141+ Top Sales Statistics You Can’t Ignore [Updated for 2023]

The new year has started, and I am pretty sure most businesses have already started acting on their plans for this year.

Now planning and implementing everything from scratch can turn out to be difficult.

And in all this planning and preparation comes sales strategy.

But you can’t build a powerful strategy without knowing the top sales statistics.

Just like an ice cream truck, I am here to make your life easy by sharing some of the most mind-blowing sales statistics.

Let’s get started.

Top Sales Statistics for 2023

I will be covering the following categories:

Social Selling Statistics

1. Social selling generates 45% more sales opportunities than traditional sales. (LinkedIn)

2. Before making a purchase, 40% of B2B consumers conduct research using social media. (Gartner)

3. 61% of companies using social selling report an increase in sales revenue. (Salesforlife)

4. 78% of businesses that use social selling outperform those that don’t. (LinkedIn)

5. One in three B2B salespeople claim that social selling has increased the number of leads they work with. (Insider Intelligence)

6. More than 40% of sellers are “very active for business purposes” on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Twitter. (LinkedIn)

7. Social selling helps salespeople close 40–50% more new business than those who don’t. (Salesforlife)

8. YouTube (81%), Facebook (69%), Instagram (40%), Pinterest (31%), and LinkedIn (28%) are the most popular social media platforms among adults in the United States. (Pew Research Center) 

9. 47% of buyers view at least 3-5 pieces of content before contacting a sales representative. (Gist)

10. Digital channels will handle 60% of all customer service requests. (Gartner)

Sales Follow-up Statistics

1. The best time of the day to send a sales follow-up email is from 1 PM to 3 PM their time, followed by 9 AM to 11 AM. (Yesware)

2. Buyers prefer email as their primary contact channel (66%), followed by live in-person events (35%), and social networking sites (34%). (LinkedIn)

3. Personalized emails with the recipient’s first name in the subject line can increase open rates by 29.3%. (Marketing Sherpa)

4. After just one follow-up, 44% of salespeople give up. (Scripted)

5. Following up with web leads within 5 minutes increases your chances of engaging with them by 9 times. (HubSpot)

6. 60% of customers say no four times before saying yes. (Invesp)

7. If you follow up within 24 hours of the initial outreach, you can expect a 25% response rate. (Yesware)

8. 64% of sales professionals who cross-sell say email follow-up is the most effective cross-selling strategy (HubSpot)

Here are 6 tips to take effective follow-ups.

Sales Call Statistics

1. Cold calling prospects between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. is 71% more effective in booking meetings than calling between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. (Klenty)

2. Salespeople who explain why they’re calling are 2.1 times more likely to book meetings. (Gong)

3. The estimated conversion rate for cold calls is around 6.3%. (Inside Sales)

4. While 80% of sales require 5 follow-up calls after a meeting, 44% of sales reps give up after the first follow-up call. (Marketing Donut)

5. 30% of sales reps report 50+ dials per day, 25% of them report 30-49 dials per day, and 20% of them report making 20-39 phone calls daily. (The Bridge Group)

6. Cold calling is a type of proactive outreach, and 82% of buyers agree to meet with sellers who reach out proactively. (Rain Group)

7. Salespeople who respond to leads within the first 5 minutes have a 100x higher contact rate. (Inside Sales)

8. According to 42.1% of respondents, the phone is their most effective sales tool. (Sales Insights Lab)

9. Sales reps can increase their conversion rate by 70% by making just a few more phone calls. (Call Hippo)

10. Wednesday and Thursday are the best days of the week to call prospects. (Gong)

Sales Closing Statistics

1. 36% of salespeople say that closing is the hardest part of their job. (HubSpot)

2. Best-in-class businesses close 30% of sales qualified leads, while average businesses close 20%. (Point Clear)

3. Using the word “discount” reduces the chances of a successful sale by 17%. (Gong)

4. The average closing rate of a salesperson is less than 20%. (HubSpot)

5. According to 55% of sales reps, budget is the most common reason a promising deal falls through. (Sales Insight Lab)

6. The top priority of 71% of sales professionals is to close more deals. (HubSpot)

Sales Performance Statistics

1. According to 60% of sales professionals, collaborative selling boosts productivity by more than 25%. (Salesforce)

2. Each year, the average business loses 10-30% of its customers. (Brevet)

3. 61% of sales reps believe selling is more difficult now than it was ten years ago. (Sales Insight Lab)

4. Customer satisfaction is the top KPI for 66% of sales teams. (Salesforce)

5. 91% of businesses believe their current sales model is as effective as it was before the pandemic. (McKinsey & Company)

6. 67% of managers say managing a remote sales team is more difficult than they expected. (LinkedIn)

7. 89% of salespeople believe that listening to the customer is more important than talking to the customer. (Salesforce)

Sales Training Statistics

1. The majority of sales training time is spent on knowledge (39%), strategy (22%), skills (20%), and tools training (19%). (ATD)

2. 40% of salespeople do not receive the training required to sell virtually successfully. (Salesforce)

3. The average company spends $10-$15K on hiring a sales rep but only $2K on training them each year. (Brevet)

4. For every dollar invested in training, a company receives approximately $4.53 in return — a 353% ROI. (Highspot)

5. A new sales rep needs at least 10 months to reach their full potential. (Brevet)

6. Without ongoing learning, employees forget 70% of their training within 90 days. (Learning Guild)

7. 8 in 10 high-performing sales teams rate their sales training process as outstanding or very good. (Salesforce)

8. 65% of employees believe that quality sales training has a positive impact on their engagement. (SPOTIO)

9. 59% of companies say the biggest obstacle to effective sales training is accountability. (BrainShark) 

10. Sales training can increase an individual rep’s sales performance by 20% on average. (Salesforce)

We, at TCC, help sales reps increase their performance.

Want to know how? Book a free consultation call with us now.

Door-to-Door Selling Statistics

1. Successful door-to-door reps cover a neighbourhood three times and speak with 90% of the residents. (SPOTIO)

2. The door-to-door sales industry is still worth $28.6 billion. (Zety)

3. To be successful, a door-to-door sales representative must have a contact rate of 30% to 40%. (SPOTIO)

4. Typically, a door-to-door salesperson should be able to knock on 20 doors per hour. (VictoryGuide)

5. Approximately 25% of every 16 to 20 prospects will listen to a door-to-door pitch or presentation. (Leadheroes)

Sales Prospecting Statistics

1. According to 40% of sales representatives, prospecting is the hardest aspect of their work. (HubSpot)

And Dwight here can confirm this:

2. 9 out of 10 companies use two or more sources of contact data to learn more about prospects. (Gartner)

3. Only 19% of buyers want to talk to sales reps during the awareness stage of the sales cycle; 60% prefer to wait until the consideration stage. (HubSpot)

4. 50% of prospects aren’t a good fit for what you sell. (Sales Insights Lab)

5. The open rate for sales emails is only 24%. (Gartner)

6. 3 out of 4 top sellers always conduct research before reaching out to prospects. (LinkedIn)

7. While 50% of sales reps claim to avoid being pushy when approaching buyers, 84% of buyers disagree. (HubSpot)

8. According to 77% of respondents, their company provides at least a quarter of their leads. (Sales Insights Lab)

9. Top sellers spend an average of 6 hours per week researching their prospects. (Crunchbase)

10. Need and budget are the two biggest factors in whether a prospect connects with a rep. (RAIN Group)

11. 92% of all customer interactions happen over the phone, which is why salespeople must hone their phone-based prospecting abilities. (Salesforce)

12. 70% of prospects use videos to help them make purchase decisions. (Think with Google)

B2B Sales Statistics

1. 88% of B2B customers will only buy if they perceive the salesperson to be a trusted advisor. (LinkedIn)

2. B2B customers use 10 different channels during their decision-making process. (McKinsey &Company)

3. 55% of B2B buyers use social media to find information. (Blender)

4. 77% of B2B buyers say their most recent purchase was complex or difficult. (Gartner)

5. 50% of B2B sellers say that ease of use is one of the most important factors when selecting online sales channels. (Statista)

6. 84% of B2B buyers start their buying search with a referral. (Influitive)

7. 77% of B2B decision makers prefer meeting via videoconference than over the phone. (McKinsey & Company)

8. Competitive pricing was rated as the most important factor by B2B buyers. (Accenture)

9. According to 66% of B2B sales professionals, customer referrals are the best source of leads. (HubSpot)

Inbound Sales Statistics

1. According to 41% of sales leaders, their customers want more digital communication. (Zendesk)

2. Almost 60% of salespeople believe that selling virtually is more difficult than selling in person. (Salesforce)

3. Sales reps can spend up to 40% of their time looking for somebody to call. (Inside Sales)

4. 38% of sellers have closed $500,000 deals without ever meeting the buyer in person. (LinkedIn)

5. 70–80% of B2B buyers prefer remote meetings or digital self-service over in-person meetings. (McKinsey & Company)

6. 38% of sales leaders say their customers prefer to buy from e-commerce sites. (Zendesk)

7. According to research, the vendor who responds first receives 35% to 50% of the sales. (Inside Sales)

8. Half of the buyers say that working remotely has made the purchasing process easier. (LinkedIn)

9. Only 33% of inside sales reps spend their time actively selling. (CSO Insights)

10. The average outside sales call will cost $308. Meanwhile, the average inside sales call costs $50. (Pointclear)

11. The average success rate for inside sales reps is an impressive 18%. (iHireSalesPeople)

12. Inside sales is the primary sales strategy for 37% of high-growth companies, compared to 27% for field sales, 23% for internet sales, and 8% for channel sales. (Pacific Crest)

Outbound Sales Statistics

1. 74% of Americans have bought goods or services from a direct-sales company. (Brandon Gaille)

2. Global retail sales associated with the direct-sales market total approximately USD 9 billion. (Statista)

3. 87% of salespeople believe it is still important to connect with customers in person. (Salesforce)

4. Field reps spend 3% more time selling than their inside sales counterparts. (Forbes)

5. 83% of salespeople still think it’s critical to connect with customers over the phone. (Salesforce)

6. It takes an average of 18 calls to connect with a buyer. (Gartner)

7. Only 18% of marketers say that outbound practices provide the highest quality leads for their team. (HubSpot)

Referral Sales Statistics

Now tell me who doesn’t love referrals? 

1. 56% of sales professionals get leads from existing customer referrals. (HubSpot)

2. 73% of executives say they prefer to work with salespeople who have been referred to them. (IDC)

3. 84% of buyers now begin their buying process with a referral. (Harvard Business Review)

4. 66.5% of sales professionals say customer referral leads are the highest quality leads they work with. (HubSpot)

5. Referred customers have a 16% higher lifetime value than non-referred customers. (Wharton School of Business)

6. Salespeople actively seeking referrals earn 4 to 5 times more than those who don’t. (Brevet)

7. 92% of buyers trust referrals from their inner circle. (Nielsen)

8. 91% of customers say they are willing to refer others. (FrontSpin)

9. Only 30% of B2B businesses have a formal referral program. (Influitive)

10. 47% of top sales performers ask for referrals consistently, while only 26% of non-top performers ask for referrals. (Sales Insights Lab)

11. Referral leads have a 30% higher conversion rate than leads from any other channel. (Invesp)

12. Referrals account for 65% of new business for companies. (Entrepreneur)

13. 58% of salespeople ask for fewer than one referral per month, while 40% rarely ask. (Sales Insights Lab)

Sales CRM Statistics

1. 18% of sales reps have no idea what CRM is. (HubSpot)

2. 97% of sales professionals say that their CRM system is important or very important to closing deals. (LinkedIn)

Want to know why CRM is important? You can read our blog on the importance of CRM for businesses.

3. According to 83% of salespeople, an integrated CRM makes sales a more appealing career path. (Salesforce)

4. CRM accounts for 18% of salespeople’s time. (Forbes)

5. The top sales tech sellers are using customer relationship management (CRM) tools (50%), sales intelligence (45%), and sales planning (42%). (LinkedIn)

6. CRM systems are used by 91% of organizations with more than 10 employees. (Grand View Research)

7. 26% of buyers also want pipeline and funnel monitoring from their CRM software. (Software Advice)

8. The global customer relationship management market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% from $64 billion in 2022 to $146 billion by 2029. (Fortune Business Insights)

9. 12% more businesses will use CRM systems consistently between 2022 and 2028. (CRM.org) 

Lead Generation Statistics

1. Only 8% of salespeople believe their marketing departments generate high-quality leads. (HubSpot)

2. The top-performing sales reps use LinkedIn for prospecting and connecting with peers 6 hours per week. (Blender)

3. The average company loses 10-30% of its customers each year. (Brevet)

4. Lead generation and traffic are the number one challenges for 61% of marketers. (HubSpot)

5. More than 75% of companies are providing more than 25% of their sales reps’ leads. (Sales Insights Lab)

6. 80% of new leads are never converted into sales. (Invespcro)

7. Only 56% of B2B companies verify business leads before passing them to the sales team (HubSpot)

8. Outsourcing lead generation produces 43% better results than in-house lead generation. (Startup Bonsai)

9. 41% of companies struggle to quickly follow up with leads (Verse)

10. LinkedIn is the most effective social media channel for generating B2B leads. (Oktopost)

11. Outbound leads are 39% more expensive than inbound leads. (HubSpot)

12. Over 79% of generated leads end do not convert into sales (Writers Block Live)

Lead Nurturing Statistics

1. Companies that use marketing automation to nurture prospects see a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Propeller)

2. Lead nurturing emails have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 8%, compared to 3% for general emails. (HubSpot)

3. 69% of buyers say that providing primary research data relevant to their business influences them to contact a sales rep. (Rain Group)

4. Companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps making quota. (HubSpot)

5. Nurtured leads generate 20% more sales opportunities. (Propeller)

6. High-growth companies report an average of 16 touch points per prospect over a 2-4-week period. (The Pipeline)

7. 63% of prospects who request information today will not buy for at least three months. 20% of them will take longer than a year to purchase. (Marketing Donut)

8. 58% of buyers want to discuss pricing in the first sales call, but only 23% of reps want to discuss it with them. (HubSpot)

9. Sales teams are two times as likely to prioritize leads based on data analysis of “propensity to buy” rather than on intuition. (Salesforce)

10. Buyers believe that 58% of sales meetings are ineffective and that there should be a greater emphasis on the value you can provide them. (Rain Group)

11. Nurtured leads spend 47% more money than unnurtured leads. (Propeller)

12. 74% of companies say converting leads into customers is their top priority. (HubSpot)

Sales Email Statistics

1.Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened. (NotifyVisitors)

2. Only 23% of sales emails are opened. (TOPO)

3.Salespeople spend 21 percent of their day writing emails. (HubSpot)

4.Almost 77% of emails are read on the phone – where the average mobile screen can only fit 4-7 words max. (EngageBay)

5. 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase last year based on a promotional email. (Blue Corona)

Upselling & Cross-Selling Statistics 

1.Cross selling can increase the lifetime value of a customer by up to 14%. (McKinsey & Company)

2. Businesses that use cross-selling techniques see a 20% increase in sales compared to businesses that don’t use these techniques. (Salesforce)

3.74% of customers stated they are more likely to return to a business if they have had a positive cross-selling or upselling experience. (Zendesk)

4. Upselling can result in a 41% increase in average order value. (HubSpot)

FAQs

Conclusion

Now that you know all these awesome statistics it’s time to start chalking out your sales strategy.

And if you are clueless about how to build your sales strategy then here are some tried and tested clues from our Sales Therapist.

So, which stats impressed you the most? Tell us in the comments below.

Signing off until next time.