How to calculate sales close rate
Sales close rate is deals won divided by sales calls held, times 100.
Close rate = deals won / calls held × 100
Held. Not booked. Not "leads". The calls that actually happened, with a buyer on the other end.
Use booked calls and your close rate looks worse than it is. Use leads and it looks terrible. Mix them up month to month and you cannot tell if your sales team got better or your no-shows got worse.
Lead to close ratio: the number that sets your ad budget
Lead to close ratio is deals won divided by total leads, and it tells you how many leads one client costs.
Lead to close ratio = deals won / leads
Close rate grades your sales calls. Lead to close ratio grades the whole machine: the ads, the funnel, the follow-up AND the call. Flip it and you get "1 in X leads becomes a client". Multiply X by your cost per lead and you have cost per client, which the cost per lead calculator breaks down step by step.
How many sales calls do I need to hit my revenue target?
Divide your revenue target by your deal size to get deals, then divide deals by your close rate to get held calls.
- Deals needed = revenue target / deal size
- Held calls needed = deals needed / close rate
- Booked calls needed = held calls / show rate
Worked example (illustrative, using the sample numbers above):
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Close rate | 8 / 40 held calls | 20% |
| Lead to close ratio | 8 / 200 leads | 4%, or 1 in 25 |
| Deals needed | $60,000 / $5,000 | 12 |
| Held calls needed | 12 / 20% | 60 |
| Booked calls needed | 60 / 70% | 85.7 |
| Leads needed | 12 / 4% | 300 |
Want that as calls per day? The calls per day calculator splits it across your working days.
How to read your close rate result
The most useful output is the value of one held call: deal size times close rate.
In the example, every held call is worth $1,000. So if a held call costs you $381 in ads, every call is a profitable bet. If it costs $1,200, you are losing money on every conversation, no matter how good your closer is.
That one number tells you what you can afford to pay per call. Work out what Meta needs to deliver those calls with the Facebook ads budget calculator.
We will not hand you a made-up industry average close rate. Your own 90 days of held calls beats any benchmark.
How to raise your close rate
You raise close rate by putting better buyers on the call, not by pushing harder on the call.
- Qualify before the calendar. Our 7-question quiz funnel takes about 30 seconds and filters before anyone can book.
- Turn away the wrong buyers. We turn away pre-revenue businesses for exactly this reason.
- Count held and qualified calls separately. Blended "meetings" hide whether the problem is the lead or the pitch.
- Fix show rate too. Every no-show is a call you paid for and never got to close. Price it with the no-show cost calculator.
Browse every free calculator for the rest of the funnel math.
Questions
What is the formula for sales close rate?
Close rate = deals won / sales calls held × 100. If you held 40 calls and won 8 deals, your close rate is 20%. Use calls that actually happened, not calls booked.
What is the difference between close rate and lead to close ratio?
Close rate divides deals won by held sales calls, so it grades the sales call. Lead to close ratio divides deals won by all leads, so it grades the whole funnel. 8 deals from 200 leads is a 4% lead to close ratio, or 1 in 25.
How many sales calls do I need to hit my revenue target?
Divide the revenue target by your average deal size to get deals needed, then divide by your close rate. A $60,000 target at a $5,000 deal size and a 20% close rate needs 12 deals and 60 held calls.
Should I calculate close rate from booked calls or held calls?
Held calls. Booked calls include no-shows, which drags close rate down and hides a show rate problem inside a sales problem. Track show rate and close rate as two separate numbers.
How do I improve my sales close rate?
Qualify buyers before they reach the calendar, turn away the wrong fit, and report held and qualified calls separately. Better buyers on the call lift close rate faster than a new script.
What is a held sales call worth?
Multiply your average deal size by your close rate. At a $5,000 deal size and a 20% close rate, each held call is worth $1,000 in new revenue. That is the most you can pay per call and break even.