P
Perch · Sales Engine

The Sales Engine — daily activity that defends the number

What the SDRs and AEs actually do each day to hit the goal — built backward from the dollar, grounded in 2026 B2B SaaS benchmarks and Salt Lake City comp. Numbers are planning targets to calibrate against reality as we ramp.

01 Q1 backward-math: from $1M to dials/day

Goal: $1M ARR by end of Q1. Assumptions (SMB segment): blended ACV ~$45K22 logos; win rate (opportunity→close) 30%; meeting-held→opportunity 50%; show rate 78%; conversation→meeting 15%; cold connect rate 15% (SMB). We assume ~45% of meetings come warm (Built referrals + $300M partner subs + self-serve PQLs) and ~55% from cold outbound — only the cold half drives the dial math.

Closed-won customers $1M ÷ $45K ACV
22
Opportunities ÷ 30% win rate
73
Meetings held ÷ 50% mtg→opp
146
Meetings booked ÷ 78% show rate
187
— warm / PLG / referral booked ~45%
84
— cold-outbound booked ~55%
103
Cold conversations ÷ 15% conv→meeting
687
Cold dials ÷ 15% connect rate
4,580
Translation to a day: over a ~64-working-day quarter with 2 SDRs, that's ~36 dials + ~5–6 live conversations per SDR per day, booking ~17 cold meetings/SDR/month. Comfortably inside benchmark (50–80 dials, 5–8 convos, 12–15 mtgs/mo) — with room to over-dial to 60–80 and bank pipeline for Q2.

Benchmarks: connect 12–18% SMB · conv→meeting 10–20% · show 75–80% · mtg→opp 40–60% · SMB win 25–35% (Bridge Group / SyncGTM / Nousu, 2026).

02 Daily activities by role — Q1

SDR pipe builder

  • 40–70 dials/day (push 80 to bank pipeline)
  • 5–7 live conversations/day
  • 50–80 personalized emails/day + 15–20 LinkedIn touches
  • Book ~4–5 meetings/week (~17/mo)
  • Work subs inside GC bid funnels first — warmest leads
  • Log every touch; hand off with MEDDPICC notes started

AE closer

  • 1–2 discovery/demo calls/day
  • Advance 8–12 active opportunities
  • ~3–4 closes/month (SMB cycle 30–60 days)
  • Update MEDDPICC + MAP on every live deal
  • Run lighthouse lunches/demos; chase the first cold logo
  • Multi-thread: 2+ contacts per account

Founders player-coach

  • Work Built referrals (Chris) + partner intros
  • Close the marquee / GC Pro deals personally
  • Daily standup on pipeline + blockers
  • Tune the pitch from real call recordings
  • Feed product gaps back to eng weekly

03 How the cadence evolves each quarter

The motion isn't static. As we move up-market, ACVs rise, cycles lengthen, win rates compress, and volume gives way to multi-threaded, white-glove selling.

QuarterSegmentBlended ACVCycleWinDaily focus
Q1 Elite WedgeSMB + warm~$45K30–60d~30%Volume outbound + warm. SDR 40–70 dials; AE 1–2 demos/day
Q2 Ent. PivotGC $10–500M · Sub $10–250M~$150K60–120d~22%ABM target lists, SE-paired demos, 3+ stakeholders/account, build white-glove
Q3 FlywheelGC $500M–1.5B · Sub $250M–1B~$200K90–150d~20%Land-and-expand inside accounts; CS-led sub expansion
Q4 Industry StdGC $2–3B (ENR Top 400)~$400K150–214d15–20%AI-SDR feeds AEs; exec-sponsored pursuits, 11+ stakeholders

Cycle/win by ACV: $10–25K ≈ 52d · $50–100K ≈ 112d · $100–250K ≈ 158d · $250K+ ≈ 214d; enterprise win 15–22% (2026 GTM Benchmark Study; SyncGTM).

04 Org build — Salt Lake City comp + Brock's scrappy structure

SLC 2026 market benchmarks (reference)

RoleMarket baseMarket OTE / total
SDR$50–70K$65–100K
AE (SMB, 0–3 yr)$70–100K$140–200K
AE (mid-market)$110–150K$220–300K
AE (enterprise)$150–190K$300–380K
Sales Engineer~$140K~$170K
CSM$70–120K$85–130K
Software Engineer$120–160K$138K+ (sr $160–210K)
Brock's scrappy model: low base, aggressive upside — ~$50K base + commission up to ~25% of new ARR closed (uncapped, accelerators above quota). Example AE: $50K base + 20% of $600K booked = $170K OTE at quota; under-performers cost us little, top reps earn market+. SEs and engineers are harder to run scrappy (technical, less variable) — keep those near market.

Headcount ramp + annualized base cost

Cash base only (commission scales with bookings, so it largely self-funds). "Eng" = product engineers beyond the founder.

QuarterSDRAESECSMEngAnnualized base*
Q122002~$640K
Q244113~$1.4M
Q366224~$2.3M
Q488335~$3.2M

*Base at Brock's structure (~$50K SDR/AE, ~$130K SE, ~$80K CSM, ~$140K eng). At Q4 run-rate, GTM + eng base ≈ $3.2M against $100M ARR ≈ ~3% of revenue — extremely capital-efficient. Commission on top scales with closed bookings.

The hiring engine is a dial too — the Wiz lesson

Wiz went $1M → $100M ARR in 18 months. Their constraint was never demand — it was sales capacity. Full rep calendars meant under-capacity, not "at capacity." The right move was to hire ahead and raise targets, not sandbag. We run hiring the same way: a flexible, demand-responsive engine re-forecast weekly.

Hiring dialWhat it tells usWhen demand > capacity
Interviews / weekTop of the recruiting funnelIncrease immediately
Résumés processed / weekSourcing throughputAdd a recruiter / sourcing spend
Reps ramped / weekProductive-capacity addedPull hiring forward a quarter
Plan one quarter ahead. An SDR/AE takes ~1 quarter to ramp to full productivity — so hire against next quarter's quota, not this one. If reps' calendars are slammed and win rates hold, that's the Wiz signal to pour fuel on hiring. Study: SaaStr CRO Confidential with Wiz CRO Colin Jones.
Open to validate with you + Brock: (1) the 45/55 warm-vs-cold sourcing split for Q1, (2) the exact commission rate/quota that makes $50K base attractive to A-players in SLC, (3) headcount ramp speed vs. cash runway. These are planning anchors — we tune them against live results.
Perch · CRO workspace · sales-engine Planning targets · 2026 benchmarks + SLC comp · confirm before external use