Sales Statistics 2026: 96 Verified Data Points From Original Research

Selling in 2026 means fewer reps hitting quota, bigger buying groups and buyers who would rather not talk to you until they have decided. The 96 statistics below come from 2024 to 2026 research by Salesforce, Gartner, Forrester, HubSpot, McKinsey, LinkedIn, Gong, The Bridge Group, 6sense and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each figure links to the organization that measured it.

Key statistics at a glance

• 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, up from 61% a year earlier (Gartner, 2026).
• 84% of sales reps missed quota last year, and 67% don't expect to meet it this year (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• The average seller spends 40% of their time selling (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• The typical buying decision now includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026).
• 86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2024).
• Sellers who effectively partner with AI tools are 3.7 times more likely to meet quota (Gartner, 2024).
• 87% of sales organizations use some form of AI (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• Closed-won deals have twice as many buyer contacts as lost deals, in an analysis of 1.8 million opportunities (Gong, 2026).
• 60% of SDRs are at quota, the lowest in The Bridge Group's study history (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• The vendor that wins the deal was the first one contacted 77% of the time (6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report).

B2B buyer behavior

Buyers increasingly want to research and decide on their own. The Gartner figures below come from surveys of 632 to 646 B2B buyers fielded in 2024 and 2025.

• "67% of B2B buyers state that they prefer a rep-free experience," based on a survey of 646 buyers in August and September 2025 (Gartner, 2026).
• 45% of B2B buyers reported using AI during a recent purchase (Gartner, 2026).
• "Sixty-nine percent of B2B buyers prefer to validate AI-generated insights with sales reps" (Gartner, 2026).
• 70% of B2B buyers prefer a completely digital, self-service buying experience (Gartner, 2026).
• 51% of buyers say they are more likely to encounter misleading information from GenAI, compared with 49% who say the same of a sales rep (Gartner, 2026).
• Compared with GenAI, buyers were 39 percentage points more likely to say a sales rep understood their needs (Gartner, 2026).
• "61% of B2B buyers prefer an overall rep-free buying experience," based on a survey of 632 buyers in August and September 2024 (Gartner, 2025).
• 69% of B2B buyers report inconsistencies between the information on a sales organization's website and the information provided by sellers (Gartner, 2025).
• 86% of B2B buyers say they're more likely to purchase when companies understand their goals (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "59% of buyers say reps don't take the time to understand" their challenges (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "B2B customers use an average of ten interaction channels in their buying journey" (McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey 2024).
• "Sixty-five percent of them say they are likely to switch suppliers if they run into hiccups" with the omnichannel experience (McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey 2024).
• "Sixty-nine percent of seekers would be willing to conduct transactions of $500,000 or more remotely" (McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey 2024).
• Among B2B companies offering e-commerce, "online sales now account for 34 percent of revenue" (McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey 2024).
• "More than half of buyers (54%) have purchased a product or solution from the same seller," even after changing companies (LinkedIn, Deep Sales B2B Sales Playbook, 2024).

Buying groups, deal complexity and sales cycles

• "The typical buying decision now includes 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers" (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026).
• "Procurement professionals are decision-makers in 53% of business buying cycles" (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026).
• "More than 60% of business buyers now make use of a trial," including 78% of buyers making purchases of $10 million or more (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026).
• "86% of B2B purchases stall during the buying process" (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2024).
• "81% of buyers express dissatisfaction with their chosen providers" (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2024).
• 89% of purchases involve two or more departments (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2024).
• "Almost 95% of buyers anticipate using genAI to support their decision and purchase process in the next 12 months" (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2024).
• "Seventy-four percent of B2B buyer teams demonstrate unhealthy conflict during the buying decision process" (Gartner, 2025).
• Buying groups that reach consensus are 2.5 times more likely to report that their deal was high-quality (Gartner, 2025).
• B2B buying groups range "from five to 16 people across as many as four functions" (Gartner, 2025).
• The average B2B buying cycle fell from 11.3 months in 2024 to 10.1 months in 2025 (6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report).
• The winning vendor was the first one the buyer contacted 77% of the time (6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report).

Quota attainment and sales performance

• "67% of sales reps don't expect to meet their quota this year" (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "An even larger 84% missed it last year" (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "59.9% of sales teams are on track to meet or surpass their revenue targets" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "91% report win rates are stable or improving" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "93% say average deal sizes are holding steady or growing" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• The top two deal-killers are "no product fit (37%)" and "poor value for money (35%)" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "42% say annual recurring revenue (ARR) is the most important success metric" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "Top-performing sales professionals are 2x more likely to hit quota than their peers" (LinkedIn, Deep Sales B2B Sales Playbook, 2024).
• "62% of top performers conducted industry research for their prospects" (LinkedIn, Deep Sales B2B Sales Playbook, 2024).
• "72% of sellers feel overwhelmed by the number of skills required for their job," in a survey of 1,026 B2B sellers from January to March 2024 (Gartner, 2024).
• "50% are overwhelmed by the amount of technology needed" (Gartner, 2024).
• Overwhelmed sellers are 45% less likely to attain quota (Gartner, 2024).
• 57% of sellers say competition has gotten more challenging, while only 13% say it's gotten easier (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).

Time spent selling and productivity

• "Sales reps report spending 70% of their time on non-selling tasks" (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• The average seller spends 40% of their time selling, compared with 35% for Gen Z reps (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• Sellers spend nearly one full day of their workweek on prospecting (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• 48% of sellers say they lack the bandwidth for adequate cold outreach (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• 46% of Gen Z sellers rarely get feedback on their sales conversations (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• AI is "saving sellers an average of 4.8 hours per week," based on a survey of 210 sales leaders in January and February 2026 (Gartner, 2026).
• "72% of sales organizations report low reinvestment of those time savings back into high-value sales activities" (Gartner, 2026).
• Organizations that save time with AI and reinvest it are "3.1x more likely to exceed lead-to-opportunity conversion goals" (Gartner, 2026).

AI in sales

Salesforce's 2026 report surveyed 4,050 sales professionals in 22 countries from August to September 2025. Its 2024 edition surveyed 5,500 sales professionals from March to April 2024.

• "87% of sales organizations currently use some form of AI" (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• "54% of sellers say they've used agents," and nearly 9 in 10 plan to use agents by 2027 (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• Sellers expect AI agents to cut prospect research time by 34% and email drafting time by 36% (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• "55% of sales professionals are using AI for prospecting," and another 38% plan to (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• Top performers are 1.7 times more likely than underperformers to use prospecting AI agents (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• "81% of sales teams are either experimenting with or have fully implemented AI" (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "83% of sales teams with AI saw revenue growth this year vs. 66% without AI" (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "68% of sales teams with AI added headcount in the past year," compared with 47% without AI (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• Sellers who effectively partner with AI tools are "3.7 times more likely to meet quota than those who do not" (Gartner, 2024).
• "75% of sellers who hit quota" use AI to help them reach that milestone (LinkedIn, Deep Sales B2B Sales Playbook, 2024).
• "Only 8% of the sales reps we surveyed reported not using AI at all" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "84% say AI saves time and optimizes processes" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "74% of sales pros believe AI is making it easier for buyers to research products" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• Sellers who frequently use AI "generate 77% more revenue than those not using AI at all," in a Gong Labs analysis of 7.1 million opportunities (Gong, 2026).
• "Deal win rates increased by 35% when Smart Trackers were deployed," across more than one million opportunities at 1,418 sales organizations (Gong Labs, 2024).
• "Nineteen percent of B2B sales forces are already implementing gen AI use cases and finding success," and another 23% are experimenting (McKinsey, B2B Pulse Survey 2024).
• "25% of sales organizations report a 50% or higher return on AI investments," while 20% report a 50% or higher negative return (Gartner, 2026).
• 31% of chief sales officers cited difficulty proving ROI of AI-driven tools as a top challenge to sales objectives in 2026, in a survey of 227 CSOs (Gartner, 2026).
• Sales organizations that give sellers AI-enabled next best actions are "2.6x more likely to achieve commercial growth" (Gartner, 2026).
• Gartner predicts that by 2027, "95% of sellers' research workflows will begin with AI," up from less than 20% in 2024 (Gartner, 2026).
• Gartner predicts that "by 2028, AI agents will outnumber human sellers by tenfold," yet "less than 40% of sellers will report that AI agents have improved their productivity" (Gartner, 2025).

Sales data and tools

• "Only 35% of sales professionals completely trust the accuracy" of their organization's data (Salesforce, State of Sales, 2024).
• "74% of sales professionals are focusing on data cleansing" (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• "Over half of sales leaders with AI (51%) say disconnected systems are slowing down their AI initiatives" (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).
• 79% of high performers prioritize data hygiene, compared with 54% of underperformers (Salesforce, State of Sales 2026).

Prospecting channels and lead quality

HubSpot's 2025 State of Sales report surveyed 1,000 global sales professionals. For deeper data on what happens after first contact, see our sales follow-up statistics.

• "42% say social media delivers the highest cold outreach response rate (vs. 26% via email and 23% on the phone)" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "35% say social media is their top source of high-quality leads" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• 45% rate social media "very effective" at driving sales, higher than in-person meetings (44%) or video calls (35%) (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).
• "68% report that lead quality has improved year over year" (HubSpot, 2025 State of Sales).

Deal strategy: multithreading and talk time

These findings come from Gong's analysis of its own conversation and deal data, published in January 2026.

• "While 77% of deals involve multiple contacts," those that close successfully have twice as many buyer contacts, based on 1.8 million opportunities (Gong, 2026).
• "Multi-threading boosts win rates by 130% in deals over $50K" (Gong, 2026).
• "Selling teams for closed-won deals are 67% larger than those for lost deals" (Gong, 2026).
• Low performers' talk time swings by 10 points, "from 54% in won deals to 64% in lost ones," while high performers keep the same talk-to-listen ratio either way (Gong, 2026).

SDR benchmarks

The Bridge Group's 10th SDR report, published in February 2025, covers 351 B2B companies. If you are weighing an in-house team against a partner, our roundup of outsourced SDR services compares the options.

• 60% of SDRs are at quota, the "lowest reported in study history" (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• Median SDR on-target earnings are $80K, unchanged since 2022, with a 68:32 base-to-variable split (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• Average SDR ramp time is 3.0 months, the lowest since 2010 (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• Average SDR tenure is 1.9 years (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• Median annual SDR attrition was 40% in 2024 (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• Pipeline per SDR rose to $3.78M from $2.83M, driven by higher deal sizes rather than more meetings (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• SDRs complete a median of 112 activities per day: 44 phone, 41 email, 19 LinkedIn and 8 text or other (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• SDRs average 4.1 quality conversations per day (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• The global median monthly quota is 10 held meetings, down 40% since 2018 (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• The SDR-to-AE ratio is 1:2.4 (The Bridge Group, 2025).
• 2025 is the first year "AI SDRs" appeared as a distinct category, at 1% of respondents (The Bridge Group, 2025).

Sales jobs and pay

• Median pay for wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives was $76,460 per year in 2025 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• There were 1,571,400 wholesale and manufacturing sales representative jobs in 2025 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• Employment in the occupation is projected to see 0% growth ("little or no change") from 2025 to 2035 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• About 123,400 openings are projected each year, on average, over the decade (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).

What these numbers mean in practice

This section is our interpretation of the data above, not additional statistics.

The buyer has taken control of the early sale. Most prefer to research alone, they arrive with a shortlist, and the first vendor they contact usually wins. For sellers, that means the job starts before the first call: being visible, being easy to evaluate, and reaching the right accounts with something relevant. Our lead generation statistics cover that earlier stage in detail.

Buyers have not given up on people. They lean on reps to check what AI tells them, and they say reps understand their needs better than GenAI does. The value of a rep is shifting from delivering information to helping a large, often divided buying group agree.

AI is now normal in sales, but the gains are uneven. Gartner's data shows that time saved is rarely reinvested in selling, and many leaders still cannot prove a return. The teams that benefit seem to pair AI with clean data and a clear plan for what reps do with the hours they get back, such as building well-paced cold email sequences and more multithreaded deals.

How we compiled this list

We rebuilt this page in October 2026 and replaced the earlier version's statistics. Every figure was checked at its original source: the research report, the publisher's own summary, or the press release from the organization that ran the study. Statistics that we could only find on blogs quoting other blogs were dropped.

We prioritized research published from 2024 to 2026 and noted sample sizes and survey dates where the source gave them. Predictions are labeled as predictions. Wording follows the source as closely as possible, with direct quotes marked. Sources were verified in October 2026, and we update this page regularly as new editions are released.

Cite this page

Nerdy Joe, "Sales Statistics 2026: 96 Verified Data Points", updated October 2026, https://nerdyjoe.com/blog/sales-statistics/

Sources

• 6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report: https://6sense.com/?p=607322
• The Bridge Group, SDR Models, Motions and Metrics: 2025 Research Report: https://www.bridgegroupinc.com/research/2025-sdr-models-metrics-report-the-bridge-group
• Forrester, The State of Business Buying 2024: https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-the-state-of-business-buying-2024
• Forrester, The State of Business Buying 2026: https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-2026-the-state-of-business-buying/
• Gartner, sellers who partner with AI (September 2024): https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-09-16-gartner-sales-survey-reveals-sellers-who-partner-with-ai-re-three-point-seven-times-more-likely-to-meet-quota
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• Gartner, AI agents prediction (November 2025): https://gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-11-18-gartner-predicts-by-2028-ai-agents-will-outnumber-sellers-by-10x-yet-fewer-than-40-percent-of-sellers-will-report-ai-agents-improved-productivity
• Gartner, 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience (March 2026): https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-03-09-gartner-sales-survey-finds-67-percent-of-b2b-buyers-prefer-a-rep-free-experience
• Gartner, AI time savings for sellers (May 2026): https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-05-19-gartner-survey-finds-ai-saves-sellers-nearly-five-hours-per-week-yet-seventy-two-percent-of-sales-organizations-fail-to-reinvest-time-in-high-value-activities
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• McKinsey, Five fundamental truths: How B2B winners keep growing (B2B Pulse Survey 2024): https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/five-fundamental-truths-how-b2b-winners-keep-growing
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• US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wholesale and Manufacturing Sales Representatives: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/wholesale-and-manufacturing-sales-representatives.htm