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Updated: The 13 Biggest Myths About Sales Prospecting
Still holding onto the idea that all prospects are the same or that cold calling is a thing of the...
There seems to be a constant battle in the sales world of “old school” methods versus modern agility and adaptability. True success lies somewhere in the middle. In 2o24, successful sales professionals need the skills to develop both cold calling and social selling strategies, among others. We’ve compiled a list of 24 new business statistics for the new year to show managers and their teams exactly which old-school systems still work — and the current research and trends to guide strategies.
Every time we think we have a handle on our new business strategies, a long successful tactic burns out and is replaced by a new theory. And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. As industry pros, we should always be adapting our approach to prospects to reach more contacts and close more deals. If there were any stats to prove the importance of adaption, it would be that only 17% of reps believe that they’re pushy compared to 50% of prospects. Or that only 3% of buyers trust the reps that they are talking to.
Luckily, not all new business data is such a bummer. It’s important to identify the following statistics so that you can further understand your prospects and how to close more deals.
24 New Business Statistics to Kick Off 2024
- 96% of prospects do their own research before speaking with a human sales rep. HubSpot
- Referral leads have a 30% higher conversion rate than leads from any other channel. Invesp
- High-performing sales teams use nearly three times the amount of sales technology than underperforming teams. Spring CM
- Research shows that 35% to 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. InsideSales.com
- The average lifetime value of a referred customer is 16% higher than that of a non-referred customer. UPenn
- Nine in 10 companies use more than two lead enrichment tools to learn more about prospects. Gartner
- 92% of sales pros give up after the fourth call, but 80% of prospects say no four times before they say yes. MarketingDonut
- Posts with videos can generate engagement rates of 50% or more. Databox
- 70% of B2B decision makers are open to making new, self-serve or remote purchases greater than $50,000. 27% say they’d spend more than $500,000. McKinsey & Company
- 71% of prospects prefer to do solo research instead of talking to a person. HubSpot
- Want to hit your quota faster? Social sellers hit their quotas 66% more often than those who don’t use social media. Sales Benchmark Index
- The phone is the most important tool for sales, according to 41% of sales reps. Sales Insights Lab
- 58% of salespeople ask for fewer than one referral per month, while 40% rarely ask. Sales Insights Lab
- 73% of executives prefer to work with sales professionals referred by someone they know. IDC
- The lifetime value of referred customers is on average 16% higher than that of non-referred customers. Wharton School of Business
- B2B customers have become desensitized to words such as “reports,” “forecasts,” and “intelligence.” Adestra
- Follow-up emails often get a better response rate than the initial email. One study saw a 30% response rate to the first email and 14% to the 4th. Even the 10th email in the sequence got a 7% response rate. Yesware
- An analysis of more than 2,200 American companies found those who attempted to reach leads within an hour were nearly seven times likelier to have meaningful conversations with decision-makers than those who waited even sixty minutes. Harvard Business Review
- Acquiring a new customer costs five to 25 times more than keeping an existing customer. Harvard Business Review
- Using the word “discount” decreases the odds of successfully closing a sale by 17%. Gong
- Salespeople spend 66% of their day on administrative tasks. Hubspot
- B2B customers use 10 different channels during their decision-making process. McKinsey & Company
- 48% of sales reps say that competing against low-price competitors is the biggest obstacle to closing the deal. Richardson
- 53% of marketers reported that inbound marketing gave a higher ROI, while only 16% reported that outbound did. Hubspot