Metrics
Bench Time
Paid developer capacity sitting idle between client projects at a software agency.
What is bench time?
Bench time is capacity you pay for and cannot bill. A developer finishes a project on the 30th and the next engagement starts six weeks later. Those six weeks are pure loss.
What it actually costs
// BENCH COST EXAMPLE
developers_idle: 3
fully_loaded_monthly_cost_each: 5,000
idle_duration: 6 weeks
direct_cost: 22,500
lost_billable_revenue_at_8k/month: 36,000
total_impact: ~58,500
That single gap costs more than a full year of outbound for one LinkedIn profile.
Bench time is a pipeline problem
Agencies usually treat it as a scheduling problem. It is not. Bench time happens because sales stopped while delivery was busy. Six months later the pipeline is empty at exactly the moment capacity frees up.
The sales cycle for custom software runs three to six months. That means the work that fills March started in October. If you pause outbound when you are busy, you have already booked next quarter's bench.
How to remove it
Run outbound continuously at a steady rate, even in full months. Constant, modest activity produces a pipeline that arrives roughly when capacity does, which is the entire argument for treating outbound as infrastructure rather than a campaign.
Related reading: Sales Cycle Length and Pipeline Coverage Ratio.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do you calculate the cost of bench time?
- Add the fully loaded cost of the idle staff for the idle period to the billable revenue those hours would have produced. The lost revenue is usually the larger half.
- Why does bench time keep happening?
- Because outbound stops when delivery gets busy. With a three to six month sales cycle, pausing sales today books an empty calendar two quarters from now.