SDR metrics benchmarks: Quota, ramp, tenure, attrition and the SDR to AE ratio

The Bridge Group's 2025 report sets the median monthly sales development representative (SDR) quota at 10 held meetings, and 60% of SDRs reach it. Ramp averages 3.0 months. Tenure averages 1.9 years, and median annual attrition was 40% in 2024. The median team runs 1 SDR to 2.4 account executives (AEs). Each SDR sources a median $3.78M in raw pipeline a year.

SDR metrics benchmarks at a glance

The Bridge Group's 2025 report gives the current reference set for SDR metrics. It draws on survey responses from 351 B2B companies, collected by online survey, 2024 to 2025. The sample is not neutral. In the report's own words, 78% are North America-based, 83% are B2B SaaS, with a median revenue of $47M and median ASP of $50K, where ASP is average selling price.

Check the statistic before you compare. The report states that all figures are medians or averages as noted. Ramp and tenure are averages. The others are medians.

All rows: Bridge Group, 2025 report. The quota figure is a Stage 0 held global median of 10, and the Stage 1 Converted global median is 6. Attrition covers annual attrition (2024) at a 40% median.

Read the pipeline row with care. Pipeline per SDR rose from $2.83M in 2022, and the report attributes the increase to higher ASPs ($44K median in 2024 vs. $27K in 2022) rather than more meetings. If your selling price differs from the sample's, your pipeline per SDR will differ for the same meeting count.

Converting the table to a team plan

This is an example, not a benchmark. For example, a team of 10 SDRs on a quota of 10 meetings a month carries 100 meetings a month. In this example, one rep at that quota over 12 months carries 120 meetings a year. In this example, if a share of 0.6 of the 10 reps reach quota, 6 reps are at quota in a given month.

Monthly meeting capacity = SDR headcount x monthly quota
Annual meetings per SDR  = monthly quota x 12
Reps at quota            = SDR headcount x share at quota
Productive months        = tenure in months - ramp months

Use the same stage definitions you use for a sales qualified lead so meeting counts line up with your funnel conversion benchmarks.

What is a typical SDR quota?

The headline quota from the opening section hides a spread. In the 2025 Bridge Group data, what an SDR is asked to book depends on the meeting charter, meaning how much qualification a meeting must carry before it counts. The 2025 report gives monthly Stage 0 held quotas of 16.0 for the introductory model, 10.4 for semi-qualified and 9.0 for fully qualified.

Quotas have come down

The global median Stage 0 quota is down 40% since 2018, and Stage 1 converted is down 43% over the same period. The same report says quotas "remained rock-steady from 2022 to 2024." An earlier edition, summarized by Blossom Street Ventures, put the average at 21 for introductory meetings and 15 for fully qualified opportunities. That edition also recorded quotas as low as 2 opportunities per month for outbound SDRs with an average selling price (ASP) of $200K+ and as high as 60 for inbound SaaS SDRs under $5K.

Why the charter comes first

A team booking introductory meetings and a team booking fully qualified opportunities are doing different jobs. Comparing their counts directly will make the first team look more productive. In that earlier edition, 37% of companies set introductory meetings, 31% semi-qualified and 32% fully qualified, so any blended median mixes all three.

The Bridge Group's rule of thumb, quoted in the same summary, is to "deploy an introductory meeting charter when the market for your product is immature," and that "if your AEs are drowning in pipeline, then a fully qualified opportunity charter is appropriate." Before you benchmark, write down your charter in your marketing and sales SLA and compare only against the matching row. If your handoff standard is a sales qualified lead, you are closer to the fully qualified row.

A worked example

These are example inputs, not benchmarks. For example, take a quota of 10 held meetings a month and a Stage 1 conversion rate of 0.6.

Stage 1 per month     = held meetings x conversion  = 10 x 0.6     = 6
Stage 1 per year      = Stage 1 per month x months  = 6 x 12       = 72
Annual pipeline       = Stage 1 per year x ASP      = 72 x 50000   = 3,600,000

If the same SDR moved to an introductory charter, the held count would rise and conversion would likely fall. We think the pipeline line is the one to hold constant when you reset a quota.

What share of SDRs hit quota, and what do they earn?

The share of SDRs at quota, cited at the top of this page, was the lowest reported in study history. The same report says this metric has trended down since 2018.

The distribution matters more than the headline. The majority of companies (67%) report 50 to 89% of reps at quota, while 21% report 70 to 89%. If fewer than half your reps hit plan, you sit below that middle band. Look at quota design before you look at the reps.

How the median package is built

The median OTE given earlier carries a 68:32 base-to-variable split ($55K base / $25K variable), and it was unchanged since 2022. Over a longer span, OTE has grown at just 0.56% CAGR nominally over the past decade, while CPI grew 43.9% over 14 years. In our reading, the real value of the package has fallen even as the nominal number held still.

Why OTE overstates take-home pay

OTE is a number at plan. As one salary guide puts it, OTE equals base salary plus variable compensation at full quota attainment. The same guide notes that many reps land between 60, 80% of quota.

Here is a worked example using a round input of 0.6 attainment, not a benchmark. Assume a linear plan with no thresholds or accelerators. In this example, at 0.6 of plan, the rep earns 0.6 of the $25K variable, which is $15K. That lines up with a scenario in the guide where a rep operating at 60-70% attainment sees earnings drop closer to $70K.

Use this to model your own plan before you publish an offer:

expected_variable = variable_at_plan x expected_attainment
expected_take_home = base + expected_variable
gap_to_OTE = OTE - expected_take_home

Run it with your team's actual attainment distribution, not an assumption that every rep hits plan. If most reps land below plan, the gap is what candidates will feel in their first year. It also shows up in attrition.

Two plan features change the math. A threshold below which no variable pays makes the loss at low attainment steeper than the linear case. Accelerators above plan pay top performers more than OTE. Write both into the formula if your plan uses them. For the downstream view of how meetings turn into revenue, see our win rate benchmarks.

How long does an SDR take to ramp, and how long do they stay?

Ramp and tenure are the two figures that set how many productive months you get from each hire. The benchmarks above give the current averages. The longer trend gives context: ramp fell from a peak of 3.8 months in 2014. An earlier edition of the same study reported that the average ramp time is 3.2 months and the average rep lasts 1.5 years.

Tenure has spread across a fairly narrow band. 58% of companies report 12, 23 month average tenure. The Bridge Group attributes the rebound to 2022, 2023 layoffs and a competitive AE job market in 2024 reducing voluntary churn.

What the attrition figure is made of

The 2024 median attrition breaks into three parts, and they mean different things for planning:

Promotions are the largest of the three, but they have halved since the post-COVID boom (34% in 2020). In our reading, a team that reports one blended turnover number hides whether it has a hiring problem or a working promotion path.

Define the ramp clock before you compare

An external ramp average only lines up with yours if you measure the same interval. One working definition treats ramp as the elapsed time from that cohort start to a documented productivity standard that the team chose in advance, with cohort start meaning the first paid working day in the SDR role. Keep onboarding completion and quota attainment as separate records.

Write the definition down once and apply it to every cohort:

RAMP DEFINITION (fill in once, apply to every hire)
Clock starts:        first paid working day in the SDR role
Clock does not reset: territory, manager or lead source changes
Logged separately:    extended leave, missing system access
Productivity standard: [share of quota] x [monthly quota] in [named stage]
Sustained for:        [number] consecutive full working months
Clock stops:          first day of the first qualifying month

In this example, which is not a benchmark, a monthly quota of 10 held meetings and a standard of 0.6 of quota give a threshold of 10 × 0.6 = 6 held meetings in a month. If a rep crosses that line in one month and drops below it the next, the clock keeps running. Name the stage as well: a held meeting quota and an accepted opportunity quota produce different ramp times for the same rep.

Then set ramp against tenure. For example, a rep who leaves at 12 months gives you 12 months minus ramp at full output, so a slow ramp and short tenure compound each other.

What is a normal SDR to AE ratio?

The ratio question has two kinds of answer: survey averages across mixed companies, and segment figures that tie the ratio to deal size and cycle length. They measure different samples, so read each with its sample attached.

An earlier Bridge Group edition, summarized by Blossom Street Ventures, drew on 434 executives at SaaS companies with median revenue of $24mm and median ACV of $28k. Annual contract value (ACV) is the yearly value of a customer contract. That edition reported 2.6 AEs for every 1 SDR, and noted that higher growth, smaller companies may run a tighter ratio.

The 2025 Bridge Group edition surveyed 351 B2B companies online from 2024 to 2025. Beyond the median ratio covered earlier, its most common model was 1 SDR to 2 AEs, at 31% of respondents. Smaller companies deployed more SDRs per AE.

Ratio by segment

Optifai's benchmark covers 939 companies from Q2 2025 to Q1 2026 and splits the ratio by segment: SMB 1:2, Mid-Market 1:2.5, Enterprise 1:3-1:4. Each ratio reads as one SDR to that many AEs.

Optifai describes the mid-market band as ACV $30-100K with 30-45 day cycles, and the enterprise band as ACV >$100K with 60-90 day cycles. Compare your own cycle against our sales cycle length benchmarks before you pick a row.

Inbound versus outbound

In our reading, motion moves the ratio more than segment does. In the same Optifai sample, inbound-heavy teams can support 1:3-1:4 ratios, while outbound-heavy teams need 1:1.5-1:2, because outbound needs more prospecting volume and converts at lower rates. The earlier Bridge Group edition found there were generally 2 outbound SDRs for every 1 inbound SDR.

Sizing a team from the ratio

For example, and not as a benchmark, take a team of 12 AEs:

SDRs needed = AEs / AEs per SDR

12 AEs at 1:2  -> 12 / 2 = 6 SDRs
12 AEs at 1:3  -> 12 / 3 = 4 SDRs
12 AEs at 1:4  -> 12 / 4 = 3 SDRs

We think the clean way to use this is to start from the segment row, then move toward the outbound range if most meetings come from cold prospecting, or toward the inbound range if most come from handraisers.

How the Bridge Group figures changed across editions

Activity and conversion figures are where old numbers get copied without their context. The Bridge Group's activity data comes from an earlier edition with a different respondent base than the 2023 and 2025 reports, so check which edition a quoted dial count belongs to before you set a target from it.

Activity metrics from the earlier edition

That is a dial-level rate, not a connect rate per prospect, so do not compare it with a figure counted per contact.

The same edition split SDR charters three ways: 37% of companies set introductory meetings, 31% semi-qualified meetings and 32% fully qualified opportunities. Check which charter a conversion benchmark assumes before you compare your held-to-accepted rate against it. The 2023 report made the same point, saying it was time to revisit the assumptions behind your qualification criteria, quotas, and pipeline contribution metrics.

Diagnosing an activity problem

Work down the table in order. A fault at the top of the funnel shows up in every row below it, so fixing show rate before connect rate wastes a quarter.

Worked example: meetings and pipeline one SDR team produces in a year

This is our own planning method, run on benchmark inputs. In this example, the team size (10 SDRs), the year (12 months), the 0.6 planning factor and the $50,000 pipeline value per meeting are our inputs, not benchmarks.

The inputs

• Quota: 10 held meetings a month, the Bridge Group's global median for Stage 0 held.
• Attainment: 60% of SDRs at quota.
• Ramp: an average of 3.0 months.
• Attrition: 40% median annual, with every leaver backfilled at once.

Step 1: productive SDR months

In this example, the team has 10 seats over 12 months, or 120 seat months. At 40% attrition, 10 seats produce 4 departures in the year. In this example, each backfill spends 3 months ramping, so 4 backfills lose 12 months, and we count those months as zero output to stay conservative. In this example, subtracting the 12 ramp months from 120 seat months leaves 108 productive months.

Step 2: held and booked meetings

In this example, at a quota of 10 held meetings, 108 productive months give 1,080 meetings if every rep hits quota. Not every rep does, so in this example we apply the 0.6 share at quota as a planning factor: 1,080 times 0.6 is 648 held meetings.

Quota counts held meetings, so the show rate tells you how many to book. Leadium uses an 80%+ target with about 20% no-shows. In this example, at 80%, 648 held meetings need 810 booked.

Step 3: pipeline against the benchmark

In this example, the 108 productive months equal 9 full SDR years when divided by 12. The Bridge Group's median is $3.78M pipeline sourced per SDR. Half its respondents fall between $1.9M and $6.4M per SDR annually, and these figures count raw pipeline, not forecast or closed-won.

If your own history shows $50,000 per held meeting, 648 meetings times $50,000 gives $32.4M, close to the median case. To size this against an AE target, run it through the reverse funnel calculator and set pipeline coverage on the result.

Input sheet

SDR CAPACITY INPUT SHEET
sdr_seats              = 10        (example)
months                 = 12        (example)
monthly_quota_held     = ____
attrition_rate         = ____
ramp_months            = ____
planning_factor        = 0.6       (example)
show_rate              = ____
pipeline_per_held_mtg  = 50000     (example)

seat_months        = sdr_seats * months
departures         = sdr_seats * attrition_rate
ramp_months_lost   = departures * ramp_months
productive_months  = seat_months - ramp_months_lost
held_meetings      = productive_months * monthly_quota_held * planning_factor
booked_meetings    = held_meetings / show_rate
sdr_years          = productive_months / months
pipeline_own       = held_meetings * pipeline_per_held_mtg
pipeline_benchmark = sdr_years * benchmark_pipeline_per_sdr

How to use the benchmarks to set your own SDR number

A benchmark only helps if your team measures the same thing the survey measured.

Step 1: Match the sample before you borrow the number

Start with the meeting charter. Decide whether your SDRs are paid on meetings booked, meetings held or opportunities accepted, and whether they work inbound, outbound or both. Then check segment and ASP against the benchmark population. The Bridge Group's 2025 respondents skewed toward North America and B2B SaaS, so a team selling outside that profile should treat the medians as a starting range, not a target.

Watch the stage name as well. The Bridge Group reports a Stage 1 Converted global median of 6, which counts one named stage only. Compare it with a quota written against that same stage, never with a booked-meeting count.

Step 2: Write down ramp and quota definitions

Use definitions you can audit:

• Cohort start: the first paid working day in the SDR role.
• Ramp: the elapsed time from that cohort start to a documented productivity standard chosen in advance.
• Quota attainment: achieved output divided by the applicable quota over the same period.

Do not restart the clock when a territory or manager changes. Log those events as exceptions instead.

Step 3: Rerun the capacity math each quarter

Replace benchmark conversion rates with your own trailing-quarter rates as soon as you have them. Keep the formula fixed so the change in output traces to a change in an input.

Ramped SDRs this quarter      = SDRs past your ramp standard
Meetings held per quarter     = ramped SDRs x monthly held quota x 3
Accepted opportunities        = meetings held x your held-to-accepted rate
Pipeline created              = accepted opportunities x your average opportunity value
Shortfall vs plan             = pipeline plan - pipeline created

If the shortfall grows two quarters running, check ramp and conversion before adding headcount. In our reading, a slow ramp often explains more of the gap than quota does.

Step 4: Put the meeting volume in an SLA with marketing

Agree in writing how many held meetings per month marketing and sales development owe sales, what qualifies a meeting, and how fast an AE accepts or rejects it. The marketing and sales SLA template gives the structure, and the demand gen dashboard template tracks it weekly.

When ramp is the constraint

Salesforce recommends explicit 30-60-90 objectives for seller onboarding, which gives you checkpoints to measure against your ramp standard. For a ready-made curriculum, Pavilion runs an intensive 10-week school for new and experienced SDRs, including a session to set expectations and avoid the common pitfalls that occur between SDRs and AEs. The program is open to Pavilion Members only.

For wider operator data, Pavilion's resource library lists the Ebsta x Pavilion 2025 Benchmarks Report, with $48B analyzed and 2,000+ leaders surveyed.

What this page does not cover

This page does not cover account executive quotas, closed-won revenue per SDR, or how to choose tools or training programs. It does not set compensation for your team, and nothing here is legal, financial or employment advice.