You’re staring at your outbound metrics dashboard, and one question keeps nagging you: “Are these numbers actually good?”
Your SDR team is booking 15 meetings per month. Your cold email reply rate sits at 6%. Your connect rate hovers around 11%. But without context, these numbers are just… numbers.
That’s where benchmarks come in. They’re not gospel, but they’re incredibly useful guideposts that help you understand if you’re on track, falling behind, or crushing it. In this guide, we’ll walk through the real-world benchmarks that matter in 2025, broken down by company size, industry, and channel.
How to Use Benchmarks (Without Getting Burned)
Here’s the thing about benchmarks: they’re starting points, not finish lines.
I’ve seen sales leaders misuse benchmarks in two ways. First, they treat them as absolute truth, ignoring the context of their own market. A 5% reply rate might be fantastic if you’re selling to healthcare CIOs, but disappointing if you’re targeting SMB marketing managers.
Second, they use benchmarks as excuses. “Well, the benchmark is 8%, so our 6% is close enough.” That’s a trap. The real question isn’t how you stack up against some industry average—it’s whether you’re improving.
Use benchmarks to set initial targets when you’re starting from zero. Use them to identify problem areas when something feels off. Use them to set realistic expectations with your team and leadership. But never, ever use them as a replacement for your own data.
The best approach? Start with benchmark targets, track your actual performance religiously, and then optimize based on what YOUR data tells you. Your team improving from 8% to 10% reply rate matters infinitely more than hitting some arbitrary “industry standard.”
Activity Benchmarks: How Much Outreach Is Enough?
Before we dive into conversion metrics, let’s talk about activity. You can’t hit conversion benchmarks if you’re not putting in the volume.
For daily activity, here’s what we typically see. Entry-level SDRs generally make 40-50 calls, send 50-75 emails, and do 15-25 LinkedIn touches per day. That’s roughly 100-150 total touches. Experienced SDRs bump those numbers up—50-75 calls, 75-100 emails, 25-40 LinkedIn touches for 150-200 total. Top performers? They’re hitting 80-100 calls, 100-150 emails, and 40-60 LinkedIn actions, totaling 200-300 touches daily.
Notice the pattern? As SDRs gain experience, they get more efficient. They waste less time on admin tasks, navigate systems faster, and know exactly when to move on from a bad-fit prospect.
Weekly targets shift based on your target segment. If you’re selling to SMBs, expect 300-400 calls, 400-500 emails, and 30-50 new accounts touched per week. That high volume typically generates 5-7 meetings. Mid-market teams dial it back slightly—250-350 calls, 300-400 emails, 20-30 new accounts, producing 4-5 meetings. Enterprise SDRs work even fewer accounts but go deeper: 150-250 calls, 200-300 emails, 10-20 new accounts, booking 2-3 high-quality meetings.
The key insight? More activity doesn’t always mean better results. An enterprise SDR booking 3 meetings worth $50K each is far more valuable than an SMB SDR booking 7 meetings worth $5K each.
Email Benchmarks: What Good Cold Email Looks Like
Let’s start with the metric everyone obsesses over: reply rate.
If you’re getting less than 4% reply rate, something’s wrong. You’re below average. Maybe your targeting is off, maybe your copy is generic, or maybe your list quality is terrible. The average range is 5-8% for decent cold email. Good campaigns hit 8-12%. Excellent, highly-personalized campaigns crack 12% and sometimes go as high as 20%.
But reply rate alone doesn’t tell the whole story. You also need to track positive reply percentage. Getting a 15% reply rate sounds great until you realize that 80% of those replies are “unsubscribe” or “not interested.” Aim for at least 40-50% of replies to be positive or neutral, with good campaigns hitting 50-60% positive.
Delivery rate should be 96-98% or higher. If you’re below 93%, you’ve got serious technical issues—probably domain reputation problems or list hygiene disasters. Open rates typically land around 40-50% for average campaigns, 50-60% for good ones, and north of 60% for excellent targeting and subject lines.
Here’s what most people don’t track but should: email performance by sequence position. Your first email typically gets 4-6% reply rate. The second email adds another 3-5%, bringing your cumulative to 7-11%. By email three, you’re at 9-15% cumulative. Email four pushes you to 11-18%. After that, diminishing returns kick in hard—each subsequent email adds maybe 1-3% to your cumulative rate.
This tells you something important: most sequences should be 4-6 emails max. Going beyond that is often just annoying people who’ve already decided they’re not interested.
Email performance also varies dramatically by approach. A highly personalized cold email—one where you’ve researched the prospect and referenced something specific about their company—can hit 8-15% reply rate. Segment-personalized emails (same message customized for, say, all VP of Sales at Series B companies) typically get 5-10%. Template-based but quality emails land around 4-8%. Mass automated blasts? You’re looking at 2-5% if you’re lucky.
Phone Benchmarks: The Numbers Behind Cold Calling
Cold calling gets a bad rap, but when done right, it’s still one of the highest-intent channels.
Connect rate—actually getting a human on the phone—typically ranges from 10-12% on average. Below 8% usually means you’ve got data quality issues or you’re calling at terrible times. Good connect rates hit 13-18%. Excellent connect rates exceed 18%, which usually means you’ve got direct dials, mobile numbers, and you’re calling at optimal times.
Once you connect, the next metric is conversation rate—the percentage of connections where you actually have a real conversation beyond “take me off your list.” Average teams convert 60-70% of connections to conversations. Good teams hit 70-80%. Excellent teams exceed 80%, which means their openers are effective and they’re reaching genuinely relevant people.
Of those conversations, how many turn into meetings? Average is 15-20%. Good is 20-30%. Excellent is north of 30%. This metric is largely about qualification and value proposition. If you’re booking meetings with people who have no budget, authority, or need, you’ll hit high meeting rates but terrible SQL rates.
The ultimate metric for calling is dials-to-meeting. This compounds all the previous metrics. Average teams need 50-100 dials to book one meeting (1-2% conversion). Good teams get one meeting per 30-50 dials (2-3% conversion). Excellent teams book a meeting for every 25-30 dials (3%+ conversion).
Call timing matters more than most people realize. Calling between 8-9 AM typically yields 15-20% connect rates—people are at their desks, haven’t been bombarded yet, and are somewhat receptive. Connect rates drop to 10-15% between 9-11 AM, further to 8-12% between 11 AM-12 PM, and crater to 5-8% during lunch. The afternoon picks back up slightly, with 3-5 PM being a surprisingly good window (12-18% connect rate) as people wrap up their day.
The biggest lever for connect rate? Data quality. Having a direct dial instead of a main line can double your connect rate. Getting a mobile number instead of an office line can boost it by 50-80%. This is why investing in quality data providers or building your own prospecting systems pays dividends.
LinkedIn Benchmarks: Social Selling by the Numbers
LinkedIn has become a critical channel for B2B outbound, especially for enterprise sales.
Connection acceptance rates average 30-40%. Below 25% typically means your profile looks suspicious or your outreach is too salesy. Good connection rates hit 40-50%. Excellent campaigns exceed 50%, which usually means you’ve got strong mutual connections, solid personalization, or you’re genuinely relevant to your targets.
The approach matters significantly. Sending a personalized connection note can get you 45-55% acceptance with 20-30% of those connections responding to your follow-up message. Generic notes drop that to 25-35% acceptance and 10-15% response. Sending no note at all? You’re looking at 20-30% acceptance and you’ve wasted your first touchpoint.
InMail response rates—for those with LinkedIn Sales Navigator—typically hit 10-15% on average, 15-20% for good campaigns, and can exceed 20% for highly personalized outreach to well-targeted prospects. InMails work best when you’ve exhausted other channels or when you’re reaching people who are otherwise unreachable.
Meeting Benchmarks: Quantity and Quality
This is where the rubber meets the road. All the activity and outreach exists to book qualified meetings.
Monthly meeting targets vary significantly by segment. Enterprise SDRs typically book 8-12 meetings per month, with top performers hitting 15+. Mid-market SDRs target 12-18, with top performers at 22+. SMB SDRs should be booking 18-25, with top performers exceeding 30. High-volume, transactional sales might target 25-35 meetings with top performers hitting 40+.
But meeting quantity is only half the equation. Meeting quality is what actually drives revenue.
Show rate—the percentage of booked meetings where the prospect actually shows up—should be 75-80% minimum. Good teams hit 80-85%. Excellent teams exceed 85%. If your show rate is below 70%, you’re either booking unqualified meetings or you’re not doing enough pre-meeting nurture.
SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) rate measures how many meetings turn into legitimate opportunities. Average is 60-70%. Good is 70-80%. Excellent teams exceed 80% SQL rate, which means their qualification process is tight and they’re only booking meetings with people who have real potential.
SQO (Sales Qualified Opportunity) rate—meetings that turn into actual opportunities in the pipeline—typically runs 50-60% on average, 60-70% for good teams, and north of 70% for excellent teams.
Here’s the math that matters: 10 meetings at 80% show rate and 70% SQL rate (5.6 SQLs) is often more valuable than 20 meetings at 60% show rate and 50% SQL rate (6 SQLs) because the quality is higher and you’re wasting less AE time.
Industry-Specific Benchmarks
Not all industries are created equal when it comes to outbound.
Tech and SaaS companies typically see 8-12% email reply rates, 12-15% connect rates, and 3-5% overall meeting rates. The targets are sophisticated, used to being sold to, and often saturated with outbound. Show rates tend to be 75-80%. You need excellent differentiation to stand out.
Financial services is tougher. Expect 5-8% reply rates, 8-12% connect rates, and 2-3% meeting rates. These are regulated industries, harder to reach, and more risk-averse. But when you do break through, show rates hit 80-85% and deal quality is often excellent.
Healthcare is one of the most challenging industries. Reply rates of 4-7%, connect rates of 8-10%, and meeting rates of 1.5-2.5% are typical. Complex buying committees, compliance requirements, and long sales cycles make everything slower. But the deals are often large and sticky.
Professional services—consulting, legal, accounting—can be surprisingly receptive. Reply rates of 10-15%, connect rates of 15-20%, and meeting rates of 4-6% are achievable. These are relationship-driven businesses where referrals matter, but cold outbound can work if you lead with genuine insight.
Benchmarks by Company Size
The size of your target company dramatically changes your benchmarks.
When selling to enterprise companies (1000+ employees), expect 5-8% email reply rates, 8-12% connect rates, and 1.5-2.5% overall meeting rates. Your SDRs will book 8-12 meetings per month, but each meeting might represent $40K-80K in pipeline. The sales cycles are longer, there are more stakeholders, and everything moves slower. But the deals are bigger and the logos are impressive.
Mid-market (100-999 employees) is often the sweet spot. You’ll see 7-10% reply rates, 10-15% connect rates, and 2-4% meeting rates. SDRs book 12-18 meetings per month, with each representing $15K-40K in pipeline. This segment has real budgets, established processes, but isn’t so large that everything requires committee approval.
SMB (under 100 employees) is higher volume, faster moving. Reply rates of 8-12%, connect rates of 12-18%, and meeting rates of 3-5% are achievable. SDRs can book 18-25 meetings per month, though each might only represent $5K-15K in pipeline. The advantage? Faster sales cycles, often a single decision maker, and quicker time to revenue.
SDR Ramp Benchmarks
If you’re building or scaling an SDR team, understanding ramp time is critical.
Most SDRs hit 0-25% of quota in their first month. They’re learning systems, understanding the pitch, and figuring out how to navigate conversations. By month two, expect 50% of quota. Month three should get you to 75%. Full ramp happens in month 4.
The typical timeline looks like this: first meeting booked in week 2-3, consistent activity levels by week 3-4, hitting 50% quota in month 2, full ramp in month 3-4, and achieving top performer status after 6+ months.
If your SDRs aren’t hitting these milestones, you’ve got either a hiring problem, a training problem, or a market problem. Diagnose which one and fix it quickly.
Making Benchmarks Work for You
The key to using benchmarks effectively is to treat them as starting points, not destinations.
Start by reviewing industry benchmarks for your segment and market. Adjust those benchmarks based on your specific situation—your product, your market, your ideal customer profile. Set initial targets based on those adjusted benchmarks. Then track your actual performance meticulously.
Once you have enough data—usually 2-3 months—start optimizing based on what YOUR data tells you, not what some benchmark says. Maybe your target market responds better to LinkedIn than email. Maybe your connect rates are higher at 7 AM than the “optimal” 8-9 AM window. Trust your data.
Revise your targets quarterly based on actual performance and market changes. The goal is continuous improvement within your own context, not hitting some arbitrary industry standard.
When you spot a metric significantly below benchmark, resist the urge to panic or make excuses. Instead, diagnose the root cause. Is it data quality? Process issues? Skill gaps? Market differences? Address the actual problem, not the symptom.
Key Takeaways
Outbound benchmarks give you guideposts, but your own data is what matters most. Here’s what you need to remember:
Benchmarks vary significantly by segment and industry. An 8% reply rate in healthcare is excellent; in professional services, it’s mediocre. Context matters. Always adjust industry benchmarks for your specific market and target persona.
Use benchmarks as your starting point, then optimize ruthlessly based on your own data. If your team consistently converts at 3% while the “benchmark” is 5%, but you’re improving quarter over quarter and hitting revenue targets, you’re doing fine. The trend matters more than the absolute number.
Enterprise outbound is a lower volume, higher quality game. Fewer activities, fewer meetings, but bigger deals and longer-lasting customers. SMB is the opposite—higher volume, faster conversion, smaller deals. Neither is better; they’re just different strategies requiring different benchmarks.
Track your trends over time, not just absolute performance against benchmarks. Your team improving from 8% to 10% reply rate is a massive win, regardless of what some industry report says. Celebrate improvements and use them to build momentum.
Remember: the best sales teams don’t obsess over matching benchmarks. They obsess over understanding what drives their unique performance and optimizing those levers relentlessly. Use benchmarks to set direction, then let your data guide the journey.
Need Help Hitting Your Benchmarks?
We’ve helped hundreds of teams exceed industry benchmarks through better targeting, sharper messaging, and smarter execution. If your numbers aren’t where they need to be—or you’re hitting benchmarks but want to blow past them—let’s talk.
Book a call with our team. We’ll review your current metrics, identify the biggest opportunities, and show you exactly how to improve your outbound performance.