Free tools/Free recruiter tool
Recruiter outbound ROI calculator: from cold email to placement fees
Model a month of business development email for an agency desk: contacts to replies, meetings, job orders and placements times your fee, with ROI, cost per meeting and break even.
- $0to use
- Nosignup
What it does
Follow a month of business development email from sends to replies, meetings, job orders and placements times your fee.
Why it matters: an agency desk does not sell software, it sells placements, so a reply rate on its own says little. This calculator follows a month of outbound all the way to fees, so you can see what each reply and meeting is worth and how many placements cover the cost of sending.
Is your outbound paying for itself?
Follow a month of business development email from first send to placed candidate. Enter your own rates; the starting numbers are placeholders, not benchmarks.
Your funnel, per month
Hiring managers who get your first email this month.
Contacts who reply at all, out of contacts emailed.
Share of replies that are interested, not "no" or out of office.
Positive replies that turn into a call that happens.
Meetings that end with a role to work.
Your fill rate: job orders you place.
Fee and cost
Inboxes, domains, sending tool and data. Work it out.
Typical time from first email to a candidate starting.
Each month of outbound
Revenue is fees from placements, counted when the candidate starts. Most fees are paid only after a start date and may carry a guarantee period, so cash lands later than the email. This is a planning model, not a forecast.
How it works
- Enter the hiring managers you email for the first time each month.
- Each rate takes the step before it: replies from contacts, positive replies from replies, meetings from positive replies, job orders from meetings, placements from job orders.
- Placements times your fee gives the month’s fees, set against what the outbound costs to run.
- Copy a summary for your team or a link that reopens the same numbers.
The starting numbers are placeholders. Use your own from your sending tool and ATS; your real fill rate matters more than any benchmark. For the recruiting software payback version, use the recruiting software ROI calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Which number should I improve first?
Change each rate by a few points and watch fees move. On most desks the meeting to job order rate and the fill rate move fees far more than reply rate, because every step after them is worth a full fee.
What should outbound cost include?
Inboxes, domains, the sending tool and lead data. Work out the infrastructure part with the cold email send cost calculator. Add your own time if you want a full cost.
Why do fees arrive later than the email?
A search takes time to run, and most contingent fees are invoiced when the candidate starts. Set Months to a placement to your usual gap from first email to start date.
Can I use a flat fee instead of a percentage?
Yes. Switch Fee type to Flat fee and enter the amount per placement.
Next steps: write the emails with our cold email copywriting guide, find the companies hiring now with hiring signals, and compare sending tools in outreach.
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