Sales and outbound, by the numbers
37 original studies built from public data: BLS, Census, SEC filings and search demand. Every study comes with its charts, its methodology and a free data file. Cite anything with a link.
Sales and marketing spend at public companies, 2010 to 2025
Public Software Companies Now Spend 26.6% of Revenue on Sales and Marketing, Down From 34.1% in 2022
Sales rep pay by industry
B2B Sales Reps in Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing Earn the Most, Averaging $112,999 a Year
Sales manager-to-rep ratio by industry
There Is One Sales Manager for Every 6.1 Sales Reps in the US; Specialty Trade Contractors Run Leanest
How Sales Pay Is Built: Wages, Bonuses and Benefits
Wages and salaries, which include commissions, make up 75.3% of sales workers' compensation vs 70.0% for all private-sector workers
How Long Salespeople Stay in Their Jobs
The median salesperson has been with their current employer 3.3 years, vs 4.1 years for all workers
The Age of the US Sales Workforce
The median US sales worker is 40.7 years old, and workers under 25 hold 18.8% of sales jobs
How much B2B selling now happens online
66.6% of US Manufacturing Shipments Were E-Commerce in 2024
Revenue per sales rep by industry
Each US Manufacturing Sales Rep Supports $22.95 Million in Revenue
What B2B Buyers Search Before They Buy Software
Buyers search "[brand] pricing" 9.5x more than "[brand] reviews"
Growth in marketing and lead-gen agencies since 2017
US Marketing Consulting Establishments Grew 39.5% From 2017 to 2023
Public SaaS sales efficiency (magic number) over time
The Median Public Software Company Now Adds $0.43 of Revenue per $1 of Sales and Marketing
Telemarketing Jobs vs Other Sales Roles, 2012 to 2025
Telemarketer jobs fell 76% from 2012 to 2025 while sales manager jobs grew 85%
How many B2B decision makers are in the US, by industry
There Are 6.56 Million B2B Decision Makers in the US; Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services Employs the Most
Sales Rep Pay vs Inflation Since 2015
Median pay for seven professional sales roles rose 12% to 21% from 2020 to 2025, behind the 25.4% rise in consumer prices
The Most-Googled Sales Questions
"what is crm software" is the most-searched sales question in the US
Cold Outreach Demand Index, 2022 to 2026
Searches for cold outreach tools and services rose 21% in three years while how-to searches fell 29%
Sales Methodology Popularity: MEDDIC, SPIN, Challenger, Sandler and More
MEDDPICC searches grew 65% in three years and now run 1.7x ahead of MEDDIC
Sales occupations and AI exposure
33.4% of US Sales Jobs Are in Occupations With High AI Exposure
Seasonality of B2B Buying Research
B2B software research peaks in October and bottoms out in February
The Holiday Slump Myth in B2B
B2B software research dips only 8.9% in December, then rebounds in January
Best US metros to be a B2B sales rep
Akron, OH Is the Best Place to Be a B2B Sales Rep in 2026
How many hours sales workers actually work
Sales Workers Put in 7.44 Hours on an Average Workday
Sales Headcount in the AI Era
Employment in core B2B sales occupations grew 7.2% from May 2022 to May 2025, to 3.47 million
How many sales workers work from home
34.7% of Sales Workers Now Do Some Work From Home on Days They Work, Up From 23.9% in 2019
LinkedIn in Public Company Filings
447 Public Company 10-Ks Mentioned LinkedIn in 2025, More Than Triple the 2020 Count
Sales Unemployment Rate vs All Workers
Sales unemployment fell to 3.2% in September 2026, 0.8 points below the 4.0% rate for all workers
Sales tech adoption on websites, 2020 to 2026
31.9% of the Top 1 Million Websites Now Run Sales Engagement Tech, Up From 14.7% in 2021
AI SDR startups: domain registrations over time
New sales and prospecting .ai domains grew 12x between 2021 and 2025
How many US companies are in each size band and industry
The US Has 226,729 Companies With 50 to 499 Employees
Women in Sales Roles, 2015 to 2025
Women hold 29.9% of B2B sales rep jobs and 33.2% of sales manager jobs
The Language of Modern Sales
Searches for "GTM engineer" grew from 120 to 40,600 a year as older sales buzzwords faded
Fastest-growing sales jobs through 2035
Sales Managers Are the Fastest-Growing Sales Job in the US Through 2035
B2B Events and Webinars: Is Demand Back?
Searches for B2B events are up 123% since 2020-21 while webinar searches fell 71%
AI SDR Interest vs SDR Job Searches
Searches for AI SDRs now equal 72% of searches for SDR jobs, up from 12% three years ago
Do B2B Buyers Ask AI or Google? Software Research by Channel
"Best software" questions get 39 AI searches for every 100 on Google, 11.9x the rate of generic queries
Fastest-Growing Sales Job Titles
Searches for RevOps jobs grew 2.7x in three years, the fastest of 29 sales titles
Most Popular Sales Books by Reader Interest
How to Win Friends and Influence People is the most-searched sales book of 2026, with 497,900 US searches through August