Salespeople Statistics 2024 – By Behavior, Perspective on AI, Income, Performance, Platform to Grab Customers, Challenges Faced and Effective Sales Channels

Barry Elad

Updated · Jan 03, 2024

Salespeople Statistics 2024 – By Behavior, Perspective on AI, Income, Performance, Platform to Grab Customers, Challenges Faced and Effective Sales Channels

Introduction

Salespeople Statistics: Sales and marketing teams are the backbone of any company, without which no brand will ever become known to the world. With a balanced strategy in both departments, a company can create its monopoly in the market, however grabbing new customers is not always easy. Salespeople have to go through very hectic days, they get taunted and continuously hear curse words just for doing their prescribed jobs.

Cold calling hundreds of people in a week is a most challenging and tiring example of a sales-related position. However, with AI in action, will be relaxed in the coming future.

Editor’s Choice

  • According to Salespeople Statistics, 42% of companies do not provide bright career paths for their sales professionals.
  • 57% of salespeople spend 3 to more than 10 hours with customer relationship management tools every week.
  • Salespeople working in a company where there is a problem with the team budget are 27% less likely to achieve sales targets on a personal level.
  • 65% of salespeople said they didn’t find any suitable content to send to consumers or prospective customers.
  • Sales professionals with supporting managers are 10% more likely to achieve targets regularly.
  • Salespeople Statistics state that 15% of professionals leave voice messages to prospective customers instead of talking to them over the phone.
  • 8 out of 10 sales professionals prefer to communicate via email instead of phone calls.
  • 77% of salespeople are more likely to conduct a video meeting than other communication methods.
  • Companies that reduce spending on sales professionals are less likely to have their sales team concerned about their individual increased workload.
  • Almost half of the salespeople depend on a positive mindset for support resulting in 47%.

General Salespeople Statistics

  • 57% of salespeople spend 3 to more than 10 hours with customer relationship management tools every week.
  • According to Salespeople Statistics, 24% of them are more likely to achieve their targets if they are given access to CRM through mobile phones.
  • Around 79% of sales teams use various sales analytics tools as of today.
  • According to 22% of salespeople using CRM tools provides them with the benefit of detailed analytics as well as reports.
  • 28% of companies around the world use tools to train their salespeople.
  • Salespeople Statistics state that 15% of professionals leave voice messages to prospective customers instead of talking to them over the phone.
  • 60% of sales professionals spend too much time on data entry jobs, which can be completed using CRM software.
  • Salespeople working in a company where there is a problem with the team budget are 27% less likely to achieve sales targets on a personal level.
  • Furthermore, sales professionals with supporting managers are 10% more likely to achieve targets regularly.
  • According to Salespeople Statistics, 42% of companies fail to provide career paths for their sales professionals.
  • According to Sales Statistics, cold calling performed early in the morning (8 am to 10 am), late morning (11 am to 12 pm) and late afternoon (4 pm to 5 pm ) generate comparatively more sales.
  • 48% of Sales professionals do not make any follow-up.
  • On the other hand,40% of sales professionals who follow up lose their interest afterward.
  • Because of social media networks, around 40% of sales professionals can close 2 to 5 deals.
  • Salespeople Statistics state that employees with referrals earn 4 to 5 times more than those who don’t.
  • In addition, just 11% of sales professionals ask for referrals.
  • 65% of salespeople said they didn’t find any suitable content to send to consumers or prospective customers.
  • As of 2023, 62% of sales professionals stated their companies are taking fewer risks to grow.
  • 45% of salespeople appreciate the total number of tools in their tech related to sales.
  • Compared to 45% of salespeople in 2022, 71% of them are now working on a hybrid system showing an increase in this work structure by 58% YoY.
  • Thursday and Wesnesydas are considered to be the first and second-best days for converting prospective buyers into consumers.
  • 1 out of 8 jobs in the United States of America are full-time sales positions, which makes up 13% of all the jobs.
  • More than $1000,000,000 trillion is spent yearly on sales forces.
  • 13% of consumers believe that their sales representatives can understand their needs.
  • More than half of the people employed in sales don’t have appropriate skills resulting in 55%.
  • On average, it takes 10 months or more to be fully efficient in the work of the sales department.
  • For every 209 cold calls made by an average sales professional, it generates 1 appointment or referral.
  • On the other hand, 72% of sales-related calls go unanswered.
  • 66% of a productive day in a sales department is captured by administrative tasks.
  • 73% of sales departments state that it is difficult to collaborate with other related departments in the company.
  • It takes around 18 calls for a buyer to pick up the call on average.
  • Friday is considered the worst day to make a cold call.
  • Successfully cold calls last up to 37 seconds on average.
  • Projecting the data reduces the motivation of 2 out of 3 salespeople.
  • The following data shows how many calls sales are made: 1st call (2% sales), 2nd call (3% of sales), 3rd call (5% of sales), 4th calls (10% of sales) and from 5th to 12th call (80% of sales).

Salespeople Statistics by Behavior

  • According to Salespeople Statistics, risk-taking attitude has been reduced in 70% of the professionals.
  • 8 out of 10 sales professionals prefer to communicate via email instead of phone calls.
  • Only 24% of sales professionals can perform beyond their targets.
  • Almost half of the salespeople depend on a positive mindset for support resulting in 47%.
  • Companies that reduce spending on sales professionals are less likely to have their sales team concerned about their individual increased workload.
  • 77% of salespeople are more likely to conduct a video meeting than other communication methods.
  • 46% of salespeople are doing their job in sales departments unwillingly, which makes 4.14 million sales professionals in the United States of America.
  • Only 7% of salespeople respond to a lead received on the website within 5 minutes, while it is 48% of answering emails in a similar period.
  • On average, a sales representative makes 33 cold calls while 6.6 conversations of inside sales per day.
  • Sales representative spends 7.5 hours on average to generate one referral or appointment.
  • Introvert salespeople can contribute to work by 24% on average while extroverts contribute by 32%.
  • 15% of the total work hours is spent on leaving voice notes to the prospective consumers.
  • 92% of sales representatives would give up on the prospect after 4 times “no”, on the other hand, the prospect is more likely to say “yes” after 4 “nos”.

Salespeople Statistics by Effective Sales Channels

which-sales-channels-are-most-effective-top-6

(Reference: hubspot.com)

Salespeople Statistics 2023 showed that according to sales professionals, the top 3 most effective sales channels are in-person meetings (51%), Phone Calls (46%), and Email (40%). On the other hand, live chat tools are considered to be less effective resulting in 19%.

Salespeople Statistics by Challenges Faced

what-are-sale-pro-s-top-challenges-in-2023-top-8

(Reference: hubspot.com)

As of July 2023, the most voted challenge faced by sales professionals around the world is inflation resulting in 25%. Supply chain issues and being different from other competitors are the other top problems faced by these professionals resulting in 21% and 19% respectively. However, meeting targets is voted by only 15% of the professionals.

Salespeople Statistics by Most Effective Self-Service Tools

Salespeople Statistics by most effective self-service tools

(Source: hubspot.com)

Some of the top-voted self-service tools that would help sales representatives help buyers make decisions are product demos (45%), Free trials (41%), and Customer stories (37%). Furthermore, user reviews, chatbots, FAQ pages, and self-service pricing are also part of the effective tools list.

Salespeople Statistics by Platform to Grab Customers

where-prospects-are-open-to-talking-to-sellers

(Reference: zippia.com)

According to reports, the topmost event or platform is industry event resulting in 34%, followed by LinkedIn, Text marketing, and voicemail collectivelt 21%. Other platforms of social media contribute only 18%.

Salespeople Statistics by Performance

how-are-sales-pros-performing-in-2023

(Reference: hubspot.com)

Compared to 2022, in 2023 performance of 56% of professionals is better than expected. However, 15% stated they are performing worse than the previous year while only 29% are to the mark.

Salespeople Statistics by Perspective on AI

sales-pro-will-leverage-ai-to-boost-performance

(Reference: hubspot.com)

Salespeople Statistics state that the majority of professionals agree that AI will help them reduce time spent on manual tasks resulting in (81%) while 78% said it will help them to perform more efficiently. Furthermore, other performance boosts views voted by salespeople are more personalized experience (66%), a better understanding of customers (66%) and to compete better in the industry (63%).

Salespeople Statistics by Income

median-ote-for-sales-careers

(Reference: hubspot.com)

The average on-target earnings (OTE) for SDR is $76K, while for managers it is $128K. The highest ever OTE is reported by director AE resulting in $218k p.a.

Salespeople Statistics by Reasons To Connect With Prospects

factors-in-whether-prospects-connect-with-a-rep

(Reference: notta.ai)

Salespeople Statistics show that the major reason to respond to a lead is the need for their product or service resulting in 75%, followed by appropriate budget (64%) and various offers offered by sales reps (63%).

Salespeople Statistics by Expectations From the Marketing Team

what-do-sales-pros-need-most-from-their-marketing-team

(Reference: hubspot.com)

This is one of the most interesting questions, as to what sales professionals expect from their marketing team. 43% of them state they expect more quality leads (43%), following strategy and goals (39%), and increased input of marketing content (35%). In addition, 34% of professionals believe in more transparency in making the content more effective and in increasing the quality of content leading to more sales.

Salespeople Statistics by Responsibilities

  • Writing Emails (21%)
  • Entering Data (17%)
  • Lead research (17%)
  • Team Meetings (12%)
  • Call Scheduling (12%)
  • Training (11%)
  • Reading Industry Reports (11%)

(Source: taskdrive.com)

Out of the total working hours of a sales representative, 21% is spent on writing emails, followed by manually entering data and lead research (17%), and 12% in team meetings. The other half of the day is spent on call scheduling (12%), training and reading industry reports (11%).

Total Number of Employed Salespeople in the US by Occupation

number-of-employed-sales-people-in-the-united-states-in-2022-by-occupation

(Reference: statista.com)

As of 2022 in the US, Salespeople Statistics stated that the majority of the sales reps were employed in the wholesale and manufacturing industry having 1,564.28 million employees, followed by departments of services, sales sales-related workers with 1,075.75 million and 445.54 thousand respectively. On the other hand, the most sales-related responsibility of door-to-door sales had just 8.64 thousand employees.

Conclusion

Concluding the Salespeople Statistics, it is known that sales representatives are still struggling at their jobs to achieve their daily targets. Being the backbone of the company and still struggling with work is the priority problem a company should first look into.

However, compared to last year, half of the salespeople outperformed in 2023 marking their exceptional performance. Furthermore, incorporating AI into sales and similar departments will improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the team members leading to increased revenue for the company.

  • Statistics
  • FAQ.

    What is the average salary of a sales representative?

    As of 2023 in the United States of America, the average salary of a sales professional is $76,681 which is $37 per hour.

    What education is needed to become a sales representative?

    The minimum requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent for the majority of companies. However, it also depends on the company and talent of the person to be employed as a sales representative even after being under the minimum requirement.

    Are sales representatives unhappy with their jobs?

    The majority of the sales representatives are unhappy with the work because of the workloads and daily targets. However, it is the responsibility of the company to look after their employees just like they do for their customers.

    How can AI help in sales?

    Incorporating AI in sales can reduce manual and repetitive administrative work, predict customer behavior, and identify the market for the products.

    Barry Elad
    Barry Elad

    Barry is a lover of everything technology. Figuring out how the software works and creating content to shed more light on the value it offers users is his favorite pastime. When not evaluating apps or programs, he's busy trying out new healthy recipes, doing yoga, meditating, or taking nature walks with his little one.

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