outbound-metrics-benchmarkslisted

# Outbound Metrics Most outbound reporting measures the wrong things carefully. Open rate is unreliable, click rate is irrelevant for cold email, and "emails sent" is an activity number that rises when things are going badly. Two metrics matter: **positive reply rate** and **meetings booked**. Everything else is diagnostic — useful for finding which stage is broken, not for judging the programme. ## The funnel Each stage isolates a different failure, which is the point of measuring them separately. ``` Leads sourced → Is the list the right people? Verified → Was the data any good? Delivered → Did it reach an inbox? Opened → Unreliable. Directional only Replied → Was it worth responding to? Positive reply → Was it relevant? Meeting booked → Was the ask right? Opportunity → Was it a real fit? Closed → Everything downstream ``` ## Benchmarks Treat these as rough bands. They vary enormously by market, deal size and how narrow the segment is, and anyone quoting precise industry figures is guessing. | Metric | Poor | Typical | Good | |---|---|---|---| | Bounce rate | over 3% | 1-2% | under 1% | | Delivery rate | under 95% | 97-98% | over 99% | | Open rate | under 25% | 40-60% | over 60% | | Reply rate | under 1% | 2-5% | over 8% | | Positive reply rate | under 0.5% | 1-3% | over 5% | | Meeting rate | under 0.3% | 0.5-2% | over 3% | | Unsubscribe rate | over