---
title: "Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices"
slug: "engage-analytics-benchmarks-and-best-practices"
updated: 2026-01-07T08:21:26Z
published: 2026-01-07T08:21:26Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.gong.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Engage analytics: benchmarks and best practices

> **Who can use this**: Any team member
> 
> **Available on**: Gong Engage
> 
> **Ideal for**: Sales rep, Sales manager, Manager of managers, Sales leader

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.

  

![Bar graph showing email reply rates based on daily email volume sent ranges.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/2837c190-3ec8-4120-9116-6d427e774667/Images/Documentation/Reply rate per daily vol of emails.png)

### 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.

  

![Chart displaying reply rates by weekday and hour for the last three months.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/2837c190-3ec8-4120-9116-6d427e774667/Images/Documentation/Reply rate by weekday.png)

## 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.

  

**![Bar graph comparing reply rates with and without cold calls, showing significant differences.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/2837c190-3ec8-4120-9116-6d427e774667/Images/Documentation/Reply rate by cold call .png)**

### Leaving voicemails

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

![Bar graph comparing reply rates for left voicemail versus no voicemail.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/2837c190-3ec8-4120-9116-6d427e774667/Images/Documentation/Reply rate by voicemail indication.png)

### 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.

  

**![Graph showing top call connect rates by day and hour for various times.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/2837c190-3ec8-4120-9116-6d427e774667/Images/Documentation/Top 10 call connect rate.png)**

**![Chart showing percentage of connected calls by weekday and hour over three months.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/2837c190-3ec8-4120-9116-6d427e774667/Images/Documentation/Connected calls by weekday.png)**

## Additional resources

Find more detailed insights and best practices, visit [Gong labs](https://www.gong.io/resources/labs/).

Any team member can access this feature if they have the required permissions.

Gong’s AI-driven sales engagement solution that helps sales teams prioritize, personalize, and automate outreach activities to accelerate their pipelines. Access to features depends on your [company’s plan and your assigned seat](/v1/docs/plans-and-seats).

A quota-carrying sales representative who manages client relationships. Reps can be Account executives (AEs) or Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

A team member who manages a team of sales reps.

A leader who oversees multiple sales managers.

Any leadership role within the sales organization: Directors, VPs of Sales, Revenue Officer (CRO).