Sales managers and sales representatives have a lot of work to do to sell smarter in 2022. If you want to be part of your organization’s high-performing sales teams, you need to keep your ear to the ground and have an awareness of the latest trends in the sales industry.
Luckily, there are plenty of sales statistics out there to help sales professionals succeed. Here are 20 eye-opening sales stats that will help you close more deals and up your sales strategy this year. Happy selling!
Why We Chose These Sales Statistics
In 2022, your company’s goals may be the same as ever: increase your market share and boost your revenue. But to do those things effectively, you’ve got to understand that things have and will continue to change following the pandemic.
Since remote work became ubiquitous, digital sales have reached brand new heights. Ecommerce sales are expected to make up nearly a quarter of all global retail sales. According to Gartner analytics, by 2025, up to 80 percent of all B2B sales interactions will happen online.
This dramatic shift to digital sales is not going anywhere, and so it’s become all the more important for sales organizations to embrace a more data-driven approach to selling. Thus, we present a list of sales statistics that can help successful sales teams become even more successful this year. Here, we cover a wide range of topics, from sales prospecting to social selling.
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As useful as CRMs are at consolidating customer data, they still require many hours of manual data entry. In fact, studies estimate that sales reps spend two-thirds of their working hours on administrative tasks like manually inputting information into their CRMs.
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Sales Prospecting Statistics
Sales prospecting is defined as the process of finding potential clients or buyers, otherwise known as prospects. Over 40% of sales reps say they struggle with sales prospecting the most out of all the stages of the sales cycle. Whether your sales team feels the same way or not, these sales prospecting statistics should help you transform your sales reps into more effective and confident prospectors.
1. One study found that optimistic sales professionals outperformed their pessimistic colleagues by 57%.
Yes, even when pessimists have more experience and better skill sets. It turns out that attitude and mindset are just as important as sales training.
[Source: Zety]
2. Sales reps can take up to 18 calls to connect with a buyer.
Persistence pays off. This ties into the overwhelming success of optimists versus pessimists.
[Source: TOPO]
3. 19% of buyers have a desire to connect with a sales rep during the awareness stage of the buying process.
The awareness stage is the first phase of the customer journey, when prospective clients are first learning about the product. At this point, most prospects are discovering that they have a specific problem that needs solving, and perhaps your product or service can provide the solution. You must provide the information they’re looking for, whether through blog posts and articles, videos, or social media posts.
[Source: Hubspot]
4. A whopping nine out of 10 companies use two or more lead enrichment tools to get to know their prospects more.
Lead enrichment tools are tools that help companies gain more in-depth knowledge about their prospects, including their social media accounts, company names, locations, etc.
[Source: TOPO]
5. At least half of your prospects won’t be a good fit for what you’re selling.
Closing rates across industries are, in fact, not as high as you think. The business and industrial industry, which has the highest closing ratio of all industries, has a close ratio of just 27%.
So yes, a big chunk of your prospects will be bad fits, but don’t be disheartened by this statistic. Take it as a reminder that not all prospects are worth wasting your time on. The trick is determining early on in the sales process whether you have a good or bad fit on your hands.
[Source: Sales Insights Lab]
Sales Follow-Up Statistics
A sales follow-up is any action you take after pitching to potential customers to further convince them to make a move. A study by the Brevet Group found that four-fifths of sales need about five follow-ups to close.
6. Nearly half of all salespeople do not attempt to contact prospects after making one follow-up.
Again, persistence pays off. If you want to be part of the 20% of salespeople who make up 80% of all sales, you need to follow up at least five times before throwing in the towel.
[Source: Invesp]
7. 75% of online buyers prefer receiving between two to four phone calls before making buying decisions.
And up to 12% would like sales leaders to try and reach out to them as many times as possible.
[Source: Invesp]
8. 72% of all sales calls go unanswered.
On average, you need to make at least 8 follow-up calls before you get an answer.
[Source: Baylor University]
9. 57% of people say they’d be more likely to buy from sales managers who don’t use pressure on them when following up.
Instead of annoying or pressuring prospects into making a purchase, a more effective way to convert an average person into buying into your sales pitch is by reminding them of their problem or need and propping up your product or service as the best solution for it.
[Source: Invesp]
10. Up to 50% of sales go to the first vendor to respond to potential buyers.
This statistic highlights the importance of responding quickly when a potential buyer expresses interest. Vendors who can promptly answer questions and provide additional information are more likely to earn the sale.
[Source: Hubspot]
Sales Email Statistics
Love it or hate it, email marketing is one of the most effective ways a modern sales team can successfully penetrate their target market. By creating compelling and targeted email campaigns, sales teams can build relationships with potential and current customers, generate leads, and close more sales.
Up your email marketing game with the following statistics:
11. Despite the popularity of social media, email is believed to be almost 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter at acquiring new and non-referred customers.
Additionally, eight out of 10 prospects said that they prefer talking to sales reps via email over any other medium.
[Source: The Brevet Group]
12. For every dollar spent on email marketing, sales organizations make a whopping $44 in return.
The average ROI for email marketing is about 4,300%. Email marketing is thus a lucrative investment for sales organizations.
[Source: Copper]
13. Over a third of all email recipients open their emails based on the subject lines alone.
On the other hand, 69% of email recipients mark their emails as spam based primarily on the subject lines.
But good subject lines are only part of the equation. If you want to get more email responses, you have to learn the art of the follow-up. Two to three follow-up emails are considered optimal for getting a response.
[Source: Copper]
Sales Call Statistics
More and more people are expressing their dislike for picking up their mobile devices and having a phone conversation — let alone one with a complete stranger. With that in mind, is the phone call still part of the repertoire of popular sales tools you should employ as a sales rep? Or should you ditch it for other channels?
14. 41.2% of salespeople still believe that their phone is the most effective sales tool they have.
Meanwhile, 63% say that making cold calls is their least favorite part of the job.
[Source: Sales Insights Lab]
15. Successful salespeople spend 54% of their time on a sales call talking. Unsuccessful salespeople speak for only 42% of the time or less.
More successful sales pros used collaborative words like “we” instead of individualistic words like “I”.
[Source: Gong]
16. Sales experts avoid the phrase “Did I catch you at a bad time?” as it can lead to a 40% drop in bookings.
Try using a warmer, more personal phrase like “How are you?” This phrase is said to increase one’s likelihood of scheduling a meeting by 3.4x.
[Source: Gong]
Social Selling Statistics
Social selling is the process of using a brand’s social media channels to research, make connections with, and interact with prospects. Today, social prospecting has trumped traditional prospecting such as cold calls and door-to-door selling.
But while social selling seems like a no-brainer for your average sales rep, you actually need more than your basic sales skills to become successful at it. These stats can help you better gain the attention of customers through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more.
18. 65% of sales reps who integrate social media into their sales strategy fill their pipelines.
In fact, four out of 10 sales reps have closed two to five deals, thanks to social media.
[Source: Forbes]
19. In 14 industries, half of all revenue is influenced by social selling, including industries like computer software, healthcare, marketing, and advertising.
The primary forms of engaging prospective customers through social media are liking, commenting, sharing content, connecting, and sending a personalized invite to someone to join your network.
[Source: Hubspot]
20. The use of social selling tools can lead to an increase in win rate by five percent and a jump in deal size by up to 35%.
According to the Sales Benchmark Index, sales reps who integrate social selling into their sales strategy hit their quotas 66% more often than sales reps who do not.
[Source: LinkedIn]
Want Even More Sales Statistics?
While these statistics give you a sense of the broader industry, and what works for high-performing sales organizations, nothing beats personalized, actionable insights derived straight from your very own team’s performance.
A revenue intelligence tool will not only help you capture more data that will lead to increased efficiency, revenue growth, and a better sales strategy, but it will also help in improving the accuracy of your sales forecasting, reducing data silos, decreasing friction among teams during handoffs, and uncovering blind spots in your sales pipeline.
Boost your bottom line — try People.ai’s Revenue Intelligence System today.
Final Thoughts
The sales statistics that we’ve chosen to share in this blog post will help you sell smarter in 2022. They provide insights into the latest trends in prospecting, follow-ups, social selling, and more. By understanding these trends and leveraging AI to get better, more nuanced insights into your sales activities, you can improve your sales efforts, boost company productivity, and stay ahead of the competition.
Are there any sales statistics that surprised you? What changes will you make to your selling strategy based on what you’ve learned?