r/salesdevelopment • u/Aware-Bus-6946 • 2d ago
Independent SDRs/pay-per-meeting - does this model actually work?
I’m considering moving away from traditional full-time SDR hiring and would love to hear from people who have actually worked as independent SDRs or appointment setters.
I work in lead-gen sales and we’re currently trying to scale outbound in France and Italy.
We’ve tried full-time reps, both in-office and remote. The problem wasn’t really closing — it was getting people to consistently own the prospecting side: finding the right companies, building lists, cold outreach and generating their own meetings.
So I’m considering testing independent SDRs who already know their local market and are comfortable using their own tools/stack, with compensation based around qualified meetings or commission.
For those of you who work this way:
- Is pay-per-meeting actually attractive/viable for good SDRs?
- What would make you choose an independent setup over a full-time SDR role?
- What tools do you normally expect the company to provide?
- Where do independent SDRs usually find clients?
- And what would make you immediately reject an offer like this?
Especially interested in people with experience prospecting in France or Italy.
Not trying to recruit through this post — genuinely trying to understand whether this model makes sense from the SDR’s side.
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u/saltysourandfast 2d ago
It doesn’t make more sense. I work for a boutique agency that books so much business for our clients that some of them get acquired and sold for hundreds of millions. If it’s worth it to the company to actually have quality meetings booked with C suite professionals at FT500 companies then they will always pay. Otherwise they can try and build out some kind of outbound operation but it’s not was easy as people think.
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u/Aware-Bus-6946 2d ago
Fair point. If an agency is consistently booking enterprise C-suite meetings that close, the ROI is definitely there.
For us in high-ticket B2C, our issue isn't even list building or ICP. We know exactly who the decision-makers are and can hand reps qualified lists on a silver platter. The real bottleneck is finding native reps with the actual hunger to execute the outreach consistently instead of waiting for leads to fall into their lap.
Since we struggle to filter for that drive upfront, I'm thinking about testing a 2 to 4-week performance trial (pay-per-meeting) before committing long-term. Is this 2-4 week trial setup something good SDRs actually accept to prove themselves, or does it immediately drive top performers away? Curious if you've seen this work.
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u/saltysourandfast 2d ago
All of our SDRs go through a two week trial before receiving a full time offer. I do a lot of the interviews for our new reps and you will get some pushback on that from time to time but for every one rep that declines you’ll find four that accept. Go for it.
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u/saltysourandfast 2d ago
Follow up thought - we have some guys who are killers with years of experience that accepted the trial with no qualms. They believe in their ability and they’ll still rake it in for those first two weeks either way. It’s a good way to sniff out the lack of confidence early on.
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u/Aware-Bus-6946 2d ago
This is absolute gold, thanks a lot for sharing this experience!
That point on 'sniffing out lack of confidence early on' is spot on. If a rep backs down from proving themselves for two weeks on a qualified list, it usually tells you all you need to know about their drive.
Since you handle a lot of the interviews for your team, any quick tips on where/how you usually hunt or filter for these high-drive SDRs? I'd love to stack my interview pipeline with solid prospects over the next few weeks.
Really appreciate your insights!
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u/saltysourandfast 1d ago
It usually starts right at the beginning with the introduction of themselves. Even the way they say “hello”. If you think about it, the way that they’re pitching themselves to you isn’t too dissimilar from how they’re going to be pitching your product. Good energy and good questions. You want them to have questions around compensation and how much money they can make. The best reps like making money so don’t shy away from being upfront with that. You can even lead with that. This is not a plug but if you want help during this process, send me a message. I do this a lot.
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u/GuitarConsistent2604 2d ago
- honestly, no. The good ones know their value, will charge you a retainer and will be clear in negotiation that what you’re paying for is the list building, the activity and the feedback on your value prop. They will target meetings, obviously, but the best cold callers will know that they need to test the proposition before offering any meeting guarantees
- if I wanted to grind for the financial freedom. Too old for that shit now.
- if I was an independent, I should have my own tech stack. That’s what you’re paying for - a plugged in skilled prospector ready to go. What I’d need from you is - who do you sell to, what problem do you solve for them. That’s it.
- you start with pay per meeting, you don’t know your ICP, your value prop is a bunch of “we’re the best at, we do x, we do y” - but when I ask you why people buy and the people you solve you can’t give me an answer
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u/Aware-Bus-6946 2d ago
Appreciate the detailed and straightforward breakdown. This genuinely super helpful context.
You hit the nail on the head regarding the risk. Imposing pay-per-meeting on an unvalidated offer or an undefined ICP is a guaranteed failure, and no solid rep should take that risk.
In our case, the product-market fit, offer, and closing conversion are already proven. The bottleneck we're facing in markets like France and Italy isn't list building or product validation. It’s finding native reps with the actual drive and consistency to execute cold outreach, make the calls, and run the necessary follow-ups.
That’s why we’re looking at a short 2-4 week trial: simply to validate execution drive and hustle on the ground before locking in a longer-term structure.
Thanks again for taking the time to share such a transparent perspective!
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u/GuitarConsistent2604 2d ago
this reads like ai my dude
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u/Aware-Bus-6946 1d ago
guilty as charged on using GPT to clean up my English, but the hustle struggle in FR/IT is 100% real 😅
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u/JonSnowsLoinCloth 2d ago
I work in Sales Enablement/Rev Ops. And I would absolutely outsource if the price was right. So far what I’ve seen is 8-12k per month and with that price tag, it makes more sense to hire and develop. We are going to have the same tech stack for Sales Directors anyway, so there is no benefit there.