Cost per meeting is spend divided by meetings held.
Cost per meeting is what you spend on outbound in a period divided by the meetings it produced. It only means something when the meetings are counted the same way.
How we use it.
We prefer cost per qualified meeting: the monthly cost divided only by meetings that passed our four rules. At $4,000 a month and the 10 to 15 qualified demos we guarantee after the ramp, you can work out your worst case before you sign.
In our team's record, 306 of 360 booked meetings, or 85%, were qualified demos. That gap is why we tell buyers to ask any vendor which meetings sit under the line when they quote a cost per meeting.
Same spend, two answers (fictional)
A fictional company pays a vendor a fixed monthly fee, and the vendor books 20 meetings.
8 of the 20 are no-shows or prospects outside the profile.
Divided by 20, the cost per meeting looks low.
Divided by the 12 that qualified, it is two-thirds higher.
Common mistakes
- Dividing by booked meetings instead of meetings held.
- Comparing a ramp month with a run-rate month.
- Ignoring the time your closers spend on meetings that should never have been booked.
