Summary:

• Win rate measures overall effectiveness with all leads pursued, while close rate focuses on closing deals once they’re close to the finish line. Each metric highlights different parts of the sales process.
• Your win rate shows the percentage of all opportunities that end in a sale. It can provide insight into your overall lead quality and your early-stage sales performance.
• Your close rate is based on final-stage prospects who you successfully manage to convert. It can tell you a lot about the way you negotiate and seal deals.
• Broadly, your win rate reflects the broader funnel and includes cold leads—while your close rate zooms in on the final negotiation phase with warmer leads.
• Techniques like lead scoring can help you improve your close rate by prioritizing leads who are likely to become customers, while improving your follow-up tactics can help nurture relationships with prospects at every stage of the funnel and drive up your win rate. Tools like PhoneBurner can help you do both.

Your Win Rate vs. Your Close Rate: How They’re Different & Why It Matters

Win rate and close rate might sound similar, but these two metrics actually put different parts of your sales process in focus. Your win rate reflects your overall effectiveness with all leads you pursue, while your close rate shows how well you close deals once they’re within reach.

Understanding the difference between these two performance markers helps you refine your approach and focus on the areas that need the most improvement. Below, we teach you what each of these metrics is useful for, how to calculate them, and how the features included with our industry-leading power dialer can help you zero in on each one.

What is Win Rate?

Win rate represents the percentage of all opportunities that result in a sale.

Your win rate gives a broad view of your success across every stage of your sales process, from initial contact to close. To calculate it, divide the number of deals you close by the total number of opportunities you pursued, and multiply by 100 to get the percentage.

Example:

Imagine a sales team starts with 100 leads in a given month. Out of those, they connect with 50, and 20 make it to the final negotiation stage. In the end, they successfully close 10 deals.

Here’s how we calculate their win rate:

Win Rate=(10 deals closed/100 total leads)x100=10%

The win rate is 10%, showing how many of the original opportunities turned into successful deals.

What is Close Rate?

Close rate represents the percentage of Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) who are identified as Opportunities and ultimately become customers.

If a lead is interested after a discussion or demo, they’re usually labeled SQL, then moved into an Opportunity stage with several steps—for example, discussion, evaluation, negotiation, etc. Based on the outcome of that process, they'll either end up closed (won) or closed (lost). The close rate is the percentage who become closed (won).

Your close rate tells you how effectively you’re closing the loop with promising prospects. To calculate close rate, divide the number of closed deals by the total number of final-stage prospects and multiply by 100.

Example:

Let’s stick with the same example of our sales team from before. They managed to bring 20 of the original 100 leads to the opportunity stage and closed 10 of those.

Here’s how we calculate their close rate:

Close Rate=(10 deals closed/20 final-stage prospects)×100=50%

Here, the close rate is 50%, reflecting how well they close deals with SQLs specifically in the Opportunity stage of the pipeline.

Key Differences Between Win Rate & Close Rate

While both metrics relate to sales success, they tell you different things.

• Win rate evaluates the whole journey, whereas close rate is specific to the Opportunity phase.
• Your win rate covers every lead pursued, including cold ones. Since your close rate zooms in on leads who are in final negotiations, it focuses on warmer leads.
• A low win rate can highlight issues across your sales funnel, while a low close rate suggests potential difficulties with closing techniques.

For example, if your team has a solid close rate but a lower-than-desired win rate, they may need to focus more on qualifying and nurturing leads early in the process. On the other hand, if their win rate is solid but their close rate is suspiciously low, it could be that they’re dropping the ball during negotiations or evaluations and need more training in this area.

Learn More: 3 Sales Negotiation Tactics to Watch Out For

How PhoneBurner Can Improve Your Win Rate and Close Rate

PhoneBurner offers a suite of tools that can help improve both your win rate and your close rate. Here are some of the highlights:

• Easier lead scoring with our SmartSender feature, which allows you to see key engagement metrics for each lead at different points in the sales process. Lead scoring helps you focus on leads with the highest likelihood of converting, potentially boosting your close rate.
• Easy personalized outreach via Workflow Automation. Automation tools like one-click emails and voicemails make it easier to maintain consistent contact with all leads. This improves overall engagement and helps to increase your win rate by keeping leads interested and in the pipeline.
• Integrations with popular sales tools. With more than 200 integrations, PhoneBurner fits seamlessly into your tech stack, making it easier to manage the sales funnel from start to finish. This lets you nurture them when it's needed most, so it can boost both your win rate and your close rate.

Learn More: How to Fix Your Follow-Up Failures

Boost Your Win Rate & Close Rate with PhoneBurner’s Help

Both win rate and close rate can help you understand and improve your sales strategy. Your win rate can give you big-picture insights about how you’re building relationships with prospects, while your close rate can tell you how effectively you’re leveraging the relationships you’ve created to drive sales.

With PhoneBurner, you’re equipped to enhance both of these metrics and keep moving toward your goals. Try our power dialer for free today and see how you can experience more sales success.