Blog > How does a healthy Upwork pipeline look like?
How does a healthy Upwork pipeline look like?
Vadym Ovcharenko • 2024-07-05
GigRadar gained many new partners and investors, which means more features and clients. For web development on Upwork, a good pipeline can turn 270 leads into 3 large contracts worth $20k-$30k each. Upwork introduced a new $4.99 fee for first-time direct offers from clients, but it doesn't apply to invitations or proposals.
Hey all! 👋 Happy 4th of July 🇺🇸
This week, web developers will discover their performance on Upwork. I will also be sharing insights on a typical Upwork pipeline, some weird updates from the platform, exciting new offers, and more.
🤝 Welcome, new GigRadar Partners!
Last week, I invited you to become our partners.
I was pretty surprised at how many applications we got. I was looking for marketing & development partners but it came as a surprise how many of you decided to invest in GigRadar 🤯
What does this mean for you?
More features for GigRadar, more clients for GigRadar.
I'm fully booked with investor meetings, but our partner team still has some spots for resellers & affiliates.
Can you help us sell GigRadar?
Can you help us build or integrate GigRadar?
Become a GigRadar Partner
🌪️ How does a healthy Upwork pipeline look like?
Our community already knows that Upwork lead generation isn’t just about writing good proposals. It’s a lot more work for SDRs, appointment setters, and sales teams. (You would know if you followed our events & huddles too.)
Today, we're diving into the most sought-after category on Upwork: Web Development 🌐
Here’s a snapshot of a typical pipeline with real numbers, achieved with blood, sweat, KPIs, and tears:
- Niche: Web Development
- Upwork Agency: Top Rated Plus
- Lead Generation Budget: $5k/mo (connects + GigRadar + appointment setting team)
If your Upwork profile is decent and your GigRadar setup works well, you should achieve an LRR of about 18%.
- Also, let’s include invitations and direct chats: which total roughly 270 leads (replies).
- Then, your SDR should act quickly and schedule a lot of calls, aiming for around 80 booked ones.
- Without forgetting to follow up with your booked prospects, you might end up with 60 actual calls.
- Out of those 60 calls, you may expect roughly 3 contracts in the deal cycle of <30 days (and +15% more developing from a long tail of open deals of 30-90 days old).
Yeah, it’s web development, so the deal size isn’t $1,500; we're looking at around $20k–$30k contracts. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long term on the investment of $5k. So you just need to manage to close 5% of those calls, and everything will be peachy 🍑🍑🍑
💲4.99 Upwork Fee Explained
Upwork has a new update, and we're here to break it down for you. Spoiler: it's not as scary as it sounds! 😱
🗝 Key Points:
- Nothing to be afraid of: This fee only applies to direct offers.
- Invitations and proposals are not affected. No need to worry, your usual activities remain fee-free.
What's the Instant Connection Fee? If a client sends you an offer through direct messages, and it’s your first direct offer from that client, you’ll need to pay a one-time Instant Connection Fee of $4.99 USD to accept it. This fee will be deducted from the payment you receive from the client.
For agency freelancers:
- If you’re an agency freelancer, the fee STILL (🙁) applies even if someone else in your agency has worked with the client before.
- If the agency owner accepts the offer, the agency will be charged :(
- If you’re not an exclusive agency member and accept the offer on your own, you’ll pay the fee.
This fee does not apply to Upwork Payroll or Enterprise contracts. Small mercies.
A direct message without a job posted? How????
👀 See:
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