What is Sales Win Rate?
Win rate is the percentage of sales opportunities that result in a closed deal. It measures the overall effectiveness of your sales process, team, and product-market fit. Win rate should be tracked at multiple levels, by rep, deal size, industry, lead source, and competitor involvement, to uncover specific strengths and weaknesses.
The Formula
Win Rate = (Won Deals ÷ Total Decided Deals) × 100 Note: "Decided" includes won + lost, excluding still-open pipeline
Exclude abandoned/disqualified deals that never reached a decision stage. Including them artificially deflates win rate.
Worked Example
A sales team completes 120 opportunities in Q1: 36 won, 84 lost (excludes 45 still in pipeline).
- Win Rate = (36 ÷ 120) × 100 = 30%
- Against Competitor A (25 deals): Won 8 = 32%
- Against Competitor B (18 deals): Won 3 = 16.7%
- No competitor (77 deals): Won 25 = 32.5%
📌 Overall 30% win rate is healthy. The low 16.7% win rate against Competitor B reveals a specific competitive weakness worth addressing with battle cards and positioning.
Why This Matters
Sales forecasting accuracy
Win rate multiplied by pipeline value gives weighted revenue forecasts. A team with a consistent 30% win rate and $500K pipeline can reliably forecast ~$150K in revenue.
Competitive intelligence
Win rate by competitor reveals where you're losing and why. If win rate drops from 35% to 15% when Competitor X is involved, you need better competitive positioning.
Sales process optimization
Analyzing win rate by deal stage reveals where deals die. If 40% of demo-stage deals advance but only 15% of proposal-stage deals close, your pricing or proposal quality needs work.
Common Mistakes
❌ Including disqualified leads in the denominator
A lead disqualified during discovery was never a real opportunity. Including it deflates win rate and makes your team look worse than reality.
❌ Not tracking win rate by deal size
A team might win 40% of $10K deals but only 10% of $100K deals. Blended win rate masks this critical difference in large deal competence.
❌ Measuring only closed-won vs total pipeline
This includes deals still in progress, making win rate look worse over time as pipeline grows. Use only decided (won + lost) deals for accurate win rate.
Industry Benchmarks
| Category | Good | Average | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B SaaS (SMB) | 25-35% | 15-25% | Below 12% |
| B2B SaaS (Enterprise) | 20-30% | 10-20% | Below 8% |
| Inbound Leads | 30-40% | 20-30% | Below 15% |
Source: Gartner Sales Benchmark Report
Benchmark data sourced from Gartner Sales Benchmark Report.