The best sales efforts tend to be informed by trends within the broader sales landscape. That’s why staying on top of key sales statistics is so crucial for salespeople looking to prospect effectively, research incisively, conduct well-received outreach, and remain as productive as possible.
To help sales professionals get there, we’ve compiled a list of facts and figures currently shaping the practice in 2024 — including information pulled from HubSpot’s recent survey of over 1,400 global sales reps, managers, and leaders.
Let’s dive in.
Sales Statistics
HubSpot's 2024 Sales Trends Report
This in-depth report includes sections, covering:
- How buyers are becoming more self-informed
- How sales teams are using AI and automation
- Adapting to tighter budgets
- And more!
Sales Prospecting Statistics
1. 96% of prospects do their own research before speaking with a human sales rep (HubSpot)
2. 71% of prospects prefer to do solo research instead of talking to a person. (HubSpot)
Sales Follow-Up Statistics
3. 82% of sales pros say that building relationships with people is the most important part of selling (and the most enjoyable part of their job). (HubSpot)
4. 60% of customers say no four times before saying yes. (Invesp)
5. 80% of sales require five follow-up calls. (Invesp)
6. But 48% of salespeople never even make a single follow-up attempt. (Invesp)
7. 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up call. (Invesp)
8. 66% of buyers prefer to be contacted via email. (LinkedIn)
9. The first follow-up email is very effective and can boost the reply rate by 49%. (Belkins)
10. The optimal number of follow-ups for a B2B outreach campaign is two emails. (Belkins)
11. The optimal time to wait before following up on a cold email is 2–5 days. (Belkins)
12. Cold email outreach campaigns with three email rounds tend to have the highest reply rates (9.2%). (Belkins)
Inside Sales Stats
13. Sales reps only spend two hours per day actually selling. (HubSpot)
14. Sales reps spend about one hour per day on administrative tasks. (HubSpot)
15. There’s an average of five decision-makers involved in every sales process today. (HubSpot)
16. 62% of sales pros say their organization is taking fewer risks in 2023 than in 2022. (HubSpot)
17. 70% of sales pros say budgets are more scrutinized in 2023 than in 2022. (HubSpot)
18. 28% of sales pros say the sales process taking too long is the biggest reason prospects back out of deals. (HubSpot)
19. 72% of company revenue comes from existing customers, with 28% coming from new customers. (HubSpot)
20. 24% of high-performing sales teams highly rank the importance of building a culture of trust among reps. Only 13% of underperforming sales teams have done the same. (HubSpot)
21. 52% of sales pros use sales enablement content, and 79% of them say it’s important to making a sale. (HubSpot)
22. Sales pros who use sales enablement content in their role are 58% more likely to be performing over goal this year than those who don’t use it. (HubSpot)
23. Only 30% of sales pros say sales and marketing are strongly aligned at their company. (HubSpot)
24. Just 33% of inside sales-rep time is spent actively selling. (CSO Insights)
25. The average outside sales call will cost $308. Meanwhile, the average inside sales call costs $50. (Pointclear)
26. Sales cycles increased for 53% of companies. (Lightspeed)
27. 48% of sellers say they struggle with communicating value. (Prezentor)
28. 76% of sales leaders are planning to invest in content creation. (Prezentor)
29. 65% of sales content created by B2B organizations goes unused. (Prezentor)
30. 95% of B2B buying decisions are directly influenced by content. (Prezentor)
31. 40% of sales teams face long onboarding times. (Prezentor)
32. 43% of sellers say that buyer intent data is “very important” to their sales processes. (LinkedIn)
33. Top performers spend about 10% less time selling than average performers. (LinkedIn)
Sales Email Statistics
34. 33% of people open emails based on the subject line alone. (SuperOffice)
35. 70% of salespeople stop at one email. (Invesp)
36. The subject line word count with the highest open rate is seven words at 46.2%. (Regie.ai)
37. The outbound email body copy word count with the highest reply rate is 144 words at 2.7%. (Regie.ai)
Sales Call Statistics
38. The best time of the workday to make sales calls to prospects is between 4:00 and 5:00 pm. (Callhippo)
39. The best day to call your prospects is Wednesday. (Callhippo)
40. The second best time to call prospects is between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm. (Callhippo)
41. The best time to make sales calls is within an hour of receiving their initial inquiry. (Callhippo)
42. The worst times to call prospects are Mondays and the second half of Fridays. (Callhippo)
43. 88% of sellers engage in warm calls; just 46% say they conduct cold calls. (LinkedIn)
Social Selling Statistics
44. By 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur through digital channels. (Gartner)
45. 45% of sellers use LinkedIn for business purposes. (LinkedIn)
HubSpot's 2024 Sales Trends Report
This in-depth report includes sections, covering:
- How buyers are becoming more self-informed
- How sales teams are using AI and automation
- Adapting to tighter budgets
- And more!
Sales Performance Statistics
46. The average sales win rate is 21%. (HubSpot)
47. The average sales close rate is 29%. (HubSpot)
48. 91% of sales pros upsell, and they say it brings in an average of 21% of company revenue. (HubSpot)
49. 87% of sales pros cross-sell, and they say it brings in an average of 21% of company revenue. (HubSpot)
50. 81.2% of respondents believed that an inability to offer flexible payment options hindered deals from closing. (Capchase)
51. 42% of companies reported a decrease in win rates over the last 12 months, with 30% of those companies experiencing a decline of over 11%. (Lightspeed)
Sales Career Statistics
52. The median OTE for an SDR is $76,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)
53. The median OTE for an SDR Manager is $128,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)
54. The median OTE for a B2B AE is $132,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)
55. The median OTE for an AE Manager is $156,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)
56. The median OTE for a Director of Sales Development is $177,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)
57. The median OTE for a Director AE is $218,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)
Sales Technology Statistics
58. 81% of sales leaders say that AI can help them spend less time on manual tasks. (HubSpot)
59. 45% of sales professionals are overwhelmed by the amount of tools in their tech stack. (HubSpot)
60. 52% of sales pros say B2B customers use self-serve tools more than last year. (HubSpot)
61. 63% of sales leaders say AI makes it easier for them to compete with other businesses in their industry. (HubSpot)
62. Sales pros who offer buyers self-service tools are 47% more likely to be over goal this year than those who don’t. (HubSpot)
63. 66% of sales pros say AI helps them understand customers better and provide personalization. (HubSpot)
64. The use of sales enablement tools by sales pros in the United States increased by 20% in 2023. (HubSpot)
65. 1 in 4 sales leaders say they have too many tools. (HubSpot)
66. 29% of sales pros say that reducing their tech stack would make them more efficient. (HubSpot)
67. 78% of sales pros say their CRM is effective at improving sales and marketing alignment. (HubSpot)
68. 69% of sales leaders are planning to invest in prospecting technology. (Prezentor)
69. 91% of sellers at large companies use sales tech once a week. (LinkedIn)
70. Half of sellers use CRM tools, 45% use sales intelligence, and 42% use sales planning tools. (LinkedIn)
71. Top performers spend about 18% more time updating their CRM system than average performers do. (LinkedIn)
Remote Sales Statistics
72. 71% of U.S. sales reps are hybrid, up from 45% in May of 2022. (HubSpot)
73. 56% of sales pros who work remotely or in a hybrid setup say that selling remotely has made it easier to sell. (HubSpot)
74. Hybrid sales pros are 28% more likely to be performing better than their sales goals this year than in-person and fully remote sales pros. (HubSpot)
75. 80% of B2B sales are currently happening virtually. (Prezentor)
76. 61% of sales leaders are planning to automate their CRM software in 2023. (Prezentor)
77. 38% of sellers say that they have closed deals over $500,000 without ever meeting the buyer face-to-face. (LinkedIn)
78. 52% of sellers would love to work remotely more than half the time. (LinkedIn)
This list obviously doesn’t cover every factor impacting the sales landscape in 2024. Still, every point here represents a key trend that can help you better understand the resources you can leverage, more effectively engage with your prospects, and ultimately see the hard results you’re after.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.