23 Sales Statistics You Need to Know

Working in sales is a constantly evolving craft that must adapt to the current technology landscape and changing buyer preferences. Data and sales facts taken from reps, prospects, and customers paint the picture of what buyers are looking for and what sales teams are doing—allowing you to effectively make adjustments in your operation for improved performance. Here are 23 sales statistics you should know for 2022.

Sales Prospecting Statistics

Prospecting is the act of seeking out potential, early-stage leads through online research, connecting at professional events, or asking for referrals. This step is required to fulfill the other stages of the sales process and should be a top priority to produce high-quality leads with solid deal-closing rates. Below, we list stats regarding how sales teams feel about prospecting and opportunities to connect with these early-stage leads.

1. 40% of Sales Reps Say Prospecting Is the Most Challenging Part of the Sales Process

Takeaway: Since almost half of sales personnel find it difficult to determine target leads, managers need to better clarify what the “perfect” customer looks like. For instance, customer personas and profiles can be used as a guide to present the best prospects in terms of 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.

Let’s say you’re targeting small business owners and created multiple personas for them. Within each profile is behavior traits in which you may indicate one persona surfs and posts on LinkedIn a lot, one is constantly on their computer doing admin work, and another is always at networking events. Based on that, you would likely use LinkedIn to contact the first persona, phone or email for the second, and attend events for the third.

(Source: HubSpot)

2. Eight Out of 10 Prospects Prefer Talking to Reps via Email

Takeaway: A huge proportion of today’s prospects wish to be contacted over email, compared to about 5 out of 10 preferring the telephone. Moving forward, sales teams should adapt to this trend by developing a sales plan that utilizes both email and phone activities to generate awareness and create new leads.

(Source: RAIN Sales Training)

3. Need & Budget Are the Two Biggest Factors in Whether a Prospect Connects With a Rep

Takeaway: During initial outreach via phone calls, sales emails, or in-person, there are two key indicators as to whether a prospect agrees to a product demo or introductory meeting. Seventy-five percent of prospects agree to a call because they have a need for the product or service at that time and 64% agree because they have the budget capacity to purchase from you. Both should be considered during prospect research and before initial introductions to yield the best results.

(Source: RAIN Sales Training)

4. At Least Half of Prospects Aren’t a Good Fit for What You’re Selling

Takeaway: Imagine how much time is wasted when half of all prospects you’re pursuing aren’t a good fit for your product or service. Research and in-depth lead qualification are essential to maximizing efficiency in your sales activities. Be sure to narrow in on a niche market you know has the need, budget, and authority to purchase from you to increase closing rates.

(Source: Sales Insights Lab)

Sales Enablement Statistics

Sales enablement involves providing technology, processes, information, or knowledge to make sales reps more efficient. 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 show the effectiveness of “enabling” a sales operation.

5. Sales Enablement Correlates With a 15% Improvement in Lower-performing Reps

Takeaway: As you evaluate the performance of your sales reps, be sure to look at whether or not you’re providing them (and that they are using) software tools and sales knowledge to perform at a high level. It could be the key to significant improvement in a less-than-average sales rep’s production.

(Source: SaaS Worthy)

6. 76% of Companies Report an Increase in Sales Between 6%-20% After Implementing Sales Enablement Initiatives

Takeaway: Teams dedicated to sales enablement will inevitably see revenue growth. Automation software, knowledge of sales techniques, and collaborative tools make reps more efficient, generate more leads, and push them through the sales process quicker—ultimately increasing revenue numbers. The key is finding which parts of your sales operation need enablement and then selecting the right solution.

(Source: SaaS Worthy)

7. Over Half of Sales Leaders Have Rolled Out a New Process in the Past 120 Days

Takeaway: Enablement doesn’t need to come through coaching or technology. In fact, much of improving your sales numbers come from process or workflow adjustments. For instance, many firms 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)

8. A Majority of Reps Spend 3 to 11 Hours per Week Seeking Answers About Tools, Processes, or Information

Takeaway: Just investing in an enablement tool isn’t enough. It’s important to realize early that solid sales training and resources should be available to your team for newly rolled out software, processes, information sets, or sales techniques. It should be clear regarding how and when to use the new solution as well as 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 purchase decision. It also encompasses organizing your lead information, such as contact data and pipeline status, in a database such as a CRM system or alternative solutions like a spreadsheet or project management tool.

9. 50% of Marketers Say Online Forms Are Their Primary Source of Inbound Leads

Takeaway: While many people assume online web forms are a lost art, they are still 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 like pushy salespeople. Therefore, reps should prioritize building relationships during their lead nurturing activities by trying to understand and 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. Companies Automating Lead Management See a 10% Average Revenue Increase Within 9 Months

Takeaway: Numerous lead management automation tools create quick revenue increases for your business. For instance, we mentioned earlier how lead scoring is an automated tool for qualifying an opportunity. Lead nurturing can also be automated through email drip campaigns found in popular products like Zoho. Users can create rules for content types and when an email is deployed to a certain lead, depending on their behaviors.

(Source: WP Forms)

12. 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 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)

13. Companies That 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 market. From there, 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 seems to be a no-brainer as long as there is follow-up by your reps after leads are generated.

(Source: Popup Smart)

14. Only 25% of Leads Are Ready to Advance to Later Stages of the Buying Process

Takeaway: Yes, most leads generated are considered marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and are merely interested in your content, website, or learning more about your offerings. It should be understood that these types of leads are crucial to a healthy pipeline as they offer a supply of long-term opportunities to keep nurturing. Reps should never be discouraged by leads who are not ready to make buying decisions.

(Source: WP Forms)

Sales Productivity Statistics

Have you ever wondered how sales reps spend most of their time and what the key indicators of solid production and performance are? Below, we dive into stats you can use to optimize the productivity and efficiency of your sales team.

15. Top-performing Reps Only ‘Pitch’ 7% of the Time

Takeaway: Top-performing reps spend significantly more time doing conversational selling rather than giving sales pitches. In other words, they develop a personal relationship instead of constantly pushing a product or service on a lead. This means that our age of direct sales has a different buyer journey than in the past. Buyers want to form bonds with salespeople they find to be experts and trusted professionals.

(Source: Sales Insights Lab)

16. Top 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 two 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 a high number of demos and presentations.

(Source: Sales Insights Lab)

17. 81.6% of Top Performers Spend 4 Hours or More 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 be constructing 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 mechanism for top-quality opportunities and customers.

18. Referred Leads Offer a 30% Better Conversion Rate Than Any Other Lead Channel

Takeaway: The implication of this statistic is simple—your sales team should be spending a lot 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, which ranges from 15% to 30%.

(Sources: Invesp and HubSpot)

19. Referred Customers Offer a 16% Higher Lifetime Value Compared to Non-referred Customers

Takeaway: Not only are referred prospects better sales opportunities, but they also make better clients long term. Upon closing a deal and onboarding a new customer, developing the ideal relationship takes time and fully delivering the solution you promised. If that customer is already coming in from a reliable source, you can expedite the trust-building process to create longer and more valuable relationships.

(Source: SaaSquatch)

Social Media Sales Statistics

When it first became popular, social media platforms were primarily 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 regarding the world of social selling.

20. 92% of B2B Buyers Are Willing to Engage With a Rep Who Is Known as a Thought Leader

Takeaway: Most thought leaders viewed as specialized or innovative experts in a specific market or industry use social media to communicate their insights. Sales reps, particularly business-to-business (B2B) sellers, can also 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 that 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)

Sales Training Statistics

These stats detail the importance and implications of consistent sales training. Training as well as coaching ensures reps, both new and experienced ones, are equipped with the knowledge and techniques to sell more efficiently and improve performance.

22. Continuous Training Yields 50% Higher Net Sales per Employee

Takeaway: This shows that 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 or More of Sales Onboarding & Training 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 assistance before growing into the high-performing team you desire.

(Source: The Brevet Group)

Bottom Line

As you’re setting sales goals and developing a plan to achieve them, consider these stats as a way to build the framework for sales success. High-performing reps and teams employ certain habits, technology, training, and optimal lead channels to achieve solid 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.