Sales can be a very rewarding profession, but also a tricky one. In order to be successful as an outside sales rep it is important to do your research on the latest sales statistics. Thankfully, research has taken a lot of the mystery out of sales, so you do not depend on trial and error when trying to find a method that works.
Having a good understanding of current sales statistics and market trends will help build the foundation to begin to really define and understand your audience. Once you are able to define your audience, you can tailor your messaging to your customer’s needs and communicate with them in a way that you never could before.
As a sales leader, if your sales team is effectively using research-driven sales strategies it can take your organization to the next level. Even if your sales team has perfected the research-driven method, it is important to continually benchmark your sales team’s performance against other sales and marketing teams to ensure your team is continually improving. Much of this benchmarking can be done through understanding sales and lead generation statistics.
We’ve compiled some of the latest sales statistics to give you the inside scoop on the science behind closing deals. Use this latest research to crush your sales.
Table of Contents
The Sales Profession
10% of sales reps have more than 30 years of experience
- The average company tenure for inside sales reps is 7 years, up 5 years from 2021
- The average company tenure for outside sales reps is 4.8 years
- On average, sales reps report they are responsible for 454 accounts -up from 315 in 2021
- Sales leaders think their reps only have 172 accounts, but reps say they have 454, using sales enablement tools like Map My Customers can help improve this gap
- The average sales rep spends 4 days in the field per week – 37% of sales reps spend 5 days in the field per week
- The average sales rep holds 34 meetings per week
- The average sales rep spends 21 hours driving per week
- The average sales rep averages 7.7 hours of admin work per week – down 11 hours from 2021
- 57% of sales reps plan on a weekly basis
- On average, sales leaders report that 62% of their sales team reliably hits quota – down from 64% in 2021
- Sales reps report they’re hitting their sales quota 75% of the time
- ⅔ of outside sales reps are responsible for sourcing their own leads
Social Media Statistics
90% of top-performing salespeople use social media as part of their sales strategy
- 94% of B2B buyers report searching online at some point during their buyers’ journey
- Social media influences half of the revenue in 14 common industries
- 73% of the sales reps who use social selling as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded their quota 23% more often
- Sales reps with high social network activity achieve 45% more sales opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit their sales quotas
- 81.7% of social buyers are under the age of 45 compared with 63.6% of non-users
- Senior-level buyers are more likely to use online professional networks (e.g., LinkedIn) for purchase support
- According to Microsoft, 79% of sales reps hit their quota using social selling. As a comparison, 46% of all sales reps missed their quota last year
- 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives surveyed use social media to make purchasing decisions
- 87% of B2B buyers say they would have a favorable impression of someone introduced through their professional social networks
Prospecting and Lead Generation Statistics
On average, it takes 8 follow-up calls to reach a prospect
- 92% of all customer interactions happen over the phone
- 60 phone calls a day is optimal for achieving sales goals
- Research shows that sales reps talk the majority of the time (55%) in successful cold calls
- One study found that most buyers (82%) will take a meeting with a rep that reaches out to them
- More than 50% of buyers want to see how your product works on the first call, while only 23% of reps are ready and willing to break it down
- The average sales manager makes no more than two call attempts to get a lead through a cold call
- 44% of sales reps give up after one follow-up call
- 41.2% of salespeople state that their phone is the most effective tool at their disposal
- A lead is 100 times more likely to get on the phone within 5 minutes of filling out a form online
- Asking between 11-14 questions during a lead call will translate to 74% greater potential success
- The most successful salespeople use words that inspire confidence, such as “definitely” and “absolutely,” five times more than low performers
- A study of almost 100,000 sales calls found that successful sales reps talk for 54% of the call, versus 42% for less successful ones
- The same study found that the best opening line is “How have you been?” Even if you’ve never met or talked with the prospect before, it performed over 6x better than a baseline conversation
Email Marketing Statistics
8 in 10 Prospects prefer communicating over email
- Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened
- About 40% of emails are first opened on the phone
- By putting the prospect’s name in the subject line, for example. Research shows it can improve click-through rates by 14% and conversions by 10%
- 35% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone
- 20.9% of people check their emails more than five times a day
- The average open rate for emails is 21.73% for all industries
- Email is almost 40 times more effective for customer acquisition than traditional social media channels, like Facebook or Twitter
- 68% of Millennials state that they were influenced by promotional emails in their purchasing decision
- An all-caps subject line hurt the response rate by about 30%
- Emails with 1-3 questions get 50% more replies than emails without any questions
- A message written at a third-grade reading level is 36% more likely to get a reply than those written at a college level
CRM Statistics
64% of teams are using their CRM or ERP as their primary tool for storing customer data – up from 60% in 2021
- The average technology budget for an organization is $39k – up from $27k in 2021
- Teams are spending an average of $7,722 per sales rep on technology
- 79% of sales teams currently use or are planning to use sales analytics technology
- 18% of sales reps still don’t know what CRM is
- 40% of sales reps use informal methods to store their customer information, such as spreadsheets
- 64.2% of companies using CRM rate it as “impactful” or “very impactful
- Improved access is significant for sales. accessible data shortens the sales cycle by 8-14%
Referral Statistics
Referred leads convert 30% better than any other type of lead
- 47% of top performers ask for referrals consistently versus 26% of low performers
- 83% of customers state they’d be happy to provide a referral, but only 29% end up doing so
- Peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions
- Referred customers are more loyal than other types of customers
- As a result, referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value
Close the Deal with Sales Statistics
By putting your time and energy into creating more productive interactions with prospects, you can stop wasting time and start closing deals. Top-performing sales reps understand the importance of working smarter and focusing their efforts where there is the biggest payoff. Effectively using the latest sales prospecting statistics and sales enablement tools like Map My Customers, you can enable yourself to become a better and more efficient sales rep.
Use these sales statistics to become a better salesperson today!
