How do you calculate sales capacity?

Multiply fully ramped reps by their quota for the period, then add ramping reps at their partial productivity. The part most plans get wrong is the second half: a rep who is three months into a six-month ramp is not a unit of quota capacity, and treating them as one is how an annual plan ends up set to a number the team could never have produced.

What ramp time should I use?

Your own, measured from cohort history: take the last two or three cohorts of hires and find the month in which their bookings reached the average for ramped reps. We publish no default because ramp varies enormously with deal size and complexity — an SMB transactional rep and an enterprise rep are not in the same business, and any single figure would be wrong for one of them.

Should capacity equal the quota we set?

No, and setting them equal is a common planning error. Capacity is the ceiling assuming every rep hits quota, while average attainment is usually well below 100%. If you assign quota equal to capacity you have built a plan that requires universal quota attainment, which almost never happens. Apply your historical attainment rate first.

How does attrition change this?

More than almost anything else, because it does not simply remove a rep — it replaces a ramped rep with a ramping one, and then with an empty seat while you hire. A single ramped rep leaving in month three of a twelve-month plan can cost more capacity than two extra hires add. Model attrition explicitly rather than assuming a full roster.

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Ramp-adjusted quota capacity calculator

How much quota your headcount can actually carry once ramp is accounted for. Planning against headcount multiplied by quota is the most common way an annual plan is set to a number the team was never able to produce.

Fully ramped reps

Reps who have completed ramp and are expected to carry full quota for the whole period. Count people in seat, not approved requisitions.

Reps still ramping

Reps hired but not yet at full productivity, including anyone starting inside the period. This is the number that headcount-times-quota planning silently treats as fully productive.

Annual quota per ramped rep

The annual number a fully ramped rep is expected to close. Use the same basis — bookings or ARR — throughout.

Ramp time

months

Months from start to full productivity, measured from your own cohort history rather than assumed. This is the input most worth getting right.

Planning period

months

Length of the period you are planning. Twelve for an annual plan, three for a quarter.

RAMP-ADJUSTED CAPACITY

$8,200,000

WHAT NAIVE HEADCOUNT PLANNING WOULD CLAIM

$8,800,000

Headcount × quota overstates capacity by 7% — about 600,000 of quota that exists on the plan and not in the field.

Capacity you can actually commit to

Plan against this figure rather than headcount × quota. The gap between the two is the number that gets a sales leader fired in Q4, and it is entirely predictable in January.

The formula

Capacity = (ramped reps × quota × period/12) + (ramping reps × quota × productive months/12), where a linearly ramping rep averages half productivity during ramp

Published because a calculator that hides its arithmetic is asking to be trusted rather than checked. Every input above is defined precisely in the note under its field — most disagreements about these numbers turn out to be disagreements about what went into them.

WHERE THIS FAILS

A linear ramp is a simplification. Real ramps are S-curves — slower at the start than straight-line and faster in the middle — so this understates early-period capacity slightly and overstates it in month one.

It assumes every ramping rep starts at the beginning of the period. A rep hired in month ten contributes almost nothing to an annual plan, and modelling them as a whole ramping rep overstates capacity.

It assumes no attrition. Over a twelve-month period that is optimistic for most teams, and attrition replaces a ramped rep with a ramping one — the single most damaging substitution in this model.

Capacity is not a forecast. It is the ceiling if everyone performs to quota, and average attainment is materially below 100% in most organisations. Multiply by your own historical attainment rate before committing to a number.

DEFINITIONS USED HERE

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COMMON QUESTIONS

How do you calculate sales capacity?: Multiply fully ramped reps by their quota for the period, then add ramping reps at their partial productivity. The part most plans get wrong is the second half: a rep who is three months into a six-month ramp is not a unit of quota capacity, and treating them as one is how an annual plan ends up set to a number the team could never have produced.
What ramp time should I use?: Your own, measured from cohort history: take the last two or three cohorts of hires and find the month in which their bookings reached the average for ramped reps. We publish no default because ramp varies enormously with deal size and complexity — an SMB transactional rep and an enterprise rep are not in the same business, and any single figure would be wrong for one of them.
Should capacity equal the quota we set?: No, and setting them equal is a common planning error. Capacity is the ceiling assuming every rep hits quota, while average attainment is usually well below 100%. If you assign quota equal to capacity you have built a plan that requires universal quota attainment, which almost never happens. Apply your historical attainment rate first.
How does attrition change this?: More than almost anything else, because it does not simply remove a rep — it replaces a ramped rep with a ramping one, and then with an empty seat while you hire. A single ramped rep leaving in month three of a twelve-month plan can cost more capacity than two extra hires add. Model attrition explicitly rather than assuming a full roster.