What 1 LATAM SDR Plus Hiring Signals Costs per Accepted Opportunity.

In partnership with

2 weeks ago we told you to run a 30 day test before you add headcount. The test used 1 market, 1 seller and 1 LATAM support hire, scored on 4 numbers.

Several of you replied with the same question. What do the 4 numbers look like when the test is done?

Last week we said to write the day 30 deliverable before the job description. For an outbound seat, accepted opportunities are that deliverable. This issue fills in the scorecard for 1 LATAM SDR working hiring signals, with AI doing the prep work.

The 4 numbers, defined

Most pilots fail at the scoreboard before they fail in the field. Define each number before day 1, or the team will argue about what counts on day 30.

1. Qualified conversations held. A live call or meeting with a buyer who has the problem and the authority to buy. A positive reply is not a conversation. A discovery call that ends in "not now" still counts, because the SDR did the job.

2. Accepted opportunities. Conversations the seller agrees to carry forward into pipeline. The seller decides, not the SDR, and that is what keeps this number honest.

3. Seller hours recovered. Hours per week the seller stops spending on research, list building, first touch, and CRM updates. Measure them with a 1 week time log before the pilot and again in week 4.

4. Total monthly cost. The SDR’s fully loaded monthly pay, the placement fee spread across 12 months, and every tool the desk uses. If it touches the desk, it goes in the number.

The desk

Here is the setup we recommend.

The signal. A target account posts a job for a role that tells you something changed. A company hiring its first RevOps lead is building process, and a company hiring 3 AEs at once is adding pipeline pressure. Each posting is a reason to reach out this week, not a generic touch.

AI does the prep. AI pulls new postings daily, matches them to the target list and ranks accounts by fit. It then drafts the first email and call opener from an approved library of customer examples. Every draft is marked unsent until a person reviews it.

The LATAM SDR owns the desk. The SDR reviews every draft, fixes what the AI got wrong, sends, calls, logs, and runs follow up. Same time zone as the US seller. Strong, near accent free English. The SDR is accountable for the 4 numbers.

The seller owns judgment. The seller approves the target list and message library in week 1, takes every qualified conversation, and decides which ones become opportunities.

The 30-day scorecard

The table below is a modeled pilot built on the assumptions listed under it. Treat it as the benchmark to beat, not a promise. Your targeting, market, and message library will move every line.

Assumptions behind the model. 120 new signal accounts loaded per week. 3 email touches plus 1 call per account over 10 business days. 5% of accounts produce a positive reply. Roughly 2 of every 3 positive replies become a qualified conversation held. The seller accepts 1 in 3 conversations as an opportunity. Week 1 is light because the list and message library are being approved.

The cost line. Model the SDR at $3,200 a month. That covers salary plus the placement fee spread over 12 months. Model the signal, enrichment, and sequencing tools at $600 a month. Total monthly cost: $3,800.

Run the same desk with a US SDR at a fully loaded $7,500 a month and the model lands at $675 per qualified conversation. Same tools. Same signals. The difference is the seat.

Want the exact sheet we use to track this? Reply SCORECARD and we will send it. It has the 4 definitions, the weekly tracker, and the cost formula built in.

Where pilots die

We have watched enough of these to know where they break. 3 places, every time.

1. The target is fuzzy. "Companies that are hiring" is not a target. "US SaaS companies with 20 to 200 employees that posted a sales hire in the last 14 days" is. If the SDR cannot say in 1 sentence why an account is on the list, the account should not be on the list.

2. There is no handoff standard. The SDR books a call. The seller shows up cold. The buyer repeats everything. Fix it with a 5 line handoff note the SDR fills before every meeting. It covers the signal, the role they are hiring, the problem the buyer named, what was promised, and the next step.

3. You count total replies. Out of office messages, unsubscribes, and "wrong person" count as replies in most tools. They inflate the number and hide the truth. Track positive replies separately from day 1, then track conversations held, not conversations booked.

When to expand

Expand when 2 things are true at day 30. The seller is accepting opportunities at a cost you would pay again. And the seller says the recovered hours went into closing, not into more admin.

If the numbers disappoint, do not add a second SDR and do not send more email. Inspect the list, the message library, and the handoff first. Volume on a broken process only makes the mistakes happen faster.

Automation is cheap. Judgment is not. Put the LATAM hire where the daily work is, keep the seller where the judgment is, and let AI prepare the drafts a person reviews.

Amir Reiter
Founder, CloudTask

Which GTM Work Should Agents Own?

Automating at random isn’t a system. Deciding what agents own and what people own is.

On October 28, HubSpot and Dust run Build, Buy, or Hire? live. You’ll leave knowing what to hand to agents, and with the workflows to prove it:

A framework for where a human stays in the loop
A post-call automation that updates your CRM for you
A Slack view of who owns each account and what happens next

Live at 11am EDT / 8am PDT

Reserve Your Seat