10 Surprising Sales Stats You Don’t Know About Prospecting

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In the age of the internet, there’s a ton of sales information at your fingertips at all times. We all know that knowledge is power, but it can get overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to know. That’s why we’ve compiled the 10 most surprising sales stats, that you probably don’t know, which will help you reach your prospects. If you use these stats to your advantage, you’ll be unstoppable!

(And, for a true advantage, check out Spiro’s sales automation CRM, proven to help you reach 47% more prospects!)

Calling

1. Call connection rates

If you’re connecting with 15% of people when you dial out, you’re doing well. That means that for every 100 calls you make, 85 times out of 100, nobody is answering… That’s right, less than ⅓ of all those calls you make will actually get to the person you’re trying to reach.

So, when you actually reach the person you’re trying to, make it count! And, don’t waste time between dials- you need to contact as many people as possible. Using a one-click dialer is always a good idea.

2. Call Conversion Rates

Calls have a 30-50% conversion rate, meaning once you get someone on the phone, you should be able to successfully move that prospect along to the next step about 40 percent of the time.

Sales is about relationship building, so you shouldn’t expect to be able to close everyone on the first call. Take your time and build rapport and develop trust. You should also celebrate the small wins. If you have a great conversation with a prospect, and are able to get information from them about the budget, timing or fit, that counts as moving them along in the sales cycle

3. Call Close Rates

Of the prospects you are actively engaged with, how many should you be able to close? I’ve read stats that widely vary, from 12% to 50%. Internally, our “call close” rate mirrors our Account Executives’ close rate, which is sometimes as high as 40-50%.

In sales, always aim for the higher end! If you are having meaningful, information gathering conversations with 20 people a month, you should be able to close 10 of them. If you’re finding yourself losing more than half of the people that you have meaningful conversations with, you might need to change your strategy a bit. Use this stat as a guideline to see where you’re at. Take notes on what went wrong and why you lost these deals, and make adjustments accordingly.

4. The Best Time to Call

The best time to call a prospect is 4-5pm. Now, this obviously doesn’t mean that you can just spend the rest of the day playing Angry Birds on your phone, but try to make times for calls at the end of the workday. This is typically the time where people are getting ready to leave work and are hesitant to start a new task, so they’re much more likely to pick up the phone.

Instead of trying to sneak out of the office a little bit early, keep making calls right up until the end of the workday. The extra commission is worth it, we promise!

Curious about the transformative benefits of a sales automation CRM?
5. The Best Day to Call

Wednesday is the best day to call a prospect. Again, this doesn’t mean you should only be making calls on Wednesday, but try to make this your main day for phone calls if you can. And, if you have that mysterious prospect that you just can’t reach, no matter how many times you call, try at 4pm on a Wednesday! Statistically, that’s your best shot.

Do a team spiff and have your cold calling BDRs work extra time on the phones – offer incentives for putting in Wednesday calling time. Donuts help!

6. How Many Times to Call

It takes an average of 8 cold calls to actually reach a prospect. And, 55% of all salespeople follow up less than four times. This makes no sense!

The best salespeople use this fact to their advantage, and use their CRM to set reminders to call their prospects regularly if they don’t get a response on the first (or second, or third…) try. Try different days and times to make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance of fitting into their schedule and catching them in a spare moment.

Email

7. Average open rate

Only 14-23% of all cold emails get opened on average.  If your open rate isn’t in this range, then it’s time to re-evaluate your subject lines and what time of day you are sending your emails.

Try using the most effective email ever.  If your prospects aren’t opening your emails, they aren’t learning more about your product. You have to nail down your subject lines to get your foot in the door and your company in their mind.

8. Average Clickthrough Rate

The average email clickthrough rate is 3.45%. But you’re better than average, right? Use proven-to-work email templates like the ones in Spiro to double your click-through rate. And, you won’t need to spend hours crafting emails that won’t even get read.

You can even set up a system to be automatically notified when your prospect clicks on the landing page you are sending them to, so you can follow-up immediately. Know which of your prospects are more engaged than others, and stop wasting time constantly reaching out to dead leads.

9. Percentage of Mobile Viewers

52.4% of all sales content is viewed on mobile devices. This means that if you want to close deals off of your online content, you have to optimize your content to be mobile-friendly. Think about it; the amount of words that can fit on the screen of your mobile phone is substantially less than can fit onto your laptop.

Make sure you get to the point in any email or web-based marketing you do. Your conversion rates (and hopefully your sales manager) will thank you. Reach your prospects the way they want to be reached – if they read content and emails on their mobile phone, make your emails short and sweet, so they aren’t scrolling to read the bulk of your pitch.

Web Traffic

10. Website Traffic Conversion Rates

Website traffic has an average 2.35% conversion rate. This might seem low, but online traffic is an important component of your product’s overall marketing. If you have enough traffic, 1-2% of them converting is a substantial amount of people. Plus, if you follow up with people viewing your website, you already know they have interest in your product, and are far more likely to close a deal.

Why should the outbound prospecting team care about the website? Well, they have to make sure they pitch and the information they are sending their prospects matches your company’s website. Having consistent and relevant messaging will help drive conversions and get their prospects more engaged.

Conclusion

Want to surpass all these sales stats? The best way is to use a great sales automation CRM, like Spiro. It has built in email campaigns proven to get opened, an automatic dialer to help you make calls, proactive reminders to boost your follow-up, and intelligent reporting to help you drill into all of these numbers! Want to learn more?

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Adam Honig
Adam is the Co-Founder and CEO of Spiro Technologies. He is a recognized thought-leader in sales process and effectiveness, and has previously co-founded three successful technology companies: Innoveer Solutions, C-Bridge, and Open Environment. He is best known for speaking at various conferences including Dreamforce, for pioneering the 'No Jerks' hiring model, and for flying his drone while traveling the world.

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