Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices

Sales rep, Sales manager, Manager of managers, Sales leader
Gong Engage*

These benchmarks and actionable insights can help you evaluate rep performance, optimize your call and email strategies, and achieve higher response and connect rates. Insights in this article are derived from 2024 data.

Emails

The following benchmarks focus exclusively on emails sent from flows by Account Executives (AEs) and Sales Development Representatives (SDRs). The benchmarks are categorized by email type (manual and automated).

Email volume

Best practice: sending a high volume of emails often results in lower reply rates. Focus on targeted outreach for optimal results.

Baseline vs. top-performing reps: email metrics

	Open rate	Click rate	Reply rate	Bounce rate
Baseline	35.2%	2.4%	1.8%	2.7%
Top-performing rep	49%	4.5%	3.9%	0.5%

*Baseline = median

*Top-performing = top quartile

*Includes both manual and automated emails

Manual vs. automated emails

Best practice: manual emails consistently deliver better engagement metrics, including higher open, click, and reply rates.

Email type	Open rate	Click rate	Reply rate
Manual	37%	2.2%	2.1%
Automated	33.8%	1.9%	1.1%

*Numbers represent baseline metrics (median)

Best time to email

Best practice: emails sent in the afternoon tend to achieve higher reply rates compared to those sent in the morning, according to the sender’s time zone.

Data insights:

Included hours with over 3,000 manual and automated emails sent from flows in the past three months.
Visualized data shows that larger circles (higher volume of emails) with darker colors (higher reply rates) are concentrated in the afternoon hours.

Calls

The following data focuses exclusively on emails sent from flows by Account Executives (AEs) and Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

Baseline vs. top-performing reps: call connect rates

Flow / Non-flow	Baseline	Top-performing rep
flow	1.9%	4.8%
non-flow	2.9%	8.9%

*Data from Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) only

*Includes dialer calls only, based on call outcomes selected by the rep. A call is considered "connected" when one of the following outcomes is selected: meeting booked, follow-up, bad fit, bad timing, gave referral, has a solution, opt-out, or not interested

Leading with a cold call

Best practice: Initiating prospecting with a cold call can double the email reply rate within the flow.

Leaving voicemails

Best practice: leaving a voicemail doubles the likelihood of an email reply.

Best time to call

Best practice: Calls made on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM) have the highest connect rates. During these hours, calls are more likely to be answered by the intended recipient.

Data Insights:

Included hours with over 1,000 dialer calls from flows in the past three months.
Visualized data indicates that larger circles (higher volume of calls) with darker colors (higher connect rates) occur during Tuesday and Wednesday morning hours.

Additional resources

Find more detailed insights and best practices, visit Gong labs.

*The features available to you depend on your company’s plan and your assigned seats.