# Stage conversion rate

The share of targets that move from one pipeline stage to the next one.

A total deal count hides where a search is actually failing. A [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) whose contacts convert well and whose letters of intent die in diligence has a pricing or a screening problem; one whose emails go unanswered has a targeting problem; the two need opposite work and the totals look identical. The rate by stage is what separates them. Track it from the first outreach onward, because the sample is never large enough to be significant and is always large enough to be useful.

In numbers: 20 [NDAs](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/nda) from 200 contacts is a 10% rate at that stage, and 2 [LOIs](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/loi) from those 20 is another 10%.

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/stage-conversion-rate
Not dated: A definition is editorial: what a term means, why it matters, and an example. None of it reads a source that can go stale, so there is no date to take and a stamped one would be the build time wearing a costume.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt