by Andrew Gazdecki

Sales can easily breed complacency if you are not careful—especially when you get into a routine and deal with primarily with a stable and regular client base. But the slightest shakeup in a company can send you scrambling to keep your clients. Here are 10 sales statistics every salesperson should know so that you are prepared to not only land clients, but keep them as well.

1. Emails with subject lines longer than 3 words are 60% less likely to be opened. Click To Tweet

When you send an email, keep the subject line short and sweet. People are busy, and if they don’t know who sent it, or even if they do, they will skim it and go on if it doesn’t tell them what it’s about.

2. 33% of email recipients open emails based on subject line alone. Click To Tweet

The words “breaking” and “alert” tend to grab people’s attention, but many have become desensitized to words like “Intelligence,” “reports,” and “forecasts.” It is a good idea to see which words work within a given industry, and keep up with the trends.

3. Only 4.8% of voicemails are returned. Click To Tweet

Let’s be honest here. Unless the message is left by someone known by the recipient, and it is important, most of what people hear when they listen to voicemails is a string of blather. Still leave the message. 4.8% is better than zero.

4. The voicemails that get the most responses are between 8 and 14 seconds long. Click To Tweet

People are busy, and as we all know, there is never enough time in the day to finish everything that needs to get done. Keep messages direct and to the point.

5. On average, a sales rep will leave just over 25 hours of voice mails a month. Click To Tweet

A little over one day, or three whole workdays and change is spent leaving messages to people who either aren’t available or don’t want to be reached.

6. On the phone, tone is 86% of our communication when selling. Click To Tweet

It’s not what you say, but how you say it, when it comes to talking to clients over the phone. One old trick that still works is to smile when you’re talking on the phone. It carries through to the listener, and can work miracles

7. Mondays are the worst time to call, specifically between 6AM and noon. Click To Tweet

Mondays are nobody’s favorite, and on top of having to shake off the weekend and get back to the daily grind, people are planning their work week and putting out all the little fires that inevitably spring up over the weekend. Dealing with a sales rep isn’t at the top of the to do list.

Fridays have the opposite problem. The dedicated employees are rushing to wrap things up before the end of the work week. The rest are trying to coast out the last half of the final workday of the workweek, and do as little as possible.

8. 44% of salespeople give up after a single follow up. Click To Tweet

Talent, brains, and good looks will only get you so far in their professional life. What really determines success is hard work and persistence. Sure, there will always be that one lost cause that is best left behind, but sometimes a customer has to be courted and made to feel special. Basically, a sales rep has to put in the same effort they would when trying to date someone out of their league.

9. Sales reps engaged in social selling are 50% more likely to meet or exceed their sales quotas. Click To Tweet

There’s an old saying that most business is done on the golf course. That still holds true today, though there are more “golf courses” than ever. Social media is a great way for a you to connect and interact with a customer 24/7. It’s essentially a socially acceptable form of benign stalking. The main goal is for any sales rep is to form a personal connection that isn’t business related to a customer. Once that is done, they aren’t buying from a sales rep, they are buying from someone they know.

10. 68% consumers trust the word of strangers, when it comes to online reviews of products. Click To Tweet

This shows that word of mouth advertising still works, and if you make a customer happy, it can lead to more business via word of mouth. It also shows how much a company’s online reputation matters for marketing to and reaching new customers.

Conclusion

Facts equal knowledge and knowledge equals power. Knowing how your customers think is a great way to keep sales figures on track. And, when you arm yourself with the facts that can keep you in your customers’ good graces, you are more likely to keep your clients.