Batu Ulker
Glossary · Sales

Show Rate

By · 2 October 2026

Show rate is the percentage of booked sales calls where the prospect actually turns up, calculated as calls held divided by calls booked.

Why does show rate matter so much?

Every booked call that doesn't happen still cost you the ad spend to book it, and it cost your closer a slot on the calendar. If you're paying $250 to book a call and only half of them show up, your real cost per held call is $500. A great pitch in front of a 20% show rate is wasted money, so fix show rate before you touch the sales deck.

What's a good show rate?

My benchmark for a sales call funnel on cold Meta traffic is 80%. In the accounts behind my case studies:

Account Booked Held Show rate
Brand-new agency offer 129 97 75.2%
High-ticket B2B SaaS 93 85 91%
PR firm 178 163 92%

Webinars run lower because attending is a bigger ask: on cold traffic, expect around 30% of registrants to show up live, and 40 to 50% from organic traffic.

How do you raise show rate?

You buy a high show rate with what happens between the booking and the call, not with better leads. Three things move it most:

  1. A setter call within minutes of booking, while intent is at its peak.
  2. A pre-call sequence: confirmation, then email and SMS reminders over the 24 to 48 hours before the call.
  3. Retargeting content so the prospect keeps seeing proof from you until the call.

In my accounts, a proper pre-call sequence has increased show rates by up to 34%.

FAQ

Is a 50% show rate bad?

For a booked sales call on cold traffic, yes. It usually means there's no real pre-call sequence, and fixing that is cheaper than buying twice as many calls.

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