There is a whole lot of information on the web and in print on what to do to get great sales results. Part of the solution is to know what are the statistics behind some sales activities that could help influence how you approach your activities.
- Most emails get opened at the end of a day. According to a study done by MailChimp they found the hours between 2pm and 5pm to have the most opens.
- Tuesday is tending to be the day of the week with the best open rate.
- A subject line is one of the keys to whether a person opens an email. A study shows about 35% of people will make their decision to open an email based on a quick read of the email’s subject line.
- Key words in your subject line are important for the open rate. Words such as “learn”, “new”, “alert” tend to grab their attention.
- According to a recent study about 57% of recipients will mark an email as spam, and this is even when the person knows the sender too. If the subject line and material don’t resonate, they will throw it to spam because they don’t have the time to linger over matters that don’t help them move forward.
- For outbound cold calling only about 2% result in an appointment. This resonates with me because of my experience with clients using this technique. It can be very effective but requires a large volume of calls to drive results.
- On average a study showed that sales people will spend about 25 hours each month leaving voice mails. Does leaving a voice mail work? It may in some cases, but from my experience it does not result in calls to action to return the call.
- Most voice mails will not be returned. A study done by RingLead indicates that 80% of call go to voice mail and 90% of the first-time voice mails will go unanswered. Some say to make it effective, only leave a voice mail that is between 5 to 15 seconds long.
- The best time to call is generally between 6:30am – 8am and 4:30pm and 6:30pm. People are usually checking messages and catching up at these times of day.
- A recent study found that 77% of B-to-B buyers never talk to a sales person without independent research done before making contact. It’s important to maintain the right social media presence and website content that will provide the information needed to the buyer.
- Another study on B-to-B business found that 84% of buyers in this market started their buying decision with a referral. One of the most powerful sales techniques is “word of mouth” referrals from a trusted friend or advisor. How can your company position itself with influencers in your space as the “go to” source for your product or service?
- Social media usage for business has found sales people are 79% more likely to hit their goals. The key is using it for business communication with a strong message for recipient.
Give these statistics some thought on how you can utilize it with the sales techniques most appropriate for your company.
Here’s to increasing our sales!
Mike