The Sales Management Association shared the results of a 2018 research. Over several LinkedIn posts so that each idea sinks in, we will have a look at 6 statistics that hopefully show what good looks like:
#4: No number here to share but a focus on the ones you should be following in any case, the Close Rate or the Win Rate.
They are actually different and serve different purposes. The Win rate is the number of Won deals compared to (divided by) the number of Lost deals. The Close Rate, also called Win ratio, compares the number of Won Deals to the number of opportunities Closed (won or lost).
So which one to use ?
The Win Rate requires a solid management of each opportunity in the pipeline. Sales people would rather push unclosed deals to a further quarter than close it Lost and reopen in the future. Using the Win Rate if you do not closely monitor the inception date of each opportunity will provide wrong results. If you do, then you are good.
The Close Rate takes that need away but requires a very strict definition of what are the tangible and measurable criteria for a deal to be qualified. It should be an objective measure because you do not want your Sales guys to only create the deals they think will close.
