23 Actionable Sales Statistics for Small Business in 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Sales Management.
Working in the sales industry is a constantly evolving experience. You must adapt to the current technology landscape and changing buyer preferences. Data and sales facts taken from reps, prospects, and customers paint a picture of what buyers are looking for and what sales teams are doing—allowing you to effectively adjust your operations for improved performance. Here we explore 23 sales statistics to help guide your sales strategies in 2023.
Sales Prospecting Statistics
Sales prospecting involves seeking early-stage leads through online research, connecting at professional events, or asking for referrals. This step is required to fulfill the stages of the sales process and should be a top priority to produce high-quality leads with robust deal-closing rates. Below, we share sales stats regarding how teams feel about prospecting and opportunities to connect with these potential leads.
1. High-performing sales reps spend about 6 hours weekly researching prospects
Takeaway: While there are plenty of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in sales software and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, spending time researching products is still crucial. Combine the power of AI tools (like Zoho CRM’s Freddy AI feature) and manual research by exploring your prospects’ LinkedIn and background to gather detailed information about leads and qualify them.
Source: Crunchbase
Using Freddy AI in Freshsales to gather information about a prospect (Source: Freshworks)
Pro tip: Once you notice trends in your research on leads, create customer profiles to use as a guide to present the best prospects regarding attributes like demographics, behaviors, industry, firm size, and job title. Upon finding the best potential leads, reps often also have information on the best method to pursue them.
2. 8 out of 10 prospects prefer corresponding with reps via email
Takeaway: Sales statistics like this demonstrate a large portion of today’s prospects wish to be contacted over email—compared to about five out of 10 preferring the phone. Sales teams should adapt to this trend by developing a sales plan that utilizes email and phone activities to generate awareness and create new leads.
Source: RAIN Sales Training
Create effective sales email templates to engage prospects as part of your overall strategy. Read our articles with customizable email templates you can download and start using today:
- 7 Sales Email Templates Examples That Work
- 7 Referral Email Templates for More Word-of-Mouth Referrals
- 11 Business Introduction Email Templates for 2023
- 11 Sales Follow-up Email Templates for 2023
3. Need & budget are the two most crucial factors contributing to whether a prospect connects with a rep
Takeaway: During initial outreach via phone calls, sales emails, or in-person, there are two key indicators in whether a prospect agrees to a product demo or introductory meeting. Seventy-five percent of prospects agree to a call because they need the product or service at that time, and 64% agree because they have the budget capacity to purchase. Both should be considered during prospect research and before initial introductions to yield the best results.
Source: RAIN Sales Training
4. Half (or more) prospects aren’t a good fit for what you sell
Takeaway: Imagine how much time is wasted when half of all prospects you pursue aren’t a good fit for your product or service. Research and in-depth lead qualification maximize efficiency in your sales activities. Narrow in on a niche market you know has the need, budget, and authority to purchase from you to increase closing rates.
Work with your marketing team to create customized segments of your audience. Tailor customer personas to hone in on your ideal buyers and lead generation strategy. For more information, read our article about customer personas and download a free template to get started.
Source: Sales Insights Lab
Pro tip: CRM platforms like Freshsales offer lead scoring tools to help you see which leads are the best opportunities. Lead scoring quantitatively measures a lead or deal based on customizable events and traits like interactions with your brand and solution fit. You can prioritize your efforts based on which opportunities appear the strongest.
Freshsales lead profile with lead score (Source: Freshworks)
Sales Enablement Statistics
Sales enablement involves providing technology, processes, information, or knowledge to help sales reps improve efficiency. Sales management and leadership use enablement initiatives such as coaching, sales training, marketing resources, or software to improve the overall performance of their sales teams. Below, we share stats that prove the effectiveness of “enabling” your sales operation.
5. Sales enablement correlates with a 15% improvement in lower-performing reps
Takeaway: As you evaluate the performance of your sales reps, look at whether or not you’re supporting them with software tools and sales knowledge to perform at a high level. It could be the key to significantly improving a less-than-average sales rep’s production.
Source: SaaS Worthy
Pro tip: CRM adoption is a complex process that renders your software system useless if unsuccessful. Check out our guides on how to choose a CRM solution and the best methods to foster CRM adoption to help get you started on the right foot.
6. 76% of companies report a 6%-20% increase in sales after implementing sales enablement initiatives
Takeaway: Teams dedicated to sales enablement inevitably see revenue growth. Automation software, knowledge of sales techniques, and collaborative tools make reps more efficient and generate more leads. Leaders can guide them through the sales process faster—ultimately increasing revenue. The key is finding which parts of your sales operation need enablement and selecting the right solutions.
Source: SaaS Worthy
Want to learn more about automation and the best tools for your sales team? Read our guide on the best sales automation platforms to help you choose the best tools for your business needs.
7. Over half of sales leaders implemented a new process in the past 120 days
Takeaway: Enablement doesn’t need to arise through coaching or technology. Sales facts and statistics show that improving your sales numbers comes from process or workflow adjustments. For example, many organizations switch to outsourced lead generation by purchasing lead data from a provider rather than in-house research. This forces a new process of determining targets, purchasing the data, assigning leads to reps, and starting initial outreach.
Source: Spekit
Pro tip: Arguably the most crucial process in sales is the sales pipeline. Analytics and sales reporting platforms like Clari help detect pipeline bottlenecks for improvement through enablement solutions. Clari’s intelligence and visualization features give managers a robust view of which stages would benefit from a boost.
Clari’s pipeline analysis (Source: Clari)
8. Most reps spend 3-11 hours weekly looking for answers about tools, processes, or information
Takeaway: Investing in an enablement tool isn’t enough. It’s crucial to realize early solid sales training and resources should be available to your team for newly adopted software, processes, information sets, or sales techniques. It should be clear regarding how and when to use the new solution and where team members can go for further guidance.
Source: Spekit
Lead Management Statistics
Lead management involves generating, qualifying, and nurturing leads in your sales pipeline to move them toward a purchasing decision. It also encompasses organizing your lead information, such as contact data and pipeline status in contact management software like a CRM system or alternative solutions such as spreadsheets or project management tools.
Pro tip: CRMs such as Salesforce serve as a database for storing your lead, contact, and customer data. Users can view records in a single-page profile view and a list format. Using a CRM allows your team to stay up to date with the data and progress of each deal.
Salesforce lead record with pipeline status (Source: Salesforce)
9. 50% of marketers say online forms are their primary source of inbound leads
Takeaway: Many organizations use web forms as a top source for collecting inbound lead information. Marketing and sales teams should collaborate on content and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies for getting leads to the website to submit an inquiry of interest. These strategies should incorporate processes for sales reps to quickly follow up upon a submission.
Source: WP Forms
10. 57% of people are encouraged to make a purchase if there is no pressure from reps during follow-ups
Takeaway: It’s no surprise most people don’t respond well to pushy salespeople. Reps should prioritize building relationships during their lead nurturing activities by aiming to understand their pain points and then customize a solution that fits the prospect’s unique needs. Additionally, while following up with prospects is important, be methodical to avoid over-contacting and hassling leads.
Source: Invespcro
11. Only 25% of leads are ready to advance to later stages of the buying process
Takeaway: Most leads generated are considered marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and have some level of interest in your content, website, or learning more about your products or services. These types of leads are crucial to a healthy pipeline as they offer long-term opportunities to keep nurturing. Reps shouldn’t be discouraged by leads who are not ready to make buying decisions, especially in a longer sales process such as high-dollar business-to-business (B2B) sales.
Want more sales statistics, specifically about the B2B buying process? Check out our full article about B2B sales trends.
Source: WP Forms
12. Companies automating lead management see a 10% average revenue increase in 6-9 months
Takeaway: Many lead management automation tools foster revenue increases for your business. For instance, we mentioned how lead scoring is an automated tool for qualifying an opportunity. Lead nurturing can also be automated through email drip campaigns in popular products like Zoho CRM. Users can create rules for content types and when an email is deployed to a certain lead, depending on their behaviors.
Source: WP Forms
Zoho’s email drip campaign creator (Source: Zoho)
13. 27% of businesses say organic searches generate the most leads
Takeaway: Most inbound leads come through a website form. But how are they getting to your website? Not surprisingly, organic online searches are where many people look. You can dramatically improve your website traffic through a robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Sales teams should obtain knowledge of the SEO framework because the searched keywords help reps better understand prospect lingo and their pain points.
Source: Ruler Analytics
14. Companies with an active blog generate 67% more leads
Takeaway: Content marketing is an excellent small business practice that involves creating articles, videos, podcasts, or reports on issues and solutions relating to your target audience. It can push to get leads interested in how your brand can assist them. Generating two-thirds more leads simply by drafting and publishing a weekly or monthly article is a no-brainer as long as there is follow-up by your reps after leads are generated.
Source: LinkedIn
Pro tip: HubSpot is an excellent CRM system with robust marketing and content management system (CMS) tools. In addition to managing sales, users can create and publish content for their website or social media pages directly from the CRM platform. There are also built-in SEO tools and a free blog idea generator to add more content value.
HubSpot blog management (Source: HubSpot)
Sales Productivity Statistics
Many leaders find it challenging to understand how sales reps spend their time, along with the key indicators of solid production and performance. Below, we dive into sales stats you can use to optimize the productivity and efficiency of your sales team.
15. Top-performing sales reps only ‘pitch’ 7% of the time
Takeaway: Top-performing reps spend significantly more time doing conversational selling rather than giving sales pitches. They develop a personal relationship instead of constantly pushing a product or service on a lead. This means our age of direct sales has a different buyer journey than in the past. Buyers want to form bonds with salespeople they view as experts and trusted professionals.
Source: Sales Insights Lab
16. High performers spend less time web surfing & more time driving to meetings
Takeaway: When looking at how high-performing sales reps spend their time compared to average ones, the largest differentials were traveling to meetings and surfing the web. Thirteen percent of top performers find themselves constantly driving to meetings, and 12% spend less time surfing the web than their peers. Motivate your reps to get off their computers and out of the office by scheduling many demos and presentations.
Source: Sales Insights Lab
17. 81.6% of top performers spend 4+ hours on sales activities daily
Takeaway: Another impressive indicator of sales performance is time spent on sales activities like prospecting, demos, presentations, follow-ups, and proposals. Ideally, you should construct your operation to automate, re-assign, or outsource as many non-sales activities as possible, like CRM data entry, sales training, or internal team meetings.
Pro tip: Take team and individual motivation to the next level by adopting sales gamification tools. These tools use leaderboards, incentives, and rewards to increase sales productivity.
Source: Sales Insights Lab
Sales Referral Statistics
These business sales statistics are related to how effective referral marketing is to individual reps and the company as a whole. Acquiring business by word-of-mouth recommendations is an effective lead-generation strategy for top-quality opportunities and customers.
18. 66.5% of sales reps report customer referrals as the source of the highest quality leads
Takeaway: The implication of this statistic is simple—your sales team should spend plenty of time seeking referrals. Through networking event participants, satisfied customers, or referral sources, reps can request referrals or develop partnerships with complementary businesses to bring in an influx of qualified leads. This route makes your operation more efficient and exceeds the average sales close rate, ranging from 15% to 30%.
Source: HubSpot
19. Referred customers offer a 16% higher lifetime value compared to non-referred customers
Takeaway: Not only are referred prospects better sales opportunities, they also make ideal long-term clients. Upon closing a deal and onboarding a new customer, developing a robust relationship takes time and you must fully deliver the solution you promised. If that customer is already coming in from a reliable source, you can expedite the trust-building process to create more valuable relationships.
Source: Truelist
Social Media Sales Stats
When it first became popular, social media platforms were used by marketing teams to build a following and run digital ads. Now, sales reps can leverage these channels to generate leads and develop relationships with potential buyers. Here are some sales stats that incorporate the power of social selling.
20. 92% of B2B buyers will engage with a rep well-known as a thought leader
Takeaway: Most thought leaders are viewed as specialized or innovative experts in a specific market or industry, and they use social media to communicate their insights. Sales reps, particularly business-to-business (B2B) sellers, can use similar tactics to gain a following for leads. Social selling is even more intriguing when you learn that 84% of C-level executives use social media to make purchase choices.
Source: Optinmonster
21. 90% of top sales performers use social selling tools
Takeaway: The most successful sales reps take full advantage of new buyer preferences and use social media sites for research. Not only do nearly all top performers use it, but social sellers are 51% more likely to attain sales quotas than non-social sellers. If you have the budget, it’s a solid investment to provide your sales team with premium accounts on sites such as LinkedIn to help find, generate, and nurture leads.
Source: Optinmonster
Pro tip: Social selling tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator give reps powerful prospecting capabilities for searching and targeting leads. Users can create lists based on industry, company, and job title info and have the data directly imported into a CRM platform. There’s also a lead recommendation tool to spot new opportunities and InMail messages to contact decision-makers directly.
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find leads who fit your target market (Source: Reply)
Visit LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Training Statistics
These sales stats detail the importance and implications of consistent sales training. Effective training and coaching ensure reps, both new and experienced, are equipped with the knowledge and skills to sell more efficiently and improve performance.
22. Ongoing training yields 50% higher net sales per employee
Takeaway: This shows training should not stop after initial onboarding. When looking at growth potential, these higher sales rates should be significant enough to make you invest in sales training programs and design action plans for each rep depending on their current strengths and weaknesses.
Source: The Brevet Group
Just getting started with onboarding new sales reps? Read our guide on how to create a sales onboarding plan with a free customizable checklist.
23. It takes 10+ months of sales onboarding & training for reps to become fully productive
Takeaway: Be patient with your new sales reps before demanding top-notch performance. A firm’s offerings and unique sales process need almost a year to become fully situated. That doesn’t even take into consideration how difficult it often is to develop a network and base of potential leads and referral partners. Reps need time and continual support before growing into the high-performing team that drives long-term results.
Source: The Brevet Group
Bottom Line
As you’re setting sales goals and developing a plan to achieve them, consider these sales statistics when building your framework for sales success. High-performing reps and teams employ specific habits, technology, training, and lead channels to achieve robust production numbers. It’s essential to remain up to date on sales trends to ensure you’re meeting buyer expectations and taking advantage of the sales tools available to help hit peak performance.