Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices
  • 18 Mar 2025
  • 2 minute read
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Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices

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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.


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