91+ Sales Stats You Can’t Afford to Miss

The world of sales is constantly evolving. And whether you work in retail, eCommerce, advertising or any other industry that requires you to convert prospects to buyers, keeping up with these changes is integral to success. 

That’s why we’ve consulted dozens of recent studies and research reports from thought leaders around the globe to compile this one-stop guide to all the latest facts and trends in the industry. Keep reading to discover 91+ sales stats you can’t afford to miss… 

Sales Call Stats

First up are stats on sales calls. As these statistics will show you, consistency, tenacity and follow-up are key to making more sales and implementing successful phone strategies. 

• 92% of all customer interactions take place over the phone. 
• According to Salesforce and shared on Close.com, 85% of customers and prospects are unsatisfied with their phone-based experience. 
• It takes an average of 8 cold call attempts to make contact with a prospect (up from approximately 3.7 in 2007) and 18 calls to actually reach a buyer. 
• According to several sources, some of the best times to call prospects are from 8am–11am and  4pm–5pm, their time.
• Just 2% of cold calls result in an appointment.
• 42% of sales representatives believe they don’t have enough information prior to making calls.
• The average sales rep makes around 52 calls every day. 
• 74% of businesses don’t leave voicemail messages.
• Sales reps spend 15% of their time leaving voicemails. 
• 44% of sales pros report giving up after just one follow-up call.
• Sales managers make, on average, 2 attempts or fewer to get through to a person via cold calling. 
• If you call a lead within the first 5 minutes after they’ve submitted a web form, they are 100x more likely to speak with you. 
• In a survey, 75% of executives said they are willing to attend an event or make an appointment based on a cold call or email. 
• While 92% of sales reps give up after the 4th time a prospect says “no,” 80% of prospects say “no” 4 times before saying “yes.” 
• 80% of made sales require 5 follow-up calls. 
• It can take 8 follow-up calls on average to reach a prospect. 

Inbound Sales vs. Outbound Sales Stats

Next, let’s look at the statistics and facts surrounding inbound sales and outbound strategies. As you will see from these numbers, customers do their research on a company before buying from them, or even interacting with a sales rep. That’s why it is so important that you keep your website content (such as blog articles, help docs, about pages, etc.) on point. 

•  46% of marketers report that inbound sales strategies resulted in higher ROI, while only 12% reported the same for outbound efforts. 
• 77% of B2B customers say they won’t even speak to a salesperson before conducting their own research into the company. 
• 93% of B2B buying journeys start with an online search. 
• A whopping 94% of B2B shoppers perform research online before finalizing a purchase.
• According to this inbound vs. outbound study, 59% of marketers responded “inbound,” while 16% said “outbound,” when asked which method netted higher quality leads for their sales teams. 
• 47% of shoppers will view 3 to 5 pieces of a company’s online content prior to speaking with a sales representative.
• A full 57% of the sales process is completed for prospects before a company even has the chance to interact with them, according to the Corporate Executive Board.

Inside vs. Outside Sales Stats

Now, onto a similar, but different topic: inside sales vs. outside sales. First of all, the popularity of inside sales has exploded in recent years, due to inside sales being less expensive to make and often easier to generate. That said, these statistics will also show that there’s still an incredibly important place in most companies for outside sales efforts. 

• According to recent studies, only 33% of an inside sales rep’s time is spent actively selling. 
• New data from PointClear shows that the average outside sale will cost $308, while the average inside sale costs just $50. 
• 44% of inside sales are generated through marketing efforts.
• 37% of “high-growth” companies utilize inside sales as their primary strategy.
• Research from InsideSales.com shows that 35% to 50% of all sales go to the vendor or rep that responds to a prospect first. 
• Face-to-face sales teams (outside sales) comprise more than 71% of the total sales force.
• 65% of all outside sales executives are making their quotas (which is 10% more than reps who work in inside sales). 
• As of this 2017 BusinessWire.com release, outside sales representatives were spending 89% more of their time selling remotely as compared to 2013.

Sales CRM Stats

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are crucial pieces of any effective strategy. You can find a few recent CRM statistics that are most pertinent to sales below. And if you’d like to dive even deeper into the facts and figures surrounding customer relationship management, check out our other full-length guide: 50+ CRM Statistics All Sellers Need to Know for 2021. 

• According to recent data from LinkedIn, 57% of marketers report spending anywhere from 3 to 10+ hours each week utilizing CRM tools. 
• CRM solutions are the most popular tools among sales professionals, followed by social prospecting, email, phone and “sales cadence.” 
• Research from Salesforce shows that CRMs can boost sales by as much as 29% (and can also increase productivity to 34%). 
• As we’ve already reported in our CRM stats guide, 24% more sales reps meet or exceed their annual sales goals when they have access to mobile CRM tools. 

Prospecting Stats

Prospecting is all about figuring out who to sell to and getting to know your potential customers. As these stats show, understanding your prospects’ needs and making meaningful contact at the right times can make all the difference in the effectiveness of your sales strategy. 

• According to the aforementioned Hubspot research, the majority of salespeople say prospecting is the most difficult part of the sales process. In fact, of those surveyed, 40% named prospecting as the most challenging aspect of sales, while 36% and 22% said it was closing and qualifying, respectively.
• An overwhelming majority of companies (9 out of every 10) use 2 or more enrichment tools in order to discover more about prospects.
• In a study by Sales Insights Lab, 77.3% of sales reps who were surveyed said their company provides at least 25% of their leads. 
• At least half (50%) of prospects may not be a good fit for the products and / or services you’re selling, which is why it’s so important to get to know your shoppers and their needs.
• It is important to make contact with prospects during every stage of the buying journey, especially the consideration stage. In the Hubspot study, 60% of respondents said they prefer to connect with sales during the consideration stage (after they’ve had a chance to research their options). 
• In that same study, 19% of shoppers said they want to connect with sales during the “awareness stage,” when they are first discovering and learning about a company and its products. 
• And finally, 20% of prospects want to talk to sales during the decision stage, after they’ve made their choice about what to buy. 

Email Sales Stats

Email is a fundamental tool for any sales team. It gives you the opportunity to get both your brand’s message and your products / services in front of prospects. And as these stats convey, when done right, your email strategies can pay off in a major way (but there are also some pitfalls to avoid and issues to overcome). For instance, by crafting great subject lines and interesting email body content, you can increase open and click-through rates. Learn more about how to do so here. 

• Only 23% of emails are actually opened.
• Email marketing can result in 2x higher returns than cold calling.
• Personalized subject lines make emails far more likely to get opened.
• You can also use words like “new,” “sale” and “video” to increase open rates.
• According to the Aberdeen Group, marketers can also use personalization to improve click-throughs and conversion rates once users have opened an email. In fact, their study shows that personalization can boost click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%.
• Short subject lines do better. That’s because studies show that 40% of users open emails first on their mobile devices, and mobile devices only show the first few words of a subject line (4 to 7, on average). 
• 44% of email recipients report having made at least one purchase in the past year due to an email they opened. 
• 89% of marketers report that email is their primary source for lead generation. 
• 8 out of 10 prospects say they prefer interacting with sales reps via email over any other medium. 
• Email is almost 40x more effective at new customer acquisition than Facebook or Twitter.

Social Selling Stats

And now that we’ve mentioned Facebook and Twitter in the previous sales statistic, it’s a perfect time to talk about social selling. Nearly everyone is on social media these days, so it can present a golden opportunity to increase awareness of your brand and boost conversions. 

• According to Forbes, 4 out of 10 sellers have closed 2 to 5 sales as a result of using social media. 
• 78% of sales representatives use social media to outsell their peers.
• CSO Insights shows that 31% of B2B pros credit social media with having enabled them to build better relationships with their prospects and customers. 
• A whopping 75% of B2B shoppers and 84% of C-suite and other execs use social media to make buying decisions.
• 65% of sales reps who use social media “fill their pipeline,” versus 47% of representatives who don’t use it.
• Sales representatives who utilize social media as a selling tool are 50% more likely to make their sales quotas. 
• 63.4% of sales pros who use social selling report an increase in overall company revenue (whereas just 41.2% of companies who don’t use social media report the same). 
• The average deal size can be increased by 35% as a result of social selling.
• Social selling can also increase win rates by 5%. 
• A full half of revenue is affected by social selling in 14 major industries, including software, healthcare, marketing and more.

Tech Stats

Because new technologies enable us to do things faster and with more information than ever before, it makes sense that tech is an ever-growing part of the sales industry. Let’s take a look at some statistics surrounding sales and technology. (Note: these are some of the most exponential sales stats in this entire guide). 

• In a 2019 study released by Smart Selling Tools, the average number of sales tools used by survey respondents had increased to 4.9 (compared to 4.2 in 2017).
• The same study showed that the number of types of tools had gone up by a massive 300% in the same amount of time.
• Additionally, companies reported spending significantly more on technology in 2019 than they had in 2017.
• Sales enablement tool utilization has also increased by an enormous 567%.

Referral Stats

Referrals are the lifeblood of any sales-based organization. When an existing customer is happy enough with the services or products you offer that they provide you with the contact information of a new prospect, you are given a unique opportunity to close an already-promising sale. Here are the recent stats on this valuable prospecting method. (Hint: one major lesson we can take from the following statistics is that sales reps need to be asking for referrals more often.)

• According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Social Buying Study, 73% of executives prefer working with sales reps referred to them by someone they already know.
• Sales representatives who proactively seek out and utilize referrals earn 4x to 5x more than those who don’t. 
• 84% of shoppers begin their buying process with a referral.
• 92% of prospects trust referrals from people they know.
• 91% of customers report being willing to offer a referral, while only 11% of sales reps actually request them.
• Companies that implement actual referral programs report an 86% higher revenue than those that don’t.
• According to Wharton School of Business, the lifetime value of a customer who was won as the result of a referral is 16% more than that of non-referral-based customers.

General & Closing Sales Stats

Now that we’ve explored calling, inbound vs. outbound, inside vs. outside, CRM, prospecting, social selling, technology and referrals, let’s look at some interesting general and closing sales statistics. Most of these tell us that it is important to understand and listen to your prospects, while also having a clear call to action in mind when contacting them (always be closing!). 

• The best-in-class sales companies close a whopping 30% of qualified sales leads, while most average companies only close around 20%.
• The national sales closing rate is 27%.
• 48% of sales calls end without an attempt to close the sale.
• Almost 6 in 10 sales reps say that, once they discover what works best for them, they don’t change it. 
• In a Hubspot survey, 69% of buyers say the best way a sales representative can create a “positive sales experience” is by listening to their needs.
• In that same survey, another 61% of respondents said salespeople can create a better experience by not being pushy.
• 61% of shoppers also said it’s important for sales reps to provide relevant information, while 51% indicated a preference for timely responses.
• Finally, the Hubspot study found that reps reported establishing urgency as the biggest challenges facing salespeople today, followed by getting in touch with prospects and overcoming objections at 37% and 35%, respectively.

Vocational Stats

Finally, let’s discover some of the statistics surrounding actually working as a sales representative. While the sales industry isn’t for everyone, statistics show that proper training is the key to success. And what’s more, companies are finding that sales reps can be incredibly effective and successful while working remotely. 

• Just 39% of people working as sales representatives actually report having originally intended to go into sales.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 6% employment growth for sales reps by 2026.
• Account executives spend on average 2.7 years on a sales job, while it takes around 4.7 months to complete training.
• According to a Forbes report, 55% of sales professionals lack adequate training.
• Information retention is an issue that needs addressing. Recent surveys show that 84% of the information learned during sales training is forgotten during the first 90 days on the job.
• High-performing sales organizations are twice as likely to be providing in-depth, ongoing sales training to new representatives. 
• Every dollar invested in sales training returns $29 in company revenues.
• The best sales training techniques can improve the individual performance of each sales representative by an average of 20%.
• In a recent CNN survey, 94% of company owners said sales and company productivity has been the same or better since employees started working from home amid the pandemic.
• PayScale reported that remote employees (including sales reps) earn 8% more on average. 

Make More Sales in 2021

As evidenced by these statistics, there are a few major things you can do to make more sales in 2021. From utilizing social media to asking for more referrals to providing better training for your sales reps, there are a myriad of ways that you can better address your prospects’ needs. 

And when it comes to answering the questions of your prospects and customers quickly, Replyco can certainly help. With centralized messaging for all of your selling channels, we enable online sellers to cut response times down to minutes, not days. Take a tour of our features to learn more, or get started today with your free trial. 

Have questions? Reach out to us any time!