Breaking Inbound #1: December = winding down? 🤔

December’s halfway done.

To most marketers out there, “December” means “winding down”—lighter pipelines and almost zero new demo requests. Makes it easier to coast into Christmas celebrations.

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Fun(nel) fact: Our research showed that the second week of December saw 16% more demos than the first.

Translation: Demand is up, not down. And definitely not dead.

Hoping for a January comeback? Don’t. Your peers are converting demos into meetings, and your buyers might book elsewhere—before you feel energized with “2026 vibes”.

Of course, you might be asking yourself: What’s happening in my industry? Are my conversion rates competitive enough?

That’s why we’re launching… (drumroll, please):
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Breaking Inbound is a weekly recap of inbound numbers & conversion rates—so you know where you stand and match your industry’s pace. Let’s dive into the first edition!
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Inbound Snapshot

The second week of December saw a 16% increase in the number of demo requests, and the number of qualified ones also increased by 7%. Qualification rates averaged at 75%, rising from 68% last week.

Meeting conversion rates also jumped 12 points, from 52% in the first week to 64% in the second week of December.

Segment Snapshot

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

SMBs led in conversion, with the highest qualification rate of 76.6% and meeting conversion rate of 66.6%. Mid-market companies drove the highest demo volumes while maintaining a 74.8% qualification rate and 60.7% meeting conversion rate. Enterprises showed strong intent with a 58.7% qualification rate and 56.4% meeting conversion rate, despite complex buying processes.
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Industry-wise Meeting Rates

According to our data, all industries achieved conversion rates above 50%, for turning demo requests into qualified meetings. Support software & manufacturing performed exceptionally well, ranking above the 90th percentile this week.

Travel, real estate, and retail & e-commerce emerged as top performers, maintaining meeting conversion rates above the 75th percentile. Developer tools, data & analytics, and edtech fell below the 25th percentile for this week.

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Funding Stage Analysis

We analyzed each segment (SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise) based on their funding stage as well:

SMB segment

• Seed-funded companies are crushing it with a 72.1% meeting conversion rate.
• Series A & B companies held steady at 65%+ demo-to-meeting conversions.
• Bootstrapped companies are turning more than half of their demos into meetings.
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Mid-market segment

• Public companies dominated with a 76.3% meeting conversion rate—the highest in this segment.
• Series A companies saw the most demo volume, and converted more than 65% into meetings. Series B companies also handled 4,300+ demo requests, turning 60%+ into meetings.
• Seed-funded companies held steady with 63%+ meeting rates.
• Bootstrapped companies also converted three-fifths of their demo requests into meetings.
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Enterprise segment

• Series D companies achieved a near-flawless 96% meeting conversion rate.
• Series E followed strong with 76% of demos converting into meetings.
• Series C converted over two-thirds of their demos into meetings.
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Top Performers

Support software led the pack, with 71.2% meeting conversion rate, closely followed by manufacturing at 70.1%.

TL;DR

• SMB outperformed on qualification rates (76.6%) and meeting rates (66.6%). The reason could be high-intent leads.
• Enterprise companies continue to break the benchmark, achieving 56% avg. meeting rate with strict qualification—with Series D funded companies attaining an exceptional meeting conversion rate of 95.7%.
• Support software & manufacturing led industry-wise performance this week with 70%+ meeting rates, signalling product-market fit.
• Developer tools, data and analytics, and edtech converted around ~58% of demo requests continuing to buck the trend of a tough buyer market.
• Seed stage & SMB leads early-stage performance at 72%.
• Series A mid market companies represent volume opportunity with 7,096 sessions at 65.2% meeting rate.

Bottom line: Demand isn’t slowing down, and neither are your peers (and competitors). They’re converting demos and booking meetings right through December. 

If you’re wondering where you stand, you can check out your industry’s numbers here

We’ll be back with next week’s numbers.

Until then, here’s to crushing the last two weeks of December! 💪