Fractional SDRs love these posts.

140 dials.

30 conversations.

5 meetings.

Everyone in the comments:

"Well done. Those are great figures."

I'm sure those posts generate inbound requests.

SDR Meeting Numbers Tell You Almost Nothing

This is where we go wrong in the sales world.

How can you tell those are good numbers?

You can't.

Any salesperson can set up a meeting. Getting a meeting is not that hard.

Getting a qualified meeting is.

There is a massive difference between a prospect who agreed to a calendar invite because they wanted you off the phone, and a prospect who has a real problem, understands the impact, and wants to explore fixing it.

One is pipeline.

The other is a placeholder.

The Questions That Matter Before You Celebrate a Meeting

If you're setting meetings, and cannot answer the majority of the following, your meetings are nothing more than hit and hope:

  • Is the prospect the decision maker?
  • What problem are they looking to fix and why?
  • How long has the problem existed?
  • What's the impact of the problem?
  • What happens if the problem remains?
  • What has the prospect tried to fix the problem?

That is qualification.

Not "they were nice on the phone."

Not "they accepted the invite."

Not "they said they were happy to learn more."

I have written before about why I don't celebrate meetings booked. The point still stands. A meeting only matters if it has a reason to exist.

Meetings Are Easy. Revenue Is Hard.

Sales teams love simple numbers because they are easy to manage.

Dials. Conversations. Meetings.

They look clean on a dashboard. They make managers feel in control. They give SDRs something to post about on LinkedIn.

But none of them pay the bills on their own.

A calendar full of unqualified meetings just creates a new problem for the AE. They spend their week speaking to people with no authority, no pain, no urgency, and no intention of buying.

Then everyone wonders why close rates are low.

You do not have a closing problem. You have a qualification problem. I have covered that here: you don't have a closing problem, you have a qualification problem.

Ask the Only Number That Matters

Next time you see one of those posts, don't ask:

"Can you get me 5 meetings too?"

Ask:

"How many of your 5 meetings turned into paying customers?"

That is the question.

Meetings don't matter.

Revenue does.

If your team is celebrating meetings that never become customers, our SDR Sales Training teaches reps how to qualify before the invite gets sent.