Most sales reps know their close rate. Fewer know how it stacks up. The average sales close rate across industries is 20%, but that number shifts significantly by industry, deal size, and sales motion ¡ª and it¡¯s one of the clearest indicators of both individual rep efficiency and overall sales org health.
This guide is rich with industry data, expert commentary, and actionable tips on what the benchmarks actually look like, how to calculate your own close rate, and what separates reps who consistently beat the average from those who don¡¯t.
Table of Contents
- What is a sales close rate?
- How Close Rates Are Shifting
- How to Calculate Close Rate
- What¡¯s the average close rate for sales?
- What is a good close rate in sales?
- How to Improve Your Sales Close Rate
What is a sales close rate?
A sales close rate is the percentage of leads that become customers. Sales close rate is often used interchangeably with ¡°closing rate¡± or ¡°win rate,¡± though close rate and win rate reflect different denominators:
- Close rate measures deals closed against all leads fed into the pipeline.
- Win rate measures deals won against only the opportunities that reached a final decision stage.
Since the starting point differs, the same team can report different figures for each metric.
HubSpot lets teams define deal stages and qualification criteria directly in the CRM, so close rate and win rate are measured against the same standards across every rep.
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How Close Rates Are Shifting
In HubSpot¡¯s recent , 91% of respondents reported that their close rates increased or stayed flat over the last 12 months. Nearly all (93%) of respondents¡¯ deal sizes increased or stayed the same since last year, and 68% reported that lead quality had gotten better.
How does that compare to a few years ago? In 2022, 53% of respondents said their close rates remained relatively stagnant. Meanwhile, 35% reported an increase in close rate, and 12% reported a decrease. Both trends suggest that despite economic headwinds, reps are finding it no harder ¡ª and in many cases easier ¡ª to close deals than in previous years.
Sales teams can track their own close rate trends over time using to see how their numbers compare to broader benchmarks.
How to Calculate Close Rate
Close rate calculation is one of the most straightforward ways to measure sales performance. Sales leaders can calculate close rate on both the individual and organizational level. Close rate equals (deals won ¡Â total qualified opportunities) ¡Á 100.
Example close rate calculation: If a sales rep receives 50 qualified leads in a quarter that results in 15 closed deals, that sales rep would have a close rate of 30% for that period.
Pro tip: Before turning to automated systems, make sure the sales team has agreed on one definition. Specifically, what counts as a qualified opportunity and when a deal is marked closed-won.
HubSpot Sales Hub¡¯s automates close rate reporting. It monitors deal progression, pipeline performance, and conversion metrics in one place.
What¡¯s the average close rate for sales?
The average sales close rate (all industries, HubSpot 2024 survey) is 20%. Close rate varies by industry, deal size, and sales motion (B2B vs B2C), but 20% is considered a standard sales close rate benchmark.
Sales Close Rate by Industry
Sales close rate by industry (including average SaaS close rate, which often trends higher than the cross-industry average of 20%).
|
Industry |
Average Close Rate ( data) |
|
Software |
22% |
|
Finance |
19% |
|
Biotech |
15% |
|
All industries (average) |
20% |
The most meaningful benchmark that sales leaders have is their own internal data. Managers should compare their close rate against their own historical data first, and industry averages second.
Sales Rep Performance in 2025
HubSpot¡¯s 2025 Sales Trends Report found that sales reps reported optimistic growth from 2024 to 2025, despite economic uncertainty:
- 91% reported close rates increased or stayed flat.
- 68% reported lead quality improved year over year.
- 88% reported that making sales has stayed the same or gotten easier.
Close rates are holding or improving, and sales professionals overwhelmingly report that AI is making the sales process easier. According to HubSpot¡¯s 2025 Sales Trends Report, 84% of respondents said that AI helps them optimize the sales process and save time.
How are top sales reps performing?
Here¡¯s what we know about top B2B sales reps, according to the by Ebsta and Pavilion (which analyzed 4.2 million opportunities across $54 billion in pipeline). When compared to average performers, top sales performers are...
- Organized: 412% more likely to have a next meeting or step defined.
- Prepared: 843% more likely to overcome buyer objections.
- Proactive: 218% more likely to self-source pipeline.
Many of the wins that set top sales reps apart are based on organization, preparation, and proactivity, making these insights really actionable for reps who wish to improve their closing rate.
Discrepancies in Close Rates
Discrepancies in sales close rates are normal and often result from factors such as data entry delays, deal classification differences, or variation in sales cycles by industry.
|
Technical Facts |
Deal-Specific Factors |
|
|
When close rates look lower than expected, it¡¯s wise to see if one of these factors had an impact instead of jumping straight to rep performance. This is why comparing close rate against internal historical data, segmented by deal type and lead source, is more useful than comparing against a broad industry average.
What is a good close rate in sales?
The average sales close rate across industries is 20%, which positions anything above average as a good close rate.
¡°If you¡¯re beyond the average, then I think it¡¯s positive, no matter what statistics you¡¯re looking at,¡± shared sales veteran , who¡¯s worked in sales for technology companies like IBM, Open Text, and TELUS.
ÌÇÐÄVlog and Sales Alignment
Lead quality has the most immediate bearing on close rate. But a significant portion of maintaining a stream of steady, sustainable leads lives outside of the sales organization. ÌÇÐÄVlog departments have a huge impact on that side of the business.
Because lead quality has the most immediate bearing on close rate and marketing generates qualified leads, sound alignment between sales and marketing is crucial for the sales process. And according to HubSpot¡¯s survey, alignment between those departments is stronger than ever.
Strengthening alignment: 2022 HubSpot research found that 41% of respondents described the leads they got from their marketing teams as high-quality, while HubSpot¡¯s 2025 found that the percentage of respondents describing their marketing leads as ¡°high¡± or ¡°very high¡± quality has risen to 73%.
Sales reps report these top benefits of this alignment:
- Improved lead quality.
- Increased revenue.
- Improved customer experience.
To enable both teams to work from the same data and maintain strong alignment, HubSpot connects Sales Hub and ÌÇÐÄVlog Hub on a single CRM platform. This allows both teams to work from the same contact records, deal data, and pipeline visibility.
Sales reps can see exactly which marketing touchpoints influenced a lead before it reached them. ÌÇÐÄVlog teams can see which lead sources are actually closing (and adjust accordingly).
Existing Customer Relationships
Existing customers are an often overlooked factor impacting lead quality and close rate ¡ª specifically as it relates to evangelizing. Few lead sources outperform a satisfied customer who¡¯s willing to make an introduction.
Statistic: According to HubSpot¡¯s sales research, 72% of company revenue comes from existing customers ¡ª compared to just 28% from new customer acquisition.
For years, HubSpot research has documented an increasing focus on customer satisfaction, experience, and retention. The increased focus on customer satisfaction and retention could have contributed to the solid year-over-year close rate improvements that sales reps reported.
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How to Improve Your Sales Close Rate
How do reps improve their sales close rate? Here are seven actionable insights that can be applied today to improve sales outcomes.
1. Be prepared.
Preparation impacts both confidence and conversion rate in sales. Sales reps can prepare on both the macro (industry) and micro (client) levels to improve sales effectiveness.
To improve preparation at the macro level, sales reps should understand the top reasons deals fall apart according to industry data, then work to prevent those outcomes.
|
Top 5 Reasons Sales Die |
|
|
Poor product fit (real or perceived) |
Prospects aren¡¯t convinced your product/service is right for them |
|
Poor price fit (real or perceived) |
Prospects aren¡¯t convinced your product/service is worth the price |
|
Lack of readiness |
Prospects aren¡¯t ready to make a purchase |
|
Lack of trust |
You haven¡¯t established enough trust with the prospect |
|
Generic pitch |
The sales process isn¡¯t personalized enough |
These insights can act as a sales pre-mortem, allowing sales reps to reverse-engineer success by anticipating the most common reasons deals fall apart.
Looking at the micro level, these three steps help reps approach leads in a prepared way:
- Research: Investigate the lead, the target market, company, and competitors before getting on a call.
- Asking questions: Once in contact with a lead, pose thoughtful questions. This lets them directly express customer concerns and insights that will allow you to tailor offers to their needs. ¡°The more you ask questions and address objections in the beginning, the better you¡¯ll do at closing,¡± shared Mark Burdon.
- Personalize: To ensure your preparation efforts are recognized, share the insights you¡¯ve gathered directly with the lead. Make your sales efforts reflect their needs, industry, and company.
¡°The better preparation work you do, the better you know the customer and understand their requirements, the better off you¡¯ll do,¡± shared Mark Burdon. ¡°Both as far as the speed at which you¡¯ll get the business and the size of the deal.¡±
The right tools help make this preparedness easier. For example, HubSpot¡¯s centralizes research, prospect notes, and call transcripts into CRM data. Breeze AI provides suggestions for personalized follow-up, plus reps can easily search prospect data for quick direction on impromptu calls or objection handling.
2. Focus on lead quality over quantity.
Lead qualification improves sales close rate. Chasing poorly matched prospects drains rep capacity. The fundamentals have to be there ¡ª need, budget, and genuine buying intent. Higher-quality leads mean reps are spending more time on opportunities that are more likely to convert.
Thankfully, lead quality is improving across the industry: found that 68% of sales professionals reported improved lead quality year over year.
Focusing on the most qualified prospects means using lead scoring tools. Lead scoring assigns numerical values to prospects based on fit and engagement, using factors like job title, company size, industry, and how a lead has interacted with your content.
A basic lead scoring process follows this framework:
- Define your ideal customer profile.
- Identify behavioral signals that indicate buying intent (like website visits, email opens, or demo requests).
- Assign point values to each criterion, with higher points for the strongest conversion indicators.
- Set a threshold score that triggers a handoff to active sales outreach.
HubSpot Sales Hub includes a built-in that scores contacts based on both fit and engagement criteria. Teams can set up manual scoring rules or use AI-assisted scoring, which identifies patterns among contacts that previously converted and builds criteria from that data.
3. Align sales and marketing around the same funnel.
If a salesperson is fed non-viable, poorly qualified leads, they¡¯re facing an uphill battle. The source of those leads is rarely a sales problem alone: it¡¯s a sales and marketing problem.
According to HubSpot¡¯s 2025 State of Sales Report, 91% of sales professionals feel that their sales and marketing teams are somewhat or strongly aligned. That¡¯s an encouraging number, but alignment isn¡¯t a one-time achievement. It requires routine communication, which has its challenges (but also its benefits).
The top five benefits and challenges of marketing-sales alignment are:
|
Benefits of Alignment |
Alignment Challenges |
|
|
While software can alleviate alignment pain points, achieving strong sales-marketing alignment also requires a cultural change where both teams establish a recurring review cadence through monthly check-ins to assess lead quality definitions and conversion metrics.
- If the current definition of a qualified lead still reflects what¡¯s actually converting, or if it needs to be updated.
- Which lead sources are producing the highest close rates.
- Where qualified leads are stalling in the pipeline.
HubSpot connects and on a single CRM, so both teams work from the same data. That shared visibility makes the recurring review much more productive.
4. Build referrals into your process.
Referrals are directly tied to improved lead quality and sales closing ratio. Referrals from paying customers arrive pre-qualified, which reduces the cost of acquisition (vs cold outreach), increases the likelihood of conversion, and shortens the sales cycle length.
But despite its effectiveness, found that only 15% of sales professionals cite direct customer referrals as a top lead source.
Try this framework for building referrals naturally into your sales efforts.
- Set expectations early. Make it clear from the beginning that you appreciate referrals and you¡¯ll be keeping in touch.
- Create satisfied customers. Wait until after the purchase gains have been realized, proving that customers have achieved some success with your product and are satisfied.
- Keep in touch. Maintaining communication even after the sale closes builds trust. Sustained communication also allows you to handle any queries that may arise post-purchase
Asking for referrals from satisfied customers can be casual and low-pressure, according to Mark Burdon. ¡°When they confirm that their conditions of satisfaction are being met, you can just say: Sounds like you¡¯re happy with the way things are going, do you have anyone in similar circumstances that I could talk to?¡±
5. Use technology to coach and follow up consistently.
Technology enables better sales outcomes in two ways: it helps reps close more deals, and it helps managers coach reps.
According to HubSpot¡¯s sales research, 68% of sales managers already coach their teams. The right tools make that coaching more consistent and closing more effective. Three categories are worth knowing: call coaching software, sequences and automation, and segment reporting.
|
Tool Category |
What It Does |
Sales KPIs to Track |
|
Call coaching software |
Records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls. Recognizes patterns in successful vs. unsuccessful sales conversations so managers can provide the most effective agent coaching |
Close rate by rep |
|
Sequences and automation |
Automates follow-up touchpoints across email, phone, and social so no lead goes cold due to manual oversight. Keeps outreach consistent regardless of rep workload |
Stage conversion rate |
|
Segment reporting |
Breaks pipeline performance down by lead source, deal type, industry, or rep so sales managers can identify where qualified opportunities are converting and where deals stall |
Time-to-close by segment |
Of the three tool categories above, call coaching is the fastest place to see impact, and also an easy place to leverage AI. According to HubSpot¡¯s 2025 , conversation intelligence is the highest-impact and easiest AI solution for sales teams to implement.
Conversation intelligence tools use AI to automatically record, transcribe, and analyze sales calls. This data offers patterns about what top performers say to close deals. Using this information, managers can help underperforming or new reps improve based on data from their own team¡¯s selling strengths.
¡°Focus on using technology to improve your process and using your own time to focus on your customer,¡± encouraged HubSpot Sales Manager .
6. Pitch and close with confidence.
These coaching tools and techniques help build confidence, which is an essential quality in a high-performing sales rep. ¡°If you don¡¯t ask for the business, you¡¯ll never get it,¡± shared Mark Burdon. ¡°A lot of salespeople early in their career are afraid to go for the close.¡±
Winning more deals is partly a function of being willing to try. Reps who have accumulated wins carry that confidence into the next close.
7. Track and report on close rate consistently.
Consistent tracking gives sales teams the visibility they need to improve close rate over time. Without regular reporting, it¡¯s difficult to identify what¡¯s working or set realistic targets based on actual pipeline data.
Some metrics worth tracking alongside close rate are:
- Close rate by rep and lead source, or where qualified opportunities are converting and where they stall.
- Stage conversion rate, or where deals drop off in the pipeline so teams can address specific friction points.
- Sales pipeline volume, which helps predict future revenue and flag when pipeline coverage is too thin to meet targets.
- Time-to-close, which identifies whether deals are moving at a healthy pace or getting stuck at specific stages.
Tracking these metrics together gives sales leaders a complete picture of pipeline health rather than a single number.
HubSpot Sales Hub¡¯s lets teams segment close rate by lead source, rep, and deal type. This makes it easier to identify where qualified opportunities are converting and what areas need attention. After switching to HubSpot, reported improved lead quality.
Close Rates Today
Closing sales is the focus of every rep and team. It¡¯s the measure of the overall sales strategy, and reps have many tools at their disposal to try to exceed their own averages from previous years.
Ultimately, factors such as tools adoption, data quality, consumer behavior shifts, and economic conditions influence how close rates fluctuate across industries. As tools, data, and consumer behavior continue to influence the sales industry, sales benchmarking data will continue to evolve alongside us.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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