BlueJays2591

Federal Business Dev Director

BDR call numbers

How many calls per day should BDRs have to make? I'm not a fan of massive dial numbers, but I do think there should be a reasonable number required each day. Why did you pick that number?

How many calls per day?

Attached poll

20 40 50+

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

📞 Cold Calling

🧢 Sales Management

28 comments

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Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Every organization is going to have a different number because every industry/persona has different connect rates. I'd work backwards to find an appropriate number:

How many call connects does it take to book a meeting?
How many dials do you have to make to have 1 connect?

sideshow_bob

Opinionated

Business Owner

This is the answer. Always work back

TheFemaleWolf

Opinionated

Director of Sales

100%

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

i unfortunately don't have those numbers. stepped into the role and don't have great stats and there are no set metrics, BDRs are expected to hit quota however they want to hit it.

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Are your BDR's hitting quota?

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

all except 2, which i ended up letting go.

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Why fix it if it's not broken?

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

because i believe the numbers for quota is too low and we can be doing more. 4-5 meetings a month on average.

sideshow_bob

Opinionated

Business Owner

@BlueJays2591 You're going to be enemy #1 in the eyes of your BDRs if they are hitting quota and you want to change their behavior because you "think quota is too low"

Artemis

Politicker

Business Development Representative

I'm a BDR and we do things similar. No metrics, just a quota based off of a point system. We have to hit 40 pts each quarter and points are assigned based off of the value of the meetings. I get an average of 15-20 meetings each quarter, so I'd say your BDRs are definitely capable of more meetings.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

it's a long term goal. being pushed from much higher up.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

that's what I'm thinking. higher ups are wanting way more so i'm trying to meet in the middle.

Artemis

Politicker

Business Development Representative

Sounds like you're trying to do right by both. Good for you! I'm sure you'll navigate it well and come up with a good solution for both!

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

i sure hope so. expectation management is 50% of my job lol

hauru.sales

Celebrated Contributor

Sales Enthusiast

Agreed!

HoldemCaulfield

Politicker

Sales Training & Enablement

Every BD role I've been in or managed, it depends upon factors. If we're talking Inbound you definitely want to prioritize time to first touch, and depending on your organization and lead routing, you want to ensure that your BD team is getting enough at bats with different lead types and levels of the funnel.

In an Outbound scenario, you're definitely going to need more dials to hit the number. I found that it took around 80 dials to have 2 quality Opportunities (passed over for a meeting with an AE and hitting the bare minimum of a BANT-type framework). This was probably 10 years ago before having Outreach or Salesloft (used both) --- I used ToutApp (if anyone remembers that!) and an actual desk phone.

This isn't necessarily always the case for every org, but I think over time, you want to have longer and quality conversations so that you can actually do good discovery before passing the Opp off. Additionally, it will help you in your career trajectory either moving into an AE role or CS role as you no how to have longer conversations, and you're not afraid to draw the conversation out and have an open, honest conversation with your customer.

I think you also have to balance the fact that some days you may get 5 Opps, and some days you may get 0 Opps, so it's always best to look at effort but also the quality of the conversation behind the dials. In the beginning, new BDRs are going to need more dials to hit a number because they aren't experienced enough at the company or with sales in general. Power Hours can greatly help this, however, I caution BDRs to just dial down the cadence/sequence without taking at least a 1 - 2 minute breath for how they're going to approach the prospect if they pick up, what type of call this is (is it a follow-up call? a closed-lost reengagement? BOFU demo request?) and what THE CUSTOMER wants or is looking for rather than speaking directly to your company and your services and what you do.

Hope this helps.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

extremely helpful. thanks for this response. gives me a lot to think about.

Telehealth_2the_Moon

Notable Contributor

Director of Business Development

Different areas have different needs, but I do thing 20 a day is likely going to be the minimum no matter where you look.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

i think 20-30 a day is a good number.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

as long as the calls are made with a purpose. research done, good script, reason behind the call, etc. not just random dials for no reason.

Telehealth_2the_Moon

Notable Contributor

Director of Business Development

Agreed. I'd prefer to see 20 well thought out and effortful calls than 40 randos.

Theloanemperor

Opinionated

Loan Officer

absolutely, this changes things entirely from a statement i just wrote. If you're not just dialing off of a random lead in your CRM and you've done research etc., you are typically going to be making 30-50 calls a day because you're going to be going through many stages of the sales process. I'm on hour+ convos often times with my clients.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

Every BD role I've been in or managed, it depends upon factors. If we're talking Inbound you definitely want to prioritize time to first touch,

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

ISR

How many call connects does it take to book a meeting?

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Depends on the type of accounts, number of accounts, and conversion rates. I don't think there is a magic number that can be blanket applied. My best SDR I have ever had made about 10 dials a day. I have had SDRs making 50+ and not setting a single meeting due to poor conversion.

It really depends on the above, and is a per person metric I think.

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

so keep it open and just hit quota in your opinion? back in my BDR days i didn't make a cold call for 6 months and hit quota by utilizing email and LinkedIn.

Theloanemperor

Opinionated

Loan Officer

All in all, it really depends on how much time you spend on each call. If you are JUST starting, you should be making realistically, 50-100 COLD calls a day. at least. I was forced to make 180. (This is not including follow up calls, only cold call focused days). Based on how much and how many times you spend more than 30 seconds on a call, if that. Getting through the "gate keeper" is time consuming and can often result in not getting anywhere and a super short convo, or you weasel your way to whatever department you need to and find the right person, they either take the call and you pitch, or they don't answer and you leave a strategic voicemail. Rinse, repeat, follow up****. After you spend a few days or weeks making only cold calls and build a solid stream of "follow up calls", then that number changes entirely; as things continue to get deeper and later in the sales process and actually developing a relationship with the prospect.

MR.StretchISR

Politicker

ISR

Every organization is going to have a different number because every industry/persona has different connect rates. I'd work backwards to find an appropriate number

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BlueJays2591

BDR call numbers

How many calls per day?

28 comments

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