AbstractWe prove that on any compact manifold $M^{n}$ with boundary, there exists a conformal class $C$ such that for any Riemannian metric $g\in C$ of unit volume, the first positive eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian satisfies ${\it\lambda}_{1}(M^{n},g)<n\,\text{Vol}(S^{n},g_{\text{can}})^{2/n}$. We also prove a similar inequality for the first positive Steklov eigenvalue. The proof relies on a handle decomposition of the manifold. We also prove that the conformal volume of $(M,C)$ is $\text{Vol}(S^{n},g_{\text{can}})$, and that the Friedlander–Nadirashvili invariant and the Möbius volume of $M$ are equal to those of the sphere. If $M$ is a domain in a space form, $C$ is the conformal class of the canonical metric.