Business Development Productivity Calculator Interactive Calculator
Your BD team was hired to build relationships and win work — not to refresh tender portals. Calculate what manual project hunting costs in hours, salary and lost selling time.
By the analysts at Blackridge Research
Inputs
Results
What this means
Adjust the inputs to calculate.
About the Business Development Productivity Calculator
Your BD team was hired to build relationships and win work — not to refresh tender portals.
This calculator shows what manual project hunting costs in hours, salary and lost selling time.
This calculator values reclaimed hours at fully-loaded employment cost and shows the FTE equivalent recovered.
Formula
Hours Reclaimed = Team × Weekly Hours × Automation Share × 48 - T
- — Team Size — number of BD people
- WH
- — Weekly Research Hours — per person
- AS
- — Automation Share — percentage of time saved
The calculation values reclaimed hours at fully-loaded employment cost and annualizes over 48 working weeks.
How to use this calculator
- 1
Count the research hours
People involved in finding and verifying projects, and their realistic weekly hours on it.
- 2
Price the time
The calculator applies fully-loaded cost (salary × 1.25) per hour.
- 3
Set the automation share
Teams replacing manual scanning typically reclaim 60-80% of discovery time.
Example calculations
BD team productivity
Example 1A team of 6 spends 11 hours/week on research, at $85K average salary, with 70% automation.
- Hours Reclaimed:
- 2,218 hrs
- FTE Equivalent:
- 1.07 FTE
- Cost Recovered:
- $112,800
Interpreting your results
The math is unforgiving. Six people × 11 hours a week is roughly 3,200 hours a year — about 1.5 full-time roles doing manual lookup.
Need the market data behind this calculator?
The Business Development Productivity Calculator is only as good as its inputs. Blackridge Research publishes syndicated market reports with vetted market sizes, growth rates, and competitive landscapes across 40+ industries — and builds custom studies when the shelf report doesn't exist.
Industry applications
Business
- BD managers: Justify the tool that gives your team their selling week back.
- Commercial directors: See how many FTEs of capacity you unlock without adding headcount.
- Operations & finance: Compare the fully-loaded cost of manual research against a subscription.
Construction
- Construction BD: Reclaim hours spent on project hunting.
- Equipment manufacturers: Free up sales time for customer engagement.
Research
- Productivity analysis: Study BD time allocation.
- Sales operations: Model research cost savings.
Common mistakes to avoid
-
Underestimating research time
Track one week — most teams find the true figure exceeds their estimate.
-
Using base salary instead of loaded
Use fully-loaded cost (salary × 1.25) for accurate valuation.
Frequently asked questions
How much time do BD teams really spend on manual research?
Time-tracking exercises consistently land between 8 and 15 hours per person per week.
Is a 70% research time saving realistic?
Yes, teams replacing manual scanning with a tracker typically reclaim 60-80% of discovery time.
Glossary
- Fully-loaded cost:
- Salary plus benefits, employer costs and overheads.
- Discovery time:
- Time spent finding and verifying projects, not pursuing them.
Explore more free tools
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The worst lead isn't the one you lose — it's the one that was never real. Calculate what chasing stalled, canceled and already-awarded projects costs your team, and what verified intelligence recovers.
Manual vs Automated Research Calculator
Your team already runs a project-discovery operation — it just runs on salaries, portal logins and travel budgets. Put the manual cost next to the automated one and see the gap.