23 Actionable Sales Statistics for Small Business in 2023

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

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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

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

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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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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.

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

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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

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.