A common question that pops up for B2B SaaS Marketing VPs is what are "good conversion rates" for the various stages of the funnel.
This is a very tricky topic since every customer segment and go-to-market approach will drive wildly different answers to this question. Not providing any answer is also not fair. Because there is some data available.
Below is not applicable to every team, company or situation. It's an average of data points we've collected from 7 B2B SaaS startups the past 5 years. We added some data from other CMOs who work with B2B SaaS companies.
It's a starting point. Nothing more.
Inbound conversion rates will measure the success of your SaaS company's inbound marketing programs, online presence and lead nurturing through content like an eBook, video or whitepaper.
| KPI Stages | Next goals | Average |
| Unique visitors | Get contact details | N/A |
| Contacts & Subscribers | Nurture to MQL | 5.00% |
| Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) | Get a meeting | 20.00% |
| Sales Accepted Leads (SAL) | Qualified by SDR | 43.75% |
| Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) | Qualified by Account Executive | 63.33% |
| Opportunities (CRM) | Assign opportunity amount ($) and product | 43.33% |
| Wins | Revenue committed by prospect | 31.25% |
| All-up conversion rate (top to bottom) | Visitor to win | 0.05% |
Your outbound conversion rates will rely heavily on the quality and fit of your initial prospect pool, the channels you use to reach them, and quality of messaging and content you use in those channels.
| KPI Stages | Next goals | Average |
| Outbound contacts (Prospects) | Prioritize targeted outreach and content | N/A |
| Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) | Get a meeting (BDR) | 15.00% |
| Sales Accepted Leads (SAL) | Qualify by SDR | 42.50% |
| Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) | Qualify by Account Executive | 55.00% |
| Opportunities | Assign opportunity amount ($) and product | 50.00% |
| Wins | Revenue committed by prospect | 37.50% |
| All-up conversion rate (top to bottom) | Visitor to win | 0.03% |
To make this meaningful, you should benchmark your funnel and use that data to inform improvement initiatives. We often see companies that don't define stages, statuses or entry/exit criteria for their funnels.
If your Sales and Marketing teams aren't aligned on the definitions at each stage of the funnel, your conversion measurements won't be accurate. Below is the template we use with our clients to get S&M funnel alignment. This will also set the stage for your Sales and Marketing automation requirements for your Sales and Marketing tech stack.
Here are a few other sources on B2B SaaS marketing funnels:
https://databox.com/industry-specific-marketing-kpi-benchmarks#landingPage
https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-average-website-conversion-rate-by-industry/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/03/17/what-is-a-good-conversion-rate
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