Outbound SDR metrics: phone, email and sequence benchmarks

Activity turns into meetings through a chain of conversion rates. Those rates differ by channel. Take two reps. One makes 60 dials a day with a 5% connect rate. The other makes 30 with a 13% connect rate. The dashboard says the first works harder. The second reaches more people. This guide sets out the outbound metrics to track for each channel. It shows what recent public data says good looks like. Then it turns the rates into an activity plan.

SDR (sales development representative) and BDR (business development representative) are the same job at most companies. Everything here applies to both.

The outbound funnel, channel by channel

Every outbound channel has the same shape: an attempt, a response, a conversation, a meeting. Only the metric names differ.

Track the response and conversion rates weekly, as well as volume. Volume tells you the work happened. Rates tell you whether it worked.

Phone benchmarks

Look at the gap between average and top quartile. An average rep on Gong's 2024 rates needs about 400 dials per meeting (5.4% times 4.6%). A top-quartile rep needs about 45 (13.3% times 16.7%). That is our calculation from Gong's published rates. Our reading is that data quality, call timing and the opener drive that difference.

Belkins also found an average of three dial attempts per prospect. The 3pm to 4pm window was the most consistent daily peak. Wednesday was the best day for positive outcomes. Treat these as starting points to test.

Email benchmarks

Cold email benchmarks vary widely, mostly because sources count replies differently. Some include out-of-office and automated replies. Others leave them out.

Our reading: count only human replies and track positive replies separately. Compare your team with its own history. Vendor headlines count replies their own way. A sequence that books meetings from 1 in 300 prospects is normal for cold email. A sequence that books none from 600 needs a new list or a new message. Fix those before you send more.

The SDR Programme PlaybookCadences, onboarding and KPIs in one Notion workspace.14 modules and 6 working trackers to build, run and fix the team.
See inside

Activity totals as a sense check

The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR report found a median of 112 activities a day. The medians by channel were 44 phone, 41 email and 19 LinkedIn. It also found 4.1 quality conversations a day. If your reps are far below that on activity, look at tooling and admin time. Far above it with few conversations? Then the list or the message is the problem. Our SDR KPIs and benchmarks guide has the full set.

Worked example: building an outbound activity plan

Kestrel Payroll Cloud is an invented company. It wants each outbound SDR to hold 10 meetings a month. It uses the team's own rates from last quarter. Then it checks them against the benchmarks above.

Now the sense check. Kestrel's 8% connect rate sits between Gong's 2024 average and top quartile. So it is believable. Its 3% email reply rate is above the 2.1% median in Visionary Marketing's 2026 study. Check that automated replies are excluded.

Next, test the sensitivity. Say Kestrel's connect rate fell to the 5.4% average. Phone would then produce about 5.4 meetings instead of 8. The plan would miss by nearly three meetings. Adding 25 dials a day would close the gap on paper. Better phone numbers and calling at the times that connect come first. Talk it through in the weekly 1:1 with the numbers in front of you.

Five outbound metrics to add to your dashboard

1. Connect rate per prospect, as well as per dial. It shows whether reps give up too early.
2. Positive reply rate. Count "remove me" replies separately.
3. Time to first touch on a new account. It shows how long new accounts sit untouched.
4. Sequence completion. Prospects dropped after step two never see the later steps.
5. Meetings per 100 prospects, by channel. It tells you where to put next month's effort.

Put them on one screen. Our SDR KPI dashboard template guide shows a layout.

Want the metric definitions, activity plan and dashboard ready to use? The SDR Programme Playbook (£29 + VAT) is a Notion workspace you can duplicate and adapt.

Next steps: the dials per day calculator turns the call rates above into a daily goal. The free call review scorecard scores the calls themselves.

Sources

• Gong Labs, The hidden power of cold calling, 2024 (latest, checked 18 Oct 2026)
• Belkins, B2B cold calling statistics 2026: benchmarks from 175,000+ dials. 2025 data, published 26 June 2026
• Visionary Marketing, B2B cold email benchmarks study, April 2026
• lemlist, Cold email response rates: B2B benchmarks and data for 2026 (citing Woodpecker)
• The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions and Metrics, 2025 edition

Questions

Related guides

SDR and BDR KPIs

What to measure, and 2024-2025 benchmarks to sense-check against.

SDR KPI dashboard template

What to show on one screen, benchmarks and what to leave off.

Weekly SDR 1:1s

A 30-minute agenda, coaching questions and a worked example.

Follow up email after no response

Four templates with timing, ending in a clean exit.

SDR weekly report template

Six numbers on one page.

Treat benchmarks as starting points. Tune them to your market, deal size and sales cycle. Every figure shows its source and year.