Breaking Inbound #3: 33% fewer demos, yet 60% form to demo conversion rates 📊

Welcome to the third edition of Breaking Inbound, your weekly deep-dive into inbound numbers and form-to-demo conversion rates across industries.

Christmas is over—and obviously there was a slowdown.

But it wasn’t a total funnel graveyard. Demos still got booked. Meetings still happened.

Maybe companies changed their New Year’s resolution to “avoid complicated routing”.

The conversations didn’t stop. And your funnel isn't as dead as you think.

Let's take a look at what the numbers have to say 👇
‍

Inbound Snapshot

This week saw a 33% drop in demo volumes and a 32% decline in qualified requests compared to last week—clear signs of the Christmas slowdown. But conversion quality held firm, with average qualification rates staying steady at 75%. Form to demo conversion rates dipped slightly to 60.6%, but remained strong. Fewer leads came in, but the ones that did converted at nearly the same rate as before.

Segment Snapshot

Assumptions: SMB: <100 employees; Mid-market: 101–1000 employees; Enterprise: >1000 employees

While qualification rates stayed consistent across segments, meeting conversion rates diverged sharply. Mid-market dropped 7%, enterprise climbed 11.5%. SMBs held steady through the slowdown, maintaining 77% qualification and 63.8% meeting conversion despite fewer demos. Mid-market still led in volume with 10,552 requests and a solid 73.6% qualification rate, but struggled to close—meeting conversion fell to 55.1%. Enterprise proved most resilient: even with 20% fewer demos, they improved meeting conversion by 11.5% week-over-week.

‍

Industry-wise Meeting Rates

Despite the Christmas slowdown, nearly all industries maintained a baseline of converting more than 50% of demo requests into meetings—developer tools being the only exception. 

Legal & compliance led the pack with 82.5% meeting conversion, the only category above 80%. Healthcare, real estate, and human resources emerged as strong performers, all staying above the 75th percentile. On the flip side, developer tools, sales, and IT & security struggled, falling below the 25th percentile.

Funding Stage Analysis

SMB segment

• Seed companies maintained steady qualification rates of 83%, and improved their meeting conversion rates from last week, from 59.7% to 64%
• Series A companies saw a 8 percent points dip in their meeting conversion rates, despite a slight improvement in their qualification rates
• Despite lower demo requests, Bootstrapped companies improved their conversion rates from 61% to 68%
• Series B companies also improved on their qual rates and meeting conversion rates, averaging at 66.6% and 65.8% respectively

Mid-market segment

• Series A companies received the highest demos previous week as well, qualification rates maintaining steady at 76.7% and meeting conversion rates up to 61%
• Series C companies showed a great improvement in meeting conversion rates compared to last week (62.6% vs. 54.9%)
• Series B companies saw a slight dip in qualification and meeting conversion rates
• Seed companies saw a minor dip in qualification rates (73.8%), while their meeting conversion rates remained steady at 60.9%
• Public companies improved their meeting conversion rates by 2% since the previous week

Enterprise segment

• Series D maintained 85%+ meeting conversion rates, highest in the category
• Series C improved its meeting conversion rates significantly, to 83.3% this week
• Series E saw a dip in meeting conversion rates, averaging at 69% this week
  ‍

Top Performers

Legal & compliance remained the table-topper this week, with a 82.5% meeting conversion rate 💪

‍

TL;DR

• Holiday slowdown hit demand hard: demo volumes dropped by 33%, but form to demo conversion rates held strong at 60.6%. Companies still converted 3 out of 5 meetings.
• SMB remained the most resilient—improving qualification to 77% and holding a steady 63.8% meeting conversion rate.
• Mid-market struggled a little with a 6.8% drop in meeting conversion rates, despite stable qualification rates.
• Enterprise kept the momentum strong, improving meeting conversion rates to 64.2%, with Series D showing the highest conversion rate in the segment (85%).
• Mid-market Series C companies improved sharply in meeting conversion rates to 62%, whereas SMB seed & bootstrapped companies improved it to 64% and 68%, respectively.
• Legal & compliance software emerged as the top performer again, with Healthcare retaining the second highest conversion rates for the second-consecutive week.
• Developer tools saw another steep decline this week, with conversion rates falling below 50%.
  ‍

The holiday slowdown is real.

But so is the opportunity 📈

Your buyers are actively looking, and the companies that kept track of their funnels are the ones closing bookings.

Even a 1% improvement in your form to demo conversion rate impacts revenue, without additional marketing spend.

If you’re trying to put your finger on the exact amount you’re losing out on lost conversions, get the number here.

We’ll be back with next week’s numbers. Until then, wishing you a Happy New Year! 🎆🥳