76 Sales Statistics: Facts, Figures, and Trends in 2024

Posted: April 19, 2022 by Judith Cruz | Last updated: July 29, 2024

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Businesses work hard to increase sales year over year, and statistics show that they’re succeeding. Sales statistics 2022 are continuing to grow at an accelerated rate, breaking records every year since they were first recorded in 2017. What are sales trends? Read on to find out.

Understanding the sales numbers of your competitors in 2022 can help you devise a plan to best position yourself against them. Say you’re an online retailer, understanding how much you’ll be competing with giants like Amazon in the coming years can help determine whether it’s time to open a physical store as well.

You may ask: what are sales statistics? Today, we’re going to take a look at sales statistics 2022 and see what developments have emerged from the last three years of data. We’ll also see where we can expect these trends to go in the future.

General Sales Statistics

Hands exchanging money and product from two laptop screens — Great salespeople provide value to their customers.

Sales statistics 2022 are grouped into different categories. But before going into these categories, let’s look at the general facts first.

B2B statistics 2021 revealed that the B2B segment is projected to account for 69% of all sales statistics in 2022. That’s up from 59% in 2017.
Meanwhile, the B2C segment is projected to account for 31% of all sales statistics in 2022.
The top three sales priorities for companies worldwide are closing more deals (75%), improving sales funnel efficiency (48%), and cutting down sales cycles (32%).
As per sales statistics 2022, there are around 5.7 million sales representatives around the globe.
47% of these salespeople work from an office, while 52% meet with clients face-to-face.
Revisiting 2018 sales data, more than 50% of sellers missed their sales quota in the said year.
Regarding clients, sales representatives agree that at least 50% of your prospects aren’t a good fit for your products or services.
In 2021, 80% of businesses have introduced a new service or product online.
In the same year, over half of these companies implemented a new sales methodology.
Sales conversions stand at only 2%-3% across different industries.
Meanwhile, sales statistics 2022 showed that only one-third of sales representatives’ productive hours are spent talking to prospects.
The rest of their time is dedicated to writing emails (21%), lead research (17%), call scheduling (12%), and reading industry reports (11%).
61% of sales agents claim that selling is more difficult now than 5 years ago. This is because of the growing competition online, particularly on eCommerce platforms.
On the bright side, 90% of consumers are ready to engage with salespeople early in the purchasing process.

Inside Sales Statistics

Inside sales is the method of selling remotely instead of in-person sales. Given the current situation, this practice has become one of the fastest-growing areas of the sales industry.

In 2018, just under half of US sales will be made by inside sales representatives (46%). This is a 4% increase from 2017 when 42% of sales were made by inside sales.
As per reports, an inside sales call costs around $50.
Meanwhile, an outside sales call costs about $308.
37% of high-growth business organizations resort to inside sales as their primary sales strategy.
Next to it are field sales at 27%, internet sales at 23%, and channel sales at 8%.
Sales agents can spend up to 40% of their time looking for prospects to call.
On the other hand, the average yearly sales quota for an inside sales representative is around $985,000.
44% of the inside sales pipeline is derived from marketing.
Meanwhile, the inside sales average dials are decelerating by 20% year-over-year.
Regarding sales activity, only 33% of inside sales professionals’ time is spent actively selling.
Furthermore, sales statistics 2022 revealed that 35% to 50% of sales go to the sales rep who responds first.
What is the average sales success rate? Recent studies showed that the average success rate for inside salespeople sits at an impressive 18%.

Sales Statistics by Successful Techniques

Man holding hands up in front of a laptop — Sales success is the sum of small, repeated efforts.

As a salesperson, it’s important to know what techniques will make you successful. By studying sales trends, you can predict future sales in your industry to plan your business’ future accordingly.

As showcased in sales statistics 2022, 60% of consumers say no to a sales agent 4 times before saying yes.
However, 48% of sales reps never attempt to make even a single follow-up after a client’s rejection.
57% of customers say they’d be enticed to purchase a product or service from a seller who doesn’t pressure them when following up.
Meanwhile, 19% of consumers want to connect to a sales agent during the learning or awareness stage of the purchasing process.
Moreover, 20% of customers want to talk during the decision stage. This usually occurs after they’ve decided which product to buy.
Successful salespeople are 10x more likely to use collaborative words like “we,” “us,” and “our.”
On the other hand, they avoid the words “me” and “I.”
Prospects who don’t undergo a hassle process during the buying stage are twice as likely to spend for a product or service.
On the other hand, optimistic sales professionals outperform pessimistic ones by 57%.
Maybe you’re wondering: what could lead to better sales success? Asking relevant questions about your customer’s pain points and goals would be the best strategy.
Meanwhile, approximately 6 in 10 sales reps say that when they discover what sales strategy works for them, they stick to it.
As rated by buyers, the top four ways to create a positive sales experience include listening to their needs (69%), not being pushy (61%), providing relevant information (61%), and responding in a timely manner (51%).
The most successful sales professionals use confidence-boosting lingos like “certainly,” “definitely,” and “absolutely.”

Sales Statistics on Perceptions in the Sales Industry

Perception has always played an important role in business organizations. When studied, used, and applied properly, it can be a major factor in helping your company survive and grow in the market.

75% of sales professionals feel that there’s a lack of recognition for their role.
Meanwhile, 72% say it’s critical to stay on top of trends to remain successful in their field.
As per sales statistics 2022, the majority of sales representatives are proud to be working in the sales industry and be called salespeople.
A whopping 92% of sales agents believe they’re highly responsible for the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, 67% of business organizations agree that hitting quotas is the best indicator of sales performance whether as an individual or a team.
46% of sales reps who reached their targets between 2020 and 2021 aren’t satisfied in their current role.
Meanwhile, sales agents who nurture their soft skills are 11x more likely to hit their quotas than those who don’t.
If you say that some professionals in different industries are somehow underrated, the same is true for salespeople. According to sales statistics 2022, around 61% of people believe that sales agents are underappreciated.
4 in 10 people who are satisfied with their work didn’t reach their target in 2020-2021.
On the other hand, 42% of companies don’t take time to create career paths for sales representatives.

Sales Challenges Statistics

Man working on a laptop — The biggest challenge to sales is taking care of your customers.

It may be an unpopular opinion but hard times stimulate growth better than good times. And knowing the challenges in the sales industry can help businesses provide more efficient customer service.

As per a 2019 survey, the top three challenges that salespeople face are competing against low-cost providers (31%), ensuring consistency in team meetings with prospects (26%), and maintaining profitability (17%).
On the other hand, 81% of sales groups don’t audit their operations regularly.
Salespeople struggle most with prospecting (37%), closing (28%), and identifying leads (18%).
Moreover, 20% of sales teams don’t have the necessary resources and tools to help them reinforce their workflow.
Sales pros working remotely are 8x more likely to use a CRM tool than people not working from home.
Moreover, 67% of sales leaders say that overseeing a remote sales group is more challenging than expected.
On the other note, almost 65% of salespeople claim they “always” put the buyer first during negotiations.
In 2021, the top metric used by sales managers to measure their sales team’s performance was activity quantity.
On the language side, Spanish-speaking sales reps are 38% more likely to struggle to find strong sales leads.
Business organizations investing in omnichannel sales experiences have skyrocketed their sales and profits from 20% to 80%.
Technology-wise, 90% of sales teams are now using at least two lead enrichment tools to better understand their prospects.
While more and more businesses are adopting tools to automate their sales workflow, there’s still a meager 40% of salespeople who don’t use any tools or technology for lead generation.

Regarding tools and software, you can check this Facelift Cloud review for your social media and advertising activities.

Statistics on What Consumers Want from Sellers

As more buyers are getting accustomed to instant responses and convenient shopping online, customer demands on the sales front may become higher. Learning relevant data on what buyers expect from sellers will give your business an edge.

An analysis of sales statistics from 2018 indicated that sellers should focus on providing more high-quality products to consumers to be competitive in 2022 and in the coming years.
Meanwhile, 50% of consumers agree that working from home has made the buying process easier.
51% of top sales performers consider themselves experts in their fields, while only 37% of non-top performers refer to themselves as experts.
89% of consumers agree that the sales reps they negotiate with are “trusted advisors.” This is also based on the fact that prospects are more likely to make buying decisions when guided by a trusted advisor or salespeople who can represent themselves well.
On the other hand, 90% of consumers have used events and industry conferences to meet sales representatives and learn more about a product or service.
Meanwhile, 51% of business organizations suggest that salespeople should improve their ability to determine the purchasing behaviors of buyers.

Outside Sales Statistics

Two men and a man looking at a clipboard — Outside sales still works today. You just need to strategize your methods and approach well.

Previously, you’ve learned about inside sales and the statistics surrounding it. Now, let’s look at some of the notable figures regarding outside sales—the process of selling products and services through face-to-face meetings with prospective customers.

According to sales statistics 2022, 93% of sales are made by outside sales reps in the past 5 years. If the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this statistic may diminish over time.
Field sales teams or face-to-face sales interactions make up more than 71% of the sales force.
Meanwhile, outside sales agents currently spend 89% more time selling remotely than in 2013.
Following the coronavirus pandemic, 27% of field sales teams were thinking of a shift from traditional in-person sales into virtual sales roles.
65% of outside sales executives are attaining sales quota, which is 10% higher than inside salespeople.
On the other hand, outside sales agents achieve an average of 40% closing rate.
The average yearly sales target for outside sales professionals is around $2.7 million.

Now, if you’re a startup looking to grow your sales via social media, check this Social Champ review.

How Will Sales Evolve in 5 Years?

Factors that affect sales forecasting chart — When looking at the future of sales, it’s also smart to consider the key factors that affect your sales forecasting. | **Source**: Business Wire

At this point, you might be wondering: what is the future of sales? By looking at sales statistics 2022, we can say that online sales will continue to grow in the next five years or more. Also, more sales industries will mature if they can learn to adapt to recent innovations and technology.

The digital world is always going forward, and it helps to study even macroeconomic indicators like interest rates, economic growth, and sales statistics that have an impact on business in general. By doing so, you can keep your sales rolling and business thriving.

Want to learn other effective ways to grow your sales and profits? Read our article: “A Guide To Facebook Store Sales Optimization in 2021.”

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