR as an independent contractor: a direct services agreement, monthly invoicing, payment in USD, and no India entity required. It is the fastest path and works well for the first 6-12 months. If you later want full employment-style benefits, statutory compliance and tighter IP protection, move to an Employer of Record (EOR), which legally employs the person on your behalf for a fee of roughly USD 200-600 per month. You almost never need to set up your own India entity for one or a handful of SDRs.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Hiring on accent, not output. SDR work is overwhelmingly written and asynchronous. Optimize for clear writing and prospecting judgment.
- Underpaying for the experience you need. Paying INR 5 lakh and expecting someone who can open US enterprise accounts will fail. Pay for the tier you actually need.
- Skipping the timezone conversation. Agree the shift and the overlap window before signing, not after.
- No structured onboarding. Remote SDRs ramp slower without a written 30-60-90 plan. Give them the same enablement your US reps get.
- Treating them as a vendor, not a teammate. The ones who hit quota are the ones looped into standups, Slack and pipeline reviews.
Want a vetted India SDR in about 14 days?
GTMly sources, screens and places proven GTM talent from India for US and UK teams, contractor or EOR. Tell us your ICP and motion and we will shortlist people who have already done it.
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