Turnover Isn't Just a Rehiring Cost. It's a Pipeline Reset.
Most coverage of SDR turnover frames it as a recruiting and salary problem: you lose a hire, you pay to replace them. That framing understates what actually happens to a demo pipeline. When an SDR leaves at the median 14 to 18 month tenure, the company doesn't just lose a headcount line. It loses whatever partial ramp that rep had built up, and the replacement rep restarts the same 5.7-month ramp clock from zero. If your pipeline forecast assumed a fully ramped rep hitting quota by month six, a turnover event in month twelve doesn't cost you six months of lost output. It costs you the better part of a year, once the gap and the new ramp are both counted.
Reading the Confidence Labels Below
Bridge Group's own primary SDR compensation and metrics research is gated behind a lead-capture form, so the turnover and ramp figures below reach this page through secondary aggregators (Martal, Salesso, Dialfyne) that cite Bridge Group or RepVue rather than a number pulled directly from the primary source. That is why these figures are labeled directional, industry estimates worth building a plan around, not single independently confirmed data points.
The Numbers
SDR turnover runs an estimated 34% annually, roughly three times the average across other industries, with median tenure of 14 to 18 months (directional, citing Bridge Group).
Average SDR ramp time to full productivity rose from 4.3 months in 2020 to 5.7 months in 2025, a 32% increase (directional, industry estimate).
Bridge Group's own historical benchmark, reached here only through a secondary citation since the primary report is gated, put full ramp productivity closer to 3.2 months, notably faster than the 2025 figure above, a sign the ramp curve has been getting longer over time (directional).
Software has the lowest SDR quota attainment of any industry measured, an estimated 41.2%, against a 57.3% average across all industries (directional, citing RepVue 2025).
A fully loaded SDR costs an estimated $98,000 to $173,000 a year, the salary base a company re-spends every time turnover forces a rehire (directional, citing Bridge Group).
Martal Group, citing Bridge Group 2025 SDR Metrics and Compensation Report
A more commonly cited base-comp figure for SMB and mid-market SDRs specifically is roughly $55,000 base plus $30,000 variable, an estimated $80,000 to $85,000 in total on-target earnings (directional).
Sources
The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.
- Dialfyne, SDR statistics
- Salesso, SDR ramp-up statistics
- Bridge Group, 2025 SDR research
- Martal Group, citing Bridge Group 2025 SDR Metrics and Compensation Report
- Visdum, SDR salary guide