How Many Meetings Should a Kickass SDR Schedule (per month)?

According to Indeed, a search for Sales Development Representative returns 53,506 results. According to the AA-ISP, there are currently over 3.1 million inside sales jobs in the USA. Yet, a simple question like How many meetings should an SDR schedule? returns largely useless results from Google and nothing recent. It’s a lonely question on Quora, too. Yeah– shockingly little data and treatment for a question that has no doubt crossed the minds of every SDR and each the people that manage them, from Sales Development Managers all the way up to the VP of Sales.

SDR Meeting Averages

Luckily, we have some decent surveys to rely on, thanks to The Bridge Group. Consider these averages, blended across SaaS Sales Development Teams surveyed:

• 21 Meetings per month
• 62% Conversion Rate, Meeting-to-Opportunity
• 13 Opp’s per month

But how did each of the surveyed companies come to decide on these quota figures?

Is it as simple as seeing what everyone else is doing and then following along? This method might concern some managers right off. And valuing your SDR’s time appropriately is more important than most people assume.

Basing SDR Quotas on Sales Needs

In answering this question, wouldn’t the most logical answer literally fall out of the sales numbers needed to meet sales team quotas, right? Before we go there, consider these other industry standards worth knowing:

• 25% Opportunity to Closed Won Conversion Rate Percentage
• $985,000 – Average Inside Sales Quota
• $19,000 – Average Contract Value (ACV), Inside Sales

Here’s a hypothetical example using the above quota structure and industry average (all numbers are rounded up):

As you can see, the SDR Meeting Math becomes largely dependent on Average Contract Value (all else equal), hence the wide variance in scenarios. It’s hard to imagine a situation where even the most kickass SDR rests on his/her laurels after setting a total of 5 meetings (Scenario 4). Conversely, at $10K, the meetings per month (53) average more than 2 per business day– which is extremely hard to achieve. At this Quota of $985K, Scenarios 1-4 produce the following meeting totals: 53, 28, 11, 5. Not exactly a relevant range.

Of course, all this assumes a 1:1 SDR:AE (Sales Development Rep to Account Executive) relationship. There are plenty of companies with teams sourcing qualified meetings in round-robins or pools for all sourced introductory meetings.

Truth (and Meeting Quotas) Lie Somewhere in the Middle 

These averages encompass an unwieldy and rather wide variety of meeting targets. In our experience, good target setting is its own reward. Research backs this up, too– people respond better to achievable goals. And goal attainment is key to ongoing motivation, job satisfaction, and–since we’re talking sales here– is also a great way to keep your job. So basing an SDR Meeting Quota solely around an Account Executive (AE) sales quota achievement may not be the most optimal strategy — even if it is the most logical. Further, as demonstrated above, ACV has an overwhelming effect on the basic math.

Another way to think through the math of quotas is to consider targets accounts, then the profiles associated with those accounts you are looking to land.

The Prospect Angle

The sales development function is dependent on a multitude of variables, but arguably none is more crucial than engagement. Engagement can be quantified, too, by responses from prospects such as email replies or phone conversations. As such, we can calculate ratios across all prospects worked to determine those engaged… Ultimately leading to our goal of the qualified meeting.

Engagement ratios from prospects worked are usually in the 5 – 25% range* — We can calculate the average across SDR Teams at a 15% Engagement Rate* (to the total number of worked prospects). Then from a status of engaged, those prospects converted to qualified is very consistent, at a 10% Qualification Rate* (to engaged prospects).

You can see examples of these funnels displayed here:

As you can see, the numbers are remarkably consistent for these random monthly samples of different sized teams. So taking the funnel of prospects worked to qualified meetings you find a 2% Overall Conversion Rate* (total prospects worked to qualified rates).

So, out of a pool of 1,000 prospects worked, you could expect 20 Qualified Meetings.

SDR Activities Required 

Let’s now look at the other side of the equation– Activities behind landing those meetings.

Each SDR is expected to perform a range of activities, but these have a banded range, too.

• The average number of dials per day has held pretty steady at 50 per day over the past decade (the average was 46 in 2016).
• The number of emails can vary, but averages with targeted personalization (human research before sending) are generally in the same range as phone calls, averaging 65 per day. Some companies skew far higher here in concentrating primarily on email alone as their primary outreach strategy.
• Social and Custom steps in a process vary too, but should generally include at least one such touch per prospect, 20-25 per day.
• Which gets you to a blended average of 140 activities per day. For a rule of thumb, in a 7-hour window, this is about 20 activities per hour.

This equates to roughly 3,000 activities per month (number of workdays per month ranging from 21-23).

Activities + Prospects

It’s worth thinking through the sequences and numbers of touches any or each prospect will receive. This can vary wildly from a scheduled flow of 5 touches over 5 days is as different as a 20-touch flow over 3 months. As will the rate of touches needed to engage and ultimately land a meeting. Here’s a trendline on these figures on a weekly basis over the past few months:

As you can see, the range is 1.5 touches (a good week!) to 8.7 touches. Nearly a 5X difference from one week to another. This is tricky stuff, as the variables on landing outbound meetings are practically limitless.

But this is where the kickass SDR will shine the brightest. She will constantly be experimenting with messaging, personalization and research of her prospects. And each of these ratios above will reveal her effectiveness over time.

Summary Recommendations

If we were inheriting an SDR team to lead or starting one from scratch, the starting strategy would be to use our public spreadsheet. Go ahead and plug in your current ACV to get an idea of where your company sits on the ACV spectrum. The need to generate fewer or greater numbers of meetings is directionally very useful. Then you can calculate numbers of prospects needed to be worked, and finally the optimal number of SDRs relative to AE’s.