Built on Cascio & Boudreau utility analysis, extended for the cost most sales calculators ignore: the revenue that walks out the door with every rep.
Replacing a salesperson is not a hiring problem. It is a revenue problem with a hiring component bolted on. The dollars walking out the door are not in the recruiter's invoice. They are in the empty territory, the stalled pipeline, and the quota that goes unproduced for 6 to 12 months while a replacement ramps. That is the number that should make a CRO sit up.
This calculator runs the math two ways and adds them. The Cascio and Boudreau side captures hard replacement, ramp productivity loss, and vacancy salary. The revenue destruction side runs the same logic on quota: lost quota during ramp, lost quota during vacancy.
Each input below explains exactly what it captures. Type your own data or use the grey suggestions. Empty fields fall back to those suggestions when you click Get Results.
What this calculator captures that most do not:
Whatever number this calculator produces is the revenue you have already lost or are about to. The question is not whether the cost is real. The question is whether you can afford to keep paying it.
Includes: Quota-carrying reps in the scope you want to analyze. AEs, account managers, BDRs, or any combination.
Includes: Base only, not OTE. Bridge Group benchmark: mid-market AE base runs $80K to $100K. Enterprise: $110K plus.
Includes: Annual revenue target per rep. This drives the revenue destruction math. The number that makes a CRO actually feel the cost.
Includes: Resignations only. Industry benchmark: sales attrition runs 25 to 30% on average, well above general workforce. SaaS often 30 to 40%.
Includes: Recruiter or agency fees (typically 15 to 25% of first-year comp on contingency searches), interview time, screening, onboarding, sign-on bonus. SHRM range: 50 to 200% of salary.
Captures: Time to reach full quota attainment. Bridge Group 2025: SaaS AE ramp averages 5.7 months, up from 4.3 in 2020. Enterprise: 9 to 12 months.
Captures: Average quota attainment across the ramp period. Typical curve: 25% in month 1, 50% mid-ramp, 75% by month 5, 100% by month 6 plus.
Captures: Days from departure to new hire start. Sales-specific: sales roles typically take longer than the SHRM 44-day general benchmark due to talent scarcity. 60 to 90 days is realistic.
Calculated from your inputs (or the grey suggestions where you left fields blank). This combines salary-side replacement cost with quota-driven revenue destruction.
Most sales orgs only count the salary side and the recruiter's invoice. The math says the quota you do not produce during vacancy and ramp is typically the larger number. By a lot.
Embeddedness research shows 45% of survivors are at elevated flight risk after departures. On a sales team, the cascade is faster and more visible than in general populations because reps watch each other closely. If 15% of those at risk convert to additional departures, that is the cost on top of your headline number.
Methodology: Cascio & Boudreau utility analysis framework (Investing in People, 2nd ed., 2011), extended for sales-specific revenue dynamics. Salary-side cost per departure built from three components: hard replacement (Base × multiplier), salary productivity loss during ramp ((Base÷12) × ramp months × productivity gap), and salary vacancy cost ((Base÷365) × days). Revenue destruction applies the same productivity-loss and vacancy logic to annual quota: quota loss during ramp ((Quota÷12) × ramp × productivity gap) and quota loss during vacancy ((Quota÷365) × days). Ramp benchmarks: Bridge Group Sales Development Report and 2025 SaaS AE ramp data (5.7 month average). Replacement cost benchmarks: SHRM Human Capital Benchmarking Reports. Survivor cascade: 45% of survivors at elevated flight risk; 15% conversion. Embeddedness theory: Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, Erez (2001); Li et al. meta-analysis, 250+ studies, N=111,000+; Dannehl (2020). Outputs are estimates based on user-provided inputs. For illustrative purposes only.
Calculator outputs are estimates based on user-provided inputs and published industry benchmarks. For illustrative purposes only. Not financial or consulting advice.
