We’ve rounded up some of the 20 most surprising meeting statistics to help you better plan a sales meeting and have more successful results from your customer conversations.
Here we go!
1. The average Business Development Rep performs 94.4 activities a day, which lead to 23.1 appointments (meetings or calls). (Source)
2. 72% say setting clear objectives is the key to successful meetings.
3. 73% of execs admit to working on other things during meetings, so making your meeting as engaging and structured as possible to keep attendees’ attention is critical.
4. Salespeople spend 12% of their average day going to internal meetings, and 34% of their time speaking to prospects.
5. 67% say having a clear agenda is critical for having a good, productive meeting.
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6. It’s reported to cost the UK $58bn a year due to ineffective meetings (based on professionals spending 2 hours per week in pointless meetings). In the USA, the cost is closer to a huge $399bn!
7. 70% of execs say morning is the best time to meet, compared with 19% who say the afternoon is the best time. However, other research suggests that if you’re scheduling a call or meeting, the best time to schedule the meeting for is 2 to 5 p.m, whereas the morning has the highest no-show rate for prospects not showing up to scheduled meetings/calls. Maybe afternoons work best for online product demos or online meetings?
8. Asking “How are you?” increases your chances of booking a meeting by 3.4X, whereas saying “Did I catch you at a bad time?” can make it 40% less likely that you’ll book the meeting!
9. US executives attend around 11 million meetings a day which equates to a whopping 220 million meetings per year.
10. The most successful salespeople space their questions evenly throughout a meeting, whereas average sales reps ask the majority of their questions at the beginning of the meeting.
11. 89% of people cited poorly organised meetings as a key annoyance / irritation and 88% reported con calls with bad reception as being a source of frustration.
12. 26% said poorly organised meetings negatively affect their client relationships.
13. We’re spending longer in meetings, with the average time employees spend in meetings increasing by 10% every year since 2000.
14. 90% of people admit to daydreaming in meetings.
15. 76% of executives prefer face to face meetings while only 7% prefer video conferences.
16. The average meeting lasts around an hour.
17. British professionals spend more time in meetings each week, with 30% of UK respondents saying they attend 5 or more meetings a week.
18. 71% of professionals lose time each week due to unnecessary or cancelled meetings.
19. 43% said unclear actions from meetings leads to confusion amongst attendees.
20. 44% said poorly organised meetings mean professionals don’t have enough time to do the rest of their work.
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