The Best Day to Prospect and 14 More Essential Sales Stats for 2024
As a sales professional, you know that success depends on maximizing your time and effort. You can‘t afford to waste hours chasing dead-end leads or using outdated tactics. That‘s why it‘s crucial to take a data-driven approach and focus on the activities that are scientifically proven to generate the best results.
But with so much conflicting information out there, it can be tough to separate fact from fiction and identify true best practices. What is the optimal day of the week to prospect? How many outreach attempts should you make before giving up? What separates top-performing reps from the rest of the pack?
To answer these questions and more, we‘ve analyzed the latest sales statistics from respected industry researchers. Read on to discover 15 data-backed insights you can start applying today to prospect more efficiently, win more deals, and crush your quota in 2024.
The Best Day and Time to Prospect
Let‘s start with one of the most common questions among sales reps: when is the ideal time to reach out to potential buyers? According to a study by LeadResponseManagement.org, Thursdays are hands down the best day of the week to call prospects, followed by Wednesdays.
The researchers analyzed over 6 months‘ worth of data across more than 100,000 sales calls. They found that calls made on Thursdays had a 26% higher success rate than the worst day, Friday. Wednesday was the second-best day, with a 24% higher success rate than Friday.
So why are Thursdays and Wednesdays so much better than other weekdays? The likely explanation is that by this point, buyers have had time to settle into their work week and take care of urgent priorities. They have more bandwidth to consider a sales conversation, unlike on Mondays when they are catching up from the weekend or Fridays when they are focused on wrapping things up.
Another interesting finding is that the second-worst day to call prospects is Tuesday (after Friday). This goes against the conventional wisdom that Tuesdays are a prime prospecting day since people have adjusted to being back at work. In reality, Tuesdays are 9% less successful than even Mondays.
In terms of the best times of day to prospect, the study found that the peak time is between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Calls made during this hour had a 114% higher success rate than those made between 7:00 a.m and 10:00 a.m, which is the absolute worst window. The second-best time to call is between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., with an 89% higher success rate than the early morning hours.
The researchers theorize that prospects are more willing to talk later in the afternoon since they have checked off their most pressing to-do items by then. Lunchtime, around 1:00 p.m., is also a major lull in successful connecting, so be sure to avoid that period.
By concentrating your prospecting efforts in the late afternoon on Thursdays and Wednesdays, you can connect with more qualified leads and make the most of every dial. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on your specific buyer personas, so it‘s important to continually test different days and times to optimize your own results.
How Persistent Should You Be?
Another critical factor in prospecting success is persistence. It‘s inevitable that you‘ll face some rejection and unresponsive leads – the key is to keep nurturing those prospects until you get a definitive answer one way or the other. But how many attempts should you make before moving on?
According to research by Dartnell Corp, the average B2B salesperson only makes 2 attempts to reach a prospect. However, additional attempts pay off:
- 3 attempts: 54% chance of making contact
- 4 attempts: 69% chance of making contact
- 5 attempts: 80% chance of making contact
- 6 attempts: 90% chance of making contact
Put another way, a whopping 70% of sales happen after the 5th contact, but 44% of reps give up after just 1 follow-up. Talk about leaving money on the table! The clear takeaway is that you should aim to reach out to each prospect at least 5-6 times across different channels (phone, email, social media, etc.). Only then will you give yourself the best odds of starting a conversation.
Keep in mind that you don‘t have to make all your outreach attempts via phone. While calling is a critical channel, you can also use email, LinkedIn, direct mail, and other mediums to vary your approach and keep prospects engaged. The key is to spread out your attempts across multiple days or even weeks so you don‘t come across as annoying or desperate.
The Ideal Sales Cycle Length
In addition to being persistent with your outreach, it‘s also important to be patient when working potential deals. The B2B sales cycle has only gotten longer and more complex as more stakeholders get involved in purchasing decisions.
HubSpot‘s 2022 Sales Strategy Survey provides useful benchmarks for how long you can expect deals to take on average:
| Sales Cycle Length | Percentage of Deals |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 month | 10% |
| 1-2 months | 37% |
| 3-6 months | 35% |
| 7-12 months | 15% |
| More than 1 year | 3% |
As you can see, only about 10% of B2B deals close within a month. The vast majority (72%) take anywhere from 1 to 6 months, while 15% last 7-12 months and 3% drag on for over a year.
Of course, sales cycle length varies significantly based on deal size and complexity. A small deal with an SMB might only take a few weeks, while a multi-million dollar enterprise contract could last several quarters or more. The key is to set expectations appropriately with your managers and forecast deals based on historical data for similar opportunities.
Don‘t get discouraged if some of your deals seem to drag on forever. It‘s perfectly normal for the B2B sales cycle to last several months. The key is to keep the momentum going with regular follow-up, stakeholder alignment, and value reinforcement. As long as you‘re continuing to make progress and the buyer is engaged, keep nurturing that opportunity.
Crucial Metrics for Sales Success
To consistently hit your targets, you need to focus on the sales activities and behaviors that drive results. But with so many different KPIs and data points to track, it can be overwhelming to know what really moves the needle.
To cut through the noise, here are a few of the most critical sales metrics to focus on:
Opportunity Creation
You can‘t close deals without first filling the top of your pipeline with qualified opportunities. That‘s why opportunity creation is one of the most important leading indicators of sales success.
According to TOPO‘s 2019 Sales Development Benchmark Report, the average sales rep develops 12.4 sales opportunities per month. However, there‘s a wide range between top and bottom performers:
- Top reps create 23.1 opps/month
- Average reps create 14.1 opps/month
- Bottom reps create just 6.9 opps/month
To be successful, you should aim to generate at least 15-20 new opportunities every month (or 3-5 per week). If you‘re consistently falling short of that benchmark, it‘s a sign that you need to spend more time prospecting and developing your pipeline.
Opportunity creation is an especially crucial metric for SDRs and other sales reps who are primarily focused on prospecting and lead generation. But even if you‘re an account executive who gets some inbound leads, you should still track your opp creation rate to ensure you‘re being proactive enough in your outreach.
Average Deal Size
Deal size is another key metric that has a major impact on your ability to hit quota. Even if you‘re great at closing deals, you‘ll likely struggle to make your number if your average contract value (ACV) is too low.
According to LinkedIn‘s 2020 State of Sales Report, the average deal size for B2B sales is $92,000. However, this varies widely by company size:
- Small companies (1-200 employees): $24,000
- Medium companies (201-1,000 employees): $131,000
- Large companies (1,001+ employees): $292,000
Of course, ACV also differs by industry, sales cycle, and other factors. But in general, larger deals result in more revenue and higher commissions. That‘s why it‘s important to focus your efforts on high-quality, big-ticket opportunities whenever possible.
This doesn‘t mean ignoring smaller deals entirely – you still need a mix to keep your pipeline balanced. But if most of your opportunities are below your company‘s average deal size, it could be a sign that you need to pursue bigger fish. Try targeting larger accounts, upselling current customers, or repositioning your product‘s value to increase your ACV.
Win Rate
Perhaps the most essential sales metric of all is win rate: the percentage of opportunities that ultimately become closed-won deals. If you have a ton of pipeline but a low win rate, you‘ll end up spinning your wheels without generating much revenue.
According to dynamic benchmarks from Geckoboard, the average win rate for B2B sales is 27%. However, this ranges from around 15% on the low end to 40% or more for top-performing companies.
To calculate your win rate, simply divide your total number of closed-won deals by your total number of opportunities created. For example, if you won 10 out of 50 total opps last quarter, your win rate would be 20% (10 / 50 = 0.2).
Tracking win rate at the individual rep level is crucial for identifying coaching opportunities. If someone has a significantly lower close rate than their peers, they may need extra training or guidance on objection handling, storytelling, deal strategy, etc.
It‘s also important to segment your win rate by stage, as early-stage opportunities are naturally more speculative. A low close rate for late-stage deals is much more concerning than for those that are just starting to be qualified. Looking at stage-based conversion rates will help you spot pipeline issues before they become major problems.
Sales Cycle Length
We discussed sales cycle length benchmarks earlier, but this metric is so important that it‘s worth calling out again here. The longer your average sales cycle, the more challenging it will be to hit your short-term revenue targets.
That‘s because long sales cycles tie up valuable selling time and make revenue totals less predictable. Deals that get pushed out to future quarters create a "lumpy" pipeline that is difficult to forecast.
To calculate your average sales cycle length, track the number of days between opportunity creation and closed-won for each deal, then take the mean across all deals. Be sure to segment by deal size as well, since larger opportunities naturally take longer to close.
If your sales cycle is trending longer than industry benchmarks or your historical average, dig into the reasons why. Perhaps you‘re not being selective enough with your qualification criteria, or maybe you need to revamp your sales process to accelerate deals through the pipeline.
Shortening the sales cycle by even a few days or weeks can have a major impact on your win rate and revenue attainment. Constantly look for opportunities to streamline your process, cut out unnecessary steps, and keep deals moving swiftly toward signature.
Putting the Stats into Action
Now that you‘ve got a wealth of data-backed sales insights, it‘s time to put them into action. Remember, knowledge is only powerful if you actually apply it.
Here‘s a quick recap of the key takeaways from this article:
- Prospect on Thursdays and Wednesdays between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. for the best connect rates
- Be persistent and make at least 5-6 outreach attempts per prospect across multiple channels
- Be patient with longer B2B sales cycles, but keep deals moving forward with regular activity
- Track your opportunity creation, average deal size, win rate, and sales cycle length to identify areas for improvement
- Use data to guide your selling activities, but don‘t forget the importance of relationships
Of course, every sales org is different, so it‘s important to track your own metrics and uncover the specific trends that matter for your team. Regularly review your performance data and look for ways to optimize your approach based on what‘s working.
Most importantly, remember that sales is both an art and a science. Stats and benchmarks are incredibly valuable for guiding your strategy, but at the end of the day, selling is still a people-centric profession. Use data to work smarter, not to replace your own intuition, creativity, and relationship-building skills.
Now get out there, put these insights to work, and crush your 2024 quota!
