Solving the Puzzle of a Positive ROI for AI SDRs

57% of buyers expect AI software to generate a positive return on investment in 3 months.

However, it takes two to tango. 

So are buyers ready to do their part?

After all, if buyers don’t do their part, solving the puzzle of scoring a positive ROI will be a challenge.

What’s the puzzle?

For the sake of simplicity, imagine there’s an AI SDR that costs $1,000 per month for 1,000 leads contacted.

Assuming all 1,000 leads are contacted in the first month, here’s a breakdown of the expected results for a good campaign.

If a closing cycle lasts 30 to 60 days AND the annual contract value (ACV) is at least $500 per month, this means we close less than $1,000 per month of deals in 3 months.

Seems simple, right?

How AI can (and can’t) help

Here’s a closer look at which pieces of the sales puzzle can be influenced by an AI SDR or an AI BDR.

YES – Conversion rate (0.5-1%)

Every time I speak with a potential AiSDR buyer, I ask them about the performance of their email-only outbound.

So long as they have a track record (even if it’s 0%), it at least gives us a benchmark to measure ourselves against.

But if they’ve never done email outbound or they booked all meetings via cold call, then there are a bunch of unknowns that need to be worked out.

In any event, an AI SDR can meet a 0.5-1% conversion rate target assuming the AI writer creates good email copy and there’s a product-market fit.

PARTIALLY YES – Show rate (80%)

Show rate is a function of qualification. If a customer knows their audience well, they can use an AI SDR with granular filters (such as AiSDR) to find qualified leads.

It takes a bit of work, but an AI SDR can help you achieve an 80% show rate.

However, many AI SDR (or virtual SDR) solutions approach this with a mindset of “Reach out to your entire total available market”, which is going to naturally lead to a sub-80% show rate. The same applies to customers who don’t yet know their audience.

NO – Win rate (25%)

Unfortunately, AI SDR solutions have zero control over your win rate. 

As soon as a meeting is booked, the AI SDR’s job is done and it has no further involvement in the sales cycle.

Winning a deal is purely up to the business, and if a business’s win rate is under 10%, the math breaks.

NO – Closing cycle (30-60 days)

Similar to win rate, an AI SDR has no influence on the length of your sales cycle.

Generally, we recommend letting an AI SDR run for at least 3 months, at which point you should start seeing results.

This won’t work though for companies whose sales cycles easily last longer than 2 months.

NO – Annual contract value ($500/month)

This is another difficult area where an AI SDR can’t really help.

If you’re selling B2C or your deals are coming in at less than $6,000 ACV, an AI SDR (or any SDR motion) is probably not yet a good fit for you.

How you can solve the puzzle with the right AI SDR

This was an oversimplified example.

Once you use real numbers instead of hypothetical, the math gets more challenging. Then you need to take into account hidden costs, time and resource savings, and (if you’re doing the math after using an AI SDR) comparisons with your previous results.

That said, there are several ways for you to compensate for lower win rates or conversion rates:

• Score deals with a higher ACV
• Focus on a specific segment of your go-to-market strategy where the math works
• Find and scale low-cost, easy plays for your GTM strategy
• Understand your current metrics and results & pick a vendor that (a) understands the metrics, (b) knows their limitations, and (c) helps you design a successful AI SDR implementation roadmap that gets a positive ROI

Some of these will be more challenging, while others are straightforward. 

At AiSDR, we work closely with clients to get results while committing ourselves 100% to their success. Whenever there might be an issue, we flag it and propose a solution to fix it.