In this article, I share a spreadsheet-driven guide that turns data inaccuracy into tangible dollars (lost revenue, wasted SDR hours, and avoidable tech spend), so that you can calculate the cost of inaccuracy in your contact data. Also, at the end of this article, I’ve appended a link to Google Sheets that can help you calculate the cost and stimulate scenarios. Now let’s begin!
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Sales leaders complain about low connect rates, but most treat wrong phone numbers as a minor annoyance rather than a line-item threat. A rep dials, hits a deadline, shrugs, and dials again.
Multiplied across an entire team, that shrug becomes a hidden P&L leak. Minutes accumulate into hours. Tool vendors continue billing for failed calls. Pipeline opportunities die before they are born. Because no one assigns a dollar value to “bad data,” funding for enrichment and validation stays under-prioritized.
The goal of this guide is to remove the guesswork. You will build a spreadsheet that converts every single invalid number into hard cost—payroll burn, tool waste, and lost bookings—so Finance can see why data quality deserves real budget.
Cost Stack: Where Every Wrong Digit Hurts
Bad numbers hit five layers of the outbound economy. Understanding each layer helps the spreadsheet capture the full impact, not just rep frustration.
| Cost Layer | Impact Mechanism | Typical Range | Notes From Field Audits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rep Time | Prep → Dial → Log cycle repeats for a dead call | 2 – 4 min per bad dial | Includes reading notes, confirming account, updating CRM |
| Connect-Rate Drag | Fewer live conversations per hour | 10 – 20 % drop | Dead dials steal time from valid calls |
| Sequence Bloat | Extra touches to compensate | +1 – 2 touches / lead | Adds email volume and deliverability risk |
| Pipeline Gap | Missed meetings × win-rate math | Variable — often 4–10 deals per pod / quarter | Largest invisible loss |
| Tool Waste | Dialer minutes, phone data seats | $ per failed attempt | Vendors charge per dial, not per connect |
A phone number looks like a single data point. In reality it is a domino: tip the first tile and every GTM KPI downstream falls with it.
Spreadsheet Inputs: No Exotic BI Required
Everything you need lives in the dialer, CRM, or payroll system. Pull the numbers once, then refresh monthly to track improvement.
- Dials per SDR per Day — “Calls placed” in your dialer dashboard
- Average Talk Time per Connect (minutes) — Gong or Chorus median
- Bad-Number Rate % — Quick QA sample or dialer status codes (No Answer, Invalid)
- SDR Loaded Cost per Hour — Salary + benefits ÷ 2 080 work hours
- Meeting-to-Opportunity Conversion % — CRM funnel report
- Win Rate and Average Contract Value (ACV) — Closed-won cohort
- Dialer Cost per Minute + Data-Seat Cost — Invoices from vendors
Store inputs on a dedicated “blue-cell” tab so anyone can update without breaking formulas.
Once inputs are in place, four formulas reveal how inaccurate phone data drains the business.
- Time Wasted / SDR / Day
Bad Dials×Minutes per Failed Dial\text{Bad Dials} \times \text{Minutes per Failed Dial}Bad Dials×Minutes per Failed Dial - Payroll Burn / SDR / Month
Time Wasted×SDR Cost per Minute×22 workdays\text{Time Wasted} \times \text{SDR Cost per Minute} \times 22 \text{ workdays}Time Wasted×SDR Cost per Minute×22 workdays - Connects Lost / SDR / Month
(Bad Dials×Expected Connect Rate)×22(\text{Bad Dials} \times \text{Expected Connect Rate}) \times 22(Bad Dials×Expected Connect Rate)×22 - Pipeline Lost / SDR / Month
Connects Lost×Meeting-to-Opp ×Win Rate×ACV\text{Connects Lost} \times \text{Meeting-to-Opp } \times \text{Win Rate} \times \text{ACV}Connects Lost×Meeting-to-Opp ×Win Rate×ACV
Add a fifth line (Tool Waste) by multiplying dialer minutes billed on failed calls by vendor rate. Sum the stack for a “Total Cost of Bad Data.”
Pro tip: Build the sheet so Execs can toggle currency, ACV tiers, and team size without touching the math layer. CFOs love single-cell sensitivity controls.
Walk-Through Example: Ten-Rep Pod, Mid-Market Motion
| Variable | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dials per Rep per Day | 80 | Dialer logs |
| Bad-Number Rate | 18 % | 200-call QA audit |
| Minutes per Bad Dial | 3 | Gong metadata |
| SDR Cost / Hour | $60 | HR |
| Good-Dial Connect Rate | 15 % | Historic |
| Meeting-to-Opp | 35 % | CRM |
| Win Rate | 21 % | SalesOps |
| ACV | $18 K | Finance |
| Dialer Cost / Minute | $0.06 | Vendor |
Step-by-step Math
Time wasted:
80 × 18 % × 3 min = 43.2 min/rep/day
Payroll burn:
43.2 min × $1.00 × 22 days ≈ $951/month/rep
Lost connects:
(80 × 18% × 15%) × 22 ≈ 48 live conversations /month /rep
Pipeline loss:
48 × 35% × 21% × $18K ≈ $63000/month/rep
Add tool waste:
80 × 18 % × $0.06 × 22 ≈ $190/month/rep
Total impact - $64 000 + per rep, per month. Multiplied by ten reps, the pod leaks more than $7.5 M in annual bookable pipeline.
Finance instantly understands why “just buy better data” is not a luxury ask. Also, static models persuade once; interactive models persuade forever. Add sliders:
- Bad-Number Rate from 5 % to 25 %.
- Average Contract Value from $10 K to $30 K.
- Connect Rate adjustments for call-day experiments.
The chart shows non-linear loss. Moving from 18% to 9% bad numbers in the example above saves roughly $3.7 M in pipeline for the same team. That delta funds premium data, phone validation APIs, and an enablement headcount—all with cash left over.
Board-ready insight: Highlight the breakeven point where enrichment cost equals pipeline gained. Anything past that line is “free revenue.”
Sheet Architecture — Four Tabs, Two Rules
- Inputs
- Blue cells only. Anyone can edit.
- Built-in notes remind users where each metric lives.
- Calcs
- Formulas are locked.
- Include comment call-outs referencing equations for transparency.
- Outputs
- KPI cards on top: Payroll Burn, Tool Waste, Pipeline Loss, Total Cost.
- One mini-chart shows cost by layer; executives see what ballooned fastest.
- Scenarios
- Data table auto-generates three cases: Current, Conservative (-5 % bad numbers), Best (-10 %).
- Visual waterfall shows savings unlocked at each improvement tier.
Rules: (a) No manual typing in the Calcs or Outputs tabs. (b) Version-control the file weekly so trend lines remain trustworthy.
How to activate the live Data Table
- In Excel:
- Select the range B2:G7 on the Scenarios sheet.
- Go to Data → What-If Analysis → Data Table.
- Row input cell → Inputs!B12 (BadNumberRate_WhatIf)
- Column input cell → Inputs!B13 (ACV_WhatIf)
- Click OK. The grid fills with live cost numbers.
- In Google Sheets:
- Use the Excel-compatible version by uploading; then run Data → What-If Analysis add-on or manually copy the Excel table.
All core formulas in Inputs, Calcs, and Outputs remain untouched. Adjust the blue cells; everything else updates automatically.
Mitigation Path: From Cost Center to ROI Engine
Cost alone will not move budget unless you attach a fix with forecasted gain. Present a four-step mitigation stack alongside the spreadsheet:
- Real-Time Validation
- Gate every phone number through a provider such as Reachfast.
- Reject or auto-flag any line that returns low confidence.
- Weekly QA Sampling
- Randomly dial twenty numbers per rep outside sequence hours.
- Feed errors back to the vendor. Insist on credit or replacement.
- Data-Savings Budget
- Model states “A 9 % bad-number cut saves $X.”
- Any enrichment tool delivering that cut at < 33 % of savings is ROI-positive.
- Post-Fix Measurement
- Rerun the spreadsheet monthly.
- Celebrate the declining error trend in the same slide deck that won the budget.
Pipeline uptick becomes unavoidable when reps spend their reclaimed minutes on verified mobiles instead of dead air.
Turn Gut Feel into Financial Certainty
Executives sign checks when opacity becomes clarity. A wrong phone number used to feel annoying an operational paper cut. The spreadsheet reframes it as a bleeding artery that drains quota, tech budget, and morale. By quantifying minutes lost, connects missed, and revenue withheld, you move the conversation from “Should we buy better data?” to “Can we afford not to?”
Build the model. Show the stack of costs. Propose the mitigation ROI in one tidy deck. Then watch Finance approve the enrichment line before the meeting ends because numbers that hurt the bottom line move decision-makers faster than any anecdote ever will.
Download / Duplicate Template
Grab a live Google-Sheets version with formulas and example data pre-loaded. Replace blue cells with your numbers and drop it into your next QBR: Get The Template