Demo Requests – Volume & Industry Trends

This week saw a total of 13,122 demo requests across all tracked companies. Activity was dominated by the mid-market segment, with companies in the 51–200 employee range contributing over half of all requests (7,041 requests, ~54%). In contrast, very large enterprises (1000+ employees) had minimal presence in this week’s data, indicating most demand came from SMB and mid-market firms.
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• Top industries by demo volume: The Retail & e-commerce software sector led defined industries with 1,848 demo requests. Close behind were Healthcare & Medical Software (1,235 requests) and Education & E-Learning (1,018 requests). This suggests strong interest in these verticals. 
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• Lagging industries: On the low end, segments like Legal & Compliance Software saw only 95 demo requests, and Travel & Hospitality Software had 336, indicating comparatively weaker traffic in those domains this week.

Insight: High demo request volume in Retail and Healthcare indicates robust top-of-funnel activity – marketers in these industries should ensure they have sufficient follow-up capacity. Meanwhile, industries with lower volume might consider additional marketing pushes or analyzing why interest is lower (seasonality, less outreach, etc.).

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Qualification % – Are We Attracting the Right Leads?

Overall, 68.5% of demo requests were qualified (8,984 qualified out of 13,122), but this efficiency varied widely by industry and company size. Lead qualification rate is a key indicator of marketing effectiveness – higher means marketing is drawing in the right audience.

• High qualification success: Several industries qualified nearly all their inbound leads. Real Estate & Property Management Software firms qualified 97% of their 690 requests, and Manufacturing & Supply Chain Software also qualified about 98% of requests. IT & Security Software saw 89.8% qualification. These high rates indicate very targeted marketing – the leads coming in closely match the ideal customer profile.
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• Low qualification sectors: In contrast, Travel & Hospitality Software providers qualified only 26.8% of their demo requests (just 90 out of 336). Healthcare & Medical Software also saw a low qualification rate at 36.8% (455 of 1,235). Other notable laggards were Developer Tools (~50%) and Sales Software (~58%). These sectors received a lot of interest but a majority of those requests were disqualified as not sales-ready or not a fit.
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• SMB vs. large enterprise leads: Smaller companies tended to attract higher-quality leads. Small businesses (<=50 employees) achieved a 76% qualification rate, whereas large companies (201–1000 employees) qualified only about 49% of their many demo requests. This suggests larger brands are casting wider nets (or attracting more irrelevant inquiries), while smaller firms’ marketing is more focused. Mid-sized companies were in between at ~67% qualified.

Marketing insight: If you’re in an industry with low qualification percentages (e.g. Travel, Healthcare), it’s a red flag that your campaigns are bringing in too many unfit leads. Refining targeting criteria is crucial – for example, adjust your ad audiences or messaging to better speak to qualified prospects and consider adding pre-qualification questions on the demo form. High qualification industries should consider scaling up those effective channels, since their messaging is clearly resonating with the right people.

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Inbound Meetings – Converting Qualified Leads to Meetings

Getting a demo request is only half the battle – the real win is when a qualified lead actually schedules a meeting. This week, 5,431 inbound meetings were booked, meaning about 60% of all qualified leads converted to an actual meeting. Here’s how different groups performed in converting interest into scheduled demos:

• Strong converters: Education & E-Learning software companies stood out with 461 inbound meetings booked out of 566 qualified leads – an 81% conversion rate. Similarly, Real Estate & Property Management firms turned 534 of 670 qualified leads into meetings (~80%). These high conversion rates suggest an efficient follow-up process and possibly immediate scheduling options that capitalize on buyer interest.
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• Solid performers: Many B2B tech sectors fell in a healthy middle range. HR Software companies booked 449 meetings (65% of qualified leads), IT & Security booked 457 meetings (62% of qualified), and Financial & Accounting Software saw 174 meetings (about 64.7% of 269 qualified leads). These sectors are converting two-thirds or more of their good leads to discussions, indicating generally effective inbound handling with some room to optimize further.
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• Conversion challenges: A few industries struggled to turn qualified leads into meetings. Support Software firms, for example, only converted about 45.7% of qualified leads (117 meetings out of 256 qualified). Data & Analytics Software providers had a similar outcome, with 230 meetings from 500 qualified leads (~46% conversion). The largest volume industry, Retail & e-commerce, scheduled 570 meetings, but given 1,183 qualified leads, that’s only a 48% conversion rate – meaning over half of interested retail prospects never made it onto a call. Manufacturing Software also converted roughly half (201 meetings from 407 qualified, ~49%). Even though these industries attracted and qualified leads, a significant portion dropped off before scheduling a meeting.

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Meetings Not Booked – Where Are Qualified Leads Dropping Off?

Across all industries, approximately 3,553 qualified prospects did not book a meeting this week – roughly 40% of all qualified leads dropped off at the scheduling stage. Understanding where this drop-off is highest can help operations teams take targeted action:

• Highest drop-off by volume: Naturally, bigger pipelines had more absolute drop-offs. Retail & e-commerce companies had the most with 613 qualified leads not booking a meeting (out of 1,183 qualified). The broad Other category saw 836 not booked, reflecting many misc. leads left unconverted. These numbers are unsurprising given their large lead pools, but they highlight where the sheer count of missed opportunities is greatest.
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• Highest drop-off rates: More telling are the industries with the worst percentage drop-off (i.e. lowest inbound meeting rates). As noted, Support Software and Data & Analytics each saw more than half of their qualified leads (~54%) not booking a demo. Manufacturing and Retail were close behind, with about 50-52% of qualified leads dropping off before a meeting. In these sectors, every other interested prospect is slipping away.
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• Lowest drop-off (best retention): On the other end, Education & E-Learning providers only had 105 leads not booked (19% drop-off), and Real Estate software only 136 not booked (20% drop-off). These are exemplary – the vast majority of their qualified leads converted. 

Operational insight: The higher the drop-off, the more leakage in your funnel. For sectors like Support, Data, Retail, and Manufacturing, this is a wake-up call that thousands of interested prospects are not making it to a meeting. It’s critical to investigate why – e.g. are automated scheduling links being sent and followed up? Is response time fast enough? Reducing this drop-off could drastically improve pipeline without needing a single extra lead.

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Inbound Meeting Rate – Industry Benchmarks & Opportunities

The Inbound Meeting Rate (the percentage of qualified leads that actually book a meeting) averaged ~60% this week, but individual industries deviated from this benchmark. Using this as a performance gauge, we can identify who’s above or below the norm:

• Top-tier performers: Education & E-Learning leads the pack with an ~81% inbound meeting rate. Real Estate & Property Mgmt is similarly high near 80%. These industries set a benchmark for efficient lead-to-meeting conversion. Others above average include Marketing Software (~68%), HR Software (~65%), IT & Security (~62%), and Financial Software (~65%). If you’re in these ranges, your process is relatively strong, though approaching the 80% club would be even better.
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• Middle of the pack: Sales Software companies converted around 56-57% of qualified leads to meetings – slightly below the overall average. This suggests some friction, but not as acute as the worst cases. Monitoring and incremental tweaks could push this up.
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• Needs improvement: Any segment below 50% is a clear outlier. As noted, Retail & e-commerce (~48%), Data & Analytics (~46%), Support Software (~45%) and Manufacturing (~49%) all fall in this zone. These low rates are a major opportunity – moving the needle from ~45% to 60% would mean dozens (even hundreds) more meetings from the same lead pool. For example, Retail could have booked over 100 additional meetings this week if it met the 60% benchmark.

Optimization opportunity: If your industry’s inbound meeting rate is less than 40%, consider it low-hanging fruit. Often the fixes are operational and even the worst weeks for industries with instant scheduling is better than the accepted 30% benchmark.

The industries hitting 80%: are the ones leveraging RevenueHero plus while also attracting the right kind of visitors to their marketing assets with the right targeting and messaging.

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Segment Spotlight: Company Size Effects

Company size also played a role in performance this week, revealing different challenges for small vs. large organizations:

• Small businesses (<= 50 employees): These teams achieved the highest lead quality (about 76% qualification rate) – their marketing is generating highly relevant inquiries. However, their inbound meeting rate was ~58%, a bit below average.
  
  
• Mid-market (51–200 employees): Mid-sized companies drove the majority of activity and balanced quality and conversion fairly well. They qualified ~67.5% of leads and converted about 61.7% of those to meetings – right around the overall average for the week. This indicates solid performance; with some personalisation and optimisation, mid-market firms can push even higher given their volume.
  
  
• Large companies (201–1000 employees): Big firms had a much lower qualification rate (~49%) – likely due to broad marketing reach pulling in a lot of top-of-funnel noise.
  
  The encouraging news is those that did qualify booked meetings at roughly 63%, on par with others. For these teams, the focus should be on tightening the funnel entry (to raise that 49% qual rate) while maintaining the scheduling conversion percentages.

Overall larger companies should coordinate with marketing to improve lead targeting. Mid-market companies should continue balancing both aspects to turn their strong demand into actual meetings.

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Recommendations

For Marketing Teams:

• Improve Lead Qualification: If your industry or segment showed low qualification rates (e.g. Travel at 15–25%, Healthcare ~37%), refine your inbound strategy.
  Revisit targeting criteria for ad campaigns and content – make sure you’re attracting the right profile.
  It may help to add qualifying questions on your demo request form or use lead scoring to filter out poor-fit leads early.
  The goal is to lift that qualification % closer to the 70–80% seen in top-performing industries, so sales spends time only on likely customers.
  
  
• Leverage What’s Working: Analyze the channels and messaging that brought in highly qualified leads in high-performing segments. For example, Education software companies achieved over 80% conversion to meetings – was it a particular webinar or whitepaper funnel that drove those meetings? Share and replicate successful tactics across other campaigns. If certain industries or small-business audiences respond really well to specific content, double down there and apply those insights to underperforming segments.
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For Operations Teams:

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• Prioritize Resource Allocation: If certain segments (like mid-market leads) are driving the bulk of meetings, make sure your team has enough demo slots and sales coverage for that demand. For instance, with Retail and Real Estate software firms each handling ~500+ meetings a week, having adequate staffing or automated demos is key to handle that load without delays. Conversely, for segments with fewer demos, ops can afford to provide more high-touch follow-up to improve conversion rates.