Vela RH · Monday report · SDR and pre-sales management view · data from Oct 5, 2026 · fictitious data
Does the incoming lead become an opportunity, and fast enough?
Heads up Volume is on target. Leads wait too long.
In Q3/2026, SQLs reached 105.7% of target. But the median time to first contact with an MQL was 29.4 h, against a 4 h target, and only 3.8% were contacted on time.
- SQLs · Q3/2026166of a 157 target (105.7%)
- First contact29.4 hinbound median; target 4 h
- MQL → SAL48.6%benchmark 50.0%
- AE acceptance80.7%of decided SQLs became proposals
30% of MQLs waited more than 3 days, or were never contactedTime to first contact
Time between becoming an MQL and the SDR's first outgoing activity, in Q3/2026.
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- How long the MQL waited until the SDR's first contact attempt, by band.
- Why measure it
- Speed matters most in inbound conversion: whoever asked to be contacted is interested now. Every hour of waiting lowers the chance of a meeting, and that lead has already been paid for.
- How to read it
- The bands go from fastest to slowest. In coral, those who waited more than 3 days or were never contacted.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: time between entering MQL and the SDR's first outgoing activity (call, email or WhatsApp), for Q3/2026 MQLs.
Why it matters: The target is to talk to the lead within 4 h. Only 3.8% of the quarter's 416 MQLs were contacted within that time. An inbound lead goes cold in hours, not days.
WhatsApp gets replies on 31.3% of attempts; email, the most used channel, 22.1%Reply rate by contact channel
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- What share of the SDR's contact attempts got a reply from the lead, by channel (WhatsApp, call, email, LinkedIn).
- Why measure it
- It shows where the SDR should start the cadence. Insisting on the most-used channel, rather than the one that gets replies, wastes attempts and makes the lead wait longer.
- How to read it
- Longer bar = the channel that replies the most. The text shows replies over attempts, to compare with the volume used.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: the SDR's outgoing activities in Q3/2026 and the lead's logged replies on the same channel.
Why it matters: The team made 411 attempts by email and 214 by WhatsApp. Starting the cadence with the channel that replies the most shortens the wait.
At the handoff to the AE, 80.7% of SQLs become proposalsSDR funnel through AE acceptance
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- The lead's path within pre-sales: MQL, SAL, SQL and how many SQLs the rep accepted and turned into proposals.
- Why measure it
- It shows whether pre-sales delivers opportunities the account executive accepts. Low acceptance points to qualification criteria misaligned between SDR and AE, and wasted work on both sides.
- How to read it
- Each bar is a stage. SAL includes the accounts outbound placed directly at that stage.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: entries into each stage in Q3/2026 and the AE's decision on the SQLs (became a proposal, sent back or waiting).
Why it matters: Qualification is close to benchmark: MQL → SAL 48.6% (bench. 50.0%) and SAL → SQL 67.8% (bench. 60.0%). Of the 166 SQLs, 31 are still waiting for the AE's decision.
Only 16.0% of deals leave SQL within the SLATime in each stage against the SLA
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- What share of deals left each pre-sales stage within the agreed deadline (SLA).
- Why measure it
- A deal stuck in a stage counts toward the target but doesn't move. The SLA shows where the process gets stuck and who needs to act to unblock it.
- How to read it
- Longer bar = more deals on time. In coral, the stages with less than half on time. The text shows the median days and the SLA.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: days between entering and leaving each stage in Q3/2026. The SLAs (2 days at MQL, 10 at SAL, 7 at SQL) are fictitious assumptions.
Why it matters: At SQL, the median is 15.2 days, against a 7-day SLA. A deal stuck at the stage counts toward the SQL target, but doesn't become pipeline.
38% of discards are leads outside the profile or invalid contactsDiscard reasons
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- Why the SDRs discarded leads in the quarter.
- Why measure it
- The disqualification reason tells you where the problem is: wrong profile or invalid contact is fixed in marketing; timing or price, in the SDR's approach.
- How to read it
- Longer bar = most common reason. In coral, the reasons that are a lead source problem (outside the profile or invalid contact), not a pre-sales one.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: loss reason logged by the SDR on deals discarded in Q3/2026.
Why it matters: That's 115 leads that shouldn't have become MQLs. This discard is a marketing cost, not a pre-sales one: the fix is in the form and the targeting.
Paid social brings volume outside the profile: 49.2% in the ICPICP accounts by channel
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- What share of each channel's accounts fits the ideal customer profile: these are the leads the SDR receives to qualify.
- Why measure it
- The SDR spends the same time on leads inside and outside the profile. Knowing which channel sends off-ICP leads helps prioritize the queue and push for filtering at the source.
- How to read it
- The longer the bar, the more the channel brings in people who can buy. In coral, the channel with the smallest share in the ICP.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: company size for the Q3 cohort (July to September). ICP = Mid-market (200 to 999 employees), Enterprise and Large Enterprise.
- On click
- Click a channel to see its accounts: name, size, ICP, stage, MRR, SDR, rep and the cost per MQL of the source campaign.
Why it matters: In the other channels, most accounts are in the ICP. The SDR spends time qualifying people who can't buy.
The event cost R$38K and didn't reach a proposalEvent funnel
- 46MQL
- 24SAL
- 5SQL
- 0Proposal
- 0Won
Explain this chart
- What it shows
- How far the accounts from the HR trade show got: MQL, SAL, SQL, proposal and won.
- Why measure it
- It shows whether the event's accounts turned into sales conversations. Without a cadence right after the event, the lead goes cold and the investment is lost.
- How to read it
- Each bar is a stage, sized by the number of accounts that reached it. Coral = no account got there.
- Where the number comes from
- CRM: accounts whose source campaign was the event, in the Q3 cohort (July to September).
- On click
- Click a stage to see the accounts that reached it, with each one's SDR and rep and the event cost per account at that stage.
Why it matters: It generated conversations, not pipeline. Before the next edition, define with the pre-sales team how the event's accounts turn into meetings.
What to do this week
- Route the MQL the moment it comes in, with an alert to the SDR, and track the 4 h target per person on the SDR dashboard.
- Start the cadence on WhatsApp (31.3% reply rate), not email (22.1%).
- Agree with the AE on a 7-day deadline to accept or send back the SQL.
- Take the 115 profile-based discards to marketing: a company size filter on the paid social forms.