Sales Statistics (2026)

A data analysis of where a sales rep’s week actually goes, how many reps hit their number, how B2B buyers now want to buy, and what prospecting, tech stack, and AI benchmarks say about running a leaner sales motion.

The defining sales statistic of 2026: 67% of B2B buyers now prefer a rep-free buying experience, up from 61% a year earlier, per Gartner. At the same time, the average seller spends only 40% of the week actually selling, per Salesforce’s State of Sales. Buyers want fewer rep touches, and reps have fewer hours to give. The data below covers rep productivity, quota, buying groups, prospecting, tech stacks, and AI. For the tools behind it, see our CRM category.

Key takeaways

• 40% of a seller’s week goes to selling, up from 30% in 2024 and 28% in 2022, per Salesforce’s 2026 report and its 2024 edition. The other 60% goes to nonselling work.
• 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience (Gartner, 2026), yet 69% still want a rep to validate AI-generated insights (Gartner).
• 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers shape a typical B2B purchase, per Forrester’s State of Business Buying 2026.
• Buyers make first contact 61% of the way through their journey and start 79% of those conversations themselves, per 6sense’s 2025 Buyer Experience Report.
• Only 60% of SDRs hit quota, the lowest in the study’s history, per The Bridge Group’s 2025 benchmark.
• Cold email averages a 0.45% to 3.43% reply rate, depending on the dataset (Belkins; Instantly).
• Teams on a mix of standalone tools run an average of eight, and 42% of reps say they are overwhelmed by too many tools (Salesforce).
• AI saves sellers 4.8 hours a week, but 72% of sales organizations report low reinvestment of that time in high-value selling (Gartner, 2026).

How much time do sales reps actually spend selling?

Sales reps spend 40% of their time selling, per Salesforce’s 2026 State of Sales, a survey of 4,050 sales professionals in 22 countries. The other 60% goes to nonselling work like data entry and prospecting. That beats the 30% Salesforce measured in 2024, but most of the week still happens away from buyers.

1. The average seller spends 40% of the week selling and 60% not selling, per Salesforce’s 7th State of Sales. The survey ran from August through September 2025. Salesforce frames the problem as capacity, not skill.
2. Gen Z reps sell for just 35% of their time, losing about two full hours each week to manual data entry, per Salesforce. The newest reps carry the heaviest admin load, which is the reverse of how onboarding should work.
3. In 2024, reps spent only 30% of their time selling, versus 28% in 2022, per Salesforce’s 6th edition. Samples differ between editions, so read the jump to 40% as directional.
4. In the 2024 breakdown, data entry, admin, internal meetings and training, and prospect research each took 9% of the week, while in-person customer meetings took 12%, per Salesforce. Quotes and proposals ate another 10%.
5. Sales pros spend 16% of their time on preparation and planning, per the 2026 report. Planning is useful work, but it is still time not spent with a buyer.
6. 77% of sellers struggle to complete their assigned tasks efficiently, a 2023 Gartner survey of 501 sellers found. That was despite rising budgets for sales tech, training, and enablement.

The pattern is consistent across editions: admin, data entry, and internal work absorb the majority of a rep’s hours. More software has not fixed it. Internal meetings are a big part of the drag, and our meeting statistics show how much of the workweek they consume.

What percentage of sales reps hit quota?

Most reps miss quota. In Salesforce’s 2024 State of Sales, 84% of reps missed quota the prior year and 67% did not expect to hit it, per the 6th edition. The 2026 outlook is brighter: 18% expect to land at 100% and 17% expect to beat it. Among SDRs, 60% hit quota.

7. 84% of sales reps missed quota last year, and 67% did not expect to meet it this year, per Salesforce’s 2024 State of Sales. That survey covered 5,500 sales professionals in March and April 2024.
8. In the 2026 edition, 18% of reps expect to hit exactly 100% of quota and 17% expect to exceed it, per Salesforce. In 2024, those shares were 10% and 6%.
9. Another 24% of reps expect to finish at 76% to 99% of quota, and 25% at 51% to 75%, per Salesforce. The middle of the curve is where most of the sales floor lives.
10. 60% of SDRs are at quota, the lowest reported in the study’s history, per The Bridge Group. The metric has trended down since 2018.
11. 59.9% of sales teams are on track to meet or surpass their revenue targets, per HubSpot’s 2025 State of Sales, based on a survey of 1,000 global sales pros. Team-level targets look healthier than individual quota.
12. Sellers who effectively partner with AI tools are 3.7 times more likely to meet quota, per a Gartner survey of 1,026 B2B sellers in early 2024. That is a correlation, not proof that AI alone moves the number.

How do B2B buyers want to buy in 2026?

67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, per Gartner’s March 2026 survey of 646 B2B buyers, up from 61% the year before. In a related release, 70% said they prefer a completely digital, self-service purchase. Reps still matter at key moments: 69% want a rep to validate AI-generated insights.

13. 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, up from 61% in Gartner’s prior survey (Gartner, March 2026; Gartner, June 2025). The earlier figure came from 632 buyers surveyed in August and September 2024.
14. 70% of buyers prefer a completely digital, self-service buying experience, per Gartner. Your pricing page, docs, and demo videos are now doing the job a first call used to do.
15. 69% of B2B buyers prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps, per Gartner’s survey of 645 buyers. The rep’s role is moving from information source to fact-checker.
16. 45% of buyers used AI during a recent purchase, per Gartner, and buyers drew on an average of seven information sources (Gartner).
17. 94% of business buyers report using AI during their buying process, per Forrester, and 6sense separately found that 94% of buyers use LLMs. Two independent studies landing on the same figure is a strong signal.
18. 51% of buyers say they are more likely to get misleading information from GenAI, while 49% say the same of sales reps, per Gartner. Buyers trust neither source fully.
19. 73% of B2B buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach, per Gartner. Bad prospecting does not just fail; it burns the account.
20. 69% of B2B buyers report inconsistencies between a supplier’s website and what its sellers tell them, per the same Gartner survey. When the site and the rep disagree, trust drops.

How many people are in a B2B buying group?

A typical B2B purchase now involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, per Forrester’s State of Business Buying 2026, based on a survey of nearly 18,000 buyers. Gartner puts buying groups at five to 16 people across as many as four functions. Either way, no single champion closes a deal alone.

21. 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers take part in the typical buying decision, per Forrester, and the number rises for complex or strategic purchases.
22. Purchases that include genAI features have buying groups twice as large: 14 members versus seven, per Forrester’s research blog. AI products face more scrutiny, not less.
23. Procurement is a decision-maker in 53% of business buying cycles, per Forrester, and it engages from the start of the process rather than at the contract stage.
24. More than 60% of business buyers now use a trial, rising to 78% for purchases of $10 million or more, per Forrester. Yet just over a third of buyers planned to convert to a paid version with the same provider (Forrester).
25. 74% of B2B buyer teams show unhealthy conflict during the buying decision, per Gartner. Groups that reach consensus are 2.5 times more likely to report a high-quality deal.
26. 94% of buyers with groups of six or more report clear benefits from the larger group, per Forrester, including broader perspectives and better odds of securing budget.

Sources: Forrester press release, Forrester blog, Gartner, 6sense.

When do B2B buyers first contact a sales rep?

B2B buyers make first contact with sellers 61% of the way through their buying journey, per 6sense’s 2025 Buyer Experience Report, a study of nearly 4,000 buyers. That is earlier than the 69% seen in 2024. Buyers still start 79% of those conversations, and the vendor they contact first wins 8 out of 10 deals.

27. The point of first contact shifted from 69% of the journey to 61%, per 6sense, roughly six to seven weeks earlier. Buyers are reaching out sooner, partly to check how vendors use AI.
28. Buyers initiated 79% of engagements in 2025, compared to 82% in prior years, per 6sense. Most deals still start with the buyer reaching out.
29. 77.0% of buyers said their first vendor conversation was with the eventual winner, per 6sense. If you are not the first call, you are usually not the pick.
30. Buyers evaluate an average of 5.1 vendors and fill 3.6 shortlist spots on day one, per 6sense. They choose from that day-one shortlist 95% of the time.
31. Average buying cycles dropped from 11.3 months in 2024 to 10.1 months in 2025, per 6sense.
32. 58% of buyers said the need to evaluate how vendors implement AI made them engage earlier, per 6sense. AI is pulling first contact forward, not pushing reps out.
33. 74% of sales pros believe AI is making it easier for buyers to research products, per HubSpot. Sellers see the same self-directed buyer that the buyer surveys describe.

Source: 6sense, The B2B Buyer Experience Report for 2025.

What is the average cold email reply rate?

The average cold email reply rate falls between 0.45% and 3.43%, depending on the dataset. Belkins measured 0.45% across 7.5 million agency-sent emails in 2025. Instantly measured 3.43% across billions of platform emails. Both divide replies by total emails sent, so the gap likely comes down to who is sending and to whom.

34. The average cold email reply rate is 3.43%, top-quartile campaigns reach 5.5%, and the top 10% exceed 10.7%, per Instantly’s 2026 benchmark. Instantly sells cold email software, so its users skew toward practiced senders.
35. 58% of cold email replies come from the first email, and follow-ups bring in the other 42%, per Instantly. The first touch sets the ceiling, but stopping after one email leaves almost half the replies unclaimed.
36. The average reply rate across Belkins’ 2025 campaigns was 0.45%, across 7.5 million cold emails that booked over 1,200 appointments (Belkins). Belkins notes this is a stricter denominator than its earlier studies used.
37. Founders and owners reply at 0.57%, C-level executives at 0.42%, and VPs at 0.32%, per Belkins. The person who owns the problem and the budget answers most often.
38. Very small companies (0 to 10 employees) reply at 0.72%, versus 0.22% at enterprises with 10,000+ employees, per Belkins. Enterprise outreach needs more threads and more patience.
39. Customized emails get 2x higher reply rates and 10% higher open rates than standard templates, per Outreach platform data. Outreach is a sales engagement vendor, so treat this as directional.
40. 42% of sales pros say social media delivers the highest cold outreach response rate, versus 26% for email and 23% for phone, per HubSpot. This is seller opinion, not measured reply data.

Sources: Instantly Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026, Belkins 2026 study. Both report replies divided by total emails sent.

For the inbound side of email, see our email marketing statistics.

Does cold calling still work?

Cold calling works when the opener earns attention. In Gong’s analysis of 300M+ cold calls, published in 2024, the best opener hit an 11.24% success rate, while “Did I catch you at a bad time?” managed 2.15%. Phone-centric SDR teams also log more quality conversations per day than email-centric ones.

41. The “heard the name tossed around?” opener had an 11.24% success rate, and the permission-based opener had 11.18%, per Gong. Both lead with context instead of small talk.
42. “How’s your day going?” scored 7.6%, and “Did I catch you at a bad time?” scored 2.15%, per Gong. Gong calls the second figure just slightly higher than the average baseline.
43. Phone-centric SDR teams average 56 dials and 4.6 quality conversations per day, versus 28 dials and 3.4 for email-centric teams, per The Bridge Group. The phone still produces more live conversations per rep.
44. The median SDR logs 112 activities a day: 44 phone, 41 email, 19 LinkedIn, and 8 text or other, per The Bridge Group. Most teams run a balanced mix, not a single channel.
45. 48% of sales pros say they lack bandwidth to do adequate cold outreach, despite devoting nearly one full day of their workweek to prospecting, per Salesforce.

What are the benchmarks for SDR teams?

The median SDR earns $80K in on-target earnings, ramps in 3.0 months, and stays 1.9 years, per The Bridge Group’s 2025 study of 351 B2B companies. Only 60% of SDRs hit quota. Teams run one SDR for every 2.4 account executives, a ratio that has held since 2018.

46. Median SDR on-target earnings are $80K, unchanged since 2022, with a 68:32 base-to-variable split, per The Bridge Group. OTE has grown at just 0.56% a year over the past decade, well below inflation.
47. Average SDR ramp time is 3.0 months, the lowest since 2010, down from a peak of 3.8 months in 2014 (The Bridge Group).
48. Median annual SDR attrition was 40% in 2024, per The Bridge Group. Promotions accounted for 16%, half the 34% seen in 2020.
49. Each SDR generates a median $3.78M in raw pipeline a year, up from $2.83M in 2022, per The Bridge Group. The increase comes from higher deal sizes, not more meetings.
50. The global median monthly quota is 10 held meetings, down 40% since 2018, per The Bridge Group.
51. 2025 is the first year “AI SDRs” appeared as a distinct category, at 1% of respondents, per The Bridge Group. Separately, Outreach says 45% of teams already use a hybrid AI-SDR model, a sign of how much definitions vary.

Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025, survey of 351 B2B companies, 83% B2B SaaS.

How many tools are in the average sales tech stack?

Sales teams that run on a mix of standalone tools use an average of eight, per Salesforce’s 2026 State of Sales. Only 34% of teams use one all-in-one platform, and 42% of reps say they are overwhelmed by too many tools. Gartner found overwhelmed sellers are 45% less likely to attain quota.

52. 34% of sales teams run on one platform, 45% use a platform supplemented by standalone tools, and 20% use many standalone tools, per Salesforce. Everyone outside that first group is managing some degree of sprawl.
53. Teams on standalone tools use an average of eight, and 42% of sales reps are overwhelmed by too many tools, per Salesforce.
54. 50% of sellers are overwhelmed by the amount of technology needed for their job, and overwhelmed sellers are 45% less likely to attain quota, per Gartner’s 2024 seller survey. 72% feel overwhelmed by the number of skills required.
55. 84% of sales teams without an all-in-one platform plan to consolidate their tech, per Salesforce. High performers are 1.3x more likely to move to a platform and 1.5x more likely to prioritize data hygiene.
56. Data and analytics leaders estimate that 19% of their data is inaccessible, per Salesforce research cited in the State of Sales. Every extra standalone tool is another place for data to get stuck.
57. 37% of reps use AI tools, more than any other sales tool category, and 31% rate AI as their highest-ROI tool, per HubSpot.

This is the tools8020 thesis in sales form. The stack problem is not a lack of features. It is too many tools, adopted too thinly, with data split across all of them. Our CRM software statistics show the same pattern in data quality and CRM returns.

How is AI changing sales?

AI saves sellers an average of 4.8 hours per week, per Gartner’s 2026 survey of 210 sales leaders. But 72% of sales organizations report low reinvestment of that time in high-value selling. Adoption is broad: 54% of sellers have used AI agents, per Salesforce. Proving the return is the hard part.

58. AI saves sellers 4.8 hours per week, but 72% of sales organizations report low reinvestment of that time, per Gartner. Teams that do reinvest are 2.2x more likely to exceed customer growth goals and 3.1x more likely to exceed lead-to-opportunity goals.
59. 25% of sales organizations report a 50% or higher return on AI investments, while 20% report a 50% or higher negative return, per Gartner. AI splits the field rather than lifting everyone.
60. 31% of chief sales officers cite difficulty proving the ROI of AI tools as a top challenge for 2026, per a Gartner survey of 227 CSOs conducted in August and September 2025.
61. 54% of sellers have used AI agents, and nearly 9 in 10 plan to by 2027, per Salesforce. Sellers expect agents to cut prospect research time by 34% and email drafting by 36%.
62. Top performers are 1.7x more likely to use AI agents than struggling teams, per Salesforce. And 55% of sales professionals use AI for prospecting, with another 38% planning to.
63. Only 8% of sales reps report not using AI at all, per HubSpot’s 2025 survey. Non-use is now the outlier.
64. 74% of sales professionals are focusing on data cleansing to support AI, per Salesforce, and 79% of high performers prioritize data hygiene versus 54% of underperformers.

The common thread: AI gives time back, but only teams with clean data and a plan for the freed hours turn it into revenue. For adoption inside the CRM itself, see our CRM statistics. For the marketing side of the same shift, see AI in marketing statistics.

What to do with this data

• Buy for selling time, not features. Reps sell 40% of the week. Pick the CRM your team will actually keep updated, whether that is HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Attio, and judge it on how much data entry it removes.
• Consolidate before you add. Teams on standalone tools average eight, 42% of reps feel overwhelmed, and overwhelmed sellers are 45% less likely to hit quota. Cut a tool before you add an AI layer on top.
• Build for the rep-free buyer. With 67% preferring a rep-free experience and 70% preferring a fully digital purchase, put pricing, proof, and product tours where buyers can find them. Make sure the site and the sales team say the same thing.
• Prospect with relevance, not volume. 73% of buyers avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach. Benchmark your reply rate against the 0.45% to 3.43% range and invest in the first email, which drives 58% of replies.
• Measure AI by reinvested hours. AI saves 4.8 hours a week, but 72% of organizations do not put that time back into selling. Decide in advance where saved hours go.
• For individual sellers, our picks for sales reps focus on the few tools that cover the core jobs.

See how we score and test tools on our about page.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of time do salespeople spend selling?

Salespeople spend 40% of their time selling, per Salesforce’s 2026 State of Sales, with the other 60% going to nonselling work like data entry and prospecting. Salesforce’s 2024 edition measured 30%, and its 2022 report measured 28%. Gen Z reps sit lower, at 35%.

What percentage of sales reps hit quota?

Fewer than half. Salesforce’s 2024 survey found 84% of reps missed quota the prior year. In its 2026 edition, 18% expect to hit exactly 100% and 17% expect to exceed it. For SDRs, The Bridge Group reports 60% at quota.

Do B2B buyers prefer to buy without a salesperson?

Most do. 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, per Gartner’s 2026 survey, up from 61% a year earlier. But buyers still want reps at key moments: 69% prefer to validate AI-generated insights with a sales rep, per Gartner.

How many people are involved in a B2B purchase?

Forrester counts 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers in a typical buying decision. Gartner puts groups at five to 16 people across up to four functions. For purchases with genAI features, Forrester finds groups double, to 14 members from seven.

What is a good cold email reply rate?

Instantly’s 2026 benchmark puts the average at 3.43%, the top quartile at 5.5%, and the top 10% above 10.7%. Belkins measured a stricter 0.45% across 7.5 million agency emails in 2025. Beating 3.43% puts a campaign above Instantly’s platform average.

What is the best cold call opener?

In Gong’s analysis of 300M+ cold calls, the “heard the name tossed around?” opener led with an 11.24% success rate, just ahead of a permission-based opener at 11.18%. “Did I catch you at a bad time?” was worst at 2.15%. Openers that lead with context win.

How many tools does the average sales team use?

Teams running on a mix of standalone tools use an average of eight, per Salesforce’s 2026 State of Sales. Only 34% of teams run on one all-in-one platform, 42% of reps feel overwhelmed by too many tools, and 84% of teams without a single platform plan to consolidate.

How much time does AI save salespeople?

AI saves sellers an average of 4.8 hours per week, per a 2026 Gartner survey of 210 sales leaders. But 72% of sales organizations report low reinvestment of that time in high-value activities, which limits the commercial payoff.

How we compiled these statistics

We drew on 20 pages from 10 publishers: Salesforce, Gartner, Forrester, 6sense, HubSpot, The Bridge Group, Gong, Instantly, Belkins, and Outreach. Every figure was retrieved from the publisher’s own page or report in October 2026; Gartner’s press releases were read through Internet Archive snapshots of gartner.com because the live site blocked automated access. Figures we could not trace to a primary source were omitted, ranges are shown where sources disagree, and vendor-run studies are labeled as such.

Sources

• Salesforce: State of Sales, 7th Edition (2026)
• Salesforce: The Productivity Gap, State of Sales announcement (2026)
• Salesforce: State of Sales, 6th Edition (2024)
• Gartner: Sales Survey Finds 67% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Experience (2026)
• Gartner: Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience (2025)
• Gartner: 69% of B2B Buyers Turn to Sales Reps to Validate AI-Generated Insights (2026)
• Gartner: 74% of B2B Buyer Teams Demonstrate Unhealthy Conflict (2025)
• Gartner: Sellers Who Partner With AI Are 3.7 Times More Likely to Meet Quota (2024)
• Gartner: AI Saves Sellers Nearly 5 Hours Per Week (2026)
• Gartner: 31% of CSOs Cite Difficulty Proving ROI of AI-Driven Tools (2026)
• Gartner: 77% of Sellers Struggle to Complete Their Assigned Tasks Efficiently (2023)
• Forrester: The State Of Business Buying, 2026 (press release)
• Forrester: The State Of Business Buying, 2026 (blog)
• 6sense: The B2B Buyer Experience Report for 2025
• HubSpot: 2025 State of Sales Report (2025)
• The Bridge Group: SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 Research Report (2025)
• Gong: The best and worst cold call openers, data from 300M calls (2024)
• Instantly: Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026 (2026)
• Belkins: What are B2B Cold Email Response Rates? 2026 Study (2026)
• Outreach: Sales 2025, How Data, AI, and Connection Are Reshaping Revenue Teams (2025)