BDR / SDR metrics
Business and sales development reps turn raw demand into qualified pipeline. Their metrics measure activity, efficiency, and the quality of what they hand to closers.
Shape of it
7 metrics
- Meetings booked
- Qualified meetings scheduled in a period.
- Benchmark ~15 / month per SDR is a common 2025 average
- The primary output metric; ties directly to pipeline creation.
- Connect rate
- Share of dials that reach a live right-party contact.
- connects / dials
- Benchmark ~3–10% in 2025 (down from 15–20%); ~18+ dials per connect
- Falling connect rates are why teams moved from dial-only to multi-channel sequencing.
- Meeting-held rate
- Share of booked meetings that actually happen.
- meetings held / meetings booked
- Benchmark ~80% (roughly 12 held per 15 booked)
- A low rate signals poor qualification or scheduling friction, and inflates SDR credit if comp pays on booked.
- SAL → SQL acceptance
- Share of SDR-sourced accepted leads the AE qualifies as real opportunities.
- accepted SQLs / SDR-sourced SALs
- Benchmark ~53% of SALs convert to SQLs (2025)
- The handoff quality gate; a low rate means the two teams disagree on "qualified."
- Speed-to-lead
- Time from inbound lead creation to first outreach.
- Benchmark Under 5 min: ~21x more likely to qualify vs. 30 min (MIT/HBR)
- The highest-ROI inbound ops lever; justifies routing automation and round-robin SLAs.
- Pipeline sourced
- Opportunity value attributable to BDR-created meetings.
- sum of opp value where source = BDR
- The dollar figure that justifies the team.
- Cost per meeting / per SQL
- Fully-loaded cost to produce one meeting or SQL.
- team cost / meetings (or SQLs)
- The efficiency lens for comparing outbound to other channels.
01
02
03
04
05
06
07