Increasing the conversion rate in the sales funnel is crucial to the success of any business. After all, this metric is an indicator of the efficiency of the company's entire commercial process. To this end, it is essential to know effective strategies for improving it, such as marketing automation tools, optimized landing pages, CRM, among others.
So learn now how to guide prospects through the buying journey and thus increase conversion at every stage of the sales funnel. Check it out!
What you'll see in the post:
- What it is and how to calculate the conversion rate in the sales funnel;
- How to increase the conversion rate in the sales funnel;
What it is and how to calculate the conversion rate in the sales funnel
The sales funnel is a way of visualizing, monitoring and guiding the customer's entire journey through the purchasing process. In this way, it is possible to classify consumers into the top, middle or bottom of the funnel. Therefore, leads at the top of the funnel are potential customers who have just become aware of the company's services or products.
The middle of the funnel is made up of leads who already have a relationship with the company, but have not yet decided to make a purchase. The bottom of the funnel is the final stage of the sales process, when the customer is ready to make the purchase.
That's why the conversion rate in the sales funnel doesn't just refer to the conversion of leads into customers, but to the conversion that takes place at all stages of the funnel. In other words, it's important to calculate and analyze the number of leads that pass from the top of the funnel to the middle of the funnel, as well as from the middle to the bottom and, finally, to the sale.
How to calculate the conversion rate in practice
Therefore, in order to evaluate the sales conversion rate and have an analytical view of how to devise efficient CRM, digital marketing and marketing automation strategies, it is necessary to calculate the conversion percentage between each stage of the funnel.
At each transition in the funnel, calculate conversion as Leads that have advanced ÷ Leads in the previous stage × 100. E.g. if 30,000 leads leave the top and enter the middle out of 50,000 at the top, the conversion is 60%. The same logic applies to pages and campaigns: the conversion rate always relates conversions to the base universe of the previous step; also use funnel analysis to identify drops per step and prioritize optimizations.
To calculate, simply divide the number of leads in stage A by the number of leads in stage B and then multiply by 100. To understand this better, look at this practical example: a higher education institution attracted 50,000 prospects at the top of the funnel, took 30,000 of these prospects to the middle of the funnel, then 10,000 leads to the bottom and finally converted 3,000 new enrolments.
The calculations therefore look like this:
- Conversion to the middle of the funnel: 30,000 (converted leads) / 50,000 (leads at the top of the funnel) x 100 = 60%.
- Bottom-of-funnel conversion: 10,000 (converted leads) / 30,000 (middle-of-funnel leads) x 100 = 33%.
- Conversion rate from the bottom of the funnel to sales: 3,000 (new registrations) / 10,000 (leads at the bottom of the funnel) x 100 = 30%.
- Sales conversion rate: 3,000 (new registrations) / 50,000 (leads attracted) x 100 = 6%.
Therefore, by monitoring the rate at each stage of the funnel, it is possible to evaluate the conversion competence between all the stages of the customer journey, as well as ascertaining the power of turning prospects into customers.
You already know what the conversion rate is and how to calculate it, so you certainly understand why it's so important to monitor this metric. So now understand how to increase your company's ability to attract potential customers and actually make sales.
Image: How to Optimize the Sales Funnel to Increase the Conversion Rate
How to increase the conversion rate in the sales funnel
Increasing the conversion rate of all stages of the funnel is fundamental to the success of the sales team and demonstrates the excellent performance of the digital marketing team. So learn about the best practices for optimizing this metric.
Invest in a CRM strategy
The CRM strategy uses software to gather all the information about consumers and, in this way, make customers the focus of the business. Therefore, by adopting a CRM tool, you can get to know your leads better and build an extremely efficient marketing automation campaign, delivering interesting, quality content to customers to guide them through the funnel.
Integrate Inbound Marketing with the CRM tool
Mkt4edu uses CRM software that allows access to the lead's buying habits and behavior, enabling a basic segmentation strategy for Inbound Marketing actions. In this way, it is possible to attract qualified leads, which is essential for increasing the sales conversion rate.
Integrate marketing and sales with SLAs and dashboards shared in the CRM. Management literature shows that aligned teams speed up cycles and improve results when they use data and analytics as a common basis, which reinforces the transition from MQL → SQL → opportunity.
See practical discussions about this alignment between marketing and sales and bring it to your funnel reports.
To increase the likelihood of moving up the funnel, use CRM to orchestrate personalization at scale (segments, messages and offers by behavior).
Recent evidence shows that personalized experiences, now powered by generative AI, increase relevance and commercial performance.
Start with key events (price visits, email reopens, responses to flows) to trigger content and sales tasks at the right time, with personalization at scale in real time.
See also:
- 3 tips for making a lead hot for conversion
- Landing pages and lead conversion: X best practices to seize every opportunity
- Why is my conversion rate so low? The 5 reasons!
Invest in marketing automation tools
With marketing automation, it is possible to bring together in one place the process of capturing leads, creating campaigns, sales actions with the existing base and automating the sales funnel. Thus, with automation, Mkt4edu is able to efficiently execute the customer journey process through optimized landing pages, chatbots and other means of capturing information from leads.
Prioritize lightweight forms on landing pages. Recent usability research shows that too many fields is a significant cause of abandonment. In 2024, Baymard observed checkouts with an average of 11.3 fields and abandonment linked to complexity; reducing fields and friction improves completion, apply the same logic to lead capture, asking for only the essentials in the first step and the rest later(reducing fields in forms).
After attracting potential customers, marketing automation begins the work of nurturing leads in a segmented way, in order to start the qualification process at each stage of the sales funnel. Therefore, with marketing automation, it is possible to achieve the goal of guiding qualified leads through the next stages of the funnel to purchase.
Mkt4edu creates automated flows that work on contacts individually at each stage of the sales funnel until the goal of guiding the prospect to the next stage is achieved, as well as increasing the conversion rate based on work carried out using Inbound Marketing and CRM strategies.
With this in mind, we've made it clear what it is and how to calculate the conversion rate in the sales funnel, as well as the work needed to guide the prospect through the buying journey and increase the number of leads converted into sales.
Review: Increasing the conversion rate in the sales funnel requires measuring progress at each stage of the journey, from top to bottom, and applying strategies that integrate CRM, inbound marketing and automation. With CRM, you can centralize data, segment leads, personalize approaches and align marketing and sales to speed up cycles and increase conversions. Integrated with inbound, CRM qualifies the base and triggers content at the right time, enhanced by generative AI. Marketing automation, with optimized landing pages, chatbots and segmented flows, leads qualified leads in a scalable way to purchase. This combination reduces friction, improves the customer experience and increases ROI, turning more prospects into customers in a predictable and sustainable way.
Now, schedule a meeting with Mkt4edu and increase your company's sales conversion rate!
How to Increase the Conversion Rate in the Sales Funnel
What is the conversion rate in the sales funnel?
The conversion rate in the sales funnel measures the proportion of leads that progress from one stage to the next, from the top of the funnel to purchase. It indicates the efficiency of the sales process in turning prospects into customers.
How to calculate the conversion rate in the sales funnel?
To calculate it, divide the number of leads that advanced to the next stage by the total number of leads from the previous stage and multiply by 100. Repeat the calculation for each transition in the funnel, including top → middle, middle → bottom and bottom → sales.
Why is it important to track the conversion rate at every stage of the funnel?
Monitoring each stage allows you to identify bottlenecks, evaluate the effectiveness of marketing and sales strategies and prioritize optimizations to increase the progress of leads along the buying journey.
How can CRM increase conversion rates?
CRM centralizes lead information, allowing precise segmentation and personalization of messages. This makes it easier to nurture, qualify and advance leads through the stages of the funnel.
How can you integrate Inbound Marketing and CRM to improve conversions?
Integration allows access to data on the behavior and buying habits of leads, qualifying the base and directing relevant content at the right time, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
What role does marketing automation play in conversion rates?
Automation brings together lead capture, nurturing and qualification in a single flow, using optimized landing pages, chatbots and segmentation to drive prospects to purchase in a scalable and efficient way.
How to optimize landing pages to generate more conversions?
Prioritize simple forms with few fields at the beginning, asking for additional information only in the following stages. This reduces friction and increases the chances of completion.
What strategies combine CRM, Inbound and automation to increase conversions?
Using these tools together allows you to personalize journeys, align marketing and sales with clear SLAs, trigger content at the right time and apply artificial intelligence to adjust messages in real time.
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