Login
    Contents x
    Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices
    • 18 Mar 2025
    • 2 minute read
    • Contributors
    • Print
    • Dark
      Light
    • PDF
    Contents

    Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices

    • Updated on 18 Mar 2025
    • 2 minute read
    • Contributors
    • Print
    • Dark
      Light
    • PDF
    Article summary

    This article provides benchmarks and insights for evaluating the performance of sales representatives, specifically focusing on email and call strategies. Data from 2024 indicates that sending a high volume of emails can lead to lower reply rates, emphasizing the importance of targeted outreach. Manual emails outperform automated ones in engagement metrics. The best time to send emails is in the afternoon, while calls made on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings yield the highest connect rates. Initiating contact with a cold call can significantly enhance email reply rates, and leaving voicemails also increases the likelihood of responses. The insights are based on extensive data from recent months, highlighting effective practices for Account Executives and Sales Development Representatives to optimize their outreach efforts. For further details and best practices, additional resources are available.

    Silhouette of a person standing, representing human figures in various contexts. Sales rep, Sales manager, Manager of managers, Sales leader

    Diamond.png 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.

    Was this article helpful?
    What's Next
    Change password!
    Changing your password will log you out immediately. Use the new password to log back in.
    Change profile
    Success!
    First name must have atleast 2 characters. Numbers and special characters are not allowed.
    Last name must have atleast 1 characters. Numbers and special characters are not allowed.
    Enter a valid email
    Enter a valid password
    Your profile has been successfully updated.
    Logout
    ESC

    AI, a genAI helper, will scrub our help center to give you an answer that summarizes our content. Ask a question in plain language and let me do the rest.