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How to Measure ROI From an SDR Agency (Formula ...
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Common objections from finance, and the answers “Answer with the source field in the CRM: opportunities marked outbound sourced, with the SDR's booking timestamp, separated from inbound and referral.” "Pipeline is not revenue." Correct, which is why pipeline is weighted by stage probability and tracked by cohort to close. Show the month one cohort's actual close rate once it is available.
Frequently asked questions “Expected gross margin from the pipeline the agency created (meetings held × meeting to opportunity rate × realised ACV × win rate × gross margin), minus total program cost including your own team's time, divided by total program cost.” How long before an SDR agency pays back? For Australian mid market B2B at $30,000 plus ACV, six to nine months is a healthy target. Faster at higher deal sizes, slower where sales cycles run past six months.
Everything that would not have been spent without the engagement. “Tooling $0 to $500 a month Dialler, sequencing, if client supplied” For comparison, a fully loaded in house SDR in Australia runs $140,000 to $160,000 a year (3) on a base salary of $75,000 to $90,000 (4), before ramp months at near zero output and re hiring at the typical tenure, which The Bridge Group's 2025 research puts at a median of under two years (5). Our in house vs outsourced cost analysis builds the full comparison.
Four errors, in the order we see them. “A booked meeting is a calendar invite.” Ignoring lag. Judging a program at day 60 on closed revenue, when your average sales cycle is five months, guarantees a negative number that means nothing.
Cost side. Agency fees, set up, data, tooling, your AE time on meetings, your management time. “Value side. Qualified meetings held → opportunities → pipeline value → expected revenue → gross margin → lifetime value where retention is known.” Lag. Most Australian B2B deals close three to nine months after the first meeting. Report pipeline coverage and stage weighted pipeline until then.
TLDR “Formula. ROI = (pipeline created × expected win rate × gross margin − total program cost) ÷ total program cost.” Cost side. Agency fees, set up, data, tooling, your AE time on meetings, your management time.
Formula. ROI = (pipeline created × expected win rate × gross margin − total program cost) ÷ total program cost. “Cost side. Agency fees, set up, data, tooling, your AE time on meetings, your management time.” Value side. Qualified meetings held → opportunities → pipeline value → expected revenue → gross margin → lifetime value where retention is known.
“ROI from an SDR agency is expected gross margin from the pipeline the agency created, minus the total cost of the engagement, divided by that cost, measured on a cohort basis with the sales cycle lag acknowledged.” This guide gives you the formula, the full cost and value sides, three worked examples at different deal sizes, a method for reporting honestly before revenue lands, and a template you can build in a spreadsheet or run in our ROI calculator.
Value side. Qualified meetings held → opportunities → pipeline value → expected revenue → gross margin → lifetime value where retention is known. “Report pipeline coverage and stage weighted pipeline until then.” Payback. For mid market SaaS at $30,000 plus ACV, six to nine months is a healthy target.
“That sentence contains every place people get it wrong: they count meetings instead of margin, they leave out half the costs, they judge month one by closed revenue, and they mix cohorts so improvement is invisible.” This guide gives you the formula, the full cost and value sides, three worked examples at different deal sizes, a method for reporting honestly before revenue lands, and a template you can build in a spreadsheet or run in our ROI calculator.
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