SALES.CO
Research/B2B Sales

64 B2B Sales Statistics for 2026 (Updated September)

64 statistics on how B2B buyers buy and how sales teams sell, each linked to the study that produced it, plus six numbers from the cold email Sales.co sends.

Jakob Greenfeld
Written by
Co-founder, Sales.co
Published
September 23, 2026
Last modified
September 23, 2026
Sources verified

Top 10

  1. A Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers in 2025 found 67% prefer a buying experience with no sales rep.
  2. Salesforce's 2024 State of Sales survey found 84% of sales reps missed quota the previous year.
  3. Salesforce's 2026 State of Sales survey of 4,050 sales professionals found the average seller spends 40% of their time selling.
  4. Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmark of 655,000 opportunities put the average new-logo win rate at 19%.
  5. The vendor a buyer contacts first wins 8 out of 10 deals, according to 6sense's 2025 buyer survey.
  6. RAIN Group's 2018 study of 488 B2B buyers found 82% accepted meetings with sellers who reached out to them first.
  7. Companies that tried to contact a web lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as those that waited even one more hour, a 2011 Harvard Business Review study of 1.25 million leads found.
  8. Across 1,288,605 cold emails Sales.co sent between October 2025 and August 2026, one in 421 drew an interested reply (0.24%).
  9. 72% of interested replies to Sales.co cold emails came from people who had received only one email from us; 1.1% came after five or more.
  10. The median interested reply to a Sales.co cold email arrived 1.8 hours after the most recent email to that person; 80% arrived within 24 hours and 42% within one hour.

How B2B buyers buy

  1. 1

    A Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers in 2025 found 67% prefer a buying experience with no sales rep.

    Source: Gartner press release, March 9, 2026 · 2026 · 646 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2025

  2. 2

    A year earlier, a Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers put the share preferring a rep-free buying experience at 61%.

    Source: Gartner press release, June 25, 2025 · 2025 · 632 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2024

  3. 3

    Gartner found 74% of B2B buyer teams show unhealthy conflict during the buying decision.

    Source: Gartner press release, May 7, 2025 · 2025 · 632 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2024

  4. 4

    Gartner puts B2B buying groups at five to 16 people from as many as four functions.

    Source: Gartner press release, May 7, 2025 · 2025 · 632 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2024

  5. 5

    Gartner research has B2B buyers spending 17% of their buying time meeting potential suppliers, which works out to 5% or 6% with any one sales rep when they compare several.

    Source: Gartner, The New B2B Buying Process (web page, archived January 2021) · 2021 · Not stated on the page; Gartner's buying-journey research, page archived January 6, 2021

  6. 6

    B2B buyers used an average of seven information sources during a recent purchase, according to a Gartner survey of 645 buyers.

    Source: Gartner press release, May 20, 2026 · 2026 · 645 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2025

  7. 7

    Forrester's 2026 buyer research found the typical B2B buying decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers.

    Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026 (press release) · 2026 · Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey, nearly 18,000 global business buyers (2025 fieldwork); full report client-only · full report gated

  8. 8

    Procurement staff are decision-makers in 53% of business buying cycles, according to Forrester's 2026 buyer research.

    Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026 (press release) · 2026 · Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey, nearly 18,000 global business buyers (2025 fieldwork); full report client-only · full report gated

  9. 9

    More than 60% of business buyers now use a trial before buying, Forrester's 2026 buyer research found.

    Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026 (press release) · 2026 · Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey, nearly 18,000 global business buyers (2025 fieldwork); full report client-only · full report gated

  10. 10

    Forrester's 2024 buyer research found 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process.

    Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024 (press release) · 2024 · Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey 2024; sample size not stated in the release · full report gated

  11. 11

    In the same Forrester 2024 research, 81% of buyers said they were dissatisfied with the provider they chose.

    Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024 (press release) · 2024 · Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey 2024; sample size not stated in the release · full report gated

  12. 12

    Forrester found 89% of B2B purchases involve two or more departments.

    Source: Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2024 (press release) · 2024 · Forrester Buyers' Journey Survey 2024; sample size not stated in the release · full report gated

  13. 13

    B2B buyers initiated 79% of first conversations with sellers in 2025, according to 6sense.

    Source: 6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report · 2025 · Nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, global, 2025

  14. 14

    Buyers first contacted a seller 61% of the way through their buying journey in 2025, down from 69% in 2024, 6sense found.

    Source: 6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report · 2025 · Nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, global, 2025

  15. 15

    The vendor a buyer contacts first wins 8 out of 10 deals, according to 6sense's 2025 buyer survey.

    Source: 6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report · 2025 · Nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, global, 2025

  16. 16

    94% of B2B buying groups rank their shortlist in order of preference before they talk to any seller, 6sense found.

    Source: 6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report · 2025 · Nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, global, 2025

Selling time and productivity

  1. 17

    Salesforce's 2026 State of Sales survey of 4,050 sales professionals found the average seller spends 40% of their time selling.

    Source: Salesforce, State of Sales, 7th edition (announcement, February 3, 2026) · 2026 · 4,050 sales professionals in 22 countries, surveyed August to September 2025 (7th edition)

  2. 18

    48% of sales reps say they lack the bandwidth for adequate cold outreach, even though they spend nearly a full day a week prospecting, Salesforce's 2026 survey found.

    Source: Salesforce, State of Sales, 7th edition (announcement, February 3, 2026) · 2026 · 4,050 sales professionals in 22 countries, surveyed August to September 2025 (7th edition)

  3. 19

    In Salesforce's 2022 State of Sales survey of 7,700+ sales professionals, reps spent 28% of their week selling, down from 34% in 2018.

    Source: Salesforce, State of Sales, 5th edition (blog summary, December 2022) · 2022 · 7,700+ sales professionals (5th edition, 2022)

  4. 20

    Ebsta's 2025 benchmark found sellers spend 21% of their day engaging with customers, under two hours a day.

    Source: Ebsta x Pavilion, 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report · 2025 · 655,000 opportunities worth $48 billion in Ebsta CRM data, plus a survey of 2,000+ CROs and sales leaders

Prospecting: cold calls, email and social

  1. 21

    Across 1,288,605 cold emails Sales.co sent between October 2025 and August 2026, one in 421 drew an interested reply (0.24%).

    Source: Sales.co · 2025-10-06 to 2026-08-17 · 1,288,605 sent emails; 3,062 interested replies

  2. 22

    A real person replied to 0.70% of the 1,288,605 cold emails Sales.co sent between October 2025 and August 2026; 53.7% of all replies were automated.

    Source: Sales.co · 2025-10-06 to 2026-08-17 · 1,288,605 sent emails; 8,994 human first responses out of 34,269 replies

  3. 23

    C-level executives replied positively to 0.27% of Sales.co cold emails, against 0.088% for directors, while total reply rates were nearly the same (1.61% and 1.68%).

    Source: Sales.co · April to October 2025 · About 1 million cold emails, 445,000 of them to C-level contacts

  4. 24

    Gartner found 73% of B2B buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.

    Source: Gartner press release, June 25, 2025 · 2025 · 632 B2B buyers surveyed August to September 2024

  5. 25

    RAIN Group's 2018 study of 488 B2B buyers found 82% accepted meetings with sellers who reached out to them first.

    Source: RAIN Group Center for Sales Research, Top Performance in Sales Prospecting (press release, January 31, 2018) · 2018 · 488 B2B buyers ($4.2 billion in purchases, 25 industries) and 489 sellers who prospect, published January 2018 · full report gated

  6. 26

    In RAIN Group's 2018 buyer study, 58% of buyers said the seller behind their most recent accepted meeting reached them by email.

    Source: RAIN Group Center for Sales Research (press release, January 31, 2018) · 2018 · 488 B2B buyers ($4.2 billion in purchases, 25 industries) and 489 sellers who prospect, published January 2018 · full report gated

  7. 27

    In the same RAIN Group study, 54% of buyers said the seller reached them by phone for their most recent accepted meeting.

    Source: RAIN Group Center for Sales Research (press release, January 31, 2018) · 2018 · 488 B2B buyers ($4.2 billion in purchases, 25 industries) and 489 sellers who prospect, published January 2018 · full report gated

  8. 28

    52% of sellers told RAIN Group it takes five to 10 touches to connect with a new prospect for the first time.

    Source: RAIN Group Center for Sales Research (press release, January 31, 2018) · 2018 · 488 B2B buyers ($4.2 billion in purchases, 25 industries) and 489 sellers who prospect, published January 2018 · full report gated

  9. 29

    Across 300 million+ cold calls in Gong's data, the average rep connects with 5.4% of prospects, about one conversation per 19 dials.

    Source: Gong Labs, The hidden power of cold calling (July 2024) · 2024 · 300M+ cold calls recorded on Gong

  10. 30

    Gong's cold call data shows a cold call lifts the email reply rate from 1.81% to 3.44% even when nobody picks up.

    Source: Gong Labs, The hidden power of cold calling (July 2024) · 2024 · 300M+ cold calls recorded on Gong

  11. 31

    Gong Labs found opening a cold call with "Did I catch you at a bad time?" makes a meeting 40% less likely.

    Source: Gong Labs, cold call stats (August 2021) · 2021 · Gong Labs analysis of "thousands of cold calls"; exact count not stated

  12. 32

    Cognism's 2026 cold calling report puts the industry average cold call success rate at 2.7%, up from 2.3% in 2025.

    Source: Cognism, Cold Calling Report 2026 · 2026 · Vendor report; method and sample for the industry benchmark are not stated

  13. 33

    Cognism's own SDRs reached a live person on 13.3% of 449,933 cold calls in its 2026 outbound report.

    Source: Cognism, State of Outbound 2026 · 2026 · 449,933 calls by Cognism's own SDR team (vendor's internal data)

  14. 34

    42% of sales professionals in HubSpot's 2025 survey said social media gets the highest cold outreach response rate, against 26% for email and 23% for phone.

    Source: HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales Report · 2025 · 1,000 global sales professionals (HubSpot 2025 State of Sales survey)

Sales cycles, deals and win rates

  1. 35

    6sense's survey of nearly 4,000 B2B buyers found the average buying cycle fell from 11.3 months in 2024 to 10.1 months in 2025.

    Source: 6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report · 2025 · Nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, global, 2025

  2. 36

    49% of B2B software buyers say their CFO reversed a deal the buying team had already approved in the past year, G2's 2026 survey found.

    Source: G2, 2026 Buyer Behavior Report · 2026 · 1,038 B2B software decision-makers, online survey, June 2026

  3. 37

    IT security review is the biggest single source of delay between choosing a vendor and completing a purchase, cited by 39% of software buyers in G2's 2026 survey.

    Source: G2, 2026 Buyer Behavior Report · 2026 · 1,038 B2B software decision-makers, online survey, June 2026

  4. 38

    Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmark of 655,000 opportunities put the average new-logo win rate at 19%.

    Source: Ebsta x Pavilion, 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report · 2025 · 655,000 opportunities worth $48 billion in Ebsta CRM data, plus a survey of 2,000+ CROs and sales leaders

  5. 39

    New-business deals took 91 days to close on average, against 52 days for expansion deals, in Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmark.

    Source: Ebsta x Pavilion, 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report · 2025 · 655,000 opportunities worth $48 billion in Ebsta CRM data, plus a survey of 2,000+ CROs and sales leaders

  6. 40

    Ebsta's 2025 benchmark counts 8 stakeholders engaged on the average new-business opportunity and 5 on expansion deals.

    Source: Ebsta x Pavilion, 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report · 2025 · 655,000 opportunities worth $48 billion in Ebsta CRM data, plus a survey of 2,000+ CROs and sales leaders

  7. 41

    The top deal-killers in HubSpot's 2025 survey were no product fit, cited by 37% of sales professionals, and poor value for money, cited by 35%.

    Source: HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales Report · 2025 · 1,000 global sales professionals (HubSpot 2025 State of Sales survey)

Quota attainment

  1. 42

    Salesforce's 2024 State of Sales survey found 84% of sales reps missed quota the previous year.

    Source: Salesforce, State of Sales, 6th edition (Salesforce blog summary) · 2024 · 5,500 sales professionals (6th edition, 2024) · full report gated

  2. 43

    In the same 2024 Salesforce survey, 67% of sales reps said they did not expect to meet quota that year.

    Source: Salesforce, State of Sales, 6th edition (Salesforce blog summary) · 2024 · 5,500 sales professionals (6th edition, 2024) · full report gated

  3. 44

    78% of sellers missed quota in 2024, up from 69% the year before, according to Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmark.

    Source: Ebsta x Pavilion, 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report · 2025 · 655,000 opportunities worth $48 billion in Ebsta CRM data, plus a survey of 2,000+ CROs and sales leaders

  4. 45

    Just 14% of sellers generated 80% of revenue in Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmark.

    Source: Ebsta x Pavilion, 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report · 2025 · 655,000 opportunities worth $48 billion in Ebsta CRM data, plus a survey of 2,000+ CROs and sales leaders

  5. 46

    Average quota attainment in RepVue's Cloud Sales Index closed Q4 2025 just below 44%, its highest level since Q2 2023.

    Source: RepVue, Cloud Sales Index Q4 2025 · 2026 · About 57,055 ratings from quota-carrying sales professionals at 272 cloud companies, self-reported on RepVue

  6. 47

    60% of sales professionals in HubSpot's 2025 survey said they were on track to meet or exceed their sales goals.

    Source: HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales Report · 2025 · 1,000 global sales professionals (HubSpot 2025 State of Sales survey)

SDR teams: ramp, tenure and quota

  1. 48

    Phone-focused SDR teams average 56 dials and 4.6 quality conversations a day, against 28 dials and 3.4 for email-focused teams, the Bridge Group found.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  2. 49

    The average SDR takes 3.0 months to ramp, the lowest since 2010, according to the Bridge Group's 2025 study of 351 companies.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  3. 50

    Average SDR tenure is 1.9 years, the highest since the early 2010s, the Bridge Group found in 2025.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  4. 51

    60% of SDRs hit quota in the Bridge Group's 2025 study, the lowest share in the study's history.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  5. 52

    Median SDR on-target earnings are $80,000, up only 0.56% a year over the past decade, the Bridge Group found.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  6. 53

    Median annual SDR attrition was 40% in 2024, according to the Bridge Group.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  7. 54

    Companies run 2.4 account executives for every SDR, a ratio unchanged since 2018, the Bridge Group found.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  8. 55

    The median monthly SDR quota is 10 held meetings, down 40% since 2018, according to the Bridge Group.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

  9. 56

    Each SDR generates a median $3.78 million in pipeline a year, up from $2.83 million, the Bridge Group found in 2025.

    Source: The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions & Metrics 2025 · 2025 · 351 B2B companies (78% North America, 83% B2B SaaS), survey collected 2024-2025, 10th edition

Speed to lead and follow-up

  1. 57

    The median interested reply to a Sales.co cold email arrived 1.8 hours after the most recent email to that person; 80% arrived within 24 hours and 42% within one hour.

    Source: Sales.co · Replies received 2025-10-06 to 2026-08-31 · 552 interested replies matched to a send, from a random sample of 1,000 interested replies (all sending workspaces) · method

  2. 58

    72% of interested replies to Sales.co cold emails came from people who had received only one email from us; 1.1% came after five or more.

    Source: Sales.co · Replies received 2025-10-06 to 2026-08-31 · 552 interested replies matched to a send, from a random sample of 1,000 interested replies (all sending workspaces) · method

  3. 59

    69% of all replies to Sales.co's cold email sequences came from the first email; messages four and later produced under 5%.

    Source: Sales.co · Sequences analysed December 2025 · 1.5M+ sent emails; 51,000+ replies

  4. 60

    Companies that tried to contact a web lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as those that waited even one more hour, a 2011 Harvard Business Review study of 1.25 million leads found.

    Source: Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads, Harvard Business Review, March 2011 · 2011 · 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B US companies (InsideSales.com data) · full report gated

  5. 61

    The same 2011 HBR study found contact within an hour made qualifying a lead more than 60 times as likely as waiting 24 hours or longer.

    Source: Harvard Business Review, March 2011 · 2011 · 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B US companies (InsideSales.com data) · full report gated

  6. 62

    When HBR's researchers sent test leads to 2,241 US companies in 2011, 23% never responded at all.

    Source: Harvard Business Review, March 2011 · 2011 · Audit of 2,241 US companies, each sent a web-generated test lead · full report gated

  7. 63

    Among companies that did respond to HBR's 2011 test leads within 30 days, the average response time was 42 hours.

    Source: Harvard Business Review, March 2011 · 2011 · Audit of 2,241 US companies, each sent a web-generated test lead · full report gated

  8. 64

    37% of the 2,241 companies in HBR's 2011 audit responded to a web lead within an hour.

    Source: Harvard Business Review, March 2011 · 2011 · Audit of 2,241 US companies, each sent a web-generated test lead · full report gated

Widely quoted numbers with no source we could find

Frequently asked questions

What is the average win rate in B2B sales?

Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 benchmark of 655,000 opportunities put the average new-logo win rate at 19%. Many roundups still quote 20% to 21%, which comes from the earlier 2024 edition of the same benchmark.

How long is the typical B2B sales cycle?

In Ebsta and Pavilion's 2025 CRM data, new-business deals took 91 days to close and expansion deals 52 days. Buyers count a longer span: 6sense's 2025 survey of nearly 4,000 buyers put the whole buying cycle at 10.1 months, down from 11.3 months in 2024, because it includes research done before any seller is involved.

How many follow-ups does it take to make a sale?

The popular answer, 80% of sales after five or more follow-ups, goes back to a 1942 survey of fewer than 40 members of one sales club chapter. In Sales.co's cold email data, 72% of interested replies came from people who had received only one email, and 1.1% came after five or more. Sellers in RAIN Group's 2018 study said it takes five to 10 touches just to connect with a new prospect.

Does outbound sales still work?

In RAIN Group's 2018 study of 488 buyers, 82% said they had accepted meetings with sellers who reached out first. The volumes are low: the average rep in Gong's data connects on 5.4% of cold calls, and one in 421 Sales.co cold emails gets an interested reply.

What percentage of sales reps hit quota?

Salesforce's 2024 State of Sales survey found 84% of reps missed quota the previous year, and Ebsta and Pavilion counted 78% of sellers missing quota in 2024. RepVue's self-reported data put average quota attainment just below 44% in Q4 2025. Among SDRs, 60% hit quota in the Bridge Group's 2025 study.

How many people are involved in a B2B purchase?

Forrester's 2026 buyer research counts 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers in a typical decision. Gartner puts buying groups at five to 16 people across up to four functions, and Ebsta's CRM data shows sellers engaging 8 stakeholders on an average new-business deal.

Method

We searched Google and Perplexity for the questions writers ask about B2B sales, read the top-ranking statistics pages, and ranked every number by how many pages repeat it. Each number on this page was traced to the organisation that produced it and checked against that page on September 23, 2026. Where the full report is gated, we link the producer's own press release or summary, and the source line says so. Older studies stay only when they are still the standard reference, and the sentence gives the year. Sales.co numbers come from our own sending database and cover every campaign sent through Sales.co.

Sales.co numbers new on this page:

All 64 statistics as a CSV: b2b-sales-statistics.csv.

Cite this page

Sales.co, “64 B2B Sales Statistics for 2026 (Updated September)”, updated September 2026, https://sales.co/research/b2b-sales-statistics

To cite one number, link its anchor: each statistic has one, for example https://sales.co/research/b2b-sales-statistics#stat-1.

Jakob Greenfeld
About the author

, Co-founder, Sales.co. Jakob Greenfeld co-founded Sales.co and runs its day-to-day operations, including the sending infrastructure behind the Sales.co numbers on this page.

Sales.co runs done-for-you cold email campaigns for B2B companies. Service and pricing.

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