Sales statistics
2026

• 61% of lost deals were lost to "indecision", according to reps (2023 data) (Ebsta x Pavilion B2B Sales Benchmarks, 2024)
• 57% of sales professionals say customers take longer to decide than they used to; 69% say measurable ROI matters more to customers than last year (Salesforce State of Sales, 2026)
• Calling a lead within 5 minutes instead of after 30 minutes makes contact 100x more likely and qualification 21x more likely (six companies, 15,000+ leads) (InsideSales.com / MIT, 2007)
• Involving decision-makers in the first two stages raises win rates by 55% (relative increase) (Ebsta x Pavilion GTM Benchmarks, 2025)
• Top performers have a 42% shorter sales cycle and 43% higher win rates, and generate 11x more revenue per day than low performers (Ebsta x Pavilion GTM Benchmarks, 2025)
• 79% of B2B buyers initiate the first contact themselves; they evaluate 5 vendors on average and buy from their top-ranked vendor 77% of the time (6sense Buyer Experience Report 2025, via CustomerThink)
• Procurement is a decision-maker in 53% of business buying cycles, and more than 60% of buyers use a trial before buying (Forrester, State of Business Buying 2026)
• 91% of sales professionals say win rates held steady or improved; the top deal-killers are no product fit (37%) and poor value for money (35%) (HubSpot State of Sales, 2025)

• LinkedIn has 1.4 billion+ members, 450 million+ of them in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 71 million companies on the platform (LinkedIn, 2026)
• In the Netherlands, LinkedIn has 14.0 million members (76.2% of the population, 93.1% of adults), up 7.7% in a year. These are registered members, not active users (DataReportal, 2026)
• LinkedIn's share of Dutch B2B social ad spend fell from 52.7% in 2024 to 9.3% in the first half of 2026; Meta is the largest B2B platform at 41.2% (DDMA Social Advertising Benchmark, 2026)
• 45% of B2B buyers used AI during a recent purchase; buyers consult about seven information sources (Gartner, March 2026, Gartner, May 2026)
• 94% of buyers already hold perceptions of vendors before an evaluation begins; vendor websites (35.9%), industry events (33.4%) and review sites (31.4%) are their main sources (6sense Buyer Experience Report 2026, via Agile Brand Guide)

• Ramp-up time for a new account executive is 6.2 months, the highest in the research's history; companies now ask for 3.7 years of experience at hire (The Bridge Group, 2026)
• Teams with the highest AI engagement had 57% of reps at quota versus 39% in the lowest third; the researchers note this is a correlation, not proven causation (The Bridge Group, 2026)
• Sellers spend less than 2 hours a day selling on average; top performers about 4 hours (Ebsta x Pavilion GTM Benchmarks, 2025)
• Quota targets fell 19% in 2023; had they stayed the same, 79% of reps would have missed quota. 31% of reps exceeded quota that year (Ebsta x Pavilion B2B Sales Benchmarks, 2024)
• 46% of sellers rarely get feedback on their sales conversations and 47% don't get enough roleplay before customer calls (Salesforce State of Sales, 2026)
• Gen Z sellers spend 35% of their time selling (average: 40%) and lose about two hours a week to manual data entry (Salesforce State of Sales, 2026)
• 59.9% of sales teams were on track to meet or beat revenue targets; only 26% name quota attainment as their most important success metric (HubSpot State of Sales, 2025)

The shift to digital-first sales

The B2B sales landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Buyers are increasingly well-informed and expect a buying experience comparable to B2C. This has direct implications for how sales teams spend their time and what skills they need. For Dutch B2B companies, how these figures feed into marketing: more on B2B marketing (in Dutch).

• By 2028, AI agents will outnumber sellers 10 to 1, Gartner predicts, yet fewer than 40% of sellers will say those agents improved productivity (Gartner, via destinationCRM, 2026)
• Chief sales officers who overhaul data, automation and user experience will be five times more likely to gain ROI from AI; 60% of CSOs say their revenue is largely driven by factors outside their control (Gartner, via destinationCRM, 2026)
• The average buying cycle in 2026 is 10.3 months; vendors are contacted 59.2% of the way through, and 71% of buying groups start with two or more conflicting vendor preferences (6sense Buyer Experience Report 2026, via Agile Brand Guide)
• Stalled purchases are caused by changing priorities (29%), implementation concerns (26%), unclear ROI (24%) and lack of consensus (23%); they stall for 8.6 months on average (6sense Buyer Experience Report 2026, via Agile Brand Guide)
• 67% of sales professionals say personalization matters more to customers than last year, and 67% say customers require extensive education before buying (Salesforce State of Sales, 2026)
• 74% of sales pros say AI makes it easier for buyers to research products; 36% see their main job as helping buyers feel confident in their decision (HubSpot State of Sales, 2025)
• Expansion sales now drive 52% of revenue, and MQL-to-SQL conversion improved by 32% compared with the previous report (Ebsta x Pavilion GTM Benchmarks, 2025)

Want to improve the connection between marketing and sales? See how B2B lead generation can deliver qualified leads that sales can act on immediately.

• Median account executive quota is $960K; the quota-to-OTE ratio rose to 4.6x (2024: 4.2x). Quotas grew about 2.4% a year, on-target earnings about 4.9% (The Bridge Group, 2026)
• Median account executive on-target earnings are $200K, up from $190K in 2024 and $167K in 2022 (158 B2B companies, mostly US) (The Bridge Group, 2026)
• In the US, sales managers hold about 650,100 jobs; employment is projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 47,300 openings a year (US BLS, sales managers, 2025)
• The median wage for US sales and related occupations was $38,530 in May 2025, below the all-occupations median of $50,980; sales engineers earn a median $124,900. About 1.7 million openings are projected each year (US BLS, sales occupations, 2025)
• In the Netherlands, 1,044,000 people work in commercial occupations (2021: 1,052,000), including 64,000 sales and marketing managers (CBS StatLine (occupations), 2025)
• Dutch employers opened 156,300 vacancies in commercial occupations in 2025 (2024: 162,000), out of 1,417,000 vacancies in total; 31,000 were for sales representatives and buyers (CBS StatLine (vacancies), 2025)
• Dutch sales and marketing managers earn a median €50.10 gross per hour, almost twice the €26.90 median of all employees (CBS StatLine (wages), 2025)