Metric Monday: BDRs Make 21 Touches Per Contact

saraboostani

Hi all,

Last week, we looked at how long BDRs stick with a lead before deciding there’s no opportunity and moving on. This week, we're looking at how much effort goes into each opportunity they pursue—and it’s a hefty lift.

In 2025, BDRs report making an average of 21 outreach attempts per contact, up from 17 attempts in 2024. While that difference isn’t statistically reliable due to high variation in last year’s responses, the data suggest a trend: BDRs are ramping up both email attempts (8.5 in 2025 vs. 6.5 per contact in 2024) and call attempts (8 vs. 5.8 per contact), while social touches have held steady at 4.5 per contact.

Is AI helping fuel this increased volume? Possibly. To explore that, we looked at whether BDR teams using AI tools made more calls or emails than those who hadn’t adopted AI. We found no difference—suggesting that, at least for now, the rise in outreach doesn’t appear to be driven by AI adoption.

@Kerry

https://6sense.com/science-of-b2b/the-2025-science-of-b2b-bdr-benchmark-succeeding-in-a-changing-landscape/

Kerry

More contact attempts work to get more conversations, but not for the reason we think. We don't just wear buyers down. They've made that clear. Whether you're calling or emailing or not does not change their timing.

But, if you're calling for longer, your calling/emailing is more likely to cross paths with them when they are ready?

Sounds good, but it's also really expensive, and also annoying to the buyers. So, the solution is to call/email less, but to do it at the time/during the period when they are likely to respond, later in their buying journey.