Global data from cloud-based sales software, Pipedrive, reveals that when it comes to converting leads into sales, New
Zealanders are amongst the best.
It may have been the Americans who pioneered selling as we know it, but research indicates they’re being overtaken. In
2017, the top three spots of the conversion rate league table were taken by South Africa, the Republic of Ireland and
New Zealand.
The findings come from cloud-based sales tool, Pipedrive. Every year, Pipedrive analyzes anonymized data from its
customers to identify key trends in the global sales market. The most recent analysis looked at data from roughly 70,000
organizations across 34 countries and more than 10 industries.
On average, salespeople in New Zealand convert 20.56% of their leads into sales. That’s only 0.06% behind the best
performer, South Africa, and 11.14% ahead of the worst performer, Germany. Ireland was the only other country to boast a
conversion rate greater than 20%.
So what makes New Zealand so skillful when it comes to selling? According to Timo Rein, Pipedrive Co-Founder and CEO,
being honest with yourself about the likelihood of making a sale is key:
“Generally speaking, high-performing organizations add half as many deals into their pipeline, but win at least twice as
many. What does this mean? Great salespeople are especially careful about not filling their days with conversations
leading to nowhere. If they feel their chances are getting too small, they usually let go better than others to make
room for new high potential conversations.”
New Zealand’s thriving manufacturing sector may be partly responsible for its sales success. Manufacturing makes up
roughly 10% of the country’s GDP. It also happens to be the industry that’s best at sealing the deal. Its overall
conversion rate of 31.12% is more than double the average of all industries covered in the research. However, in New
Zealand, the average conversion rate for the manufacturing industry is an impressive 43.47%.
“Manufacturing can be an industry that is complex and labor intensive, where multiple parts often physically move
locations, which can be very costly,” explains Rein. “As this can affect profits, there is a greater need to qualify any
deals rather than meet a large volume of unknown prospects.”
Focusing more energy on fewer deals and only adding deals into the pipeline only after promising preliminary research
seems to work for this sector. Furthermore, manufacturing is the industry that conducts the most face-to-face meetings,
suggesting the human touch still matters.
For more analysis and insight into the global sales market, read Timo Rein’s Global Sales Performance Review.