50 Sales Statistics You Can Use for Better Results

With the advent of the internet, sales techniques and technologies have changed more over the past 20 years than it has in the past 200 years. With everything changing so rapidly, it can be hard for a company and sales professional to gain their footing in the current market.

No matter what your company specializes in, it must make sales to survive. For that reason,  we’ve curated a list of 50 valuable statistics to provide you with a snapshot of the current state of sales in 2023. It’s our hope that you can leverage this information to develop a modern and dynamic sales strategy to help set your company up for success.

Market Conditions for 2023

Broadly speaking, the economy’s growth is stagnating, leading to recent inflation. Though headline inflation and food prices are showing signs of coming back down, consumers are nevertheless bracing for a recession and spending less money. 

For businesses, this means that customers are becoming much more price sensitive. Though you might be feeling the rising costs yourself and wish to raise prices to match, doing so will only repel customers from your brand. Instead, we recommend trying to cut costs in your operations such as by selling in bulk or cutting poorly-performing marketing tools, and focusing on demonstrating your product’s value offering to potential customers.

1. Global economic growth contracted from 3.1% to 2.3% in 2023 due to the legacy of Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, climate change, bank failures, and rapid shifts in macroeconomic conditions.
   • Source: United Nations
2. Though customers have felt the pressure of rising inflation, as of June 2023, headline inflation in the US decreased to 4.9%, and food prices also decreased. However, inflation for tools, hardware, outdoor equipment and supplies, the pet industry, and transportation services still experience double-digit inflation.
   • Source: Forrester
3. Almost all (96%) of consumers intend to adopt cost-saving behaviors over the next six months.
   • Source: PwC

Sales Prospecting and Lead Generation Statistics

For SMBs, the most popular methods for sourcing qualified leads were email marketing and social selling tools such as social media. Alternatively, upselling or cross-selling to existing customers has also been found to be an effective sales strategy.

Though your company may be desperate to reach out to any potential customer it comes across, recent privacy laws and consumer annoyance should deter you from any spam-selling efforts. Instead, leverage networking, recommendations, and social media to find new individuals to sell to.

Rather than blindly reaching out to leads, it’s best to thoroughly research them before making first contact early on in their buying journey. 

A key fact to discuss is that only 5% of B2B buyers are in the market at any one time.  In other words, B2B sales should focus on building connections, relationships, and memories through brand-building advertisements and personal conversations to immediately have top-of-mind awareness with buyers the moment they come into the market.

4. When asked for the most effective digital marketing channels, small- and medium-sized businesses across the globe answered that email marketing (36.1%) and social media marketing (18.9%) were the most effective in driving sales.
   • Source: Statista
5. Though the probability of selling to a new customer is only between 5-20%, the probability of selling to an existing customer is between 60-70%.
   • Source: Semrush
6. Top sellers spend an average of 6 hours every week researching their prospects.
   • Source: Crunchbase
7. More than three-quarters (76%) of the top-performing sales professionals say they “always” perform research before reaching out to prospects, as opposed to just 47% of other sellers.
   • Source: LinkedIn
8. Seventy-one percent (71%) of buyers want to hear from sellers early in the buying process.
   • Source: RAIN Group
9. You’re 15% more likely to connect with your prospect between 8 and 11 am, their time.
   • Source: Xant
10. When asked how buyers research sellers who reach out to them, buyers responded that they check the seller’s website (58%), Google them (52%), and check their LinkedIn profile and company page (42% and 37%).
    • Source: LinkedIn
11. When considering a purchase, 82% of Americans say they seek recommendations from friends and family.
    • Source: Ambassador
12. According to sales professionals who practice social selling, the most effective social platforms for finding new prospects are Facebook (67%), LinkedIn (63%), and Instagram (62%).
    • Source: HubSpot
13. Only 5% of B2B clients are in the market at any one time. For example, 75% of companies buy computers once every four years, 80% of companies change banking services once every five years, and 90% of consumers buy new cars once every 10 years.
    • Source: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science

Cold Contacting Statistics

When contacting your lead for the first time, it’s best to follow up with a lead immediately, lest they be snatched away by a competitor. There are two main ways to do so remotely: email or phone.

Though buyers generally listed sales emails as the best way to be contacted, only about a fifth of emails are ever opened, a number that decreases with each cookie-cutter spam email. The best way to increase your email response rate is to send a few tasteful and personalized emails early in the week.

On the other hand, C-suite prospects expect the level of respect shown in a phone conversation. It can be difficult to connect with these high-level targets, so you should raise your chances of success by doing research on the prospect before conducting your phone call. Some best practices for cold calls are asking and answering plenty of questions, going back and forth with the prospect rather than simply pitching to them.

14. Your chances of making a sale increase eightfold if you respond to a lead within the first 5 minutes.
    • Source: InsideSales
15. Overall, the top three methods buyers reported that they wanted to be contacted by sellers were through email (66%), live in-person events (35%), and social networking sites (34%).
    • Source: LinkedIn
16. In a 2022 study, it was found that only 21.5% of marketing emails were opened by consumers.
    • Source: Campaign Monitor
17. Though businesses upped their sales email volume by 50% during Covid-19, the response rates for these email campaigns are 10% lower than pre-Covid levels.
    • Source: Hubspot
18. When emailing prospects, personalized subject lines boost response rates by 30.5%, and personalized message bodies boost response rates by 32.7%.
    • Source: Backlinko
19. Emailing the same contact multiple times leads to twice the number of responses.
    • Source: Backlinko
20. Though Monday is the best day to send an email with an open rate of 22%, Tuesday has the highest click-through rate and click-to-open rates at 2.4% and 10.8%, respectively.
    • Source: Campaign Monitor
21. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of C-level buyers prefer to be contacted via phone.
    • Source: Crunchbase
22. On average, it takes eight cold calls to reach a prospect.
    • Source: Crunchbase
23. A majority (88%) of sellers engage in warm calls, while just 46% say they conduct cold calls.
    • Source: LinkedIn
24. During discovery conversations, top performers ask an average of 32 questions to their prospects and answer an average of 21 questions.
    • Source: Sales Insights Lab
25. The optimal talk-to-listen ratio for successful cold calls was found to be 55% of the sales representatives talking to 45% listening to the prospect.
    • Source: Gong

Sales Process Statistics

Once you’re in touch with the prospect for a sales presentation, some best practices for winning them over are keeping the conversation a back-and-forth fielding of questions and answers and challenging the buyer’s current way of thinking.

Sales enablement content during a pitch such as primary research, factoids, and custom content can greatly boost the success rate of a deal, helping prospects solidify more nuanced and detailed opinions in the later stages of their customer journey. However, almost all sales professionals say they lack such effective sales enablement material. This is a major oversight that companies could address to raise their sales figures.

However, a challenge to the sales process is the rising number of decision-makers involved in a company’s buying group, as each person represents a chance for the sale to stall if they leave their job part way through the sale. 

26. During sales presentations, top sales performers ask an average of 48 questions to their prospects and receive an average of 30 questions.
    • Source: Sales Insights Lab
27. Nine out of 10 (89%) of buyers say they are more likely to consider a brand if a seller changes the buyer’s way of thinking.
    • Source: LinkedIn
28. When asked what content influenced them to accept a meeting or connect with a sales rep, buyers responded that the content most appealing to them was primary research data relevant to their business (69%), descriptions of the provider’s capabilities (67%), and content customized to their specific situation (67%).
    • Source: RAIN Group
29. Almost all (95%) of sales professionals say that they don’t have enough valuable sales enablement materials to give to prospects.
    • Source: Prezentor
30. B2B buyers are about 57-70% complete with their buying research before contacting the sales department.
    • Source: Worldwide Business Research
31. There are an average of seven decision-makers involved in the B2B buying process.
    • Source: Spotio
32. More than eight in 10 sellers (81%) say they’ve had deals lost or stalled in the past year due to a key stakeholder leaving the prospect or client company.
    • Source: LinkedIn

Sales Productivity and Management Statistics

Companies can boost their sales team’s efficiency by encouraging its salespeople to have specific time management philosophies, cutting down on red tape, and allowing remote work. Additionally, check to be sure that your efficiency metrics are a good representation of your sales reps’ activities.

A sales leader can prevent costly employee turnover by providing sales training and giving sales reps an ample chance to practice their skills. Not only does this increase employee satisfaction, it results in a more skilled sales force, leading to more sales.

33. The average sales rep spends only 35.2% of their time selling, while the other 65% is spent on administrative tasks such as product issues, internal policies and approvals, meeting preparation, and research. Sales reps with a specific time management philosophy increase their selling time to 54%.
    • Source: Forbes
34. The average workplace engagement rate in 2022 was 32%. Remote or hybrid employees tend to have higher levels of workplace engagement (37%) than exclusively on-site employees (29%).
    • Source: Gallup
35. The average outside sales call costs $308, while the average inside sales call costs $50.
    • Source: HubSpot
36. The most prevalent productivity metrics used by sales leaders are CRM usage (47%), calls made (41%), emails sent (37%), and face-to-face conversations (36%).
    • Source: Hubspot
37. Employees who feel their skills are not being put to good use are 10 times more likely to be looking for a new job.
    • Source: LinkedIn
38. Nine out of 10 (91%) of employees say it’s important for managers to inspire learning and experimentation.
    • Source: LinkedIn

ESG (Environmental, Social, Corporate Governance) Statistics

Consumers are increasingly becoming more concerned about environmental and social issues such as climate change, pollution, and waste. Companies can derive value and drive growth by highlighting their corporate attentiveness to these issues, such as by improving the ethics of their operations and making donations to just causes.

39. In a consumer sentiment study, 60% of respondents said they’d pay more for a product with sustainable packaging.
    • Source: McKinsey
40. When asked about their top sustainability and social responsibility concerns, consumers’ top answers were climate change (45%), water pollution (43%), air pollution (41%), waste of food (39%), and plastic waste (38%).
    • Source: NielsenIQ
41. Products making ESG-related claims averaged 28% cumulative growth over the past five years, as opposed to only 20% for non-ESG products.
    • Source: McKinsey

Virtual Selling Statistics

In a post-Covid world, a sizable portion of sellers and buyers have already become accustomed to conducting large purchases completely online. Together with our previous comments that inside sales calls cost less and that employees are more productive working remotely, virtual selling is a viable way for companies to reduce operating costs while maintaining sales volume.

However, there are some struggles with virtual selling, such as maintaining buyers’ attention when the buyer can simply click out of a purchase. Thankfully, retargeting emails and follow-up messages prove effective in persuading buyers to continue with their purchases. 

42. About a third (31%) of sellers say that they’ve closed deals over $500,000 without ever meeting the buyer face-to-face.
    • Source: LinkedIn
43. When asked what the top challenges of virtual selling were, 91% of sellers responded with gaining and keeping buyers’ attention, 89% responded with changing buyers’ points of view, and 88% responded with developing relationships virtually.
    • Source: RAIN Group
44. Though 75% of website visitors abandon their shopping carts without completing their purchase, if a company sends a shopping cart abandonment email within an hour of the customer leaving the website, the potential customer’s conversion rate increases by 6.33%.
    • Source: SaleCycle

Data and Sales Tech Statistics

Companies collect and leverage data to augment their sales targeting and hone their sales team’s performance. The most popular sales technologies were CRM, sales intelligence, sales planning, and collaboration and demo tools.

Though a large portion of sellers struggle with incomplete data, this may simply be a lack of initiative on the sellers’ parts, as consumers are generally willing to share more personal data in exchange for a better customer experience. Though generative AI is currently mostly used to develop marketing materials, as AI advances, companies could potentially use predictive analytics to complete customer profiles and make accurate forecasts in the future.

45. The top four ways companies use data are to select accounts to target (42%), assess sales rep performance (40%), select industries to target (38%), and evaluate patterns from closed deals to share learnings (38%).
    • Source: LinkedIn
46. Nine out of ten (91%) sellers at large companies use sales tech once a week.
    • Source: LinkedIn
47. When asked what sort of sales tech they use, the top technologies used by sellers were CRMs (50%), sales intelligence (45%), sales planning (42%), and virtual collaboration/demo tools (38%).
    • Source: LinkedIn
48. Almost half of sellers (45%) say their biggest data challenge is incomplete data.
    • Source: LinkedIn
49. Eight out of ten (82%) consumers reported that they would be willing to share some type of personal data for a better customer experience.
    • Source: PwC
50. In a survey of 600 companies across 11 industries, 39% of respondents said they were using generative AI to develop marketing materials.
    • Source: Bain & Co.

Conclusion

Though companies may fear economic turbulence and a dearth of sales as consumers cut back on spending in 2023, business owners and decision-makers can navigate these troubles by leveraging sales statistics to create data-driven business strategies. Implementing strategies revealed by these sales statistics could lower your operating costs and raise your chances of winning more customers, earning more cash for your business. 

With careful planning, a business can build an airtight ship of a sales department capable of weathering out the financial storms of this year, coming out on the other side sailing smoothly to sales success.