Welcome to the sixth edition of Breaking Inbound, your weekly deep-dive into inbound numbers and form-to-demo conversion rates across industries.
Inbound volumes have begun stabilizing after the holiday surge: with last week bringing in 33,600+ demos. Qualification rates held steady, and form-to-demo conversion rates bounced back to 63%.
Last week was especially invigorating for mid-market manufacturing companies and seed-funded fintech companies—converting more than 7 out of 10 form fills into demos! ✨
Oh, and support made an amazing comeback—which was impressive 🔥
Dive in for the detailed insights 👇
Inbound Snapshot
- Demo volumes showed a slight uptick (33,647 demos vs. 32,401 prev. week)
- Qualified demos also improved by 2.7% (22,492 vs. 21,894 prev. week)
- Qualification rates remained relatively steady (76.9% vs. 77.8% prev. week)
- Form-to-demo conversion rates went a notch up (63% vs. 61.7% prev. week)
Segment Snapshot
- Demo volumes impacted each segment differently: SMBs saw a 3.5% dip last week, mid-market continued its momentum with a 8.5% surplus, while Enterprise demos remained relatively steady, with a marginal increase of 0.8%.
- Steady week for SMBs: Maintained steady qualification rates (0.2% dip) and form-to-demo conversion rates (0.2% dip).
- Mixed week for mid-market: Saw a 1.7% dip in qualification rates, but improved meeting rates by 2.6% last week
- Energetic week for Enterprises: Despite a 3% dip in qualification rates, enterprise companies saw a 12% improvement in their meeting conversion rates.
Industry-wise Meeting Rates
- All industries except developer tools continued to convert more than 50% of their demo requests into meetings.
- 67% companies saw steady or better meeting conversion rates compared to the previous week.
- Manufacturing led the pack last week, and stood above the 90th percentile with fintech, which claimed the second spot.
- Data & analytics, travel, and real estate bagged the rest of the top five, outperforming 75% of the industries.
- Support showed the best recovery this week, with a 16.5% surge in meeting conversion rates.
- Manufacturing and travel also improved their meeting conversion rates significantly, jumping 15% and 13.9% respectively.
- Developer tools saw a 15.5% dip in meeting conversion rates, dropping their average to below 50%.
Funding Stage Analysis
SMB segment
- Series C companies were the stars of the SMB segment last week, with a 73% increase in demo volumes, 94% qualification rates, and 78.5% meeting conversion rates.
- Series A companies dominated demo volumes, seeing 32% more demos flowing in last week. While they saw a slight dip in qualification rates, they maintained steady meeting conversion rates.
- Seed companies remained steady, with a 2% increase in demo volumes, maintaining steady qualification rates of 85%, and 63% meeting conversion rates.
- Bootstrapped companies saw 16% more demos coming in. Despite their qual rates taking a 3.5% hit, thir meeting rates improved by 11% compared to the previous week.
- Series B companies saw a 20% increase in demo volumes, and a 4.5% improvement in qual rates. However, their meeting conversion rates dipped by 6%.
Mid-market segment
- Series A companies led in demo volumes last week as well, seeing a 34% increase. While their qual rates remained steady at 80%, their meeting rates improved by 4.6%.
- Seed companies aced in the mid-market segment, with 37% more demos flowing in, 4.7% improvement in qual rates, and 3.3% better meeting conversion rates.
- Bootstrapped companies saw better demo volumes and qualification rates, but their meeting rates dipped by 9.4%.
- Series B companies maintained steady qualification and meeting conversion rates, while seeing a 7.2% increase in demo volumes.
- Series C companies improved their meeting conversion rates slightly, despite a slight dip in demo volumes and qualification rates.
- Public companies saw steady demo volumes and qualification rates, but their meeting conversion rates saw a 3.8% drop.
Enterprise segment
- Series B companies saw a 43% improvement in meeting rates, despite a 29% dip in qualification rates.
- Series C companies maintained steady momentum last week, with no change in demo volumes, and a minimal dip in qualification rates. They also saw a 21% surge in meeting conversion rates, taking the average to 89%.
- Series E companies saw 21% more demos, a 1.4% drop in qualification rates, and a 12.7% increase in meeting conversion rates - climbing up to the 80%+ spot
- Series D also improved their meeting rates significantly (32%), despite a 9.8% drop in demo volumes and 7% drop in qualification rates.
Top Performers
Manufacturing took the crown last week, with a form-to-demo conversion rate of 74.9% ✨
TL;DR
- Stabilized top-of-funnel after the previous week’s surge: demo volumes showed modest gains (3.9%), while qualification rates remained steady and meeting conversion rates rebounded to 63%, signaling better downstream recovery.
- SMB had a steady week, whereas mid-market continued to be the growth engine: with an 8.5% growth in demo volumes and a 2.6% improvement in meeting conversion rates.
- Enterprise bounced back stronger: despite flat demo volumes and a 3% dip in qualification rates, meeting conversion rates jumped 12%.
- Manufacturing and fintech grabbed the top spots, outperforming 90% of companies. Mid-market manufacturing companies with Series-A funding saw 77% avg. qualification rates and 75% meeting conversion rates, whereas seed-funded fintech companies had 95% qualification rates and 77% meeting conversion rates.
- Biggest winners: Support (16.5% up), manufacturing (15% up), and travel (13.9% up)
- Biggest drops: Developer tools (15.5% down), legal & compliance (13.6% down), and edtech (13.5% down)
- SMB Series C surged across volume, qualification rates, and meeting conversion rates.
- Mid-market Series A and seed companies improved meeting conversion rates, alongside strong volume growth.
Inbound momentum is holding strong.
Manufacturing and fintech hit 70%+ form-to-demo conversion rates last week, while support climbed 16.5% in a single week. The question isn’t if leads are coming in.
It’s whether you’re all equipped to convert them.
P.S. Our State of Inbound 2025 will be out…very soon!
Stay tuned, and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates ✨
Until then, keep those meetings flowing 📈
