Most ROI calculators compute your own optimism back at you

Four of the six inputs are your beliefs about the future. Multiply four beliefs together and you get a fifth belief with a currency symbol on it, which feels like analysis and is not.

The break-even reply rate inverts the question. Instead of “how much will I make”, it asks “how well does this have to work before it is worth doing” — and that has an answer you can compare against reality. For most Indian B2B deal sizes the answer is a surprisingly small number, which is the honest argument for outbound. Where it comes out large, that is worth knowing before you spend the month, and this page would rather you found out here.

The obvious thing to do would be to pre-fill “8% — industry average” and let the calculator produce an encouraging number. Rechlio has no dataset that would make such a figure honest: no published methodology, no sample size, no date range.

So the assumption fields are labelled as yours, in a colour that says so. If Rechlio ever publishes reply-rate benchmarks, they will arrive with a methodology, a sample size and a date, or they will not arrive.

• Put in the worst reply rate you would find acceptable, not the one you hope for. The calculator is more useful as a floor than a forecast.
• Use a real deal value — the median of what you actually closed, not the biggest.
• Remember your own time. It is excluded here and it is usually the largest cost in outbound.
• Run a small campaign and replace your guesses with what happened. That is the only version of this that is worth anything.

• It does not predict your reply rate, and no calculator can. Four of the six inputs are your beliefs.
• It does not include what Meta charges for WhatsApp conversations — that is billed to you by Meta directly.
• It does not count your own time, which is usually the largest cost in outbound and the one that decides whether a channel is worth running at all.
• It cannot tell you whether a business will buy. It costs an activity and compares it to a number you supplied.

What reply rate should I expect?

We are not going to tell you, and be sceptical of anyone who does without showing their data. Rechlio has no dataset that would make a published benchmark honest, and a number invented to make a calculator look authoritative is the quietest kind of lie a marketing page tells. Start from your own experience, or run a small campaign and measure.

Why is the break-even rate the useful output?

Because it is the only figure here you did not supply. The revenue number is your assumptions multiplied together — it will say whatever you tell it to. The break-even rate is your deal value against real prices, and it answers a question you can actually test: does outreach have to work implausibly well before it is worth doing?

Does this include what Meta charges for WhatsApp?

No. Rechlio’s WhatsApp platform fee is ₹0, but Meta bills you directly for conversations at their own rates. The cost calculator has a box for that if you want it included.