Two meetings from 150 sends is 1.3% — and whether that's "good" depends entirely on which benchmark you're comparing yourself to. That's not a cop-out: the two most-cited figures in cold email genuinely disagree with each other, and you should understand why before you start optimizing.
The Two Benchmarks (and Why They Contradict Each Other)
Gong's figure: ~0.29% (1 meeting per 344 emails). Gong analyzed 28M+ cold emails and found the average rep needs 344 sends to land one meeting. That's the broadest dataset available and likely captures a wide range of list quality, targeting maturity, and sender skill — including a lot of mediocre outreach pulling the average down.
SalesHive's figure: ~1.0% (1 meeting per 100 emails). SalesHive, an outsourced SDR agency, reports average cold campaigns converting at about 1.0% to booked meetings. Important caveat: SalesHive is a vendor that commercially benefits from presenting cold email as effective, so treat this as a practitioner benchmark, not neutral research. That said, it likely reflects more intentional, managed campaigns rather than the full universe Gong captured.
These two numbers are not in conflict so much as they're measuring different populations. Gong's 0.29% is probably a truer floor for "all cold email in the wild." SalesHive's 1.0% is closer to a realistic target for a reasonably well-run SDR motion. At 1.3%, you're above both — which is genuinely a good sign, especially early in your sending career.
What Most Reps Get Wrong
Mistake #1: Chasing top-performer numbers before you've nailed the basics. Gong's data shows top performers book 8.1x more meetings than average reps. That's a relative multiplier — the source doesn't give an absolute meeting rate for top performers, so don't let anyone tell you "top reps hit X%" as if that's a confirmed figure. What it does tell you: the upside is real, and the gap is earned, not gifted.
Mistake #2: Celebrating replies instead of meetings. SalesHive's benchmarks show a 5.1% average reply rate against a 1.0% meeting-booked rate. Gong paints a harder picture: top reps get 4.2x more replies than average, with 10%+ being the gold standard — which implies average reply rates are well below that. These two sources measure reply rates differently (SalesHive's campaign average vs. Gong's top-rep benchmark), so don't anchor to a single number. The takeaway is the same either way: replies are a diagnostic, not the goal. Track meetings.
Mistake #3: Sending massive blast campaigns. Mailforge, a cold email infrastructure vendor (another source with commercial skin in the game), reports in their 2025 campaign benchmark data that smaller, targeted campaigns of 50 recipients or fewer achieve 5.8% response rates versus 2.1% for larger campaigns. Tighter lists, better personalization, better results.
Should You Send Follow-Ups?
Here the sources actually disagree, and you deserve to know that before you build your sequence.
SalesHive argues that adding just one follow-up can increase reply rates by roughly 40–49%, and recommends thoughtful multi-touch sequences. Mailforge's campaign data tells a different story: single-touch emails consistently outperform multi-email sequences in their dataset, and adding a third email can reduce reply rates by as much as 20%.
Neither source is gospel. The honest answer is: one strong follow-up is probably worth it; a third or fourth touch shows diminishing returns at best. Test it yourself with your list and your ICP — your data will tell you more than any vendor's aggregate.
The Correct Move From Here
Given all of the above, here's how to orient yourself:
- Use 0.29% as your floor. If you're below Gong's 1-in-344 average, you have a fundamentals problem — targeting, messaging, or deliverability.
- Use 1.0% as your operational target. SalesHive's 1-in-100 benchmark reflects what a managed SDR motion should be capable of. It's vendor-sourced, but it's a useful working goal.
- Your 1.3% is above both. Don't blow it up. Understand what's working before you change anything.
- Improve through tighter targeting, not more volume. Smaller lists with genuine ICP fit is the one thing both Gong and Mailforge agree on.
- Keep emails short. Gong's data shows shorter emails (under 100 words, 3–4 sentences) drive higher reply rates. Pitching in the first email drops reply rates by up to 57%.