The Average B2B Conversion Rate: How to Benchmark Your Performance Against Competitors

Adam Rosenthal profile picture
By Adam Rosenthal

Published
7 min read

If you've ever been roped into going to the gym, you've probably heard the advice: “Don't look at what anyone else is doing—just focus on what you're doing."

This is great advice for when you're training, though hard to put into practice. Humans are naturally competitive and impossibly curious.

Of course we're going to look. Looking at other people in the gym can help you fix your form ... or fill you with unmitigated dread as you watch an octogenarian bench press your body weight with one arm.

The same is true in business: You have to know what your competition is doing and how well they're performing. In the end, it can help you.

One of the primary metrics companies use to determine their place in a market is conversion rate.

Without a strong sense of market context, it's nearly impossible to determine what a good conversion rate for your own lead generation campaign is, which makes it hard to predict your company's next steps.

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By benchmarking your business against your competitors—their conversion rate, marketing strategy, and where in the funnel they lose their customers—you can supercharge your strategizing and improve your marketing performance.

But, this isn't the gym. You can't just lean over and see how much the person next to you is lifting. So, how do you get that information? And what do you do with it once you've got it?

Let's take a look at different means of researching your competitors and how to benchmark yourself against them. After that, we'll cover possible next steps, and I'll leave you with a handy infographic to download for future reference.

Getting warmed up: Determine your place in the industry

Before looking at your competition, you have to properly prepare yourself for the task ahead.

You have to know the lay of the land, such as which machines everyone is using and where your own strengths lie.

What gym are you at?

Before you start your workout, you have to pick a gym to join.

It's the same for business.

This might seem simple enough but it's important to know what industry you operate in. Do you sell marketing automation software? Perhaps you specialize in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Digital marketing software is a broad topic, but marketing automation gives you a much narrower frame of reference.

The more specific you can get with identifying your niche, the more accurate your benchmark will be.

Who else is at the gym?

Now that you know your gym, it's much easier to determine who is there with you, i.e., your competition.

And it's important to note not just who they are, but what machines they're using to get their results. In this case, that includes any and all channels that they're using. Remember that average B2B conversion rates differ by channel.

Different consumers prefer different channels at different times. So pay attention to who is buying—and when.

How much does your business lift?

For information on your competitors and their conversion rates to be effective, you have to record your company's data as well. Without it, you won't be able to make comparisons and strategic adjustments to your lead nurturing.

Your first step is to figure out which metrics you want to observe. In this case, we're going to look at conversion rates from leads to sales.

Look at your own workout routine and see where there might be gaps or weaknesses. What machines in the gym aren't you using? How many reps do you get in? Is your ad copy effective? How do you market yourself?

Collecting all of this data is vital before you move on to the main set of your benchmarking workout: understanding your competitors' conversion rate.

Scoping out the competition: How to approach your research

Before we go into what you should be observing in your competition, let's review the different ways you can collect this data.

Much like someone at the gym would be unreceptive to you studying their every move, so too would most businesses be unreceptive to you conducting unsolicited deep dive research on them.

While you can't expect your competition to answer these questions directly, you can find out what you need on your own.

Here are a few solutions:

  1. Do a walkthrough. There's a finite amount of information on your competitors online, including employee salary and accomplishment information. While this isn't a lot to go on, online research/information can give you a cursory understanding of how your competitors are performing in terms of conversions and what their overall profit margins are.

  2. Get a gym buddy. Find your local trade association, and use that as a way to identify an appropriate benchmarking partner. Having only one partner limits the data you can collect but gives you a specific scope in terms of measuring your own comparative success. You can also select your partner based on what metrics are important to your business.

  3. Use online workout tutorials. There are a number of free tools that can provide insight into your competitors. Retail amplification tools provide reports comparing your business with other small and midsize businesses (SMBs). You can pay for premium services, or invest in industry analyst reports for a more cohesive service. It's worth noting that these services can be expensive.

If a combination of one or more of the above doesn't sound appealing, you can:

  1. Hire a personal trainer. This is the costliest option, but can ultimately yield the best results, as it combines all of the above options. External benchmarking consultants can compare your performance with both industry leaders and your closest competitors, and generate a report with potential action items. Keep in mind, though, that this isn't a feasible suggestion for smaller companies with finite resources.

Doing the heavy lifting: Figuring out an average B2B conversion rate

At this point, you've gotten warmed up, and you have a plan of attack for researching your competition.

You have to look at each channel they're using, whether it's PPC, email marketing campaigns, or something else. Take a look at the conversion rate for each channel.

For the successful conversions, look at how many sales per team member there are, and the average amount of each of those sales. Look at the demographic each channel is hitting.

For the unsuccessful conversions, look at where in the funnel your competition lost them. Again, pay attention to the demographics.

If you're looking at multiple companies, you have enough information now to create an average B2B conversion rate for your competitors.

Additional data that could prove useful

You should also try to collect some core information about the companies around you, such as the average salary for their sales team, their customer service standards, their overhead, and profit margins.

You can even check out their sales literature, content, and how they present themselves.

All of this can enhance your understanding of who your competition is and why they can lift as much, or as little, as they do compared to you.

Whether it's qualitative or quantitative information, it all feeds the analytics beast.

The cool down: Using this data to improve your performance

If you've paid for an external benchmarking consultant, they've probably already provided you with this information. If not, start your analysis with the following topics and questions:

  • Look through all of the information and see what machines you're not working out on as hard as your competition.

  • Are they using channels to reach a demographic you're not?

  • Are they succeeding with sales to bigger companies where your clients are often smaller?

The more companies you look at, the more data you have at your disposal. This gives you more information with which to conduct your analysis.

Planning your next workout

The quantitative data that you've gathered will show you the simple facts: where you fall in terms of average conversion rate, how your clients stack up against your competition's, the fractures in your funnel compared to theirs, and on.

The qualitative data that you've gathered explores a few reasons, and can inform future course corrections. This includes the quality of your landing pages, the calls to action (CTAs) on your website, the type of content you produce, your marketing strategies, and your lead nurturing techniques.

Take this information, and focus on your closest competitors and where they're beating you. Adapt their strategy, and incorporate it into your own routine.

Benchmarking your own performance is only half the battle. The next step is strategizing how to raise your own conversion rate based on what you've learned.

Only when you make adjustments based on what you've learned from this analysis will you start maxing out your conversion potential.


We've taken all the information above and put it in this easy-to-follow workout routine.

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About the Author

Adam Rosenthal profile picture

Adam Rosenthal is a Senior Specialist Analyst covering Vendor Marketing. He received his Masters from the University of Chicago and worked on several TV shows you might have heard of.

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