Is a knowledge tool salespeople must have in order to quote rates and offer discounts on products?

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 2022 — including information pulled from HubSpot's recent survey of over 1,000 global sales reps, managers, and leaders.

Let's dive in.

Sales Prospecting Statistics

Sales Follow-Up Statistics

Sales Email Statistics

Sales Call Statistics

Social Selling Statistics

Sales Productivity Statistics

Referral Sales Statistics

Sales Career Statistics

Inside Sales Statistics

Sales Technology Statistics

Remote Sales Statistics

Sales Prospecting Statistics

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

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

Sales Follow-Up Statistics

3. 64% of sales professionals who cross-sell say email follow-up is the most effective cross-selling strategy (HubSpot)

4. 60% of customers say no four times before saying yes. (Invesp)

5.48% of salespeople never even make a single follow up attempt. (Invesp)

6.80% of sales require 5 follow-up calls whereas. (Invesp)

7. 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up call. (Invesp)

Sales Email Statistics

8. Personalizing email subject lines leads to a 22% increase in open rate. (Outreach.io)

9. 33% of people open emails based on the subject line alone. (SuperOffice)

10. Email is almost 40 times better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter. (The Brevet Group)

11.<43% of sales professionals say email is the most effective channel for selling (HubSpot)

Sales Call Statistics

12. 69% of buyers have accepted cold calls from new providers. (Crunchbase)

13.57% of C-level buyers prefer to be contacted via phone. (Crunchbase)

14. Organizations that don’t cold call experienced 42% less growth than those who used the tactic. (Crunchbase)

15. On average, it takes eight cold calls to reach a prospect. (Crunchbase)

16. Once you’re talking to the decision-maker, six is the ideal number of calls to win a sale. (Crunchbase)

17. The best time of the workday to make sales calls to prospects is between 4:00 to 5:00 pm. (Callhippo)

18. The best day to call your prospects is Wednesday. (Callhippo)

19. The second best time to call prospects is between 11:00 AM -12:00 PM. (Callhippo)

20. The best time to make sales calls is within an hour of receiving their initial inquiry. (Callhippo)

21. The worst times to call prospects are Mondays and the second half of Fridays. (Callhippo)

Social Selling Statistics

23. 67% of sales professionals who use social media to find new prospects say Facebook is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

24. 63% of sales professionals who use social media to find new prospects say LinkedIn is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

25. 62% of sales professionals who use social media to find new prospects say Instagram is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

26. 51% of sales professionals who use social media to find new prospects say YouTube is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

27. 48% of sales professionals who use social media to find new prospects say TikTok is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

28. 39% of sales professionals who use social media to find new prospects say Reddit is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

29. 55% of sales professionals use social media to research prospects and their businesses. (HubSpot)

30. 74% of sales professionals who use social media to research prospects and their businesses say LinkedIn is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

31. 66% of sales professionals who use social media to research prospects and their businesses say Facebook is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

32. 60% of sales professionals who use social media to research prospects and their businesses say Instagram is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

33. 45% of sales professionals who use social media to research prospects and their businesses say Twitter is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

34. 45% of sales professionals who use social media to research prospects and their businesses say Reddit is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

35. 45% of sales professionals who use social media to research prospects and their businesses say YouTube is one of the most effective platforms. (HubSpot)

Sales Productivity Statistics

37. 41% of sales leaders track calls made as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

38. 37% of sales leaders track emails sent as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

39. 36% of sales leaders track conversations as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

40. 35% of sales leaders track use of sales tools as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

41. 33% of sales leaders track proposals sent as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

42. 31% of sales leaders track number of follow-ups from high-quality leads as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

43. 30% of sales leaders track scheduled meetings as a productivity metric. (HubSpot)

44. 54% of sales leaders say calls made is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

45. 54% of sales leaders say number of follow-ups from high quality leads is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

46. 54% of sales leaders say CRM usage is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

47. 54% of sales leaders say proposals sent is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

48. 52% of sales leaders say conversations is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

49. 50% of sales leaders say demos or sales presentations is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

50. 48% of sales leaders say social media interactions is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

51. 47% of sales leaders say use of sales tools is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

52. 47% of sales leaders say emails sent is one of the most important productivity metrics to track. (HubSpot)

Referral Sales Statistics

53. 56% of sales professionals get leads from existing customer referrals. (HubSpot)

54. 66.5% of sales professionals say leads generated from customer referrals are the highest quality leads they work work. (HubSpot)

Sales Career Statistics

56. The median OTE for an SDR Manager is $128,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)

57. The median OTE for a B2B AE is $132,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)

58. The median OTE for an AE Manager is $156,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)

59. The median OTE for a Director of Sales Development is $177,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)

60. The median OTE for a Director AE is $218,000. (Bridge Group, Inc.)

Inside Sales Stats

61. Just 33% of inside sales-rep time is spent actively selling. (CSO Insights)

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

Sales Technology Stats

63. 22% of sales leaders say leveraging their CRM to its fullest potential is one of their top goals in 2022. (HubSpot)

64. 32% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "helping you keep track of your leads" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

65. 25% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "acting as an organized, centralized database" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

66. 24% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "improving customer retention" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

67. 22% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "offering detailed analytics and reports" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

68. 22% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "acting as an organized, centralized database" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

69. 22% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "helping you understand your customers and their needs " as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

70. 20% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "streamlining to sales cycle" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

71. 19% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "helping you identify valuable opportunities" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

72. 19% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "helping you plan and prioritize your schedule" as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

73. 18% of sales professionals who leverage a CRM identified "increasing your productivity/reduces time spent on administrative tasks " as being one of a CRM's biggest benefits. (HubSpot)

Remote Sales Stats

75. 32% of sales leaders say reps will follow an in-person sales model this year. (HubSpot)

76. 17% of sales leaders say reps will follow a fully remote sales model this year. (HubSpot)

77. 44% of sales professionals who sell remotely say phone calls are the most effective channel for remote selling. (HubSpot)

78. 21% of sales professionals who sell remotely say emails are the most effective channel for remote selling. (HubSpot)

79. 18% of sales professionals who sell remotely say video chat is the most effective channel for remote selling. (HubSpot)

80. 43% of remote or hybrid salespeople say, "Selling remotely has no impact on my ability to sell." (HubSpot)

81. 36% of remote or hybrid salespeople say, "Selling remotely has made it easier to sell." (HubSpot)

82. 21% of remote or hybrid salespeople say, "Selling remotely has made it harder to sell." (HubSpot)

83. 46% of sales professionals who sell both remotely and in-person say, "Selling remotely is less effective." (HubSpot)

84. 23% of sales professionals who sell both remotely and in-person say, "Selling remotely is more effective." (HubSpot)

85. 31% of sales professionals who sell both remotely and in-person say, "Selling remotely and in-person are about the same." (HubSpot)

This list obviously doesn't cover every factor impacting the sales landscape in 2022. 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.

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