Can AI Sales Automation Lower My CAC Faster Than Hiring More SDRs?
You're a service business owner—dentist, medspa, home services, whatever. Your ads cost a fortune. Leads trickle in. But conversions suck. CAC climbs. You think: hire more SDRs. Fix it with bodies.
Wrong. Most businesses don't fail from too few leads. They fail from leaks. After-hours ghosting. Slow responses. No reviews. No referrals. Hiring SDRs plugs one hole and rips three more.
I'm Jerrod Anthraper, founder of Tykon.io. We built a Revenue Acquisition Flywheel that captures, converts, and compounds demand 24/7. No headcount bloat. Just math.
Today, we compare AI sales automation vs SDRs. Head-to-head on CAC reduction. Spoiler: AI wins. Faster. Cheaper. Reliable.
What CAC Really Means for Operators
CAC—Customer Acquisition Cost. Ads + salaries + tools divided by new customers.
Service businesses bleed here. You pay $200-500 per lead via Google or Facebook. But only 20-30% book. Why? Speed-to-lead kills you.
Data: Response in 5 minutes? 21x more likely to book. After 1 hour? Dead.
SDRs sleep. Get busy. Quit. AI doesn't.
Your real CAC isn't ads. It's leaks. Tykon.io fixes three big ones:
After-hours leads: 30-50% of inbound. Ignored.
Under-collected reviews: No velocity, no trust signals.
Unsystematic referrals: Goldmine untapped.
Math it: $300 lead. 40% conversion lift from instant AI response = $75 recovered per lead. Scale to 100 leads/month? $7,500/month. No hires.
The SDR Hiring Trap
Hire an SDR. $50k salary. $15k benefits. $10k tools/training. Total: $75k/year. Or $6,250/month.
Ramp time: 3 months. 50% productivity first quarter. Real cost: $9k/month effective.
Performance? Spotty.
Off-hours: Zero.
Response time: 2-4 hours average.
Follow-up: Inconsistent. 60% ghost rate.
Turnover: 40% annual. Retrain.
CAC impact: SDR closes 10% of leads. At $300/lead, needs 208 closes/year to break even. Miss by 20%? CAC doubles.
Service pros know: Staff dependency kills. Vacations. Sick days. Attitudes.
One dentist client: Hired two SDRs. $150k/year. Booked 15 extra patients/month. CAC stayed flat. Leaks elsewhere killed gains.
AI Sales Automation: Plug Leaks, Crush CAC
AI sales automation isn't a chatbot gimmick. It's a revenue machine.
Tykon.io: Plug-and-play. 7-day install. Instant AI engagement on all channels.
What it does:
Captures: Texts/calls leads in 30 seconds. 24/7.
Converts: Books appointments via SLA-driven follow-up. Unified inbox.
Compounds: Auto-collects reviews. Triggers referrals.
Math: $99/month base. Scales with volume. No per-lead fees.
ROI example:
100 leads/month @ $300 CAC raw.
Baseline conversion: 25% (25 books).
AI: 45% conversion (45 books). +20 books.
Revenue: $5k/patient. $100k recovered.
AI cost: $500/month (high volume).
Net: $99,500/month gain.
CAC drops 44%. Instantly. No ramp.
Speed-to-lead fix alone: 391% ROI per Gong data. Tykon stacks reviews + referrals.
Head-to-Head: AI vs SDRs
| Metric | SDRs | Tykon.io AI Sales Automation |
|-----------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| Upfront Cost| $75k/year + ramp | $99/month, live in 7 days |
| Speed | 2-4 hours avg | 30 seconds, 24/7 |
| Reliability | 60% ghost, 40% turnover | 100% uptime, zero forgetting |
| Scalability | Hire per 100 leads | Handles 10k leads, no extra cost |
| CAC Impact | +10-15% conversion | +40-60% via flywheel |
| Leaks Fixed | Response only | Leads + Reviews + Referrals |
Numbers don't lie. SDR: Breakeven 200 closes/year. AI: Breakeven 20 leads/month.
Scale: 500 leads? SDR needs 3 hires ($225k). Tykon: $499/month tier. CAC plummets 70%.
The Revenue Acquisition Flywheel
Funnels leak. Flywheels compound.
Tykon.io cycle:
Leads → Instant AI response → Books.
Books → Delivers → Auto-review request.
Reviews → Posted → Trust signals → Referrals.
Referrals → New leads.
Compounding: 10% referral lift/month? Doubles revenue in 7 months.
Dentist example: 50 leads/month. AI bumps to 35 books. 30 reviews. 10 referrals. Cycle repeats.
Year 1: +$300k revenue. CAC from $450 to $210.
No fragmented tools. Podium for reviews? CRM for leads? Agency for ads? Waste.
Tykon: Unified. One system.
Real Tykon.io Results
Medspa: $400 lead cost. SDR team: 28% conversion. CAC $1,429.
Tykon: 52% conversion. Reviews up 3x. Referrals 15/month. CAC $769. 46% drop. $180k recovered Year 1.
Home services: After-hours 40% leads lost. Now captured. +22 jobs/month. CAC halved.
Guaranteed: We SLA appointments or refund.
Why Not Both?
Staff handles complex closes. AI does 80% grunt work. But most service books are simple. AI nails them.
Hiring more SDRs? Delays CAC wins. AI starts today.
Stop Leaking. Start Compounding.
You don't need more leads. Fewer leaks.
Tykon.io: AI sales system for SMBs. AI for dentists, medspas, home services. Review collection automation. Referral generation automation. All in one.
Get your Revenue Acquisition Flywheel live in 7 days. Calculate your ROI free.
Written by Jerrod Anthraper, Founder of Tykon.io