Salespeople are the lifeblood of your business. If your salespeople don’t bring on new business, your company dies.

This is a hard truth of business.

However, if you hire and develop skilled salespeople and provide them with the right tools you can thrive. One tool that shouldn’t be overlooked is knowledge. Fortunately, you’re not starting from ground zero and there is a wealth of data and information you can pull from what others have done to be successful in sales.

Empowering your sales team with this data will help them be more effective, and in turn, help your business succeed. For example, if your salespeople knew that customers are four times more likely to buy from your brand when they are referred by a friend, they would know to invest time in building referral channels. GetCRM has put together a graphic that visualizes important statistics like this.

Thier graphic includes valuable insight such as:

• 80% of sales require at least five follow up calls.
• The optimal voice message is between 8 and 14 seconds.
• Adding the word “new” to your email subject line can increase open rates by 23%
• And more.

Check out the infographic below to learn more about these important sales statistics, and leverage that knowledge for your own teams.

Transcribed infographic:

Sales Statistics You Need To Know In 2017

Referrals are gold

Customers are 4X more likely to buy when referred by a friend.

One offline word of mouth impression drives sales 5X more than one paid impression.

The lifetime value of referred customers is 16% higher than that of non-referred customers.

Cold calling works, but takes persistence

75% of executives polled were prompted to attend an event or appointment as a result of a cold call or email.

Teleprospectors make between 100-500 calls for every lead they qualify. 

44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up.

Don’t overlook email

When personalized emails are used there is a:

• 14% improvement in click-through rates
• 10% improvement in conversion rates

People who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than people that do not receive email offers.

Timing is everything

There is a 10x drop in lead qualification when you wait longer than 5 minutes to respond.

24% of all email opens occur within the first hour of delivery. 

Sales are going digital

67% of the buyer’s journey is done digitally. 

7 out of 10 executives believe that technology will replace human interaction with customers in the next decade.

Social media influences buyers

43% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends on social media.

55% of B2B buyers search for information on social media.

Sales is an uphill battle

77% of sales emails don’t get opened.

79% of all marketing leads are never converted to sales.

82% of B2B decision-makers think sales reps are unprepared.

Lead nurturing is critical 

Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects see a 451% increase in qualified leads.

Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

CRM system adoption increases sales by up to 29%