Article · ~12 min read

Understanding Your Sales Funnel Conversion Rate

Steli Efti · Close.com Free Beginner

Your question is really about a denominator, and this piece gives realistic stage-by-stage conversion benchmarks. It helps you sanity-check whether needing 50 to 150 contacts for ten customers is normal for your motion. Use it to set expectations before you get discouraged by early silence.

  • Each funnel stage loses a predictable share.
  • Low reply and close rates are normal early on.
  • Benchmarks help you spot which stage is actually broken.

The question it answers

  1. How many people should I actually reach out to before I expect to close my first 10 paying customers?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. A YC partner turns 'talk to users' into a repeatable 5-question interview script you can use this afternoon. It's The Mom Test... YC Startup Library Video · ~25 min How to Talk to Users Eric Migicovsky (YC / founder of Pebble)
  3. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  4. The foundational text of customer development, 'get out of the building' started here and became the backbone of the Lean... steveblank.com Book · ~370 pages The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win Steve Blank
  5. A YC partner and ex-Airbnb growth lead gives a tactical, no-fluff talk on landing early customers for both B2B and B2C. It's... YC Startup Library Video · ~30 min video How to Get Your First Customers Gustaf Alstromer (Y Combinator)
  6. A data-backed teardown of how companies like Figma, Gusto, and Vanta actually sourced their earliest customers. Replaces... Lenny's Newsletter Article · ~15 min read How today's fastest-growing B2B startups found their first ten customers Lenny Rachitsky
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →