SDRs sit in one of the hardest roles in any go-to-market team. They speak to people who are not actively buying, work with imperfect data, and are usually the first human interaction a prospect has with your company. When things go well, the rest of the funnel feels easy. When things go badly, it shows up everywhere.
Despite that, SDR performance is still often measured in ways that feel disconnected from reality. Too much focus on raw activity. Too much pressure on meetings booked. Not enough attention is paid to what happens after the meeting is on the calendar.
Strong teams tend to measure SDRs differently. They look at effort, quality, and downstream impact together, and they accept that not all segments or motions behave the same.
Here is how that tends to look in practice.
Activity Metrics: Necessary, but Not the Goal
Most teams start here, and that makes sense.
Calls made. Emails sent. LinkedIn touches. Accounts worked.
These metrics answer a simple question: Is the work actually happening? They are especially useful when:
- Someone is new
- You are still figuring out what “good” looks like
- You are trying to diagnose a performance dip
Where teams go wrong is turning activity into the end goal.
Once SDRs feel like their job is to hit a number, behaviour changes. Calls get rushed. Emails get templated to death. Quality quietly drops.
The healthier approach is to use activity as a baseline, not a scoreboard. Ranges work better than hard targets, and activity should always be reviewed alongside outcomes. If someone is booking strong meetings and missing activity targets, the activity target is probably wrong.
Engagement Metrics: Where Skill Starts to Show
This is where things get more interesting.
Connection rates, reply rates, and genuine conversations tell you far more about an SDR’s effectiveness than raw volume ever will. These metrics reflect how well someone is:
- Targeting the right people
- Framing the message
- Handling the first few seconds of attention
Low engagement is rarely a motivation problem. More often, it points to bad data, unclear ICPs, or messaging that sounds like everyone else in the inbox.
The best teams use engagement metrics as a coaching tool. They look at real examples: call recordings, email threads, LinkedIn messages. Numbers start the conversation, but the learning happens in the details.
Meetings Booked: Useful, but Easy to Misuse
Meetings booked is the metric most SDRs live and die by, and it is also the one that causes the most tension with AEs.
On its own, it only tells you one thing: how many times someone got a prospect to say yes to a calendar invite. It does not tell you whether that meeting should have existed in the first place.
When teams over-optimise here, a few things usually follow:
- Qualification gets looser
- AEs lose trust in the calendar
- Pipeline looks healthier than it really is
Meetings booked is still important, but it needs context. Segment matters. Inbound behaves differently from outbound. Early-stage markets behave differently from mature ones. Treat it as a leading indicator, not proof of success.
Show Rate: The First Real Quality Check
Show rate is one of the most honest SDR metrics you can track.
If meetings consistently do not show up, something is off. Usually it is expectation setting. Sometimes it is qualification. Occasionally it is just poor follow-up and confirmation.
High show rates tend to come from SDRs who:
- Clearly explain why the meeting is worth attending
- Set a specific agenda
- Create a sense of relevance, not urgency
Before blaming individuals, it is worth checking the basics. Calendar friction, reminder emails, and handover quality all play a role. But over time, show rate is a strong signal of whether meetings are being booked for the right reasons.
Opportunity Conversion: Where Trust Is Built
This is where SDR performance becomes visible to the rest of the revenue team.
Looking at how many meetings turn into real opportunities tells you whether the SDR is consistently bringing in the right conversations. Low conversion here usually means qualification needs work, not that effort is missing.
The most effective teams track this by segment and review lost opportunities together. SDRs learn quickly when they can see why something did or did not progress, rather than just being told it “wasn’t a fit”.
When SDRs understand what good opportunities actually look like downstream, meeting quality improves naturally.
Pipeline and Revenue Influence: Useful, With Care
Leadership understandably wants to see revenue impact. Pipeline generated and revenue influenced can be powerful metrics, but they need to be handled carefully.
SDRs do not control pricing, closing skill, procurement, or product gaps. Holding them directly accountable for revenue without context tends to create frustration rather than performance.
Where these metrics work well is at a trend level. Are SDR-sourced deals larger? Do they move faster? Are they more likely to close? These insights help shape strategy without turning revenue into a blunt instrument.
Ramp and Consistency: A Quiet Indicator of Team Health
One of the most overlooked areas in SDR measurement is ramp.
How long does it take for a new hire to book their first meeting? Their first opportunity? How stable is performance after that?
Wild variation usually points to problems with training, messaging, or ICP clarity. Teams that rely on a few standout performers often discover that the system itself is fragile.
Good metrics help create repeatable success.
Metrics That Deserve Scepticism
Some metrics look helpful but tend to create bad behaviour if over-emphasised:
- Calls per hour
- Emails sent per sequence step
- Leaderboards without context
- Meeting targets with no quality checks
If a metric can be gamed, eventually it will be.
What SDR Metrics Are Really For
At their best, SDR metrics create alignment.
They help SDRs understand what good looks like, help managers coach more effectively, and help leadership forecast with confidence. When metrics create anxiety, mistrust, or low-quality pipeline, the issue is rarely the people doing the work.
Measure effort, quality, and impact together. The rest tends to follow.
