Aligning SDR Success with AE Outcomes: Thoughts on KPIs

I recently had a discussion with an Account Executive (name and company will remain anonymous) about a common challenge:

• The SDR on his team is hitting their targets and setting up meetings, but many of these meetings aren't fully qualified, leading to wasted time for the AE.

The root cause? SDRs at his company are measured solely on the number of meetings they set, not on the quality or the outcomes of those meetings.

When meetings are the primary KPI, the pressure to meet quotas can push SDRs to rush through the qualification process just to book a meeting. This focus on quantity over quality often leads to inefficiencies.

Moreover, when the team celebrates SDRs based on the number of meetings set—regardless of the outcome—it fosters a culture where quantity is prioritized over meaningful opportunities.

My response to the Sales Director was straightforward: The KPIs are out of the SDR's control. If leadership sets "meetings" as the target, this is often the unfortunate result.

However, as someone who has both been an SDR and managed SDR teams, I know that SDRs don’t want to fill an AE’s calendar with unqualified meetings—they want to contribute to the company’s success and future revenue. There’s nothing more gratifying for an SDR than seeing a deal they sourced close and getting recognized on the Win Wire.

So, what’s an alternative KPI approach? I’ve always believed that an SDR’s value isn’t just in the number of meetings they set, but in the quality and impact of those meetings.

✅ How many of those meetings led to a qualified pipeline?
✅ Did those meetings contribute to revenue?

I’m not suggesting that we measure SDR success based on revenue—especially in enterprise sales, where cycles are long—but measuring total pipeline generation could be a more accurate indicator, better aligned with AE success.

Tracking qualified pipeline could help ensure that SDRs contribute to meaningful opportunities that drive revenue. However, this requires RevOps to ensure that each opportunity is accurately tracked with a dollar amount.