Why the overall rate is misleading
Knowing that 8% of leads become customers doesn't tell you what to do. It's a tracking number, not a decision-making number.
Measured by stage, the same information becomes a diagnosis: if 60% of leads never get contacted, the problem is response; if they reach the proposal and stop there, it's the proposal or the price. Those are different causes and different actions — and the overall rate hides both.
How to use it in practice
Compare each stage's rate with your own company's rate in previous periods, not with market benchmarks. External benchmarks vary too much by industry, deal size and channel to serve as a target.
The stage with the biggest drop is the bottleneck — and it's the only place where improvement affects the final result. Improving a stage that isn't the bottleneck doesn't change the total.