First Page Sage’s “B2B Sales Funnel Benchmarks” report (updated August 10, 2026) publishes four conversion rates for each of 30 industries: Lead to MQL, MQL to SQL, SQL to Opportunity and Opportunity to Closed.
Multiply the four and you get lead to customer. It ranges from about 1.4% (IT & Managed Services) to about 8.3% (Higher Education) — our arithmetic on the published stage rates.
- industries
- 30
- stages, lead to closed
- 4
- lead to customer (our arithmetic)
- 1.4%–8.3%
The source doesn’t publish its stage definitions; these are our plain-language readings. Each rate is the share of one stage that reaches the next.
- Lead
- The source doesn’t define a lead. If you count only buying inquiries as leads, your Lead → MQL rate will look high next to this table.
- MQL
- Marketing-qualified lead. Fits your ideal buyer and has shown interest.
- SQL
- Sales-qualified lead. Your sales team has checked it and accepted it as a real buyer.
- Opportunity
- A real deal. In Funnel Walk terms, a quote or proposal went out.
- Closed (won)
- The source’s last column is “Opportunity to Closed”; we read it as deals won. An older version of the source page labelled the same column “SQL to Closed”.
Worked example: Manufacturing, per 1,000 leads
Chain the four published rates and you can see where the leads go. The numbers below are rounded to whole leads.
- Start1,000leads
- × 26%260MQLs
- × 41%107SQLs
- × 46%49opportunities
- × 51%25customers (won)
26% × 41% × 46% × 51% ≈ 2.5%
That’s about 25 customers from every 1,000 leads — our arithmetic on the published rates, not a forecast.
| Industry | Lead → MQL | MQL → SQL | SQL → Opp | Opp → Closed (won) | Lead → Won* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Addiction Treatment | 23% | 39% | 45% | 48% | 1.9% |
| Aerospace & Aviation | 18% | 32% | 49% | 61% | 1.7% |
| Automotive | 21% | 42% | 46% | 49% | 2.0% |
| B2B SaaS | 39% | 38% | 42% | 37% | 2.3% |
| Biotech | 36% | 40% | 48% | 55% | 3.8% |
| Business Insurance | 23% | 51% | 49% | 52% | 3.0% |
| Construction | 17% | 37% | 50% | 54% | 1.7% |
| Cybersecurity | 24% | 40% | 43% | 46% | 1.9% |
| eCommerce | 23% | 58% | 66% | 60% | 5.3% |
| Engineering | 27% | 36% | 48% | 52% | 2.4% |
| Entertainment | 19% | 41% | 54% | 61% | 2.6% |
| Environmental Services | 20% | 43% | 58% | 54% | 2.7% |
| Financial Services | 29% | 38% | 49% | 53% | 2.9% |
| Fintech | 21% | 46% | 49% | 58% | 2.7% |
| Healthcare | 24% | 38% | 51% | 51% | 2.4% |
| Heavy Equipment | 29% | 48% | 58% | 56% | 4.5% |
| Higher Education | 45% | 46% | 61% | 66% | 8.3% |
| Hotels & Resorts | 21% | 47% | 58% | 60% | 3.4% |
| HVAC | 42% | 51% | 55% | 49% | 5.8% |
| Industrial IoT | 22% | 39% | 46% | 51% | 2.0% |
| IT & Managed Services | 19% | 38% | 41% | 46% | 1.4% |
| Legal Services | 32% | 35% | 48% | 46% | 2.5% |
| Manufacturing | 26% | 41% | 46% | 51% | 2.5% |
| Oil & Gas | 32% | 38% | 42% | 47% | 2.4% |
| Pharmaceutical | 41% | 56% | 51% | 64% | 7.5% |
| Real Estate | 27% | 33% | 40% | 53% | 1.9% |
| Software Development | 28% | 39% | 60% | 59% | 3.9% |
| Solar | 45% | 36% | 58% | 61% | 5.7% |
| Staffing & Recruiting | 25% | 32% | 45% | 52% | 1.9% |
| Transportation & Logistics | 31% | 44% | 49% | 56% | 3.7% |
Alphabetical; the source lists industries in a different order. *Lead → Won is our arithmetic: the four published rates multiplied together, rounded to one decimal, with bars scaled to the highest. The source doesn’t publish it. Source: First Page Sage, “B2B Sales Funnel Benchmarks”, updated August 10, 2026. A reference point, not a verdict.
How does your funnel compare?
See your funnel next to your industry’s row — 8 quick questions.
Walk your funnelThe spread for each stage, lowest to highest across the 30 industries. Bars sit on a 0–100% scale.
Lead → MQL
17%–45%Lowest: Construction (17%). Highest: Solar and Higher Education (45%).
Playbook: Lead-to-MQL Conversion: Why So Few Leads FitMQL → SQL
32%–58%Lowest: Staffing & Recruiting and Aerospace & Aviation (32%). Highest: eCommerce (58%).
Playbook: MQL-to-SQL Conversion: Fixing the Marketing-to-Sales HandoffSQL → Opportunity
40%–66%Lowest: Real Estate (40%). Highest: eCommerce (66%).
Playbook: SQL-to-Opportunity: Getting Real Buyers to a QuoteOpportunity → Closed (won)
37%–66%Lowest: B2B SaaS (37%). Highest: Higher Education (66%).
Playbook: Opportunity-to-Close Rate: Win More of the Quotes You Send
Multiplied through, lead to customer runs from about 1.4% (IT & Managed Services) to about 8.3% (Higher Education) — our arithmetic.
Compare yourself with your own industry’s row, not a cross-industry average — Lead → MQL alone ranges from 17% to 45% depending on the industry.
Peer rates come from First Page Sage’s “B2B Sales Funnel Benchmarks” (updated August 10, 2026). First Page Sage is a marketing agency; it says the figures are “drawn from both internal data and anonymized client data gathered from 2017 through 2025”. About 65% of its clients are B2B, and it publishes no sample size and no stage definitions. Its separate MQL-to-SQL report shows much lower rates (13% for B2B SaaS, against 38% here) and doesn’t explain the difference, so we use only the full-funnel report, for consistency. A reference point, not a verdict.
Read the source reportThe source’s last column is “Opportunity to Closed”; we read it as deals won. An older version of the source page labelled the same column “SQL to Closed”.
First Page Sage’s separate MQL to SQL report puts B2B SaaS at 13%, against 38% in the full-funnel report used here. The source doesn’t explain the difference.
The source doesn’t publish its stage definitions; these are our plain-language readings. Your CRM may define stages differently, so compare like with like.
These studies measure reaching and qualifying leads, not quotes or wins.
- Harvard Business Review (2011)
In an audit of 2,241 U.S. companies, 37% replied to a web lead within an hour and 23% never replied. The average reply, among companies that replied within 30 days, took 42 hours.
- Harvard Business Review (2011)
Companies that tried to reach a lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it (a real conversation with a decision maker) as those that tried even an hour later. That describes companies that tried sooner; it doesn’t show that speed alone caused the difference.
- InsideSales.com study with Dr. James Oldroyd of MIT (2007)
Between 5 and 30 minutes after a web lead arrives, the odds of reaching it by phone drop 100 times, and the odds of qualifying it drop 21 times.
These are older studies (2007 and 2011). Use them as direction, and measure your own reply time.
Speed to Lead: Why Replying in Minutes MattersWhat is a good B2B sales funnel conversion rate?
It depends on your industry. Multiplying the four stage rates in First Page Sage’s 2026 full-funnel report gives a lead-to-customer rate from about 1.4% (IT & Managed Services) to about 8.3% (Higher Education) — our arithmetic on their figures. Compare yourself with your own industry, and treat it as a reference point, not a verdict.
What’s the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
In plain terms, an MQL (marketing-qualified lead) fits your ideal buyer and has shown interest, and an SQL (sales-qualified lead) is one your sales team has checked and accepted as a real buyer. The benchmark report doesn’t publish its own definitions, so agree on yours in writing — the handoff depends on it.
Why do other reports show lower rates?
The reports don’t match, and the source doesn’t explain why. First Page Sage’s own MQL to SQL report puts B2B SaaS at 13%, against 38% in its full-funnel report. We use only the full-funnel report so the four stages are consistent with each other.
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