Close rate

Deals won divided by all opportunities created in a cohort, including those still open or abandoned.

DefinitionDeals won divided by all opportunities created in a cohort, including those still open or abandoned.

Close rate, as most teams use it, is won deals over every opportunity created in a period, whether or not it reached a decision. It is lower than win rate, which divides by decided deals only, and it cannot be flattered by leaving dead deals open. It is the right rate for comparing lead sources and reps by cohort, once the cohort is old enough to have resolved. Usage varies between companies, so the denominator should be stated. See the win rate, close rate and conversion rate comparison.

How it is computed

Deals won divided by all opportunities created in a cohort, including those still open or abandoned. Measured once the cohort is old enough for most to have resolved.

Example

Of 100 opportunities created in a quarter, 22 were won, 28 lost and 50 are open or stalled. Close rate is 22 percent; win rate on decided deals is 44 percent.

Where it goes wrong

Computed on a cohort that is too young, where most deals are still open. The rate is near zero and means nothing.

Articles that use this term

Forecast and pipeline

Slip count per deal: how many times a close date moved, and what it predicts

How a sales leader measures slip count from weekly pipeline snapshots: the number of times each open deal's close date has been pushed, the close rate by slip count from the team's own history, the weighted forecast that discounts multi-slip deals by that rate, the reps whose pipeline carries the most slips, and why a deal that slipped three times is a different object from a deal that slipped once.

16 Sept 20263 min read Territory, capacity and quota planning

The one-page account plan, built from computed measures rather than memory

What an account plan looks like when every line on it is computed from the ledger, the CRM and the norm: the account's share and gap by product, its trend, its contact recency, its tier and cadence, its concentration in the rep's book, and the three actions that follow. Why it is produced for every account rather than written for twenty, and how the rep's judgement is added on top rather than typed in underneath.

16 Sept 20263 min read Forecast and pipeline

Pipeline coverage vs weighted pipeline: what is the difference, and when each one lies

Pipeline coverage and weighted pipeline are two ways of asking whether there is enough pipeline to make the number. Coverage divides unweighted in-period pipeline by the target and compares the multiple to one over the win rate. Weighted pipeline multiplies each deal by a stage probability and compares the sum to the target directly. This page sets out both, computes them on the same ten deals, shows that they agree when the stage probabilities are the team's own measured rates and disagree when they are defaults, and says which to use for what.

17 Sept 20264 min read Board and management reporting

Sales dashboard examples: what to put on it for five different readers, and what to take off

Five sales dashboard examples, one for each reader who actually opens one: the chief executive, the sales director, the frontline manager, the rep, and sales operations. For each, this page lists the five or six tiles that belong, the comparison each tile needs to mean anything, the list each tile should click through to, and the tiles commonly included that should be removed. It also gives the four design rules that separate a dashboard that is used from one that is admired once.

17 Sept 20265 min read Forecast and pipeline

Sales forecast categories: commit, best case and pipeline, defined so they can be tested

Commit, best case and pipeline are the usual sales forecast categories, and on most teams they mean whatever each rep wants them to mean. This page gives a definition for each category that rests on evidence in the deal rather than on confidence, the close rate each category should achieve if the definitions are being followed, how to test that on the team's own history, how to roll the categories up into a forecast range, and a copyable forecast sheet.

17 Sept 20265 min read How-to guides

The difference pages: twenty pairs of sales terms that get swapped, and the line between each

A hub for the comparison pages on this site: churn and dormancy, win rate and close rate, pipeline coverage and weighted pipeline, OTIF and fill rate, gross margin and contribution, KPI and metric, leading and lagging indicators, concentration ratio and Herfindahl index, share of wallet and market share, renewal and retention, and more. Each page gives both definitions, computes both on the same rows, and says which to use when. This page lists them with the one-line difference for each.

17 Sept 20264 min read