Outbound ROI calculator

Enter your leads a month and deal size and see the replies, meetings, pipeline and revenue they turn into, with ROI and payback.

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$5,600 in closed revenue a month on $720 of outbound.

ROI 678%, which is $7.78 back for every $1 spent. Payback in 2.1 months, counting a 2-month sales cycle.

Replies

300

3% of 10,000 leads

Meetings held

5.6

7 booked, 80% show up

Deals won

0.56

10% of held meetings

Cost per meeting

$129

$1,286 per deal

From leads to deals

What is left after each step, per month

Leads

10,000

Replies

300

Positive replies

Meetings booked

Meetings held

5.6

Deals won

0.56

Bars share one scale, so a small bar is a real drop. Each step multiplies the one before it by the rate in the drawer above.

The money

Per month at these rates

Pipeline (held meetings x deal size)

$56,000

Revenue (closed deals x deal size)

$5,600

Outbound cost

$720

Profit after cost

$4,880

ROI

678%

Payback

2.1 months

Revenue lands after the sales cycle and spend starts in month one, so the first months run at a loss before payback.

Where these numbers come from

Ken's published numbers

Reply rate

Ken publishedKen's published numbers.

Positive replies

30%

Ken publishedKen's published numbers.

Meetings booked

7.78%

Ken publishedKen's published numbers: 7 meetings per 10,000 contacts for Ken, 1 for the industry, turned into a rate per positive reply.

Show rate

80%

AssumptionPlanning default, not a Ken benchmark. Change it to your own.

Close rate

10%

Assumption50% of held meetings become an opportunity and 20% of those are won. Planning defaults, not benchmarks.

Outbound cost

$720

Ken publishedKen's Platform plan plus credits for this volume, from the pricing page.

Ken's own agency benchmarks (3% reply, 30% positive replies, 7 meetings per 10,000 contacts) against the industry norm, as published on the Why Ken page. They are what is possible, not a promise.

Outbound cost calculator

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Funnel and money tableThe rates you used, with sourcesLink re-opens the report

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What the ROI calculator does

It turns an outbound plan into money. Enter leads a month, your reply, positive reply, meeting, show and close rates, the deal size and what outbound costs you a month. The calculator works down the chain and returns replies, positive replies, meetings booked and held, deals, pipeline, revenue, ROI and payback.

A toggle fills the rates with either the industry norm or Ken's published numbers, with the source shown next to each.

How to read the result

The waterfall shows how many leads survive each step. Under it:

Pipeline is held meetings times deal size.
Revenue is closed deals times deal size.
ROI is revenue minus cost, divided by cost. An ROI of 3 means $4 back for every $1 spent.
Cost per meeting and cost per deal show what each outcome costs you.
Payback is the sales cycle plus the months of revenue it takes to cover a month's cost.

How to use it

Put in your real numbers from the last 90 days where you have them, and keep the defaults only where you do not. The cost should be all-in: tools, data, inboxes and the time of whoever runs it. Then change one rate at a time to see which one moves revenue most. That is usually where to spend effort next.

Why it matters for cold email

Outbound has a delay most ROI estimates skip. Spend starts in month one, meetings come in weeks, and revenue arrives after the sales cycle. Seeing payback in months stops a channel from being judged on its first 30 days, and seeing cost per meeting stops it from being judged on reply rate alone.

Questions

How do you calculate outbound ROI?

ROI = (revenue - cost) / cost. Revenue is leads x reply rate x positive rate x meeting rate x show rate x close rate x deal size. Cost is everything you spend to run the channel for the same period.

What is a good reply rate for cold email?

The industry norm used here is 1%, and the higher default is 3%. The gap is mostly list quality and targeting rather than copy. Measure replies against delivered emails, and leave out auto-replies such as out of office messages.

What is the difference between pipeline and revenue?

Pipeline is the value of the deals you could win: here, held meetings times deal size. Revenue is what you actually close. The close rate is the bridge between them, and it is usually the number people overestimate.

How is payback calculated?

Payback = sales cycle + monthly cost / monthly revenue. With a two-month cycle and revenue twice the monthly cost, payback is two and a half months.

Are the show, close and meeting rates benchmarks?

Reply, positive reply and meeting rates come from published numbers. The show rate (80%) and the close rate from held meeting to deal (10%, a 50% opportunity rate times a 20% win rate) are planning defaults, labelled as such. Change them to your own.