‍Overview

In the first week of March 2025, inbound demo interest grew modestly overall, with 16,026 demo requests captured (about a 5% increase from 15,193 in the previous week). The quality of these leads held relatively steady (overall qualification rate ~66% vs ~67.5% last week), and 6,371 inbound meetings were booked (up ~4% week-on-week) as a result of these qualified leads. Below we break down the key metrics – Demo Requests, Qualification %, Inbound Meetings, Meetings Not Booked, and Inbound Meeting Rate – highlighting standout industries and company-size segments, and we provide actionable insights for marketing and operations teams.

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Demo Requests – Volume & Notable Trends

Total inbound demo requests: 16,026 for the week, up slightly from the fourth week of Feb. Marketers generated increased top-of-funnel interest in a few specific industries, while others saw declines:

• 📈 Surges in interest: Travel & Hospitality saw 899 demo requests – nearly triple the previous week’s volume of 311, indicating a recent campaign drove a large influx of traffic. Support Software also more than doubled to 342 requests (from 150). Legal & Compliance interest jumped ~67% (219 vs 131). These spikes suggest successful awareness campaigns, though (as we’ll see) not all were targeted to the right audiences.
  
  
• 📉 Declines in interest: Traditional high-volume segments like Education & E-Learning dropped to 2,448 requests (down 21% from 3,106), and Sales Software fell to 1,301 (down from 1,611). Notably, IT & Security Software saw a sharp fall to just 120 requests (versus 616 last week), and Developer Tools dropped to 111 (from 443). These dips may reflect the winding down of campaigns or seasonal variation in interest from those sectors.

Company size segment mix: The mid-market (51–200 employees) segment contributed the bulk of demo requests (≈8,332, about 52% of total), increasing significantly week-on-week. Small businesses (≤50 employees) made up ~6,060 requests (38%), while enterprise (201+ employees) were about 1,634 (10%). This marks a shift from last week, where SMBs led volumes – now mid-market interest has surged. Marketers should note this shift and ensure messaging resonates across segments. The increase in mid-market demos is promising, but we’ll examine next if those leads were qualified or not.

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Lead Qualification % – Are Campaigns Attracting the Right Prospects?

Overall lead quality was stable – 10,600 of the 16,026 requests were qualified (≈66.1% qualified vs 67.5% prior week). However, qualification efficiency varied widely by industry and segment:

• Top-performing industries: Real Estate & Property Management leads remained exceptionally well-targeted – 93.7% qualified this week (371 of 396 demos), only slightly down from 97.5% last week. Legal & Compliance Software also saw 88.1% qualification (up from 65.6%), indicating far better targeting of legal industry prospects. IT & Security leads, though fewer in number, stayed high quality at 85.8% qualified. High qualification rates in these segments signal that recent marketing efforts in those niches are attracting the right audience with clear need.
  
  
• Low-performing industries: In stark contrast, Travel & Hospitality Software leads were largely off-target – only ~10.3% (93 of 899) qualified, a huge drop from ~63% the previous week. This suggests that while the travel campaign drove volume, the messaging or channels likely pulled in many unfit prospects. Sales Software leads also showed a low 40.3% qualification, down from 51.6%, hinting that some campaigns targeting sales teams might need refinement. Healthcare & Medical Software stayed on the lower side at ~45.5% qualified, similar to last week (46.6%), indicating an ongoing challenge in filtering for quality in that vertical. Marketers should review these campaigns to improve targeting criteria or lead filters.

By company size: Smaller companies tended to be more qualified. SMB leads had the highest qualification rate (75.5%), whereas enterprise-level leads had the lowest (54.3%). Mid-market fell in between at ~61.6%. This pattern (SMBs being ~20 percentage points more likely to qualify than enterprises) suggests that our messaging and product may currently resonate more with smaller organizations – or that larger-company inbound inquiries include more irrelevant contacts. Marketing can use this insight to adjust targeting: e.g. refine outreach at enterprise accounts to attract the right personas, and continue leveraging the channels effectively driving high-fit SMB interest.

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Inbound Meetings – Converting Qualified Leads to Meetings

A total of 6,371 inbound meetings were booked from qualified demos this week (up from 6,111 last week). This indicates a solid overall inbound conversion of leads to meetings (~60% of qualified leads booked a meeting). Still, performance differed across industries:

• Strong conversion gains: Legal & Compliance saw 119 meetings booked from 193 qualified leads (~61.7% conversion) – a substantial jump in volume from just 42 meetings last week. This reflects both the higher lead quality and improved follow-through in that segment. Support Software also more than doubled meetings week-on-week (95 vs 39) on the back of its higher qualified leads. Even Marketing Software with fewer leads managed 219 meetings, maintaining a healthy ~64% rate. These increases suggest that when lead quality is high, the sales team is successfully engaging and scheduling those prospects.
• Drops in meeting volume: Interestingly, Retail & e-Commerce – despite more qualified leads (1,016) this week – saw only 434 meetings booked, down from 525 meetings last week. In other words, even though marketing delivered more good retail leads, fewer turned into meetings (we explore this drop-off below). Travel & Hospitality booked just 36 meetings (vs 50 prior) reflecting its qual issues. Education & E-Learning remained the top contributor by volume with 1,055 meetings, though down from 1,283 previously (in line with its lower lead count). High-volume categories like Healthcare (279 meetings) and HR Software (271) saw absolute meeting counts decline with their lead volume, but still converted a majority of qualified leads.

From a company size perspective, enterprise-qualified leads were slightly more likely to book a meeting (~62% of qualified enterprise leads scheduled, vs ~59% for SMB). This makes intuitive sense – while fewer big-firm leads come in and many are disqualified, those that are qualified often have serious intent, resulting in a higher booking rate. Small-business leads, even though high-fit, may require more follow-up nudges to convert. Mid-market lead conversion was about 61%, near the average. Operations teams can note that all segments hover around the 60% mark, meaning there’s room across the board to push that meeting rate higher.

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Meetings Not Booked – Identifying Drop-Off Points

“Meetings not booked” reflects the drop-off: qualified prospects who did not schedule a meeting. This week 4,230 qualified prospects did not book meetings, a slight increase from ~4,082 last week (matching the small dip in overall conversion rate). By pinpointing where these drop-offs concentrate, marketing and sales ops can take corrective action:

• Retail & e-Commerce: This segment saw the highest jump in drop-offs. 582 retail prospects did not book a meeting this week – more than double the 251 who dropped off last week. The retail funnel’s leak widened significantly: although marketing delivered more qualified retail leads, many didn’t schedule with sales. This is a red flag that needs attention in the hand-off or follow-up process. Are retail prospects not finding suitable meeting times, or did their interest cool off? Operations should investigate and re-engage this large pool of warm leads promptly (e.g. targeted follow-up emails or calls addressing any concerns specific to the retail use case).
• Support Software: Another area of concern, 180 qualified support leads didn’t book meetings – a steep rise from 42 last week. Despite excellent lead quality in Support (80%+ qual rate), two-thirds of those interested prospects failed to schedule. This could indicate a gap in our follow-up: perhaps these leads need faster or more tailored outreach. The operations team might coordinate with account executives to ensure a quick personal touch for Support software inquiries, given their high intent yet surprisingly low conversion this week.
• Other notable drop-offs: “Other” category leads (miscellaneous industries) had 818 not booked, though this actually improved from 1,011 last week. Still, it’s a large absolute number – marketing might break down the “Other” segment to identify common traits and enable more focused follow-up content. Travel & Hospitality had 57 not booked, which is smaller in absolute terms, but is a large percentage (61%) of its qualified leads – consistent with its conversion struggles. Generally, mid-market leads constituted the largest share of drop-offs (2,002 not booked) simply due to higher volume, whereas enterprise leads were the fewest (333 not booked) in number.

To address these drop-offs, marketing and ops should collaborate on nurture tactics. For example, the Retail and Support leads that didn’t book represent low-hanging fruit – they showed interest and fit our ICP, but need an extra push. Consider targeted email sequences, offering additional resources or testimonials specific to their industry, or a direct outreach from an SDR for a personal touch. Ensuring speed-to-contact remains high is also key: any delays in following up on qualified inbound interest can lead to lost opportunities. By tightening the follow-up process in these weak spots, we can lift the inbound meeting rate further.

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Inbound Meeting Rate – Industry Benchmarks & Optimization Opportunities

Inbound meeting rate by industry for the first week of March 2025. Industries like Support, Travel & Hospitality, and Retail have the lowest conversion of qualified leads to meetings, whereas IT & Security, Education, and Manufacturing categories top the list with the highest meeting rates.

The overall inbound meeting rate (qualified leads to meetings) this week was 61.0% (slightly down from ~62.3% last week). The chart above ranks each industry’s conversion rate. A few insights stand out:

• High performers: IT & Security Software leads converted at 73.8% – the highest of any segment. Although the volume of IT leads was small, this suggests that those few enterprise IT prospects were highly engaged (perhaps an indicator of strong product-market fit or urgent need in that segment). Education & E-Learning also achieved a robust 69.5% meeting rate, and Manufacturing Software wasn’t far behind at 68.1%. HR Software and Healthcare each hovered around 67–68%. These above-average conversion rates indicate that in these industries, once a lead is qualified, our teams are doing a good job getting them scheduled – likely aided by strong buying intent in these verticals. Marketing can leverage this by showcasing success stories in these industries (to attract similar high-intent leads), and Operations can ensure resources (like AEs familiar with these domains) are allocated to continue this strong conversion.
• Low performers: Support Software had the lowest inbound meeting rate at just 34.5% – meaning nearly two-thirds of qualified support leads did not convert to meetings. Travel & Hospitality was next lowest at 38.7%. Retail & e-Commerce also lagged with only 42.7% of qualified leads booking meetings, a steep drop from ~67% previously. These industries represent the biggest opportunities for optimization. For marketing, it may help to set better expectations or provide more product education upfront to increase willingness to meet (e.g. if retail prospects understand how our solution addresses e-commerce use cases, they may be more inclined to take the meeting). For operations, prioritizing speedy, personalized follow-up for these low-converting segments is crucial – these prospects might require more relationship-building or a different approach to persuade them to schedule.

It’s worth noting that some of the largest inbound segments (by volume) have moderate conversion rates: e.g. the broad “Other” category (~55.6% conversion) and Sales Software (~60.9%). These are around or below the average, suggesting room to improve. Meanwhile, niche segments with fewer leads (like IT, Manufacturing, HR) show what’s possible with focused, high-intent outreach. By learning from the latter – understanding what drives those prospects to quickly schedule – we can apply those tactics to boost conversion in weaker areas.

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Key Takeaways & Actionable Insights

• Focus on Mid-Funnel Conversion (Sales/Operations): The drop-off in Retail and Support segments indicates a mid-funnel gap. Hundreds of interested, qualified prospects in these industries didn’t book meetings, representing lost revenue potential. Operations should audit the follow-up process here – for example, are reps overwhelmed by the volume, or are prospects receiving generic outreach? Provide the sales team with targeted enablement (industry-specific value props, case studies) to better engage these leads, and consider a more proactive outreach cadence to secure meetings while interest is hot.
  
  
• Tailor Approach by Company Size: Since SMB leads are easier to qualify but slightly less likely to book, and enterprise leads are tougher to qualify but more likely to convert once qualified, adjust strategies accordingly. For small businesses, marketers might pre-nurture them with more education (so they’re ready to schedule), and sales could use a lighter-touch, high-volume follow-up. For enterprises, marketing should continue fine-tuning targeting (to filter out noise) and sales should be ready to promptly engage any qualified big-fish lead with white-glove treatment (as those have high payoff, given their strong conversion rate when properly vetted).
  
  
• Continuous Feedback Loop: Finally, maintain a tight feedback loop between Marketing and Sales/Ops. This week showed how quickly trends can shift – e.g. a new campaign can flood the funnel (Travel) or a pause can dry it up (IT Security).
  
  By sharing these weekly insights, marketing can adjust spend and messaging in near-real-time, and sales can allocate resources to capitalize on surges or pick up slack in slow segments. Over time, this alignment will improve both the quality (qualification %) and throughput (meeting conversion) of inbound leads, directly impacting revenue growth from our inbound pipeline.