Networking Goals

A 30% reply rate and a 10% interview rate leave you needing 33 contacts per interview

Both of those percentages sound healthy on their own. Multiplied together they are 3%, which means roughly 33 approaches for every single interview. Reaching out to twenty people a week — eighty a month — produces about two interviews. Funnels multiply, and that is why they disappoint.

How it works

• Scales a weekly outreach target into a monthly one.
• Applies your reply rate, then your interview rate, in sequence.
• Shows the interviews that survive both stages, which is far fewer than either rate suggests.

monthly contacts = weekly contacts × 4
replies = monthly contacts × reply rate ÷ 100
interviews = replies × interview rate ÷ 100
overall conversion = reply rate × interview rate ÷ 100

Worked example

Twenty approaches a week, a 30% reply rate, 10 interviews per 100 replies.

1. monthly contacts = 20 × 4 = 80
2. replies = 80 × 0.30 = 24
3. interviews = 24 × 0.10 = 2
4. overall conversion = 30% × 10% = 3%
5. contacts needed per interview = 1 ÷ 0.03 = 33

Eighty approaches become two interviews. Neither percentage is bad; the compounding is what makes the top of the funnel need to be so wide.

Reading the result

• Because the stages multiply, improving the weaker rate pays more than improving the stronger one. Lifting a 10% interview rate to 15% raises overall conversion by half; lifting a 30% reply rate to 35% raises it by a sixth.
• Volume and quality pull against each other in a way this model cannot see. Sending eighty identical messages will not hold a 30% reply rate — the rate is a consequence of how targeted the outreach is, so raising the count usually lowers the percentage.
• The output rounds to whole interviews, which hides a lot at small numbers. A result of 2 could be anything from 1.5 to 2.4, and at these volumes month-to-month variation is larger than any difference the calculator shows.
• Referrals and reconnections do not behave like cold outreach at all, and mixing them into one average conceals the fact that one small group is doing most of the work.

Common questions

Which number should I try to improve first?

The lowest percentage, because the stages multiply. Going from 10% to 15% at the interview stage adds more than the same five points added to a reply rate that is already 30%.

Is 33 contacts per interview normal?

It follows arithmetically from the rates you enter rather than from any survey. If it feels high, the useful response is to check whether your own rates are really 30% and 10% — most people estimate both generously.