Pipeline economics
ROI Calculator
ROI Calculator
Your numbers · editableEvery comparison number below is yours to edit. We only fix our own rate, and we bill it marginally: each meeting is charged at its band, $750 for the first nine a month, then $680, $600, and $550, so more volume lowers your blended rate. What matters is not cost per meeting but the return on the spend: a cheap unqualified meeting can beat us per meeting and still lose on ROI.
At your numbers · DemandNexus
- Monthly cost
- $10,830
- Opportunities/mo
- 5.3
- Deals/mo
- 1.6
- Pipeline value
- $525,000
- Closed revenue
- $157,500
- Cost per closed deal
- $6,876
Cost per closed deal · lower is better
- In-house SDRs $6,786
- DemandNexus $6,876
At 15 meetings a month, in-house edges us on cost per closed deal. Our rate is graduated, so from 20 meetings up our cost per deal drops below it, and the gap widens with volume. Drag the slider up to watch it cross.
At your numbers, pay-per-meeting is a fit.
- At the numbers you entered, your current motion has the lower cost per closed deal — we would not beat it here. Change the inputs to your reality and see where the line crosses.
The comparison above weighs cost per closed deal only. It does not price in:
- 90%+ show rate
- No-shows are replaced within 5 business days at no cost
- Every meeting is vetted through BANT before it hits your calendar
- No hiring, no ramp, no turnover
How this calculator works
The tool reduces every acquisition model to one honest number: cost per closed deal. The critical comparison is not cost per meeting but cost per closed deal. A cheap, unqualified meeting can beat a BANT-verified one on cost per meeting and still cost far more per deal once it fails to convert — a $150 meeting that closes at 2% is more expensive than a $750 meeting that closes at 35% by several times over on a cost-per-closed-deal basis.
For every model the math is identical, so the only thing that differs is the inputs: opportunities = meetings × meeting-to-opportunity rate; deals = opportunities × your close rate; cost per deal = monthly cost ÷ deals. Your opportunity-to-close rate is applied equally to every model, so it never tilts the comparison.
What "fully loaded" means for in-house SDRs
When you compare against an in-house team, the honest cost is not the salary — it is the fully loaded cost per meeting, including SDR salary, tools, data, management overhead, and ramp time, plus benefits, training, and the cost of turnover. This calculator starts from a neutrally-sourced floor — a US SDR base of about $52,000 (PayScale) uplifted ~1.3× for benefits and payroll tax (US SBA) — and exposes tools, management, and ramp/turnover as separate, individually editable lines so you can enter your own reality. SDRs ramp for roughly 3 months and stay about 1.5 years on average (Bridge Group), which is why ramp and turnover are real line items, not rounding.
The pay-per-meeting model
In a pay-per-meeting-held model, billing is triggered only when a BANT-verified prospect actually attends; any no-show is replaced at no cost within five business days, and you retain permanent ownership of all data. That is the only side of this comparison we assert — every competing number above is yours to set.
Frequently asked questions
Why is cost per closed deal the right metric — not cost per meeting?
Cost per meeting tells only half the story; cost per qualified meeting is what matters. The metric that actually matters is cost per qualified opportunity — not cost per contact or cost per booked slot.
What does a fully-loaded in-house SDR cost include?
For in-house teams, the fully loaded cost per meeting includes SDR salary, tools, data, management overhead, and ramp time — on top of base salary you also carry benefits, training, and the cost of turnover.
What is pay-per-meeting pricing?
Pay-per-appointment, or pay-per-meeting-held, pricing bills only for BANT-qualified meetings that the prospect actually attends. It shifts qualification risk to the provider, since unattended meetings are replaced rather than charged.
What happens if a prospect no-shows?
No-shows are replaced within five business days at no charge. Any vendor that charges for no-shows is shifting qualification risk onto you.
What is a good ROI to target for appointment setting?
For BANT-qualified B2B appointment setting, target 120%+ annual ROI. Top-performing programs achieve 500–1,500%+ ROI.