SDR, agency, or AI agents: what it costs to book B2B meetings

August 13, 2026 · The Vakenlab team

What it costs to book B2B meetings is the question every small company asks too late: usually after months of trying in spare moments, without measuring. This article compares the four ways to solve it (doing it yourself, hiring an SDR, hiring an agency, or using a system of AI agents) with ballpark costs and, more importantly, the criteria for choosing. Honesty notice: at Vaken we sell the fourth option, so we've written the comparison to hold up even if you never buy from us.

The metric that makes them comparable: cost per meeting

Cost per meeting is a channel's total spend divided by the qualified meetings it produces in the same period. It's the only yardstick that lets you compare options as different as a salary, an agency retainer, and a software subscription. Two nuances almost everyone forgets when calculating it: your own time is a cost too (the founder's, the most expensive in the company), and an unqualified meeting doesn't count (filling a calendar with curious browsers is easy and very expensive).

Option 1: doing it yourself (the hidden cost)

This is where almost every small company starts: the founder prospects when there's a spare moment. The outlay is zero and the cost is enormous, because the hours come from the person with the highest value per hour in the company, and because "when there's a spare moment" means without consistency, which is the one thing that makes prospecting work. It makes sense in one phase: at the beginning, when you need to hear the market with your own ears to sharpen the offer. As a permanent system, it's the most expensive option dressed up as free. If you're still going to run it yourself for a while, at least do it with a method: our B2B cold email guide covers the minimum infrastructure so you don't burn your domain.

Option 2: an in-house SDR

An SDR (the person dedicated to prospecting and booking) is the option with the most control and the most learning accumulated in-house. It's also the most expensive and the slowest to start: between salary, payroll taxes, and tools, the annual cost of a junior SDR in Spain runs, as a rough market range, around €30,000-40,000 for the company, with two or three months of ramp-up before performing and the turnover risk typical of the role. It pays off when the meeting volume you need is high and sustained, and when someone can train and manage them. For a first push into prospecting, it's a lot of boat.

Option 3: a prospecting agency

The agency starts fast and brings craft. As a rough range, B2B prospecting services for small companies tend to run between €1,000 and 3,000 per month depending on scope and channels. In exchange, you work with a team that splits its attention across several clients, and the learning curve on your product stays in their house, not yours. It's a good option when you want results without building anything internal and you accept that dependence. We say this knowing the trade: Vaken was born out of an agency, and that experience is exactly what we've turned into a system.

Option 4: a system of AI agents

The new option: software that runs the full prospecting operation (market analysis, tailored emails, follow-ups, booking) with supervision but without a dedicated team. Here the numbers are exact because they're ours: Vaken is sold as a one-time installation (€1,500 for the email prospecting plan, €2,500 for the full team of 25 agents) plus monthly maintenance of €499 or €999, which is the system's operation; no lock-in, two months of maintenance free on annual billing, and ad spend billed separately. Its natural ground is the company with a high average deal size that needs a steady flow of meetings without hiring or managing anyone. Its limits are laid out without the smoke in what AI agents actually do: the call and the close are still yours.

The four options, side by side

The SDR and agency ranges are ballpark figures and vary by industry and city; the Vaken figures are the real prices from our pricing page. To go from ranges to your case, value your own hours with the acquisition cost calculator.

How to decide, in three questions

First: does your average deal size pay for the channel? A client worth €5,000 a year supports any of the four options; one worth €300, almost none. Second: how many meetings can you actually handle per week? A channel that generates twenty is useless if you can only take five. Third: does your offer already land when you get someone on the phone? If the answer is no, no channel fixes it: offer first, reach after.

Frequently asked questions

What is cost per meeting?

A channel's total spend divided by the qualified meetings it produces in the same period. It includes what doesn't show: your own time and the tools.

Is an SDR better than an agency?

It depends on the volume and control you need. The SDR accumulates knowledge in-house but costs more and takes longer to perform; the agency starts sooner but splits its attention. The right question isn't which is better, but which fits your deal size and your capacity.

Can you combine them?

Yes, and it's the natural evolution: a system of agents generating meetings and a person closing them. Duplicating the same work across two channels at once, on the other hand, rarely pays off for a small company.

What exactly does Vaken's price include?

Vaken 15 (€1,500 installation + €499/month maintenance): complete email prospecting, 15 agents, dedicated warmed sending domains, CRM sync, and a weekly report. Vaken 25 (€999/month): all of the above plus Meta and LinkedIn ads and the content team. No lock-in; ad spend and third-party APIs billed separately.

When should you hire none of this?

If the deal size doesn't pay for the channel, if you can't handle more meetings, or if your offer isn't landing on the calls you already have. We'll tell you on the first call if that's your case: selling a system to someone it won't pay off for is the most expensive way to earn a cancellation.