How To Calculate and Increase Your Sales Conversion Rate in 2024?

Harry McKay
4
min read
December 26, 2023

Are you generating enough sales for your business?

Is your sales conversion rate high enough to justify your time and effort in generating sales?

How do you know if your sales conversion rate is good or bad?

The answer: Sales conversion rate.

This metric is a much better gauge of success than a lead generation because it tells you everything you need to know about how well your marketing strategy is working.

Once you have a chart that displays your sales conversions, you'll be able to see very clearly whether or not your current methods are paying off.

The next step is to boost the number of people who buy products or services from you and help your business grow.

In this article, we will explore 9 ways to increase conversion rates.

What is the sales conversion rate?

A sales conversion rate is a metric that helps you measure your sales team's effectiveness when turning leads into customers.

It can help you identify areas where the team needs improvement, and it’s a great way to measure the impact of your sales training efforts.

How To Calculate Sales Conversion Rate?

The sales conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of sales by the number of leads.

Sales conversion rate = [Number of sales / Number of leads] * 100.

However, in most marketing-sales funnels, conversion rates are measured by comparing the number of qualified leads to new wins. For each sale funnel stage, a conversion should happen—the lead rate moving from one stage to another is called the sales conversion rate.

This means that a sales conversion rate of 10% means that for every 100 people who come in contact with your business, you get 10 new customers. The conversion rate depends on multiple factors, from your industry to the type of product or service you offer.

According to Uplead, the average conversion rate for most businesses is between 2% and 5%, but some industries may have rates as high as 10 percent. The highest rate is found in professional services at 12.3%, whereas the lowest rate—only 1%—is associated with B2B tech companies. On average, eCommerce businesses have 4%-5% higher conversion, whereas the service-related B2B sector has around 7%-8%.

9 Proven Ways to Improve Sales Conversion Rate

Irrespective of your industry or type of business, there are certain things that you can do to increase your conversion rate. You can apply these tips based on the kind of buyer you’re targeting and their needs and expectations.

Here are 9 different ways that can dramatically improve your sales conversion rate,

1. Optimize your sales funnel.

The sales funnel the process of moving a prospect from being a stranger to becoming a customer. Your sales funnel must have the proper steps and sequence to convert leads into paying customers. Ensure that you have a solid sales funnel without any leaks.

If you have a leaky sales funnel, then there’s a high chance that you’ll lose potential customers. A leaky sales funnel can be identified by looking at your conversion rate and revenue generated from each stage of the funnel. If you have a low conversion rate, then it means that there are some leaks in your sales funnel that need to be plugged up as soon as possible.

You can fix your leaky sales funnel by making the following changes:

  • Direct your prospecting efforts to the type of person you want to sell to. If necessary, rebuild your buyer persona to represent current customers better.
  • Identify the objections most commonly faced by your team and train them to handle those objections well.
  • If your conversion rate is low, leads may have already used or expressed concerns about a competitor's product and then been ignored—and they decided not to purchase anything from you as a result. If this has happened, clearly identify why these losses occurred and enhance your lead nurturing process accordingly.
  • If you see a high volume of leads who don't convert, it may be time to evaluate the quality of your leads and the way your sales team handles them. If your leads are qualified, they are more likely to convert. You can use lead scoring to identify which leads will turn into customers and then focus on nurturing those leads accordingly.

2. Enable your sales team.

If you have qualified leads in your pipeline and struggling to close sales, it may be time to look at your sales process. Ask yourself,

  • Is it easy for your team to find the information they need?
  • Do they have access to the right tools to help them close deals?

If not, it's time to use sales enablement. It's the process of providing your sales team with the tools, resources, and education they need to sell. According to G2, sales organizations with effective sales enablement processes have a 49% win rate on forecasted deals, compared to 42.5% for those without such programs. Thus, you must build a sales enablement program that helps your team close more deals.

This can include tools and resources, such as sales enablement software, training programs, interactive demo tutorials, etc. With Storylane, you can create interactive demos for different use cases and buyer personas to train your sales reps.

This makes them better understand how to sell your product and close the deal. It’s also a great way to train new hires and help them understand how your product works.

3. Create content for all the parts of your sales funnel.

According to the SEMrush survey, most marketers already create content that targets one part of the marketing funnel. And they suggest that it's not necessary to have the same number of content pieces for each stage.

funnel content marketing
Source

As your leads move from the awareness stage to the consideration stage and eventually to the buying stage, they will need different kinds of content to answer their questions.

4 Phases of a Winning Content Marketing Funnel | Lucidchart Blog

If your lead is in the awareness stage, they may want to learn more about what your product can do for them. They might not have a specific problem yet, but they are looking at different options available in the market. You can create blogs, whitepapers, and videos explaining your product's benefits.

As they move to the consideration stage, they will want to know more about how your product can solve their specific problem. You can create in-depth guides, eBooks, and how-to videos that educate them about your product.

The final stage is the purchase stage. Here, your lead just needs a push to make the purchase decision. They will also want to see how it works in real life, so you should create interactive demo videos, as it helps you deliver a first-hand experience to your prospects. You can show them your customer case studies, competitor battle cards, and testimonials.

At each stage, you need perfect content to help drive your prospects forward.

4. Personalize.

Though 90% of marketers agree that personalization will improve conversion rates, many cannot offer a personalized experience because they lack customer data.

Personalization gives you a leg over your competitors, who may seem less personable as they try to sell their products or services. You can personalize your emails, demos, and other sales messages to make them more effective. You can also use automation software to send personalized messages to prospects with their basic information.

When you embed a personalized demo in your emails, you can grab your prospects’ attention and make them more interested in your offer. 

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With Storylane, you can auto-personalize and embed your interactive demo into every mail you send. You can customize the demo using powerful customization tools to better suit your prospect’s needs.

5. Schedule a follow-up.

According to Hubspot, the average salesperson gives up on a prospect after one follow-up; but the vast majority of sales—80%–are made by those who persist through five or more contact attempts.

Using follow-ups in your email marketing campaign can help boost conversion rates, as your prospects will be reminded of your product or service. You can also use follow-ups to send personal messages and increase the chances of getting more sales leads.

When you follow up after a sales call, you can use the information you gathered during your meeting to customize the message. You can also include embedding your demo or additional resources for your prospects to learn more about what you offer.

6. Fill your pipeline with quality leads.

No matter how strong your sales teams are, if the leads are of poor quality, you can't convert them. The key is to fill your pipeline with product-qualified leads rather than just leads. Product-qualified leads are those who have expressed interest in your product or service and clearly understand what it does.

They are also warm leads, and you can convert them with less effort. The best way to collect these leads is through embedding interactive product demos on your website. By giving your prospects a real-time demonstration of how the product works, you can increase the chances of converting them into customers.

Toplyne did the same, and they achieved an increase in conversion rate of 25%. As a result, they were able to generate more leads and close more deals.

With Storylane, you can create and embed interactive product demos and fill your pipeline with quality leads, as the buyers have to submit their email addresses before accessing the demo. You can then enhance your follow-up campaigns to convert them, as they are already aware of your product.

7. Improve user experience.

Your prospects should have a great user experience traveling from the top funnel stage to the bottom. This will help you to increase conversion rates and make your prospects more likely to purchase from you, as good user experience can increase conversion rates up to 200%.

Thus for each funnel stage, ensure that the user experience is seamless, easy to navigate, and designed for better conversion.

For example,

  • Top funnel stage: Create a blog with useful content and a lead magnet to capture leads.
  • Middle funnel stage: Create sufficient content that nurtures them and provides a clear CTA that helps them to take the next steps.
  • Bottom funnel stage: Create a perfect page that helps them to complete their purchase without any barriers. 

Try understanding every stage of your funnel and how users might interact with it. Then, take the time to optimize each step for a better user experience.

8. Tweak your CTA.

To convert your traffic to leads and let them step into your conversion funnel, you need a strong CTA. Several factors can make a difference in your conversion rates from positioning your CTA to the copy on CTA. Whenever possible, try to avoid generic CTAs such as “click here” or simply “buy now.”

Instead, you should ensure that your CTA focuses on a specific result or benefit. You can test different CTAs to see which one performs best with your audience to get maximum out of your efforts.

9. Demonstrate your value.

You can’t just tell people that you have value. You need to show it and prove it. One of the best ways to do this is by creating n interactive product demo. You can create an environment where your prospect can see how your product works for them, and they can explore it on their own. This will help you to demonstrate your product’s value and make it easier for prospects to visualize how they might use it. 

Ignition used the same method to demonstrate their product value to their prospects, and they got a 20% more conversion rate with the help of Storylane.

Source

You can also use case studies, testimonials, and reviews from your happy customers to showcase your value. All these things will help you show prospects that they need your product and that it will be worth their investment.

Educate, optimize and grow your conversion rate.

To increase your conversion rate, better educate your prospects about the value of your product and train your sales team to do a more effective job educating those prospects.

Because when your prospects understand the need for your product, they are more likely to say yes. On the other hand, if your sales reps are equipped with perfect knowledge and tools, they can do a better job of educating the prospects about the value of your product.

Bridging this gap is essential as it directly affects your conversion rate. This is where Storylane comes in. It's a no-code demo builder platform that helps you convey the value of your product and helps you better engage with your prospects. You can create customized sales demos for your sales reps to train them about the different use cases and handling objections.

This will drastically reduce the time needed for training your sales team. Moreover, with automation and advanced analytics, your sales reps can make informed decisions about their sales messages.

Want to check how Storylane helps you to increase your conversion rate? Schedule a free demo and we will show how Storylane can help you to boost your conversion rates. 

"Previously, there was scope for error and we’ve gone from a process that could be time consuming and painful to a process that’s super quick."
—CHRIS LANCASTER, SUPPLY CHAIN PROJECT
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"Previously, there was scope for error and we’ve gone from a process that could be time consuming and painful to a process that’s super quick."
—CHRIS LANCASTER, SUPPLY CHAIN PROJECT

"Previously, there was scope for error and we’ve gone from a process that could be time consuming and painful to a process that’s super quick."

—CHRIS LANCASTER, SUPPLY CHAIN PROJECT

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