Sales Funnel Partner Referral Calculator
Estimate leads, customers, referral payouts, revenue and return from a partner referral sales funnel.
Overview
This calculator helps you estimate the performance of a partner referral sales funnel using expected referral leads, conversion rates, average order value, commission rate and internal lead handling cost. It is useful for comparing whether a referral channel looks profitable before you invest more time or budget.
How it works
The calculator applies your lead-to-qualified rate to estimate qualified opportunities, then applies your qualified-to-customer rate to estimate customers. It multiplies the projected customers by average order value to estimate gross revenue. Next, it calculates partner commission as a percentage of revenue and adds your internal cost per lead across all referral leads. Net revenue is gross revenue minus those costs, and ROI is net revenue divided by total channel cost.
How to use this calculator
- 1Enter the number of referral leads you expect in your chosen period.
- 2Add the percentage of leads that typically become qualified opportunities.
- 3Enter the percentage of qualified opportunities that become customers.
- 4Input your average order value for each converted customer.
- 5Add the referral commission rate you pay partners.
- 6Enter your estimated internal cost per referral lead and review the projected revenue and ROI.
Example Calculation
Referral leads
500
Lead to qualified rate
40%
Qualified to customer rate
25%
Average order value
$1,200
Referral commission rate
15%
Internal cost per lead
$20
Estimated customers
50
With 500 referral leads, a 40% lead-to-qualified rate and a 25% qualified-to-customer rate, the funnel produces about 50 customers. At an average order value of 1200, gross revenue is about 60000. A 15% commission plus 20 per lead in internal cost gives total channel costs of about 19000, leaving net revenue of about 41000 and an ROI of roughly 215.8%.
Frequently asked questions
What does this calculator estimate?
It estimates how many customers a partner referral funnel may generate, the gross revenue from those customers, the partner commission cost, net revenue and ROI.
What period does this calculator use?
It uses whatever period your inputs represent, such as a month, quarter or campaign. Just keep all inputs based on the same timeframe.
Does average order value include repeat purchases?
Usually it is best to enter the first-sale or initial contract value unless you intentionally want to model lifetime value another way.
Why are there two conversion rates?
Many sales funnels have at least two stages: leads becoming qualified opportunities and qualified opportunities becoming customers. Splitting them can give a more realistic estimate.
What counts as internal cost per lead?
This can include sales time, qualification effort, onboarding work, software allocation or other average handling costs per referral lead.
Can ROI be negative?
Yes. If your gross revenue is lower than your combined commission and internal costs, the net revenue and ROI will be negative.
Explore Related Calculators
Assumptions and warnings
Assumptions
- Results are estimates based on average conversion rates and average order value.
- Commission is calculated as a percentage of gross revenue from converted referral customers.
- Internal cost per lead is treated as a flat average across all referral leads.
- The calculation focuses on first-sale revenue and does not include refunds, churn, repeat purchases or taxes unless reflected in your inputs.
Warnings
- This calculator provides an estimate only and should not be treated as financial advice.
- Actual sales funnel performance may vary due to lead quality, sales cycle length, pricing, refunds and partner terms.