Welcome to the seventh edition of Breaking Inbound, your weekly deep-dive into inbound numbers and form-to-demo conversion rates across industries.
Big news before we jump into this week’s breakdown: our much awaited Inbound Conversion Benchmark 2025 report just dropped!
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Based on data from over a million demo form submissions, these are not theoretical numbers. These are battle-tested benchmarks. Grab your copy here.
This week’s edition comes in two parts:
- Key highlights of the report (the must-knows)
- Last week’s inbound performance (the usual stuff)
Let’s dive in! 👇
Inbound Conversion Benchmark 2025
The cornerstone metric of this report is the qualified-to-booked rate (what we call meeting conversion rate or form-to-demo conversion rate in Breaking Inbound).
We observed that companies that treat inbound scheduling as their conversion event, and not just the form fill, tend to have much better conversion rates—for the same traffic, spend, and leads.
We meticulously studied demo pages, form fields, CTA copy—the works—among top performers, and here’s what they had in common:
Insight 1: Form length is a red-herring
The conventional logic is legit: more form fields = more friction = less conversions. But how does that explain companies converting 77% with 2 fields, as well as 76% with 13 fields?
High-converting forms use every field strategically—routing to the right rep and helping them personalize the demo.
So it’s not about “how many fields?”
It’s about “what does each field enable?”
Insight 2: Button copy matters more than you think
CTA copies get A/B tested to death. But subtle word choices can lead to more conversions.
29% of top performing demo pages use “Book a demo” as the CTA, compared to 12% who use “Request a demo”.
Why? Because words like “request” imply uncertainty, i.e., you’re asking for something. “Book” or “schedule” signal certainty—pick a slot, and the meeting is happening. The psychology is subtle yet powerful.
Insight 3: Selective = better
Top companies are ruthless selectors, i.e., they disqualify twice as many leads as the bottom performers.
By being more selective, they ensure high-quality conversations with the sales team. Reps spend time on real opportunities, not poor fits.
Quality > quantity.
Insight 4: Specific proof >>> Generic claims
76% top-performing demo pages display customer logos.
57% of them display testimonials.
36% show G2/Capterra badges.
Social proof is table stakes for B2B software.
But the differentiator is the copy.
Generic copy like “Trusted by 1000+ companies” or testimonial writeup like “Great product!” do not cut it anymore. You need laser-focused copy, like:
- “Trusted by 2,500+ coffee shops & QSRs”
- “53% improvement in demo conversions”.
Want to know more about the patterns across industries, segments, and funding stages? Grab the full report here.
Inbound Snapshot
- Demo volumes remained steady (33,955 demos vs. 33,647 prev. week)
- Qualified demos saw a 1% uptick (22,719 vs. 22,492 prev. week)
- Qualification rates remained relatively steady (76.8% vs. 76.9% prev. week)
- Form-to-demo conversion rates improved (63.7% vs. 63% prev. week)
Segment Snapshot
- Demo volumes varied across segments: SMBs took a 5.8% dip last week, mid-market saw a 3.6% uptick in demo volumes, while enterprise companies saw a 2.4% surplus in demo volumes.
- Steady SMBs: Despite the dip in demo volumes, SMBs saw a slight improvement in their qualification rates (79.1% vs. 78.4%) and meeting conversion rates (64.6% vs. 64.2%)
- Meeting-focused Mid-market: Mid-market companies improved their form-to-demo conversion rates by 1.1%, despite a slight dip in qualification rates (75.2% vs. 75.8% prev. week)
- Equable Enterprise: Enterprise companies maintained steady form-to-demo conversion rates (62.8% vs 63.2%), despite an 8% drop in qualification rates.
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Funding Stage Analysis
Industry-wise Meeting Rates
- All industries except developer tools continued to convert more than 50% of their demo requests into meetings.
- 47% companies saw steady or better conversion rates last week, compared to the previous week.
- Healthcare's form-to-demo conversion rates spiked 13% last week, bringing it to the top spot at 74.9%. Their disqualification (DQ) rates also went up compared to the previous week by 7.4%.
- Support saw the biggest dip last week, with meeting conversion rates dropping 11% , and their DQ rate decreased by 10%.
- IT & Security software saw an 8.2% improvement in meeting conversion rates, while Edtech saw a 5.4% increase.
Top Performers
Healthcare bounced back last week to grab the top spot, with a form-to-demo conversion rate of 74.9% 💪
TL;DR
- Momentum flattened, but efficiency improved: demo volumes were essentially flat, qualification stayed steady at 77%, while meeting rates improved to 63.7%.
- SMBs stayed resilient despite volume drop: qualification rose to 79.1% and meeting conversion rates edged up to 64.6%.
- Mid-market leaned into conversion gains, despite a slight dip in qualification rates. Demo volumes grew 3.6%, meeting conversion rates went up by 1.1%.
- Enterprise companies held steady with mixed signals: qualification dropped sharply (8%), but meeting conversion rates stayed flat at 63%.
- The industry leaderboard rotated yet again: healthcare bounced back with a 13% gain, reclaiming the number one spot.
- Healthcare and fintech grabbed the top spots, outperforming 90% of companies. Seed-funded SMB healthcare companies saw 87.5% qualification rates and 95% form-to-demo conversion rates.
- Series B-funded SMB Fintech companies saw 79% qualification rates and 95% meeting conversion rates, and bootstrapped mid-market fintech companies saw 90%+ meeting conversion rates as well, with an average 65% qualification rates.
- Biggest winners: Healthcare (13% up), IT & security (8.2% up), and edtech (5.4% up)
- Biggest drops: Support (11% down), manufacturing (8.5%), and data & analytics (5.3%)
- Bootstrapped companies win in SMB & mid-market: SMB companies saw 3.7%+ qualification rates, and steady form-to-demo conversion rates; mid-market companies saw a 6% spike in form-to-demo conversion rates.
- Series C enterprise companies improved their meeting conversion rates to 90%+ last week, despite getting 19% fewer demos.
We’ll be back with next week’s numbers ✨
Until then, keep those meetings flowing 📈
