Features / Lead generation calculator
Lead generation calculator: what it does and how to use it
Updated November 7, 2026. Our pages cited here were read that day.
The free Sales.co lead generation calculator turns a monthly cold email volume into contacts reached, positive replies, booked meetings and cost per meeting. Every default rate comes from 336,257 contacts in 20 B2B campaigns. At the median campaign, 10,000 emails a month book about 3 meetings, which is $702 a meeting at $2,000 a month.
This page is for founders and sales leads who want to know whether cold email can hit a meeting target before they pay for it, whether they send it themselves or hire it out. It starts from rates we measured, and you can change any of them.
Quick picks: what are you doing?
| You want | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings from a set email volume | Lead generation calculator | Median-campaign rates already filled in |
| Reply rates by company size or title | Conversion rate benchmarks | 336,257 contacts split by size and seniority |
| Replies per follow-up step | Follow-up planner | Shows what each extra email adds |
| Contacts to send to | Industry email lists | $295 one time, CSV |
| Someone to run the sending | Done-for-you plans | $2,000 a month for up to 10,000 emails |
What the calculator does
You enter how many emails you send a month, first emails and follow-ups together. The calculator divides that by 1.865 emails per contact (the 20-campaign average: 627,085 emails to 336,257 contacts) to get the people you reach. Then it applies a personal reply rate, a positive reply rate, 0.483 booked meetings per positive reply and a 4.9% close rate. It prints contacts reached, personal replies, positive replies, booked meetings, new customers, cost per positive reply, cost per meeting, cost per customer and revenue per $1 spent.
The "Who you email" menu sets the two reply rates for you: the median campaign, the bottom or top quarter of campaigns, all 20 campaigns pooled, seven company-size bands and four seniority levels. Under the results it checks your rate against the 15 campaigns with 5,000+ contacts and says where it sits.
How to use it in four steps
- Open the calculator and type your emails per month. Count follow-ups, since they use the same sending volume.
- Pick who you email from the menu. Start with the median campaign unless you have your own reply rates, in which case type them in.
- Replace the 4.9% close rate and the $10,000 customer value with your own. The $10,000 is only an example.
- Type what the outreach costs a month, then raise the email volume until the booked meetings line reads your target. You are done when you have a volume and a cost per meeting you would sign off on.
How many emails a meeting target takes
These rows come from the calculator page, read November 7, 2026. The range is the median campaign (0.11% of contacts reply positively) to the pooled 20 campaigns (0.29%).
| Emails a month | Sales.co price | Meetings, median | Meetings, pooled | Cost per meeting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $2,000 | 2.9 | 7.5 | $702 to $267 |
| 15,000 | $2,500 | 4.3 | 11.2 | $585 to $223 |
| 20,000 | $3,000 | 5.7 | 15.0 | $527 to $200 |
Ten booked meetings a month take about 35,100 emails at the median rate and about 13,400 at the pooled rate. Sales.co's own campaign landed between the two: one booked call per 1,650 emails, 143 bookings from 235,941 emails to 124,513 contacts.
What it does not tell you
- The booking and close rates come from one campaign, Sales.co selling its own service, with 143 bookings and 7 paying customers behind them. Your sales cycle will differ.
- Bookings lag. The median call came 9 days after the first email, and 34% came more than 30 days later, so the first month books fewer meetings than the calculator shows.
- The 0.483 meetings per positive reply includes 42 bookings from companies whose contact never replied, so it is a ratio, not the share of repliers who book.
- The pooled and segment rows sit above what a typical campaign in that group gets, because a few strong campaigns pull them up. Plan on the median.
What it costs
The calculator is free and needs no signup. If the numbers work and you would rather not run the sending, Sales.co can run it: done-for-you cold email costs $2,000 a month for up to 10,000 emails, $2,500 for 15,000 and $3,000 for 20,000. Source: the (pricing page, read November 7, 2026.
Sources
- Rates, presets, meeting-target table and timing: the calculator page and the conversion rate benchmarks (336,257 contacts in 20 campaigns, first emails March 6 to August 31, 2026, replies counted through October 6, 2026), read November 7, 2026.
- Sales.co prices: pricing page, read November 7, 2026.
FAQ
Is the lead generation calculator free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no signup, and you can change every rate in it.
Where do the default rates come from?
From 336,257 contacts and 627,085 emails in 20 B2B campaigns sent by Sales.co (first emails March 6 to August 31, 2026). The booking and close rates come from Sales.co's own campaign: 143 booked calls from 296 positive replies, and 7 paying customers by October 6, 2026.
How many cold emails does it take to book 10 meetings a month?
About 35,100 emails at the median campaign's rate and about 13,400 at the pooled 20-campaign rate. Sales.co's own campaign needed about 16,500, at one booked call per 1,650 emails.
Why does the calculator count contacts instead of emails?
Replies come from people, and each person gets a first email plus follow-ups: 1.865 emails per contact on average across the 20 campaigns. A per-email rate drops as you add follow-ups even when the same people reply, so per-contact rates are steadier for planning.