Annual Field Sales

Benchmark Report

2021
Annual Field Sales Benchmark Report 01

Introduction This first annual Field Sales Benchmark

Report is a snapshot of the state of the
profession, trends in sales roles, and how
technology impacts the way teams
operate.

Unlocking the ability to streamline your

processes, maximize productivity, and
close more deals starts first with
understanding how sales professionals
operate in their roles. We asked nearly
200 sales professionals to share their
insights about responsibilities, behaviors,
compensation, and their technologies.

We are excited to share these insights

with you to help your team discover
standards and best practices in the field
sales profession.
The Sales 

Professional 01
The Sales Professional 03

The 
 Field sales professionals do critical work to

build trusted relationships with customers
Field Sales and to prospect for new customers. They’re

Professional typically experienced in sales, well tenured

in their organization, and highly incentivized
by their comp plans to win revenue. But
between all the windshield time and all the
administrative work, it can feel as if there's
little time for actual selling.

Here we’ll dig into the a typical week in the

life of a field sales professional, their
experience, and their compensation.
The Sales Professional 04

A Typical
Sales Rep
Sales Experience

Outside sales
2.7 yrs 4.8 yrs 15
reps average

15 years of
Company Tenure for Company Tenure for sales experience
Inside Sales Reps Outside Sales Reps

On average, outside sales reps stay with their company longer than inside sales reps.

Book of Business

315 172
On average, sales reps Interestingly, sales leaders
report they are responsible report a much lower rate Tip: 

for 315 accounts of account ownership for Sales leaders think
their teams their reps only have
172 accounts but
reps say they have
315. Using software
can help you (sales
Book of Business per Rep leader) make sure
you have an accurate
view of your reps'
40 % books of business.
% of reps

30 %

20 %

10 %

0%
<50 51-
 101 - 251-
 501-
 >1000
100 250 500 1000
# of accounts
The Sales Professional 05

A Typical

Week
1.8%
1.8%

I don’t plan Continuously throughout 


the week
10.7%

Weekly - on

3.9
the weekend
25%

Daily - at the

beginning of the day

Days in the field

More days in the 


field equated to Planning
higher quota
21.4%

attainment. Weekly - at
the end of 70% of reps plan 

the week
on a WEEKLY basis 5.4%

D aily - at the

31
end of the day

Customer Visits

32.1%

Weekly - at the
beginning of the week

22
Hours of driving
Admin Work

25

20

11
% of reps

15

10
Hours of admin work. 5

0
<5 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-29 30+

Hours of Admin Work

 The Sales Professional 06

A Typical

Week
2.3%
3.4%

2.3%
Industry org Data 

Trade vendor
Weekly Visits Show

24.1%

17.2 %
Referral
Cold Call/ Networking
Email

<10
Prospecting
11-20 Leads
21-30
9.2%
2/3 of outside sales reps
Social
are responsible for
# of weekly visits

31-40
sourcing their own leads
41-50 19.5%

Google/ Google
Maps
51-75
21.8%

76- Driving By/ Door

100 Knocking

>100

0% 5% 10 % 15 % 20 % 25 %

% of reps

Windshield Time

40 %

30 %
% of reps

20 %

10 %

0%
<10 10 - 19 20-29 30-39 40+
# of hours
The Sales Professional 07

Performance

Commission
25.6%

Salary + Bonus 11.6%

100% Commission
14%

Quota 45%

Revenue

2.3%

Revenue Sharing

2.3%

Profit Sharing Compensation

Commission

Structure calculated 

from:
2.3%

No Structure

7.0%

No Commission
41%

Gross Profit
48.8 %

Base + Commission

Over half (60%) of outside sales teams pay commission. Of those paying commission, teams are
evenly split on paying commission based on new revenue (45%) or gross profit (41%).

Performance

Quota Attainment
40 %
70% 3%
30 % Sales reps & leaders Percent of sales
% of Teams

both report that leaders report that

20 %
teams are reliably 100% of their team
10 % hitting their quotas reliably hits quota
0% 70% of the time.
<20% 20-39% 40-59% 60-79% 80-100%

% of Reps Hitting Quota

Technology 02
Technology 09

Technology High-performing field sales teams are using

technology to get better visibility into their
customers and into their reps’ activities, so
they can make smarter business decisions.

The types of software most widely used by

sales teams are Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) and Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP). These systems
allow teams to build and share robust
profiles of their customers and to track how
marketing and sales activities are impacting
revenue. These centralized systems of
record take individual knowledge and make
it shareable and actionable across the entire
business.

In this section, we’ll see which technolgoy

vendors are popular among field sales
teams and how much teams are spending
on their tech stack.
Technology 10

Technology

5%

Budget is a portion
of sales

26%

No official budget

$ 27K How Budgets are

Average Tech Budget Determined

69%

Set annual budget

Tech Budges for Sales Teams

20 %

15 %
% of teams

10 %

5%

0%
9

99

9
9

00
9

99

99

99

99

99

99
99

99

99

99

99

,9

,0
9,

9,

9,

9,

9,

9,
-$

4,

9,

4,

9,

49

00
$2

$3

$4

$9

19

49
-$

-$

$1

$4
$0

-$

$5
00

00

0-

0-

0-

0-

-$

-$
0-

0-

00
00

00

00

00

00

00
,0

,0

00

00

,0
$1

$5

0,

0,

0,

0,

,0

,0
0,

5,

0
$2

$3

$4

$4

$5

00

00
$1

$1

$1

$2

$ Tech Budget
CRM & ERP Tools 12

CRM &

ERP Tools
18%

Salesforce

24%

Don’t use CRM

60%
Percent of teams are
Customer 9.5%

Hubspot

using their CRM or Relationship

ERP as their primary Management
tool for storing 11%

customer data Software Map My

Customers

30%

20%
7.6%

Other Zoho

Percent of teams are

using a spreadsheet or
nothing at all to store
customer data
20%

38.1%

Enterprise
6.7%
Don’t use ERP

While the Map My

Resource
Customers app is
designed to work with Planning
a CRM, it can function Software 11.4%

as a standalone sales
CRM. In fact, many of
our customers are 3.8%
using Map My
Customers as their 3.8%

sales CRM! Other

COVID & the 


Sales Profession 04
COVID & Sales 14

COVID & the The COVID-19 pandemic has effected

Sales Profession everyone, in big ways and small. While
some changes have been positive, many
others resulted in lost wages and jobs.
Already, though, industries are bouncing
back and sales teams are beginning to
return to a somewhat normal routine.

The future trajectory of the pandemic and

pandemic response is difficult to predict, but
here's the current state.

Bouncing Back After COVID-19

89%

Sales leaders are very optimistic about the

future of field sales, with 89% believing that
outside sales will bounce back from the
impacts of the COVID pandemic.
COVID & Sales 15

COVID & the

Sales Profession
COVID’s imact on Field Sales Teams

58% 17% 12%

Grounded & shifted to 
 Were busier than ever Weren’t impacted
inside sales

Customer Quotes

Customers have appreciated moving back to "It was difficult for

face-to-face meetings, sales are rebounding.” new reps to meet
with their customers
Ben lester

sales manager @ Magnum tool corp

because they had no
prior relationships
with them before
COVID, it’s what I
COVID-19 changes the way we approach saw in the field.
the sales process, but not the need to Luckily for me, 

interact with and educate our potential I had years of
customers on our products in-person or relationships to 

virtually as needed to close new sales." back me up."
sales leader sales rep
About 05
About 17

About The Respondents from all across the United

States weighed in to share their insights
Report about the state of the field sales profession
along with their daily habits and behaviors.
Sales reps, leaders, and influencers of all
levels of experience and across a wide
variety of industries responded, making
possible this first annual Field Sales
Benchmark Report.
About 18

About The
Report
Sources

Sales Roles

Lead a Sales Team

July ~200 Teams

Own or Lead a Company

Support a Sales Team

Survey Respondents focused on
Sales Rep
conducted in the USA selling in
the field Other

0 25 50 75

Outside Sales Team Composition

Industries

85% 69% Manufacturing,

construction,
pharmaceuticals,
medical, financial,
% of organizations that % of teams that have 6 or food & beverage
have fewer than 1000 fewer outside sales reps
employees

1099
70% 1099
20%
70% of organizations with 20% of organizations with
<10 employees use 10-100 employees use
contractors for outside sales contractors for outside sales
About 19

About

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