15 Sales Development Metrics That Actually Matter for SDRs

Sales is about leading indicators and lagging indicators. You don't just get to closed deals and revenue without putting in the work.

What about all the important activity metrics that build up to these milestones? Things like meetings booked, connect rate, and sales accepted leads.

In this guide, we explain the 15 most important sales development metrics you should start tracking right away.

What Are Sales Development Metrics?

Sales development metrics are the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to track the performance of Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

Sales development reps are the lifeblood of the sales funnel. They generate leads and nurture them toward becoming qualified sales opportunities.

The metrics you use to judge their success are of equal, if not more, importance to the metrics to use to qualify overall sales success.

Sales development metrics measure how many and how successful activities during the early stages of the sales funnel are. These include basic metrics like numbers of calls made through to more complex figures like MQL to SQL conversion rate.

15 Sales Development Metrics for Measuring the Success of Your SDR Team

Tracking the right metrics is crucial for optimizing your sales funnel and boosting revenue.

Here are some of the most important SDR metrics to keep an eye on.

1. Dials Made (Number of Calls)

Dials made is an outbound SDR metric that refers to the total number of outbound calls made by an SDR during a specific timeframe. This could be daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on your reporting appetite.

Why it's helpful:

Activity Level: It provides a baseline measure of an SDR's effort. A high call volume indicates a proactive approach to prospecting and lead generation.
Benchmarking: Compare call volume against individual or team benchmarks to assess performance.
Identify Opportunities: Tracking call volume over time can reveal trends and identify areas for improvement in prospecting strategies.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most customer relationship management (CRM) platforms have built-in features to track call activity. SDRs can manually log calls or a CRM can integrate with phone systems for automatic logging.
Call Center Software: If your organization uses a dedicated call center solution, it likely has reporting features that track the number of calls made by individual representatives.

How to improve it:

Focus on quality over quantity.

While a high call volume is positive, it shouldn't come at the expense of quality conversations.

Encourage SDRs to focus on connecting with the right people and having meaningful conversations that qualify leads. Train them on effective prospecting techniques and communication skills to improve call conversion rates (e.g., scheduling meetings or qualifying leads).

2. Emails Sent

This outbound metric is like dials made but for email outreach. Tracks the number of emails sent to prospects within a specific timeframe. This could be daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on your reporting appetite.

Why it's helpful:

Activity Level: It provides a baseline measure of an SDR's effort. A high email volume indicates a proactive approach to prospecting and lead generation.
Benchmarking: Compare email volume against individual or team targets to assess performance.
Identify Opportunities: Tracking email volume over time can reveal trends and identify areas for improvement in prospecting strategies.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRM platforms have built-in features to track email activity. SDRs can manually log emails or a CRM can integrate with email systems for automatic logging.
Contact Center Software: If your organization uses omnichannel contact center software, it likely has reporting features that track the number of emails made by individual representatives.

How to improve it:

Like tracking the number of calls, focus on quality over quantity. It’s no good sending dozens of the same emails every day if none of them get responses.

While a high email volume is positive, the conversion rate is often low. SDRs must dedicate time to crafting high-quality emails, applying personalization where possible, and doing timely follow ups.

Developing templates that can be adapted with information unique to each prospect may reduce the number of emails sent but will improve the quality, open rate, and response rate.

3. Meetings Booked

Often the goal of many SDRs, this outbound sales development metric measures the number of qualified meetings and SDR books in a certain time period. This is usually more helpful to measure on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis rather than daily.

Why it's helpful:

Performance Level: It provides a baseline measure of an SDR's performance. A high number of booked meetings indicates a successful period in time for an SDR and helps demonstrate expertise in this skill.
Benchmarking: You can compare the number of meetings booked against individual or team targets to assess performance.
Identify Training Needs: A low number of booked meetings can reveal opportunities for product and sales training for low-performing SDRs.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRM platforms have built-in features to track meetings booked. SDRs can manually log booked meetings or a CRM can integrate with calendars and sales management systems for automatic logging.
Sales Management Systems: When booking a meeting, sales and marketing solutions automatically track details of calendar invites or SDRs can manually update their system to reflect a qualified meeting.

How to improve it:

SDRs must learn to address customer pain points rather than pitch their product.

In cold emails and on cold calls, explain how a new solution can eliminate a customer’s pain and mention relevant customers who’ve gone through a similar process.

Pushing a product down someone’s throat is a poor sales tactic. Listening to problems and understanding how you can solve them is far superior.

4. Meetings Attended

Once a meeting has been booked, it’s not the end of the road. The ultimate measure of SDR success is if that prospect showed up to the meeting they booked.

This metric tracks the number of scheduled meetings where the prospect actually shows up. It reflects the effectiveness of pre-meeting communication and the value proposition the SDR has presented.

It can also indicate good qualification practices, as prospects who are not a good fit are less likely to attend.

Why it's helpful:

Sales Effectiveness: A high meeting attendance rate suggests the SDR is successfully piquing prospect interest and setting clear expectations for the meeting's value.
Benchmarking: Compare the number of meetings attended against targets to assess performance.
Identify Training Needs: If the meetings booked to meetings attended ratio is low, it highlights a gap between the ability to convince a prospect to agree to a meeting and the ability to convey your value proposition.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRM platforms have built-in features to track meetings attended. Sales reps can manually update whether a prospect attended a meeting or the change of sales state in a sales management system can trigger automatic logging.
Sales Management Systems: When a prospect attends a meeting, sales reps can manually update their system to reflect if the prospect attended the meeting and change the state to qualified or rejected.

How to improve it:

It’s one skill being able to book a meeting but it’s another to iterate why your prospect should show up. There’s a major difference between agreeing to another call and understanding why it’s relevant to them.

Appropriate sales training, like being versed in elevator pitches and fully understanding your product and its value proposition, sets apart serial meeting bookers and SDRs who book high-quality meetings.

5. Connect Rate

Connect rate is an essential outbound sales development metric that refers to the percentage of outreach attempts that result in some form of connection with a potential buyer. This could be an answered call, an opened email, or a response to a social media message.

These metrics don’t necessarily confirm a successful transaction, but they do help judge whether your outbound efforts are making it through systems like call screening and email filters.

Why it's helpful:

Targeting and Outreach Strategy: A low connect rate might suggest SDRs are targeting the wrong audience or using ineffective outreach methods. Analyzing the connect rate can help identify areas for improvement, like refining ideal customer personas or personalizing messages.
Time Management: Unsuccessful connection attempts can be a drain on productivity. A good connect rate ensures they're spending more time on qualified leads and meaningful conversations.
Prioritization: By understanding which channels have the highest connect rates, SDRs can prioritize their efforts and focus on strategies that yield the most connections with potential buyers.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRM platforms have built-in features to track whether calls connect or emails get opened. Sales reps can also manually update whether a call was answered or a social media message gained a response.
Email Management Systems: When an email gets opened or a link gets clicked, email systems will update to reflect the open and click through rate.
Outbound Dialer Software: Outbound dialers have reporting capabilities like calls accepted, rejected, unanswered, and returned.

How to improve it:

Adopt a continuous improvement manner and learn from data-driven insight from previous campaigns.

If calling from an unknown number leads to a low connect rate, it’s time to display your caller ID.

For email outreach, experimenting with subject lines and sender email addresses can garner insights into what gets opened more often.

Over time, you can build your own best practices to share with your SDR teams.

6. Sales Accepted Leads (SALs)/Sales Accepted Opportunity (SAO)

A sales accepted lead (SAL) is a qualified lead or prospect that has been vetted and approved by both the SDRs and the sales team as a potential customer with a high likelihood of closing a deal.

The prospect has been identified as a good fit for the product or service based on criteria like industry, budget, and pain points.

The SAO designation indicates that both SDRs and Account Executives (AEs) who will start the next part of the sales process) are on board.

This might involve SDRs passing the lead to AEs with detailed information and confirmation that the prospect is sales-ready.

Why it's helpful:

SDR Effectiveness: A high number of SAOs indicates SDRs are not only booking a large number of meetings but high-quality meetings that become genuine opportunities.
Benchmarking: Compare the number of SAOs against targets to assess performance.
Identify Training Needs: If SAO levels are low but the number of meetings booked is high, it highlights a gap between an ability to convince a prospect to agree to a meeting and the ability to convey your value proposition.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRM platforms have built-in features to track when an AE moves a lead to the accepted status. Sales reps can also manually update whether a meeting turned into an SAO.
Sales Management Software: When an AE changes the lead status to accepted, most sales management software will automatically report on the number and rate of SAOs.

How to improve it:

Encouraging SDRs to focus on quality over quantity once again plays a big part in increasing your SAO rate.

Spending time on calls and getting to know prospects' pain points and genuine needs is a better sales strategy than rushing through scripts with the sole goal of booking a meeting.

7. Pipeline Generated

This metric measures the total value of new business opportunities created by the SDR team.

It involves calculating the sum of the estimated value of all the new sales opportunities the SDRs add to the pipeline.

You can measure pipeline generated on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Some teams also track their cumulative amount to see if they’re on track to hit set targets.

Why it's helpful:

Revenue Attribution: Puts a tangible figure on the performance of your SDR team.
Benchmarking: Compare the pipeline generated against individual or team targets to assess performance. Annual calculations can make comparisons to draw conclusions on internal and external impacts.
Identify Training Needs: If the amount of pipeline generated is falling short of expectations, it’s a sign that new salespeople need more exposure to simulation scenarios or perhaps better product knowledge.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Some CRM platforms can track pipeline revenue associated with each contact. AEs can update this field when the relevant data is gathered.
Sales Management Software: When an estimated deal value gets generated, AEs or SDRs can manually enter this into a prospect’s record.

How to improve it:

Improve the accuracy of estimated pipeline generated by gathering the number of users. When this is unavailable, use online research for better estimates and lean on historical data for deals of similar deal sizes.

8. Pipeline Contribution Rate

Pipeline contribution rate goes beyond the total value and considers the effectiveness of the SDR team's contribution to the pipeline.

It often involves a ratio that compares the value of the opportunities the SDR team added to the pipeline against a specific factor like dials made.

Pipeline generated tells you the total revenue brought in by the SDRs, whereas pipeline contribution rate tells you how efficiently they brought in that revenue.

For example, if an SDR brings in $100,000 of pipeline per quarter and they made 1,000 calls, the pipeline contribution rate is 1,000 calls per $100,000.

Of course, not every call is worth $1,000. But it’s a good rate to gauge when setting outreach targets.

Why it's helpful:

Targeting and Outreach Strategy: A poor pipeline contribution rate might suggest SDRs are targeting the wrong audience or using ineffective outreach methods. Analyzing this can help identify areas for improvement, like shifting to LinkedIn Inmails instead of cold emails.
Benchmarking: Sets the expected rate for which other SDRs can be measured and targeted.
Prioritization: By understanding which channels have the highest pipeline contribution rates, SDRs can prioritize their efforts and focus on strategies that yield the highest pipeline.

How to track it:

Sales Management Software: Some sales solutions automatically report on the comparison between pipeline generated and SDR effort, incorporating all channels like cold calls, emails, and social media.
Automated Spreadsheets: Create formulas in Excel and Google Sheets to calculate the rate when figures are updated with pipeline and number of SDR actions.

How to improve it:

Double down on areas that contribute to more pipeline. This could be in terms of revenue or number of SAOs.

It doesn’t make sense to continue pursuing channels that generate minimal pipeline if your pipeline contribution flags that one or more channels are far superior.

That said, it’s important not to go all-in on a single channel. If one day your email addresses get blacklisted, for example, you need a second string to your bow. Finding a balance is key.

9. Revenue Generated

Revenue generated takes the pipeline estimate and confirms the exact amount once a deal has been signed.

As well as using this as a key figure in your overall sales metrics, you can work back and attribute this revenue to the originating source (an SDR).

Revenue generated is typically measured over a longer (like yearly) as some deals may take a significant amount of time to close.

Why it's helpful:

New Business Success: New revenue contributes to the bottom line of the company and is often the allure for new investors or new hires.
Benchmarking: Sets targets for new hires and expectations for sales leaders in future periods.
Prioritization: By understanding which channels generate the highest pipeline value, SDRs can prioritize their efforts and focus on strategies that yield the highest revenue.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Some CRM platforms have the ability to track revenue associated with a deal once a lead is moved into the closed-won status. AEs can update this field when the final contract value is established.
Sales Management Software: When a deal completes, AEs can enter the deal value into the customer record.

How to improve it:

To increase revenue generated, think about selling to large companies. While these deals may have longer sales cycles and more effort upfront, they yield larger revenues and opportunities to cross-sell or upsell in the future.

10. Activities Per Rep

Activities per rep measures the day to day tasks an SDR carries out. This includes things like outbound calls, sending outreach emails, and drafting social media messages.

Why it's helpful:

Time Management: Ensure SDRs are spending time on the right tasks and not getting lost in admin.
Task Allocation: Gain insight into what takes up time in an SDR’s day and identify potential outsourcing of tasks to other departments and outsourced sales companies.
SDR Effectiveness: Measure how effective each sales activity is when comparing with other sales development metrics like pipeline contribution rate.

How to track it:

Manual Logging: Ask SDRs to keep a regular tally of the activities they complete per day.
Task Tracking Software: Install a pixel/tracker on SDR’s machines to track what tasks they’re completing on a daily basis.

How to improve it:

Create a lean operation by removing the tasks that SDRs don’t directly benefit from.

Think about automating routine tasks with AI and pre-configured workflows in your CRM or sales software.

It might be the case that you lean on an SDR as a Service team to fulfill your basic needs, enabling SDRs to focus on stages later in the sales funnel.

11. MQL to SQL Conversion Rate

When your marketing team provides an SDR with a marketing-qualified lead (MQL), it becomes the SDRs role to further qualify it as an SQL.

Once qualified, your SDR will hand this over to your account executive team. At this point, the MQL becomes converted to an SQL.

Why it's helpful:

Marketing Effectiveness: Feeds back the quality of MQLs generated from marketing strategy.
SDR Effectiveness: Measures the ability of an SDR to move an MQL along the sales funnel.
Benchmarking: You can compare MQL to SQL conversion rate against individual or team targets to assess performance.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Some CRM platforms have the ability to track MQL to SQL status changes.
Marketing Software: Most marketing software closes the loop when MQLs get converted to SQLs or rejected.

How to improve it:

Both marketing teams and SDR teams can benefit from reviewing the quality of rejected MQLs.

By learning what types of opportunities make it through to SQL can help push higher quality leads through to the AE team and lessen the time wasted on poorly qualified prospects.

12. SQL Rate

SQL rate refers to the percentage of leads that qualify as SQLs. This indicates the effectiveness of their prospecting and qualification efforts.

Why it's helpful:

SDR Effectiveness: Measures the ability of an SDR to generate quality leads (rather than quantity).
Benchmarking: Compare SQL rate against individual or team targets to assess performance.
Identify Training Needs: A poor SQL rate can reveal opportunities for product and sales training for low-performing SDRs.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Some CRM platforms have the ability to track lead to SQL status changes. These are either made manually by an SDR or automatically when a meeting gets booked.
Sales Management Software: Most sales solutions move lead statuses onto SQL when meetings get booked or opportunities get transferred to AEs.

How to improve it:

Encourage SDRs to focus on quality over quantity. The more time they spend upfront qualifying leads, the more likely they are to pass on SQLs that get accepted by AEs.

13. Lead Response Time

Lead response time is a crucial inbound metric for SDRs and overall sales effectiveness. It refers to the average amount of time it takes for an SDR to respond to a lead after they express interest.

Why it's helpful:

Increased Conversion Rates: Businesses that respond to leads within five minutes are more likely to convert them, compared to those with slower response times.
Builds Rapport: A prompt response demonstrates attentiveness and makes a positive first impression.
Sets the Pace: A quick initial response sets the tone for future communication and establishes a sense of urgency with the lead.

How to track it:

Contact Center Reporting: Track the time it takes for SDRs to respond to leads across different channels (phone calls, emails, web form submissions, etc.).
Sales Management Software: Calculate the average response time for all leads or segment it by lead source for a more detailed analysis.

How to improve it:

Streamline communication by developing clear workflows and templates for SDRs to respond to leads efficiently.

14. New Leads

New leads are individuals or companies that have shown interest in your product or service. This could come from website visits, downloading content, or cold outreach from SDRs.

New leads are at the very top of the sales funnel.

They haven't been qualified yet and it's not yet clear if they are a good fit for what you're selling.

Why it's helpful:

SDR Performance: Gauges the basic level of how an SDR is performing. From here, you can dive into the quality of outbound and inbound leads.
Channel Performance: By segmenting new leads by their source, you can identify patterns in where volume of leads come from.
Benchmarking: Compare the number of leads against targets to assess performance.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRMs report on the number of net new leads added when you convert them to lead status.
Sales Intelligence Systems: Every sales intelligence solution (i.e. HubSpot, Salesforce, etc) will report on the number of new leads added within set time periods.

How to improve it:

When you find out which channels produce the most new leads, extend your SDR and marketing resources to increase budgets and focus on these lead sources.

15. New Contacts in the Pipeline

New contacts in the pipeline refers to contacts who’ve been identified as potential customers and added to the sales pipeline.

This indicates they have progressed beyond simply being a new lead. They've shown some level of promise and warrant further qualification by the SDR.

Once a new lead expresses interest, an SDR qualifies them to assess their fit for the product or service. If the lead meets the qualification criteria, they are then added as a new contact to the sales pipeline.

Why it's helpful:

SDR Effectiveness: A high number of new contacts in your pipeline indicates SDRs are performing well, creating new opportunities for AEs.
Outreach Planning: Helps forecast the number of staff and time needed for outreach activities in future weeks/months.
Benchmarking: Compare the number of new contacts in your pipeline against targets.

How to track it:

CRM Software: Most CRMs report on the number of net new contacts added with specific lead statuses.
Sales Management Systems: Every sales management solution will report on the number of new contacts added within set time periods.

How to improve it:

Identify the channel that leverages the most new contacts in your pipeline over the previous three/six months. Double down on the channel and activities that created the most genuine opportunities.

Improve Your SDR Team’s Performance with AltiSales

Without tracking sales development metrics, your sales team is working in the dark.

Every lead is an untraceable mystery and you don’t know what’s working and what’s a waste of time.

Even worse, you’ll continue to do the tasks that add no value when you could be dedicating more time to revenue and lead generating activities.

But that’s where Alti Sales comes in.

With our SDR analytics tool, you get insight into exactly how your sales development team is performing.

Learn where to:

Get access to higher-quality leads
Double down on budget
Expand your resources
Stop losing time

And much more.

Try it for free by signing in via your Outreach.io account.

If improving your SDR performance is on your agenda, don’t do anything else until you’ve started reporting on these metrics.

‍