Sales Statistics (What Is The Success Rate Of Sales?)

Enjoy these comprehensive sales statistics and stay ahead of the competition because you’ll shortly learn how necessary research is.

Instead of wandering around, take action by educating yourself, and your sales effort will be much more successful.

This article will explore the fascinating world of sales statistics and its transformative impact on businesses of all sizes and industries.

From inside and outside sales and sales prospecting to emails, calls, follow-ups and referrals, we will touch everything and then some.

Join us as we examine sales stats and unravel their potential to revolutionize how your business operates, adapts, and thrives in an increasingly data-centric world.

This post covers:

• What Is The Success Rate Of Sales?
• Inside And Outside Sales Statistics
• Sales Prospecting Statistics
• Sales Email Statistics
• Sales Call Statistics
• Sales Follow-Up Statistics
• Sales Referral Statistics
• Sales Career Statistics
• Sales Productivity Statistics
• Remote Sales Statistics
• Sales Technology Statistics
• Social Sales Statistics

Sales Statistics (Our Top Picks)

• The average sales success rate is 3% (across all industries)
• The average sales win rate is below 50%
• Inside sales are 6x+ cheaper than outside sales calls
• Top sellers spend 6 hours researching prospects
• 50% (or more) of your prospects aren’t a good fit
• Personalized email subject lines can increase open rates by 22%
• Over 40% of sales reps feel unprepared for calls
• Almost 50% of salespeople never follow up
• Sales reps seeking referrals earn 4-5x more than those who don’t
• The average company loses 10-30% of customers yearly
• 43% of salespeople use sales intelligence tools
• 56% of sales reps use social media to find new prospects

What Is The Success Rate Of Sales?

1. The average sales success rate is 3% (across all industries)

When looking at the big picture, combining all industries globally, the average sales success rate is 3%.

Note that the rate can vary from 1% to above 20%, depending on the industry.

Source: Zippia

2. The average online sales conversion rate is 2.5% (across all industries)

When looking at eCommerce websites, the average sales conversion rate across all verticals was 2.5% in 2022.

But let’s look at which industry had the highest and lowest conversion rates.

Industry	Average conversion rate
Food and beverage	4.6%
Beauty and skincare	3.3%
Health and beauty	3.3%
Active apparel	2.8%
General footwear	2.8%
General apparel	2.7%
Beauty and makeup	2.5%
Sporting goods	2.3%
Toys and learning	2.3%
Active footwear	2.1%
Home, dining, art and decor	2.1%
Electronic and accessories	1.9%
Home appliances	1.5%
General handbags and luggage	1.4%
Luxury apparel	1.2%
Luxury handbags	1%
Home furniture	0.6%

Source: Statista

3. What about close rates? Best companies close at 30%

According to a report, the most skilled companies close at an average rate of 30%. But the average companies close at 20%.

While we still think these stats are for advanced salespeople, we found more “people-friendly” stats (more encouraging, if you will), which you can check in the table below.

Source: Growth Orbit

4. Legal services have a close rate of 7.4%

Instead of looking at it generally, let’s discover the average close rate across different B2B industries.

Industry	Average close rate
Legal services	7.4%
Point of sales services	7%
Medial device and equipment manufacturing	3.1%
Lending and loan servicing	3%
Heavy equipment	3%
Commercial real estate	2.8%
Shipping and logistics	2.7%
Industrial IoT	2.2%
Call center and customer service	2%
Pharmaceutical sales	2%
Commercial insurance	1.7%
B2B Software and SaaS	1.1%
Computer product manufacturing	1.1%

However, we found a report by HubSpot that the software industry has a close rate of 22%, the finance industry 19% and the biotech has an average close ratio of 15%.

Source: SmartWinnr, HubSpot #1

5. Over 50% of respondents’ close rates plateaued between 2021 and 2022

A survey of 1,000+ sales professionals said that their close rates remained the same during the one year (2021-2022). Moreover, 35% saw an increase and 12% a decrease in close rates.

Source: HubSpot #1

6. The average sales win rate is below 50%

When you get the potential customer to the proposed or quoted state, you think your organization won, right? Well, that’s not the case in 53% of cases!

As it turns out, the average win rate is 47%.

Knowing this, salespeople and organizations should always work on improving their relationship with hope-to-be customers because the quality of your relationship can significantly improve the win rate.

You may also be interested in checking our customer experience statistics.

Source: Rain Group

Inside And Outside Sales Statistics

7. 1/3 of inside sales-rep time is spent actively selling

A 2019 report found that only 33% of the inside sales-rep time is dedicated to actively selling.

Source: CSO Insight

8. Inside sales are 6x+ cheaper than outside sales calls

Averagely, an inside sales call will cost $50, while an outside sales call will cost more than six times more, around $310.

Source: HubSpot #2

9. Sales reps can spend 40% searching for someone to call

With poor lead generation resources, some companies leave their sales reps to spend up to 40% of their time searching for someone to call.

Source: InsideSales

10. Only 10% of sales departments respond to leads within 24h

The less you wait to respond to a lead, the colder it gets. Unfortunately, only 10% of sales departments respond to leads within 24h timeframe, and 41% respond within one to three days.

Moreover, almost half of the sales departments lack an organized system to respond to leads within the organization.

Source: InsideSales

11. $985,000 was the average annual quota for an inside salesperson

While the annual quota for an inside salesperson can vary significantly, the average was $985,000.

For instance, the yearly quota for computer hardware inside sales pro was $1.35 million, for computer software $1.22 million, for cloud/SaaS $795,000 and telecommunications $730,000.

Source: Harvard Business Review

12. $2.7 million was the average annual quota for an outside salesperson

On the contrary, the average quote for an outside salesperson was nearly three times as high as that of an inside sales pro, at $2.7 million.

The highest quota was for computer hardware ($4.2 million), then telecommunications ($3.3 million), software ($3.2 million) and cloud/SaaS ($1.6 million).

Source: Harvard Business Review

Sales Prospecting Statistics

13. Do you spend 6 hours researching prospects? Top sellers do!

Crunchbase’s facts and figures report that (all) top sellers spend an average of six hours researching their prospects every single week. This allows them to prepare well and score a higher chance of winning them over.

Source: Crunchbase

14. Need and budget are the main factors of a prospect connecting with the rep

In a white paper on debunking sales prospecting myths, RAIN Group revealed two of the biggest factors contributing to whether prospects will connect with the reps – 1) need and 2) budget.

Source: RAIN Group

15. 8 cold calls to reach a prospect and 6 more to win a sale

Yup, that’s a lot of calling a sales rep needs to make to win over a sale. Averagely, a sales rep needs to make a whopping eight calls only to reach a prospect. And then it takes extra six calls to win a sale.

Of course, these are average numbers – so it can take less, but it can also take (significantly) more.

Fun fact: Wednesday is the best day for a cold call and Friday (afternoon) is the worst (hey, we’re getting ready for the weekend, we don’t want to take another call where someone tries to sell us something).

Additionally, the best time to call a prospect is between 4 pm and 5 pm.

Source: Crunchbase

16. 50% (or more) of your prospects aren’t a good fit

There’s a high chance that your prospects won’t be interested in what you have to sell them. In fact, at least 50% of them will likely fall through. Sales Insights Labs found that 71.4% of the respondents said that 50% or fewer initial prospects were good fits.

This is why top sellers spend that many hours researching their prospects.

Source: Sales Insights Lab

17. Only 15% of salespeople reach 1,000+ prospects in a year

Nearly 67% of survey respondents contacted 250 or fewer leads in 2021, which is far too low to enjoy any real success.

It was also reported that only 15% of reps reached out to 1,000 or more potential prospects in the same year.

Advice: Contact more prospects – that’s it.

Source: Sales Insights Lab

18. 50%+ think it’s harder to get in front of new prospects than 5 years ago

Because prospects aren’t answering calls and responding to emails, 54% say it’s much harder to get in front of new prospects than it was five years ago.

Times change, people’s habits change, but there are still ways to get in front of the prospects – you may just need to have a more strategic approach (use tools, do the research).

Source: Sales Insights Lab

Sales Email Statistics

19. Personalized email subject lines can increase open rates by 22%

Outreach ran an A/B test to find how well personalized email subject lines perform. Result? A 22% improvement in open rates.

Instead of generic subject lines, one great way of personalizing them is to include a company or a prospect’s name.

Source: Outreach

20. Almost 34% will open emails based on the subject line

While this isn’t the highest factor in why a prospect will open your email, 33.9% say they’ll open it based on the subject line (hint: personalization). But the main reason for opening an email is who it’s from (according to nearly 46% of responders). The offer and the intro paragraph are the least important.

Source: SuperOffice

21. Tuesday has the best open rates (Sat & Sun the worst)

Although the open rates don’t vary drastically during the work days, Tuesday still has the highest open rates at 21.26%. The second best is Monday, then Friday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Avoid sending emails on Saturdays and Sundays.

Source: SuperOffice

22. Email is nearly 40x better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter

When winning over new customers, it’s still way better to do it via email than social media (like Facebook and Twitter). In fact, it’s 40 times better! Improving your email is the way to go, not social media outreach (at least for now).

Source: The Brevet Group

23. A/B testing email subject line and content can boost ROI by 28%

Besides researching your prospects, you must also A/B test your email subject lines and content. Why? Because testing and optimizing can improve your ROI by nearly 30%.

Source: Litmus

Sales Call Statistics

24. 42% less growth for those who don’t cold call

When it comes to cold calling, 42% of the organizations that don’t use the tactic experience less growth compared to those that do.

Source: Crunchbase

25. It’s best to make a sales call within the first hour after sending the initial inquiry

Have you ever asked what’s the best time to call the prospect? It’s within the first hour after they receive the initial inquiry – so they are still “freshly” aware of the situation.

Source: CallHippo

26. 70% higher growth in contact rates for the persistent reps

Unfortunately, too many sales reps give up on acquiring new leads too soon. If the reps would make a few more calls, they could enjoy a 70% higher growth in contact rates. (See above how many average cold calls are necessary to reach the prospect.)

Source: CallHippo

27. Over 40% of sales reps feel unprepared for calls

Making sales calls without preparation is a recipe for disaster. Okay, not really, but you won’t get anywhere close to the results of sales reps who gather the necessary information and do the research.

A whopping 42% of salespeople are unprepared for calls (especially inside sales reps).

Source: Revenue

28. 90% of CEOs never respond to cold calls or emails

The shocking truth is that almost all CEOs never respond to cold calls or emails. And if you’ve ever done any cold calling or sending emails, you know that’s true.

This is why it’s that much more important to be prepared, find common interests, reach out on social, etc., just to get the traction going.

Source: InsideView

Sales Follow-Up Statistics

29. 64% say email follow-up is the best cross-selling strategy

In research, HubSpot shared that nearly 65% of sales professionals who cross-sell say that email follow-up is still the best and most effective cross-selling strategy.

Source: HubSpot #2

30. Almost 50% of salespeople never follow up

By knowing how important follow-up is, it’s shocking that 48% of salespeople never make a single follow-up attempt. Remember, 80% of sales require five follow-up calls – this data alone may make you want to start working on a follow-up strategy.

Source: Invesp

31. Don’t be pushy during the follow-up and 57% of people are likelier to purchase

Nearly 60% of people said that if a salesperson doesn’t apply pressure and push them into purchasing during the follow-up, they’re more encouraged to convert. Make it feel natural, and don’t annoy the prospect.

Source: Invesp

32. 54% of sales leaders say the number of follow-ups is a must productivity metric

When it comes to high-quality leads, it’s vital that you track everything. Nearly 55% of sales leaders report that the number one most crucial productivity metric to track is the number of follow-ups.

Source: HubSpot #2

33. 44% of reps give up after the first follow-up

Don’t be one of those who never follow up. And also, don’t be one of those 44% who give up after the first follow-up. You know it takes multiple attempts to get the prospect’s attention, so don’t give up.

Number of No’s	% of reps who give up
2	22%
3	14%
4	12%

Source: Invesp

Sales Referral Statistics

34. 56% of sales reps get leads from existing customer referrals

More than half of the sales reps acquire new leads based on existing customers’ referrals. (This method is much cheaper and less time-consuming.)

Source: HubSpot #2

35. Leads from referrals are high quality

Over 66% of sales professionals report that the leads they generate via customer referrals are the most high quality.

Source: HubSpot #2

36. 73% of buyers prefer working with referred sales professionals

In a survey, 73% of buyers said they prefer to work with sales professionals referred to by someone they know. (This immediately raises their trust factor.)

Source: IDC

37. Sales reps seeking referrals earn 4-5x more than those who don’t

The referral strategy is extremely effective, making sales reps who actively seek referrals earn four to five times more than professionals who do not.

Source: The Brevet Group

38. But only 11% of salespeople ask for referrals

Sales professionals rarely ask for referrals; only 11% do! However, 91% of customers say they’re willing to give referrals. If you’re not working with referrals, you should rethink your strategy because referrals work.

Source: The Brevet Group

39. The lifetime value of a referred customer is 16% higher than non-referred one

Although the case study reporting this stat is from 2013 (the percentage may be different today), it’s still worth knowing that a lifetime value of a referred customer is 16% higher than a non-referred customer’s.

Source: GfK MIR

Sales Career Statistics

40. Median OTE for sales careers (starts at $76K)

Career	Salary
SDR	$76,000
SDR manager	$128,000
B2B AE	$132,000
AE manager	$156,000
Director of sales development	$177,000
Director AE	$218,000

Source: The Bridge Group

41. The US has more than 1.56 million sales reps in wholesale and manufacturing

The most employed sales representatives in the United States are in wholesale and manufacturing (1.56 million), followed by services with 1.08 million.

Occupation	Number of employed sales reps
Sales reps for wholesale/manufacturing	1.56 million
Sales reps for services	1.08 million
Sales and related workers	445,000
Sales agents for securities, commodities and financial services	443,000
Insurance sales agents	422,000

Source: Statista

42. 3% employment growth for sales reps by 2026

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 2.9% employment growth for sales representatives by 2026.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

43. 46% of sales reps didn’t intend to go into sales

HubSpot’s research found that nearly 50% of salespeople didn’t intend to go into sales. On the contrary, 39% of respondents said they planned to go into sales (30% women and 47% men).

Source: HubSpot #3

44. Only 17.6% of salespeople really enjoy their work

Unfortunately, few salespeople find their job “outstanding,” according to Sales Insights Lab. Still, nearly 50% of the respondents ranked their satisfaction level as “just good.”

Surprisingly, the less time a sales rep spends performing sales-related activities, the lower the satisfaction level.

The most considerable improvement in satisfaction is between three to four hours spent performing related tasks. But the average job satisfaction increases even more when performing sales-related work for six-plus hours.

Source: Sales Insights Lab

Sales Productivity Statistics

45. The most popular productivity metric is CRM usage

HubSpot reports nearly 50% of sales leaders track CRM usage as a prevalent productivity metric. The least common productivity metric is scheduled meetings.

Productivity metric	Share of usage
CRM usage	47%
Calls made	41%
Emails sent	37%
Conversations	36%
Use of sales tools	35%
Proposals sent	33%
Follow-ups from high quality leads	31%
Scheduled meetings	Follow-ups from high-quality leads

Source: HubSpot #2

46. But 54% of sales leaders rank “calls made” as the most important productivity metric

Although it’s the second most common overall productivity metric, more than 50% of sales leaders say tracking calls is the most critical metric.

Source: HubSpot #2

47. The average company loses 10-30% of customers yearly

This just shows how important acquiring new prospects is. Losing even only 10% of customers every year without regular prospecting can mean a recipe for long-term disaster. Plus, you never know what the future holds.

Source: The Brevet Group

48. Regular training can give up to 50% higher net sales per employee

I’m sure all organizations will rethink the training process of their sales reps. After all, if you train your salespeople continuously, it can positively impact the results (which may come with a delay).

Source: The Brevet Group

49. Only 7% of top performers pitch prospects

Instead of doing the picking, the top sales performers interact and engage with prospects, getting to know them and becoming their “friends.” In general, only 7% of top performers do the pitching, which is significantly lower compared to nearly 20% of non-top performers.

Don’t push your offers too much.

Source: Sales Insights Lab

50. Nearly 82% of top salespeople spend 4 hours or more working on sales-related activities daily

This next stat is an excellent indicator of why some salespeople are more successful and others less.

81.6% of top performers spent four or more hours each day working on sales-related activities (they will actually do up to six or more hours of related work). But just over 60% of non-top performers invest this amount of time in daily sales-related activities.

Source: Sales Insights Lab

Remote Sales Statistics

51. Only 17% will use a fully remote sales model

50% of the sales leaders said they would use a hybrid sales model, while 32% reported following an in-person model and 17% a fully remote one.

Source: HubSpot #2

52. 44% of remote salespeople say phone calls work the best

When a salesperson works remotely, they’ll usually use phone calls, email or video calls to reach prospects. Of all the respondents, 44% said phone calls work the best, 21% voted for emails and 18% for video calls.

Source: HubSpot #2

53. 70-80% of B2B buyers and sellers prefer remote/digital interactions

B2B buyers and sellers aren’t into face-to-face interactions anymore. They are moving to remote and digital spaces when it comes to meetings and any other interactions; at least 70-80% of respondents said that. On the flip side, approximately 20% of B2B clients hope to return to in-person sales.

One of the reasons for this new way of doing business is that remote or digital interactions are much cheaper.

Source: McKinsey & Company

54. Selling remotely doesn’t impact 43% of sales reps’ ability to sell

Even though selling remotely requires a different approach than in-person, 43% of remote or hybrid salespersons say this approach doesn’t impact their ability to sell.

Moreover, 36% say selling remotely is actually more accessible, while 21% reported it’s more challenging (46% say it’s less effective).

Source: HubSpot #2

55. Nearly 90% of outside sales reps spend more time selling remotely than in 2013

Remote working is not a foreign thing anymore, even when it comes to selling stuff. 89% of outside sales representatives spend much more time selling remotely than in 2013.

Salespeople need to adapt to the new digital channels because many more buyers prefer this method (like we learned above).

I’m sure you’ll also enjoy checking these in-depth remote work statistics.

Source: Small Business Trends

Sales Technology Statistics

56. 32% of sales pros find using CRM to keep track of leads is the biggest benefit

When it comes to leveraging CRM, over 30% of sales professionals reported that one of its most significant benefits is using it as a helpful tool to keep track of leads.

CRM’s biggest benefit	Share of respondents
Tracking leads	32%
Organized, centralized database	25%
Improving customer retention	24%
Offering detailed analytics and reports	22%
Helping understand customers and their needs	22%
Streamlining to sales cycle	20%
Identifying valuable opportunities	19%
Streamlining sales cycle	19%
Increasing productivity and reducing administrative tasks	18%

Source: HubSpot #2

57. 43% of salespeople use sales intelligence tools

According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report 2020, 43% of salespeople use sales intelligence tools, a 54% increase from 2018.

Source: LinkedIn #1

58. 77% of sales pros plan to invest more in sales intelligence tools

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant (or at zero) reduction in face-to-face meetings but a (massive) increase in remote and digital interactions. Thus, 77% of sales professionals reported that they plan to invest a lot more into intelligence tools like Gong, Chorus and others.

Source: LinkedIn #2

59. 54% of sales reps say technology is great for building better relationships

Due to the use of modern technology, sales reps build better and stronger relationships with their buyers—nearly 55% say so. Sales technology provides the “key pathway to building trust.”

Additionally, 54% of sales reps say digital sales tools help them get more prospects on board.

Source: LinkedIn #3

60. High-performing salespeople use almost 3x the amount of sales tech than underperforming salespeople

The best-performing sales teams rely more heavily on sales technology than underperforming teams. It’s reported that the former use almost three times more technology than the latter. Modern tech gets more (organized) work done.

Source: Salesforce

Social Sales Statistics

61. 6 most effective social platforms for finding new prospects

While everyone would think LinkedIn is the best social platform for acquiring new prospects, it’s actually Facebook.

Social platform	Share of respondents
Facebook	67%
LinkedIn	63%
Instagram	62%
Youtube	51%
Tiktok	48%
Reddit	39%

Source: HubSpot #2

62. 56% of sales reps use social media to find new prospects

Over half of sales representatives use the power of social media to find new prospects. And by checking the above table, you now know which are the most preferred platforms (although they may vary from industry to industry).

Source: HubSpot #2

63. Leveraging social media can increase win rates by 5%

Organizations and sales professionals who leverage social media can increase their win rates by 5%. Not just that, they can also increase their deal size by a whopping 35%. Who says social selling doesn’t work?

Source: LinkedIn #4

64. Social sellers are 66% more likely to realize their quota

A study shows nearly 70% of sales professionals don’t meet their quotas (one of the reasons is not doing enough research on prospects). However, those sales professionals who are taking advantage of social selling are 66% likelier to realize their quota.

Furthermore, 78% of salespeople who use social media perform better than their peers using traditional techniques.

Go to channels where your customers are and adapt.

Source: Sales For Life

65. 84% of CEOs and VPs use social media to make purchasing decisions

When making (final) purchasing decisions, 84% of CEOs and VPs and 74% of business buyers use social media.

That’s why it’s so important to add value and knowledge, don’t just sell to them because they’ll likely bounce.

Source: Sales For Life

But review these social media statistics to gain more valuable insights.

Conclusion

While sales is a massive topic, covering 65 stats (obviously) doesn’t touch every element.

However, you still get a thorough idea of the importance across multiple sectors that nearly any business runs in their organization.

As technology advances and data becomes increasingly abundant, staying ahead of the curve requires a keen focus on leveraging sales statistics effectively.

So take the plunge and unlock the potential that lies within your data and approach sales strategically and smartly.

Embrace the power of insights, make informed decisions, and pave the way for a prosperous, goals-achieving future.

Before you go, you may also want to check our online shopping statistics and our advertising statistics to understand the customers and the processes further.