Introduction
Sales Close Rate Statistics: A sales close rate can show if a team can move real buyer interest into actual revenue. In 2026, it may matter more than how much pipeline you have because B2B buyers now look things up on their own, involve more people before they decide, and expect sellers to lower risk, not just walk them through features.
According to HubSpot’s 2026 report, a common baseline is near 20%, while sales work points to that number across industries, but a meaningful close-rate target must reflect the denominator being used, the sales motion, average contract value, industry, lead source, and buying complexity.
This article gives an overview of sales close rate statistics, including calculation, industry close rate, and inside and outside close rate in 2026.
Top takeaways
- HubSpot’s 2026 sales analysis puts the average close rate at about 20%.
- In a survey, 91% of sales pros said close rates rose or stayed the same, and another 93% said deal sizes rose or held steady.
- 68% reported better lead quality, and they link that to steadier closing.
- Software and SaaS are around 22%, Finance and fintech sit closer to 19%, and Biotech and pharma are about 15%.
- For smaller buyers and cheaper offers, close rates can hit 30% to 35%, while Enterprise deals are often around 15% to 18%.
- Notta.ai says outside reps close about 40%, and Inside reps are closer to about 30%.
- Outside sales calls cost about $215 to $400, while Inside calls are closer to about $50.
- HubSpot reports that marketing leads rated high or very high grew from 41% in 2022 to 73% in 2025.
- HubSpot also reports that current customers drive 72% of company revenue, with new customer growth at 28%.
- For deals above $100K ACV, win rates fell from roughly 26% to 17%, and mature teams may still aim for about 15% to 20% for this group.
What Is a Sales Close Rate?
- A sales close rate shows how many prospects or qualified leads turn into closed-won customers in a set time window.
- People sometimes mix this up with win rate, but each company should state the rule it will use to avoid confusing reports.
The general formula is:

- The “close rate” depends on the denominator, and the first number decides what you are really measuring. If you use leads as the base, you are looking at the full path, including getting leads, screening them, and then selling.
- If you use opportunities as the base, you focus more on what happens after qualification. In that case, it shows how well the team turns pipeline into revenue.
- For example, if a firm gets 1,000 leads, out of those, it qualifies 100 opportunities, then closes 25 customers, while using leads in the math gives a lead-to-close rate of 2.5%.
- Using opportunities gives an opportunity-to-close rate of 25% numbers fit the same facts, but they point to different spots where the growth system is working or not working.
How Close Rates Are Changing
- HubSpot’s 2025 State of Sales Report says close rates have held up even with wider economic strain.
- In the survey, 91% of people reported that their close rates went up or stayed the same over the last year, whereas 93% said deal sizes increased or did not change.
- Lead quality was also seen as better by 68% of respondents, pointing to better lead quality and steady deal values may help explain why results did not fall.
- In 2022, HubSpot reported that 53% of respondents had close rates that stayed about the same.
- Another group, 35%, said close rates rose, but 12% reported declines, as compare those results to the latest data, it looks like outcomes became steadier or improved.
- Close rate is a simple way to judge sales performance. The basic formula is:
- Close Rate = (Deals Won ÷ Total Qualified Opportunities) × 100
- For instance, if someone gets 50 qualified opportunities in a quarter and wins 15 deals, the close rate is 30%.
- HubSpot also advises teams to lock in a clear definition of a qualified opportunity. It should also be clear when a deal is counted as closed-won. Then reporting can be automated.
- The goal is to avoid changing definitions over time, since that can make comparisons from one period to the next less useful.
- Close rate helps to watch close rate along with lead quality and deal size, rather than treat the percentage on its own.
- HubSpot Sales Hub reporting can be used to track these metrics by individual reps and across the whole company.
Average Sales Close Rate By Industry
| Industry / Sector | Avg. Close Rate |
|---|---|
| Software/SaaS | ~22% (up to 30% in some benchmarks) (Everstage) |
| Finance/Fintech | ~19% (Everstage) |
| Biotech/Pharma | ~15% (Everstage) |
| Consulting/Services | ~22–24% (MeetRep) |
| Manufacturing | ~20% (MeetRep) |
| B2B Average (all) | ~25% (demo-to-close), ~20% lead-to-close (MeetRep) |
(Source: thunderbit.com)
- Sales close rates that teams call “good” are not the same everywhere. The number shifts by market, by how hard the deal is, and by how the sales team runs deals.
- One report from Everstage puts Software and SaaS at about 22% on average, with some market benchmarks reaching 30%.
- Finance and fintech are near 19%, and Biotech and pharma usually sit closer to 15%.
- MeetRep shows that Consulting and services are around 22 to 24%, while Manufacturing is closer to 20%.
- Looking at B2B sales overall, the benchmark figures are about 25% for demo-to-close, and lead-to-close is about 20%.
- Deal size changes the picture again, as when the offer is aimed at SMB buyers, close rates are often 30 to 35%.
- Enterprise deals are more often 15 to 18%, and the gap comes from longer buying cycles and more people involved in the decision.
- SaaS groups may improve results with product-led growth and quicker demos, while Biotech firms and enterprise IT often deal with longer trials and tighter review steps.
- If your close rate is under the benchmark, it is worth checking the basics. Look at how leads are qualified, whether the ICP target is right, how deal size is handled, and how the sales process works. Comparing performance by industry or product line shows that one company-wide number can hide the real issue.
Inside vs. Outside Sales: Closing Performance Compared
- There is an overlap between inside and outside sales today, but performance metrics indicate that their differences are still quite pronounced.
- As stated by Notta.ai, outside salespeople achieve an average closing rate of about 40% as opposed to 30%.
- The success when it comes to quota fulfilment is almost 10% better in the case of outside salespeople, but outside calls are significantly more expensive than inside calls, with costs of about $50 to make an inside sales call, while outside calls can be within the range of $215-400.
- Remote selling has also been successful: 38% of sales experts have managed to close deals worth over $500,000 without having to meet the clients in person, while 70-80% of B2B buyers prefer remote interactions.
- The above results point to the hybrid model being the best practice in sales, using inside sales to gain volume and outside sales for complex and expensive transactions.
What Is a Good Close Rate in Sales?
- In all industries, the average sales close rate is considered to be approximately 20%. As a result, it is reasonable to consider close rates climbing beyond this threshold to be a sign of effective performance.
- For example, sales expert Mark Burdon, who has worked at such companies as IBM, OpenText, and TELUS, believes that any sales result above the average value is a good indicator of success.
- Closed rate is extremely dependent on the quality of leads, meaning that the alignment of sales and marketing should be regarded as an important growth factor.
- While most HubSpot survey respondents stated that marketing leads were good enough in 2022, in the company’s 2025 Sales Trend Report, the share of people giving marketing leads high or very high quality ratings reached 73%.
- The importance of existing customers also cannot be underestimated. According to HubSpot research, the source of 72% of corporate revenue lies in existing clients, while just 28% of the total revenue comes from new customers.
- A solid sales close rate should be assessed in reference to the 20% industry average, but it should be established that higher lead quality and sales/marketing collaboration, as well as existing customer connections, can affect conversion adversely.
Sales Close Rate Deal Size Reality Check
- The deal size has a significant effect on sales conversion rates. Larger contracts usually imply multiple parties involved, a longer sales cycle, and more difficulties in winning a deal.
- The statistics from Winning by Design show a fall in the conversion rate from about 26% to 17% in late 2022 and early 2023 for the deals above $100K in ACV.
- If the ACV is $100K+, a good planning figure is around 15-20%. For $50K-$100K contracts, a conversion rate of 20-25% should be expected once the sales process is well established.
- Meanwhile, for contracts under $50K, a conversion rate of 25-35% will be achievable if proper qualification is performed. The main issue is that the deals should not be calculated against one benchmark.
- Larger contracts call for stricter qualification, while smaller contracts can generate much better volume.
- In case the average contract value is below $50K, it makes a lot more sense to improve pipeline volume and sales velocity, which may create more impact than chasing a single additional percentage point in conversion.
Sales Close Rate vs. Win Rate: What’s the Difference?
| Metric / Point | Sales Win Rate | Opportunity Close Rate |
| What it measures | Percentage of resolved opportunities that become wins. | Percentage of all created opportunities that become wins. |
| Formula | Deals won ÷ (Deals won + Deals lost) × 100 | Deals won ÷ Total opportunities created × 100 |
| Illustrative example | 30 wins ÷ (30 wins + 20 losses) = 60%. | 30 wins ÷ 100 created opportunities = 30%. |
| Illustrative cohort | From 100 opportunities: 30 wins + 20 losses = 50 resolved opportunities, producing a 60% win rate. | The same 100 opportunities include 30 wins, 20 losses, 25 stalled, and 25 ghosted/disqualified = 30% close rate. |
| Difference | 60% versus 30%, a 30-percentage-point gap, despite the same 30 wins. | The lower percentage reveals that only 30% of the original cohort had become customers by the measurement date. |
| Salesforce guidance | The calculation of closed opportunities by Salesforce comprises only closed-won and closed-lost figures. | Salesforce declares a version based on Leads as Win Rate % of Leads. |
| Tenbound perspective | It calculates the win rate by distinguishing between the won and lost outcomes. | Uses the complete cohort conversion to clarify what happens with all leads, while |
| Terminology caution | As different sales organizations have different terminologies, the formula must come with the metric. | Outreach refers to the closed deals to leads, demonstrating that naming is not uniform. |
| Best reporting practice | Use the same opportunity cohort or measurement date when comparing performance. | For example, it has to be specified, such as opportunities that were created in the month of January compared to June 30, meaning unrelated periods must not be mixed up. |
How to Calculate Sales Close Rate?
- The close rate refers to the ratio of the number of qualified opportunities that have successfully turned into closed deals.
- HubSpot states that the calculation is as follows: Close Rate = (Total number of closed deals divided by the total number of qualified opportunities) × 100
- The main point to keep in mind is that it is important to have a consistent set of opportunities being analyzed.
- The numerator consists of the number of closed deals made by the time of the evaluation, while the denominator counts any opportunity that fulfils qualifying conditions, including opportunities still open and stalled.
- Also, there should be no mention of the prospects that did not manage to qualify.
- According to HubSpot, a situation with 15 successful deals closed from 50 opportunities gives a close rate of 30%.
- In a situation where 8 deals closed out of 40, the percentage will be 20%, whereas in the case of 45 deals from 150, it is 30%.
- To accurately assess the measurement, analysts must make comparisons between the opportunities in the same qualification cohort.
- For instance, opportunities that become qualified in January must be evaluated regarding their outcomes until June 30, so that the older wins are not mixed up with the newly qualified opportunities.
- Since there will be some open opportunities leading to conversions, the observation date must be included in the results of the measurement report.
- Accordingly, a cohort that has secured 15 wins in relation to 50 opportunities will have a result of 30% at the beginning, but this number will increase to 40% if another five opportunities reach a final closing status.
- HubSpot has also made sure that this measurement is different from win rate, since close rate depends on the number of successfully qualified opportunities.
- The win rate focuses only on qualified opportunities resulting in a final decision. Thus, the denominator should not be changed to won and lost deals automatically.
- At the team level, it should be applied: 53 wins ÷ 190 successful opportunities × 100 = 27.9%.
- Finally, 0 wins from positive opportunities = 0%, while zero qualified opportunities produces an undefined result, not 0%, because division by zero is invalid.
How to Improve Close Rate
- Optimizing the close rate begins with pinpointing where sales opportunities are being lost in the sales process.
- When teams are below 15%, their attention must be on upstream fixes that include improving the lead quality, filtering using BANT, and enhancing the ICP.
- Coaching won’t do anything to remediate poor qualification if there are many leads unlikely to buy.
- Teams that are performing at a close rate of between 15 and 25% should be focusing on deal qualification and being disciplined in their pipeline.
- MEDDIC will facilitate this by allowing for weak opportunities to be detected early.
- Win-loss interviews for the last 20 lost deals can reveal some of the recurring challenges such as timing of the deal, decision authority, or competition faced.
- Performers above 25% should be protecting the successes achieved so far rather than pursuing marginal gains in terms of conversions. It is better to focus on improving deal velocity and deal size.
- One of the case reports provided by HubSpot discusses a sales leader who has achieved a 20% increase in win rate over two quarters by replacing urgency-driven closing strategies with evidence-based approaches.
- Every tier of the process entails a fundamental concept: get rid of outdated opportunities.
- Any deal that has not attracted a buyer for 90 days should be removed to keep the calculations consistent.
- The main message here can be summed up as follows: qualification is the most important issue, execution follows next, and performance retention comes last.
Conclusion
The concept of close rate may be of significance when speaking about revenues, but only because of a uniform interpretation of the meaning behind the term, standards when it comes to qualifying opportunities, and categorizing them. The average figure equals 20%, which only helps with comparisons because it fluctuates in different spheres and industries. There are cases when smaller deals are reaching 30%-35% while the bigger ones are about 15%-18%.
The quality of leads has surely levelled up, as in 2025 approximately 73% of respondents claimed that they found leads to be of high value. For analysts, the top priority is better qualification of leads and improving their targeting, which will lead to a better execution of deals.
FAQ
20% close percentage is helpful as a general guideline, but the best target can vary depending on deal size, sector, and sales approach.
This article suggests a value of around 20% for the general benchmark.
Small sales can achieve 30% or more, while enterprise deals tend to be around 15-18%.
According to Notta.ai statistics, the average percentage for closing techniques used in outside sales is 40%, while in inside sales it is about 30%.
Companies should either improve the quality of their leads, identify their ideal clients better, or manage the deals correctly.











