Debate rages between sales experts that advocate cold calling is “dead” or “dying”, and those who see it as “rising from the dead”, “not dead”, or only “semantically dead.” The truth is, sales tactics traditionally referred to as cold calling are still very much alive and is an important strategy utilized by sales management in high-growth companies (Profit Guide, June 2013). (In fact, within a day of downloading one of the studies mentioned below we received a call from a sales rep!)
To help you keep up to date, we’ve hand-picked the most recent, credible and key statistics about cold calling, buyers, salespeople and the buying process. Understanding these modern factors and harnessing the new technologies available is critical to you and your sales team’s cold calling success in 2015 and beyond.
Statistics About The Buyer’s Changing Journey
1) By 2018, 20% of B2B sales teams will go “virtual,” resulting in improved pipeline conversion rates. Buyers won’t talk to sales until late in the game…Enter the “virtual” sales rep. (IDC, December 2014)
2) 67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally. (SiriusDecisions, July 2013)
3) In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in most buying decisions. (Gartner Group)
4) Many buying teams will include people that “own” and need to be convinced of different things, including the business buyer, financial buyer, technical buyer, risk buyer, and user buyer. (Gartner Group, September 2014)
5) Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (The Annuitas Group)
Statistics About The Influence Of Social Media
6) Business buyers reported the greatest benefit of social media as gaining greater confidence and comfort in their decisions. (IDC, February 2014)
7) 75% of the B2B buyers studied and 84% of C-level/vice president executives use information from social media and interaction on social networks to make purchase decisions. (IDC, September 2014)
8) 72.6% of salespeople using social selling as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded quota 23% more often. (Aberdeen Group)
9) You are 70 percent more likely to get an appointment with someone on an “unexpected sales call” if you are in a common LinkedIn group than if you aren’t. (Vorsight)
10) 71% of the 100 companies surveyed using sales gamification reported an 11%-50% increase in measured sales performance. (Salesforce, August 2013)
Statistics About Sales Performance
11) 75% of the more than 1,000 senior executives surveyed by DiscoverOrg said they have taken an appointment or attended an event that came from a cold call or email. (DiscoverOrg)
12) 42% of sales reps feel they do not have the right information before making a sales call. (Lattice Engines, March 2013)
13) 58% of buyers report that sales reps are unable to answer their questions effectively. (Forbes Insight)
14) Teleprospectors make between 100 and 500 calls for every lead they qualify. (SiriusDecisions, June 2014)
15) In 2007 it took an average of 3.68 cold call attempts to reach a prospect. Today it takes 8 attempts. (Telenet and Ovation Sales Group)
16) The average salesperson only makes 2 attempts to reach a prospect. (SiriusDecisions)
17) 87% of employees are not actively engaged in their jobs. (Gallup, March 2014)
It’s clear a telephone is still an essential tool in the sales dialogue, and the preceding findings can help you formulate an effective outreach strategy going forward.
* Photo creative commons via Pixabay
This article appeared originally on the The Peak Blog.
