Glossary term

Win rate

Definition

The percentage of qualified opportunities that are won out of all opportunities that reached a decision, calculated as deals won divided by deals won plus deals lost. It reflects how effectively the sales team converts real chances into revenue.

Win rate is the percentage of qualified opportunities your team wins out of all the opportunities that reached a decision. You calculate it as deals won divided by the sum of deals won and deals lost. It measures how effectively your team converts genuine chances into revenue, and it deliberately ignores deals that are still open.

How it works

The core formula is:

Win rate = Deals won / (Deals won + Deals lost)

Say you closed 40 opportunities in a quarter: 12 became orders and 28 were lost. Your win rate is 12 / 40, or 30 percent. Open deals still in negotiation are left out, because they have not reached a decision yet. Some teams use a looser version that divides won deals by all opportunities created, but that blends conversion speed with true closing effectiveness, so keep the two definitions separate.

Why it matters

Win rate tells you whether the problem is at the top of the funnel (not enough qualified requests) or at the bottom (you get chances but lose them). A low win rate with healthy request volume usually points to pricing, response time, or follow up, not lead generation. Tracking it by product, buyer segment, or sales rep shows where quotes convert and where they stall.

In B2B quoting on Shopify

For merchants who sell by quote, every quote request is an opportunity. To measure win rate you need to know which quotes were accepted and paid versus which were declined or went cold. This is where treating quotes as tracked records, rather than loose emails, helps: when a request converts to a draft order and the buyer accepts and pays, that outcome is captured, so won and lost counts stay accurate. See the B2B quoting glossary for related terms like quote-to-close and conversion rate.

Frequently asked

What is a good win rate?

It varies by industry and deal size, but many B2B teams land between 20 and 40 percent. The more useful benchmark is your own trend over time and the gaps between products or reps, not a single universal number.

What is the difference between win rate and conversion rate?

Win rate looks only at decided opportunities (won versus lost). Conversion rate usually measures outcomes against every request or lead created, including ones that never reached a decision. Win rate isolates closing effectiveness, while conversion rate reflects the whole funnel.

Should open quotes count in win rate?

No. Open opportunities have not reached a decision, so including them distorts the number. Count a quote only once it is won (accepted and paid) or lost (declined or gone cold).

Turn quote requests into paid orders

ShopQuotes is a free-to-start Shopify app for branded, checkout-ready quotes.