The conversion rate of a period's leads into qualified opportunities within a set window. The sales-assisted number that depends most on definitions.
In practice
Lead-to-opportunity rate measures the handover between marketing and sales: of the contacts the company attracted, how many a salesperson judges serious enough to open a deal. It is the most fragile number in the funnel, because both of its terms are internal conventions. "Lead" can mean any inbound contact, or only those marketing has qualified — MQLs. "Opportunity" can mean a deal anyone created, or one a salesperson accepted. A webinar that fills the database with lukewarm contacts makes the rate fall while nothing changed in sales; a salesperson who opens an opportunity on every call makes it rise while nothing changed among customers. Writing down both definitions, and the window in which a lead is allowed to become an opportunity, is therefore half the job.
The formula
Lead-to-opportunity rate = leads created over a three-month cohort that became a qualified opportunity within n days ÷ leads created over those three months
- The leads
Either every inbound contact, or only marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), the ones marketing judged worth passing on. The second gives a higher, steadier rate; both are fine, and the rate is only comparable with itself if the choice never changes. The choice also names the base: "per 100 leads" or "per 100 MQLs".
- The opportunity
A deal a salesperson has accepted, not merely one that was created. If opportunities open automatically, or are opened by marketing, the rate measures the tooling rather than the handover.
- The window
The number of days a lead has to become an opportunity — 30, for instance. Without it, last month's leads look worse than last year's simply because they have had less time. With it, a cohort is read only once its window has closed.
In some CRMs the step is called MQL to SQL — a sales-qualified lead. The name changes, the question does not: of what marketing passes on, how much does sales take?
Worked example
15 out of 100, and a number that looks better
- A B2B software company counts only MQLs, with a 30-day window. From May to July it creates 480 of them, about 160 a month; 72 become a qualified opportunity within 30 days. Rate: 72 ÷ 480 = 15%, or 15 opportunities per 100 MQLs.
- Why May to July, in late September: the window has to have closed. A lead created on 31 July had until 30 August; the last leads of August have not had their 30 days yet, so August waits.
- From June to August, the sales team created 130 opportunities. Dividing 130 by the 480 MQLs would give 27% — a better-looking number that divides a flow by a cohort from another period, and counts opportunities that never came from an MQL: some came from a customer's referral, some from accounts already using the product.
- The team's target is 18%. At the same win rate, 18% instead of 15% would bring 18 × 18/15 = 21.6 new customers a quarter instead of 18 — about four more. That is what one step at the top of the funnel is worth at the bottom.
Write down what a lead is, what an opportunity is and how many days one has to become the other, then read each cohort once its window has closed. Without those three, a lead-to-opportunity rate is a number any team can make go up.
Orders of magnitude
- Published lead-to-opportunity rates are hard to compare, because the rate depends almost entirely on what each company calls a lead. A base that counts every newsletter sign-up and one that counts only MQLs can be far apart with the very same sales team.
- The internal order of magnitude that matters is the size of the base: on 480 MQLs a quarter, one opportunity more or less moves the rate by about 0.2 point. The rate is steady enough to read from one quarter to the next; one point is five opportunities.
- Compare with yourself, definitions frozen. When the definition of a lead changes — a new form, a new event, a new scoring rule — start a new series rather than drawing one line through both.
How to improve it
- Agree on the definitions with sales before touching anything else: what a lead is, what an accepted opportunity is, how many days the handover may take. It is the cheapest lever on this list, and it makes every other one measurable.
- Read it by source. A channel that brings many leads and few opportunities costs sales time twice: once to call, once to disqualify. The rate per channel says which sources to fund, and it is the figure behind "which channel works".
- Speed up the first contact. A lead that waits a week for a call has cooled by the time it gets one, and a rule on response time costs little to set.
- Qualify on behaviour where the product allows it. A product-qualified lead (PQL) — someone whose usage already predicts buying — arrives with the evidence a salesperson would have spent a call looking for.
In the Tour
Do you have a primary acquisition channel that's identified and measured?
- Yes, clearly identified and tracked20 pts
- We have one, but don't track it closely7 pts
- Not really / it's scattered0 pts
The Tour asks whether you have a primary acquisition channel that is identified and measured — 20 points for yes and tracked, 7 for one you do not track closely, 0 for scattered. In sales-assisted selling, "measured" means more than lead volume: a channel is measured when you know how many of its leads became opportunities. A team that can say "our main channel brings 160 MQLs a month, and 15 in 100 become opportunities" answers 20 points with a straight face; a team that can quote only the leads is closer to 7, because volume alone does not say whether the channel feeds sales or just the database.
Questions people ask
How do you calculate the lead-to-opportunity conversion rate?
Take the leads created over a period, count those that became a qualified opportunity within a fixed window — 30 days, say — and divide. 72 opportunities out of 480 MQLs is 15%. Count by cohort: the opportunities that came from those leads, not the opportunities created in the same months.
What is the difference between a lead and an opportunity?
A lead is a contact who showed interest; an opportunity is a deal a salesperson believes can close, with a need, a buyer and usually an amount. Qualification sits between the two, and this rate is its measure.
MQL, SQL, opportunity: in what order?
The lead, then the MQL when marketing judges it worth passing on, then the SQL — sales-qualified lead — when a salesperson accepts it, and the opportunity once a deal is opened. Many teams merge the last two steps, and it does not matter as long as the rate names both its ends: "MQL to opportunity" is not the same number as "lead to opportunity".
What is a good lead-to-opportunity rate?
One you can compare with last quarter's, because nothing in the definitions moved. Published figures vary with what counts as a lead far more than with how good a team is, so a table from elsewhere mostly compares definitions.