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Sales and Marketing SLA Template

Four documents and four sheets that score both sides of the SLA off one lead export, with the response clock run in business hours.

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Pack of 8 files: 4 documents, 4 spreadsheets

Sales and Marketing SLA Template
  • SLA AgreementDocument
  • Qualification DefinitionsDocument
  • Dispute ProcedureDocument
  • How the Clock Is ComputedDocument
  • SLA TargetsSpreadsheet
  • Breach LogSpreadsheet
  • Follow-up TimingSpreadsheet
  • Rejected Lead ReasonsSpreadsheet
RiverSales and Marketing SLA Template

One Response Clause, Measured Two Ways

Winterbourne, 3,920 handed-off leads, H1 2026

The clause as written: first contact within 1 business hour for tier A and 1 business day for tier B, business hours being 08:00 to 18:00 local to the lead's territory, Monday to Friday, eleven company holidays.

TierLeadsWall clockThe SLA's own clock
A, 1 business hour1,14870261.1%23420.4%
B, 1 business day2,7721,18642.8%48417.5%
All handoffs3,9201,88848.2%71818.3%

1,170 leads sit between the two columns

2,000 of the 3,920 arrived outside business hours, which is what happens when the form is open all night and the desk is not. 1,049 of those breach on wall time and comply under the definition both teams signed. No CRM computes a business-hours clock on a lead object, so the left column is the only one Winterbourne had ever seen.

Then the same computation indicts the target it just defended. Among leads that passed the clock, opportunity rate runs 18.0% under one wall-clock hour and 12.2% at twelve to forty-eight hours, a shortfall of 157 opportunities on leads that all complied.

Every sales and marketing SLA template is the same one-page form with the numbers left blank: deliver this many qualified leads a month, contact each one within four business hours, make five attempts before disposition. Filling the blanks takes an afternoon. What none of them mention is that no CRM computes a business-hours elapsed time on a lead object, so the clause both teams signed has never once been measured the way it is written.

So this pack computes it. On the worked example, two quarters of a field-service software company's leads, wall time puts 1,888 of 3,920 handoffs in breach at 48.2%. The agreement's own clock, 08:00 to 18:00 local to the lead's territory with the holiday list attached, puts 718 in breach at 18.3%. Half the leads arrive outside business hours, which is what happens when the form is open all night and the desk is not.

That clock clears sales of most of its apparent breaches, so the pack does the same arithmetic to marketing's number. Every rejection is classified before it counts as lead quality, and every recurring reason is tested as a candidate required field on one figure: how often sales accepted a lead that field would have blocked. The largest reason code usually fails that test, which is the result nobody expects and the reason these agreements never get amended. Pair it with lead routing rules, which decides which owner a qualified lead reaches.

One agreement, both sides scored off one lead export

SLA Targets with a measured value per clause, the Breach Log with the owing side on every row, and the promotion test that decides which reason code becomes a required field.

Sales and Marketing SLA Template
RiverSLA Targets

SLA Targets

Illustrative, for a fictional field-service software company called Winterbourne. Seven clauses, each with the side that owes it and a value measured the way the clause is written rather than the way a funnel report produces it.

#CommitmentOwesCommittedH1 2026 measured
1Qualified lead volumeMarketing596 / month653 / month, missed 620 in 2 of 6
2Qualification match rateMarketing70%breached in 2 of 6 months
3First contact, tier ASales1 business hour234 of 1,148 (20.4%)
3First contact, tier BSales1 business day484 of 2,772 (17.5%)
3bAttempt minimumSales5 over 10 business days463 rejections failed it
4Disposition deadlineSales15 business days472 past it, 72 inside
4bReason on every rejectionSalesno blanks98 blank
6Company size accuracyMarketingreported monthlynot a gate, see tab three

Clause 4 is the one that moves marketing's number. Acceptance rate quoted as accepted over dispositioned is 62.9%. Recomputed over every lead handed over it is 54.2%, and the 8.7 points between them are the 544 leads nobody closed out. The two clauses cannot be reviewed separately.

RiverBreach Log

Breach Log

One row per computed breach rather than one per lead, because a lead can breach two clauses with two different owners. Every time-based row carries the business-hours definition that produced it, which is what makes a dispute resolvable.

LeadHandoff, localClauseOwesMeasuredCommittedWall clock
L-4005Sun 25 Jan 08:073Sales26h 53m1h 0m3d 6h 46m
L-4099Sat 31 Jan 09:263Sales1h 7m1h 0m1d 23h 41m
L-4007Fri 30 Jan 14:583Nobody3h 14m10h 0m2d 17h 14m
L-4019Sat 3 Jan 09:043Nobody1h 23m10h 0m2d 0h 19m
L-4025Sun 18 Jan 18:313bSales0 attempts5 attemptsrejected anyway
L-4104Sat 17 Jan 18:113bSales1 attempt5 attemptsrejected anyway
L-4016Mon 19 Jan 15:034Salesno dispositiondue 10 Feb1 attempt logged
L-4014Wed 7 Jan 09:504bSalesblank reasonone valueworked to standard
L-4024Fri 30 Jan 10:216Marketingnot our industryverified6 attempts, admissible
L-4003Thu 15 Jan 05:343Neithernot computable10h 0mno handoff event

The two Nobody rows are the ones that change the meeting: over two wall-clock days each, fully compliant, and not breaches. The Neither row arrived through a trade show scanner that writes no handoff event, so no response clock exists on it and counting it against sales was wrong. Those get a named cause and sit outside both side totals.

RiverRejected Lead Reasons

Rejected Lead Reasons

Every checkable reason is a candidate required field before handoff. The test is not how often it appears. It is how often sales accepted a lead the field would have blocked, which is a population that does not exist in the rejection set at all.

ReasonRejectionsOf rejGate blocksClearsCosts acceptedAcc rateOpps lostVerdict
Company too small28022.4%72543320828.7%53do not gate
Not our industry17714.1%39725210225.7%16do not gate
Personal email, no company1048.3%1891323619.0%5do not gate
Outside served geography12610.1%17815495.1%2adopt
Duplicate of an open lead665.3%937544.3%0adopt
Already a customer594.7%826644.9%2adopt
No budget this cycle766.1%-----not a candidate
No reason recorded987.8%-----clause 4b breach

The top two reasons are 36.5% of every rejection Winterbourne logged and both fail the test. A criterion sales overrides more than a quarter of the time is not describing an unqualified lead, it is describing a field that is wrong that often, and gating on it would have cost 69 opportunities to tidy a report. The three quiet ones passed, block 344 leads between them, and moved the volume clause from 620 a month to 596 in the same version.

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What is in the pack

01

SLA Targets

One row per clause with its owing side, its committed value, and a value measured the way the clause is written

02

Breach Log

One row per computed breach, carrying the clause, the owing side, both values and the clock definition used

03

Follow-up Timing

Both clocks side by side per tier and territory, ending in the leads the agreement's own definition exonerates

04

Rejected Lead Reasons

Every reason code with the promotion test on it: leads a gate blocks, rejections cleared, accepted leads destroyed

05

SLA Agreement

Seven clauses with a computed breach count each, an amendment table, and what deliberately did not change

06

Qualification Definitions

Every criterion, and for each one whether it is a required field or an accuracy obligation, with the arithmetic

07

Dispute Procedure

An admissibility gate rather than a queue, two escalation rounds, and the list of things that cannot be disputed

08

How the Clock Is Computed

The five definitional inputs, three leads worked by hand, and what the exoneration costs when you check it

How it works

  1. 1

    Send both halves

    The agreement in whatever state it exists, and a lead export with created, handoff and first-touch timestamps, attempt counts, disposition, reason and territory.

  2. 2

    Pin the clock down

    Five things come out of the document before anything is measured: opening and closing time, working week, the specific holiday dates, whose time zone, and what starts the clock.

  3. 3

    Score both sides

    Response times run in wall time and in business hours, every rate gets both denominators, and every rejection lands in one of four classes before it counts as lead quality.

  4. 4

    Amend with the trade attached

    Each recurring reason is tested as a candidate required field, and an adopted one arrives with the volume number it costs, in the same version.

Frequently asked questions

What do I need before this is useful?

The agreement in any state, and a lead export with created, handoff and first-touch timestamps, logged activity counts, disposition, rejection reason and the territory on each lead. Send the free-text rejection comment as well as the picklist value, because the two disagree more often than people expect and the rate is a finding.

Our CRM already reports lead response time

It reports wall time, which is a different number from the one your agreement promises. In the worked example wall time shows 1,888 leads in breach and the agreement's own clock shows 718. Both are correct answers to different questions, so the pack reports both columns and the 1,170 leads between them.

Why can the CRM not just compute business hours?

The capability exists, on the wrong object. Salesforce business hours attach to cases, case escalation rules, entitlement processes and milestones, and HubSpot's SLA-hours properties only apply to help desk tickets. Support SLAs have needed this for twenty years. The lead object never got it.

Why not just require company size before handoff?

Because sales accepted 28.7% of the leads that gate would have blocked, and 53 of them reached opportunity. It is the largest rejection reason at 22.4%, and it still fails. A criterion overridden that often describes a field that is wrong, not a lead that is unqualified, so the fix is verifying it rather than dropping the lead.

Our acceptance rate looks healthy

Check its denominator. Accepted over dispositioned was 62.9% on the worked example and accepted over all handoffs was 54.2%, and the gap is 544 leads nobody closed out. That makes marketing's quality figure a function of sales' own disposition compliance, so tightening one clause moves the other without anyone's lead quality changing.

Can this run without an existing SLA?

Yes, and it is often the better order. The clauses get written from what the export shows the two teams are already doing, which beats importing benchmark response times nobody agreed to. You still need clean, deduplicated records, because the duplicate gate is only measurable once matching works.

Does this decide routing, scoring or what happens after acceptance?

No, and the boundary is deliberate. Which owner a lead reaches is a routing question, what an accepted lead does next belongs to pipeline hygiene, and leads arriving through paths that write no handoff event belong to a system of record map. What happens when sales disqualifies one instead belongs to reason codes and recycle timers.

Sources

  1. SalesforceSalesforce Help (opens in a new tab)
  2. HubSpotSet SLA goals in help desk (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

LinkedInGitHubX

Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

LinkedInX

Related

Lead routing rules pack

Which owner each qualified lead reaches, replayed against real history, which is the question upstream of this clock

CRM hygiene and dedup pack

The matching the duplicate gate depends on, since a gate you cannot measure is a clause you cannot enforce

Pipeline hygiene pack

What happens to a lead after sales accepts it, which is the next commitment nobody writes down

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Find out what your response clause actually says

Send the agreement and a lead export. The first thing back is two breach counts on the same leads and the number of leads between them.

Score both sides of my SLA