Outbound SDR Capacity Planning Calculator
Outbound SDR teams require capacity planning from pipeline target backwards: meetings → opportunities → pipeline → bookings. Calculate exactly how many SDRs to hire, ramp cost, and when the team breaks even.
| Opportunities needed per quarter | — |
| Meetings needed per quarter | — |
| Meetings per SDR per quarter | — |
| SDRs required (productive) | — |
| SDRs to hire (accounting for ramp + attrition) | — |
| Fully-loaded annual cost | — |
| Cost per opportunity sourced | — |
Outbound SDR capacity planning starts from pipeline target and works backward through the funnel: pipeline → opportunities → meetings → SDR count. Account for ramp (3 months avg) and attrition (35% annual industry standard). Without this discipline, teams over-hire (waste $400K-$800K/yr) or under-hire (miss pipeline target by 25%+).
Capacity Math
Step 1: Opps needed = Pipeline target / ACV. Step 2: Meetings needed = Opps / (meeting-to-opp rate). Step 3: SDRs needed = Meetings / (meetings per SDR per quarter). Step 4: Hires needed = SDRs × ramp factor × (1 + attrition). A team needing 12 productive SDRs typically hires 17-19 to account for 3-month ramp and 35% annual attrition. Skipping the buffer = guaranteed pipeline miss within 6 months.
Cost per Opportunity
Fully-loaded SDR cost is $90K-$130K (base $55-70K + commission $20-30K + benefits/tools $20K). A productive SDR books 12-18 meetings/month → 4-6 opps. Cost per opp = $1,500-$2,500. If your ACV is $50K, cost per opp is 3-5% of ACV — healthy. If ACV is <$10K, outbound SDR cost per opp can hit 25%+ of ACV — better to switch to inbound, PLG, or low-touch sales. Bridge Group benchmark: top quartile $1,200/opp, bottom quartile $4,000+/opp.
Last updated May 2026. Sources: Bridge Group SDR Metrics Report.