Prospecting for a strong pipeline is your first hurdle in the new business process, and is never-ending and always evolving—influenced by technology, budgets, and how brands work with agencies.These 16 must-know prospecting stats for your agency will help you get ahead in today’s sales environment. Keep these stats in mind as you monitor changes in business development trends and make proactive prospecting a priority in order to keep your pipeline full.
Here are 16 must-know prospecting stats with insights on everything from email subject lines to response time on form submissions.
1. More than 40% of salespeople say this is the most challenging part of the sales process, followed by closing (36%) and qualifying (22%). If you find prospecting to be the most difficult part of new opportunities, you’re not alone.
2. 35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line and nothing else. First impressions can make or break a potential sale. Tell people right away that you’ve got something worth their time by writing effective subject lines.
3. Only 24% of sales emails are opened.
4. The average person deletes 48% of the emails they receive every day. This task takes them just five minute
5. Most prospects want to read emails at 5 and 6 a.m. Use an email scheduling tool to get in front of all the early birds to ensure you send your message at the perfect time.
6. HubSpot Research found 72% of companies with less than 50 new opportunities per month didn’t achieve their revenue goals. This is compared to 15% with 51 to 100 new opps and just 4% for companies with 101 to 200 new opps.
7. The average salesperson makes significantly more calls in the last month of the quarter. Gong’s data science team analyzed 15 months of data and found the average salespeople made far more calls in the last month of the quarter than the first two. And the success rate of those calls were usually lower than any other month. Devote time to proactive prospecting each and every day. You should be prospecting just as much on the first day of the month or quarter as the last.
8. It takes an average of 8 cold calls to actually reach a prospect. And 55% of all salespeople follow up less than four times.
9. 45% of salespeople give up after just one follow up with a prospect.
10. Even after you have reached a prospect, it can take an average of 18 more calls to actually connect with a buyer.
11. On average, 5.4 people are involved in a purchase decision, and each person’s job function and even geography are often very diverse.
12. On the first call, 6 out of 10 buyers want to discuss pricing on the first call, and more than half of prospects want to see how the product works.
13. Seven in 10 B2B buyers watch a video sometime during their buying process. Use this to your advantage by sending a customized video. Videos about product features are most popular, followed by how-tos and professional reviews.
14. 77.3% of salespeople said their company provides at least one quarter of their leads.
15. At least 50% of your prospects are not a good fit for what your product or service.
16. Drift tested the response time of 433 companies. Only 7% responded in the first five minutes after a form submission. More than half didn’t respond within five business days.
These 16 must-know prospecting stats reflect uncomfortable truths that sales teams deal with every single day. Ready for some good news? We handle all of this for you. Catapult is the dedicated business development partner to agencies of all sizes and types. Our team of expert advisors will work alongside your internal team to implement a results-driven sales and marketing strategy that identifies and generates new revenue opportunities on a consistent basis.