01 Industry overview
The b2b sales prospecting industry at a glance
The global sales intelligence market, a core technology segment of B2B sales prospecting, reached $4.85 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at 11.1% annually through 2034.
- $4.85B[52]
- Global market size, 2025
- 11.1%[52]
- Forecast CAGR, 2026–2034
- 42.3%[52]
- North America share, 2025
- $1.25B[12]
- ZoomInfo revenue, 2025
- Market size
- The global sales intelligence market was valued at $4.85 billion in 2025. A separate estimate placed the broader market at $4.0 billion for the same year, illustrating the variation caused by different market definitions and methodologies.[52][17]
- Forecast & CAGR
- Fortune Business Insights forecasts the market to rise from $5.37 billion in 2026 to $12.45 billion in 2034, representing an 11.1% CAGR. Grand View Research forecasts growth from $4.4 billion in 2026 to $8.7 billion in 2033 at a 10.1% CAGR.[52][17]
- Market share & regions
- North America held 42.3% of global sales intelligence revenue in 2025, while Europe accounted for 23.9% and Asia Pacific represented 22.8%. North American revenue was estimated at $2.05 billion in 2025.[52]
- Segmentation
- Lead management was expected to hold 37.63% of the global market in 2026, while cloud deployment was projected to account for 65.39%. Software offerings represented more than 85.5% of the market in 2025 in Grand View Research’s segmentation.[52][17]
- Key players & concentration
- The market includes large CRM and sales-technology vendors alongside specialist data and prospecting platforms. ZoomInfo reported $1.2495 billion in 2025 revenue, but the available public sources do not provide a reliable global concentration ratio for the overall prospecting industry.[12]
- Trends, drivers & challenges
- Artificial intelligence, lead generation, customer analytics and data-driven selling are identified as major growth drivers. At the same time, prospecting teams face data-quality, integration and adoption challenges; a 2025 B2B benchmark found that only 11% of organizations had reached cross-team integration of sales AI use cases.[17][27]
- Consumer behavior & competition
- B2B buyers are increasingly researching without sales representatives: Gartner reported in 2025 that 61% preferred a rep-free buying experience. Competition is therefore shifting toward accurate data, relevant personalization, digital self-service and AI-assisted engagement rather than volume-based outreach alone.[19]
- Regulation
- In the United States, the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule prohibits deceptive or misleading telemarketing practices and requires specified disclosures and records. A 2024 amendment effective January 9, 2025 added protections covering deceptive statements in business-to-business telemarketing calls, increasing compliance requirements for phone-based prospecting.[53][54]
- Latest news
- Salesforce’s 2026 State of Sales announcement reported that 87% of sales organizations were using some form of AI for tasks such as prospecting, forecasting, lead scoring or email drafting. The survey was conducted from August to September 2025, indicating that AI adoption had become mainstream before the 2026 report release.[55]
02 Ranking
Top 10 Companies in the B2b Sales Prospecting Industry
The leading companies in the b2b sales prospecting industry, ranked on market impact, performance, momentum, innovation and brand popularity.
Updated November 10, 2026 · Next review December 10, 2026
Apollo.io leads Gitnux's 2026 b2b sales prospecting ranking with an Overall score of 9.4, with B2B contact data plus prospect search and sequencing workflows. Demandbase is the highest-ranked B2B account intelligence provider at 9.1, with more than 1,000 customers and 750-plus employees reported.
Ranked by Overall score · How we score ↓
Editor's top 3 picks
Where to start, by need.
#1 Overall · Leader in contact & prospect data
Apollo.io
US
Ranked #1 · 9.4 · Contact & prospect data
Why we picked it: It covers contact data, search, sequencing, and AI-driven prospecting workflows in B2B sales.
Leader in account intelligence & ABM
Demandbase
US
Ranked #2 · 9.1 · Account intelligence & ABM
Why we picked it: It targets account intelligence use cases for ABM and pipeline generation.
Leader in intent & revenue orchestration
6sense
US
Ranked #3 · 9.0 · Intent & revenue orchestration
Why we picked it: It focuses on account intent intelligence tied to revenue orchestration workflows.
Pick 1 is the #1 company overall. Picks 2 and 3 are the highest-ranked companies in the top 5 that add a new segment.
Full ranking
| # | Company | Overall ↓ | Impact | Performance | Momentum | Innovation | Company snapshot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apollo.io Contact & prospect data · US | 9.4 | 9.9 | 9.3 | 9.5 | 8.5 | |
Company snapshot · Apollo.io · Data as of November 10, 2026 Apollo combines B2B contact data, prospect search, sequencing and AI sales workflows.[51]
| |||||||
| 2 | Demandbase Account intelligence & ABM · US | 9.1 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.9 | |
Company snapshot · Demandbase · Data as of November 10, 2026 Demandbase reports more than 1,000 customers and 750-plus employees.[56]
| |||||||
| 3 | 6sense Intent & revenue orchestration · US | 9.0 | 9.9 | 8.5 | 8.3 | 8.5 | |
Company snapshot · 6sense · Data as of November 10, 2026 6sense surpassed $200 million in annual recurring revenue in fiscal 2024.[1]
| |||||||
| 4 | ZoomInfo Contact & prospect data · US | 8.7 | 9.4 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 8.6 | |
Company snapshot · ZoomInfo · Data as of November 10, 2026 ZoomInfo provides cloud-based go-to-market intelligence software and B2B data for sales teams.[12]
| |||||||
| 5 | Lusha Contact & prospect data · US | 8.7 | 8.8 | 9.3 | 8.8 | 7.0 | |
Company snapshot · Lusha · Data as of November 10, 2026 Lusha provides verified emails, direct dials, company data and buying signals for B2B teams.[57]
| |||||||
| 6 | Cognism Global B2B contact data and sales intelligence · GB | 8.6 | 8.8 | 8.1 | 8.3 | 9.6 | |
Company snapshot · Cognism · Data as of November 10, 2026 Cognism describes itself as a global B2B data company for modern revenue teams.[58]
| |||||||
| 7 | Clay GTM data enrichment and automated prospecting · US | 8.6 | 7.0 | 9.9 | 9.9 | 9.9 | |
Company snapshot · Clay · Data as of November 10, 2026 Clay says more than 16,000 GTM teams use its enrichment and prospecting platform.[59]
| |||||||
| 8 | Salesloft Sales engagement and prospect outreach automation · US | 8.4 | 8.8 | 8.5 | 7.9 | 7.0 | |
Company snapshot · Salesloft · Data as of November 10, 2026 Salesloft operates a sales-engagement platform used by more than 2,000 customers.[60]
| |||||||
| 9 | Bombora B2B intent data and account-prioritization signals · US | 8.3 | 7.8 | 8.5 | 8.7 | 8.5 | |
Company snapshot · Bombora · Data as of November 10, 2026 Bombora's Company Surge provides B2B intent data to prioritize sales and marketing accounts.[61]
| |||||||
| 10 | Seamless AI-powered B2B sales intelligence and prospect data · US | 7.9 | 8.8 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | |
Company snapshot · Seamless · Data as of November 10, 2026 Seamless operates an AI-powered B2B sales-intelligence platform for finding and enriching prospects.[30]
| |||||||
How we score
- Impact (30%): scale and weight in the market (revenue, market share, employees, market position).
- Performance (20%): recent revenue growth and operating margin; an analyst assessment where a company does not publish them.
- Momentum (20%): growth trajectory and future potential.
- Innovation (15%): R&D intensity and how technologically advanced the company is.
Popularity (brand search demand, 15%) counts toward Overall but is not published as a column. Overall leaves out what is not known.
Scale Scores are shown on a 7–10 scale with one decimal; bars start at 7.0.
Cadence Recalculated when new figures are published; next review December 10, 2026.
Independence. Rankings are editorially independent. Scores, ranks, picks and the verdict follow the method above; no company can pay to change them.
Cite this ranking
APA
Catherine Wu. (2026, February 13). Top 10 companies in the b2b sales prospecting industry. In B2B Sales Prospecting Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/b2b-sales-prospecting-industry-statistics/#top-companies
Annual revenue of sales intelligence software companies
6Sense leads with $200.0M.
03 Trends & forecasts
Top 10 B2b Sales Prospecting Industry Trends & Forecasts 2027
What is changing in the b2b sales prospecting industry, with the evidence behind each trend and a forecast for 2027.
Forecasts were generated by an AI model from the cited evidence. They are estimates, not guarantees.
01Sales intelligence expands double digits
High confidenceThe global sales intelligence market was valued at $4.85 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $12.45 billion by 2034, implying an 11.1% CAGR from 2026 to 2034. A separate estimate put the 2025 market at $4.0 billion, reflecting differing market definitions.[52][17]
Forecast 2027: The market should reach approximately $5.9–$6.0 billion in 2027 if the published 10.1%–11.1% growth rates continue. Growth will remain strongest in data enrichment, intent intelligence, analytics and AI-enabled prospecting workflows.
02Cloud deployment continues gaining share
High confidenceCloud deployment was projected to represent 65.39% of the sales intelligence market in 2026, while Grand View Research reported that software represented more than 85.5% of the market in 2025. Cloud systems are favored for faster deployment, scalability and integration with CRM platforms.[52][17]
Forecast 2027: Cloud-based prospecting platforms should account for roughly two-thirds or more of industry revenue in 2027. New enterprise purchases will increasingly favor subscription software with embedded data, APIs and workflow automation over on-premises tools.
03AI adoption becomes standard in prospecting
High confidenceSalesforce reported that 87% of sales organizations were using AI for activities including prospecting, forecasting, lead scoring or email drafting, based on a survey conducted in August–September 2025. The same report identified AI and AI agents as sales teams’ leading growth tactic for 2026.[55]
Forecast 2027: By 2027, AI assistance should be present in nearly all scaled B2B prospecting operations, with competitive differentiation moving from basic generation to accuracy, workflow fit, governance and measurable pipeline impact.
04Agentic prospecting moves into production
High confidenceSalesforce found that nine in ten sales teams either use AI agents or expect to use them within two years. McKinsey reported that AI agents are beginning to take on work across account ownership, business development, customer service, pricing and enablement.[55][2]
Forecast 2027: In 2027, agents should routinely handle account research, lead prioritization, trigger monitoring, sequence preparation and CRM updates, while human sellers retain responsibility for judgment, relationship-building and complex qualification.
05Buyer self-service reduces cold outreach
High confidenceGartner reported in June 2025 that 61% of B2B buyers preferred an overall rep-free buying experience. The finding indicates that buyers increasingly expect to research, compare and progress through early purchase stages without direct salesperson involvement.[19]
Forecast 2027: By 2027, prospecting programs will allocate more resources to searchable content, product education, digital buying rooms and self-service qualification. Outbound teams will focus more on high-intent accounts and later-stage assistance than on generic first-touch volume.
06Data quality becomes a buying criterion
High confidenceA 2025 B2B benchmark found that only 11% of organizations had achieved cross-team integration of sales AI use cases, while other research found that sales teams estimated 32% of their CRM data was inaccurate, incomplete or outdated. These gaps directly limit automated targeting and personalization.[27][62]
Forecast 2027: In 2027, buyers will increasingly evaluate prospecting vendors on freshness, verification coverage, identity resolution and explainable data provenance. Automated validation and continuous enrichment should become standard product features rather than optional add-ons.
07Integrated revenue workflows remain scarce
High confidenceNorwest’s 2025 benchmark found that only 11% of organizations had reached cross-team integration in their sales AI use cases; marketing teams were further ahead, with 27% reporting several AI use cases working together across teams. The gap shows that fragmented sales, marketing and CRM processes remain a major adoption barrier.[27][63]
Forecast 2027: By 2027, integration platforms, unified customer-data layers and revenue-operations governance should grow faster than standalone point tools. Adoption will improve, but fully coordinated AI workflows will likely remain a minority capability among smaller organizations.
08Lead management remains the largest application
High confidenceLead management was expected to hold 37.63% of the global sales intelligence market in 2026. The segment benefits from demand for lead scoring, routing, qualification, enrichment and conversion measurement.[52]
Forecast 2027: Lead management should remain the largest application category in 2027, but its scope will broaden from static scoring to dynamic account prioritization using intent, engagement, firmographic and buying-group signals.
09Personalization shifts from templates to signals
Medium confidenceGartner’s 2025 buyer research found that 61% of B2B buyers preferred a rep-free experience, increasing the importance of relevance when sellers do engage. Sales intelligence vendors increasingly position market trends, competitor activity and customer behavior as core inputs for prospecting decisions.[19][52]
Forecast 2027: In 2027, high-performing outreach will rely more on verified business events, hiring, technology changes, funding, content engagement and account-level intent than on demographic mail-merge fields. Generic AI-written sequences will become less differentiated and less effective.
10Multichannel prospecting becomes coordinated
Medium confidenceSales intelligence platforms are increasingly connected to CRM, marketing automation, analytics and cloud systems, while B2B commerce research identifies chatbots, lead prioritization, account research and automated proposals among leading agentic-AI use cases. This reflects movement beyond email-only prospecting.[3][17]
Forecast 2027: By 2027, prospecting suites should coordinate email, phone, social, web, chat and partner channels around a single account state. Budget will shift toward orchestration and measurement across channels rather than isolated sequence tools.
04 Statistics
Technology & Innovation
AI adoption in prospecting is nearly universal in the BDR survey: 99% used AI in some capacity in 2026. Productivity gains appear in the same set of responses.
AI in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 60% of BDRs reported that their organizations had adopted at least one AI tool in 2025.[1]
- 72% of BDRs said AI helped make them more productive in 2026.[1]
- 62% of BDRs said AI enhanced productivity in 2025, while 13% viewed it as a threat to their roles.[1]
- 99% of BDRs reported using AI in some capacity in 2026, based on a global BDR survey.[1]
- 62% of BDRs reported using AI tools in 2025, up from 53% in 2024.[1]
- 22% of surveyed commercial leaders said their companies had piloted specific generative-AI use cases in B2B buying and selling in 2024.[2]
Automation in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 24% of B2B suppliers reported using agentic AI in sales processes in 2026.[3]
- 72% of BDRs reported access to data-enrichment tools in 2026.[1]
- 71% of BDRs reported access to a sales-engagement platform in 2026.[1]
- Less than 2% of BDRs reported having no access to data enrichment, sales engagement or intelligence platforms in 2026.[1]
- 81% of sales professionals said AI could help them spend less time on manual tasks in 2023.[4]
- 68% of BDRs reported access to intelligence platforms in 2026.[1]
Digital Transformation in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 30% of agencies, brands and publishers had fully integrated AI across the media campaign lifecycle in the advertising industry in 2025.[5]
- Across 15 countries, 75% of organizations used generative AI for search-engine optimization in 2025.[6]
- Across 15 countries, 77% of organizations used generative AI for marketing content creation in 2025.[6]
- Among U.S. advertising organizations, 87% relied on manual budget pacing in 2026, highlighting continued scope for advertising-workflow automation.[7]
- 57% of companies in the marketing sector were in the emerging stage of digital transformation in the U.S. in 2024, meaning new technology was not yet integrated into processes.[8]
- Across 15 countries, 70% of organizations used generative AI to measure and track customer and marketing metrics in 2025.[6]
Technology Adoption in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 77% of marketers reported using AI in 2024, up from 57% in 2023, based on Digiday+ Research surveys.[9]
- 96% of major brands used AI in marketing in 2026, including 80% using it for content creation and 54% for media buying or optimization.[10]
- 63% of multinational brand owners were already using generative AI in marketing in 2024, most commonly for content creation, ideation and task automation.[10]
- 83% of advertising executives said their companies had deployed AI in the creative process in 2026, up from 60% in 2024.[5]
Cloud Computing in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 52.74% of EU enterprises used paid cloud computing services in 2025.[11]
- 85% of EU enterprises using cloud computing used it to host email systems in 2025.[11]
- 72% of EU enterprises using cloud computing used it for office software in 2025, while another 72% used it for file storage.[11]
- 85% of large EU businesses used paid cloud computing services in 2025, compared with 52% of small and medium-sized enterprises.[11]
Big Data in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 33% of EU enterprises used data analytics performed by their own employees in 2025.[11]
- 60% of enterprises in Denmark performed data analytics internally or externally in 2025, the highest share among EU countries.[11]
- 40% of EU enterprises performed data analytics internally or through another organization in 2025.[11]
- 25% of enterprises in Poland performed data analytics internally or externally in 2025, the lowest share among the EU countries reported.[11]
05 Statistics
Data & Analytics
Data quality remains a measurable constraint: 73% of marketers say at least 10% of lead data is inaccurate or outdated. Integration gaps also show up as disrupted lead handoffs.
Business intelligence in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 1,921 ZoomInfo customers had annual contract value above $100,000 at December 31, 2025.[12]
- 45.9 million dollars was HubSpot’s net income in 2025 from its customer-platform business.[12]
- 3.13 billion dollars was HubSpot’s total revenue in 2025 from its customer platform serving marketing, sales, service, operations and commerce teams.[12]
- 3,200,000+ businesses used Dun & Bradstreet to create or manage a D-U-N-S Number or monitor business credit and insights in 2024.[12]
Data analytics in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 96% was Dun & Bradstreet’s 2024 annual revenue retention for its data and analytics client base.[12]
- 12% of ZoomInfo’s 2025 revenue came from customers and partners outside the United States.[12]
- 45% of ZoomInfo’s 2025 revenue came from customers and partners outside the United States.[12]
- 18% of ZoomInfo’s 2025 annual contract value came from non-IT business-services customers.[12]
- 32% of ZoomInfo’s 2025 annual contract value came from software customers, its largest customer-industry group.[12]
Data Quality in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 73% of marketers say at least 10% of their lead data is inaccurate or outdated, based on a survey of more than 200 marketing operations and demand-generation professionals.[13]
- 45% of CMOs estimate that the marketing data their teams use for decisions is incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated; the survey covered marketers across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2025.[14]
- 30% of CMOs identify improving data quality as the biggest lever for improving marketing performance across surveyed marketing organizations in 2025.[14]
- 31% of CMOs say data completeness is the biggest data-quality problem affecting their marketing organizations across the surveyed markets in 2025.[14]
- 67% of marketing professionals report that poor data quality disrupts lead handoffs between marketing and sales.[13]
Data Governance in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 45% of respondents identify regulatory compliance as a goal of their data-governance program in 2024, in a global survey of data and analytics professionals.[15]
- 14% of organizations in the Dutch marketing sector report using data governance in 2024, down from 16% in 2022.[16]
- 58% of organizations with data-governance programs report improved data quality in 2024, based on a global survey of data and analytics professionals.[15]
- 49% of advertising and data decision-makers at U.S. brands, agencies, and publishers are creating or planning dedicated teams or departments in response to privacy and data-governance requirements in 2024.[5]
- 92% of marketing decision-makers report investing in automated data-governance platforms, according to a survey of more than 200 marketing operations and demand-generation professionals.[13]
- 71% of global respondents report that their organization has a data-governance program in 2024, up from 60% in 2023.[15]
KPIs in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 1,867 ZoomInfo customers had annual contract value above $100,000 at December 31, 2024.[12]
- $11,683 was HubSpot’s average subscription revenue per customer in the fourth quarter of 2025.[12]
- 27% was HubSpot’s year-over-year calculated-billings growth in the fourth quarter of 2025.[12]
- 21% was HubSpot’s customer growth rate during 2024, bringing the company to nearly 248,000 customers at year-end.[12]
06 Statistics
Strategy & Growth
Forecasts put sales intelligence on a double-digit growth path, with Fortune Business Insights projecting $5.37 billion in 2026 to $12.45 billion in 2034. ZoomInfo reported $1.2495 billion in 2025 revenue.
Growth in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- $8.7 billion was the projected global sales-intelligence-market size for 2033.[17]
- 1,921 ZoomInfo customers had annual contract value of at least $100,000 at December 31, 2025.[12]
- 34 additional customers reached at least $100,000 in annual contract value during ZoomInfo’s fourth quarter of 2025.[12]
- 18% was ZoomInfo’s GAAP operating-income margin in 2025, compared with 8% in 2024.[12]
- 10.1% was the projected compound annual growth rate for the global sales-intelligence market from 2026 to 2033.[17]
- $1.2495 billion was ZoomInfo revenue in 2025, up 3% year over year.[12]
Differentiation in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 10.2 million additional contacts became discoverable through ZoomInfo’s enhanced title classification in 2025.[12]
- 91% improvement in connect rates was reported by sales teams using ZoomInfo in its 2025 customer-impact report.[18]
- 32% of ZoomInfo annual contract value came from software customers in 2025.[12]
- 9% of ZoomInfo annual contract value came from financial, insurance and real-estate customers in 2025.[12]
- 7% of ZoomInfo annual contract value came from manufacturing customers in 2025.[12]
- 18% of ZoomInfo annual contract value came from non-IT business-services customers in 2025.[12]
Mergers and acquisitions in the b2b sales prospecting industry
Strategic partnerships in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 1,867 ZoomInfo customers held contracts worth more than $100,000 in annual contract value at December 31, 2024.[12]
- No single ZoomInfo customer contributed more than 1% of revenue in 2024.[12]
- 35,000 companies used ZoomInfo software, insights and data to support go-to-market activity in 2025.[12]
- No single ZoomInfo customer contributed more than 10% of revenue in 2025.[12]
07 Statistics
People & Workforce
Workforce signals point to operational focus areas: 85% of BDRs primarily or exclusively focused on outbound activities in 2025. Training depth appears limited across organizations using AI tools.
Hiring in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 79% of BDR organizations had grown or maintained their team size in 2025.[1]
- 80% of BDRs reported to the sales department in 2025.[1]
- Approximately 340 ZoomInfo employees in the United States, India and the United Kingdom were notified of role eliminations in May 2026.[12]
- 85% of BDRs primarily or exclusively focused on outbound activities in 2025.[1]
- 58% of BDR organizations reported team growth from 2024 to 2025.[1]
Employee retention in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 58% of women in B2B sales said they would accept a similar job offering rapid career advancement in 2023.[19]
- 95% of quota was achieved by BDRs who felt supported in 2025, compared with 80% among those who did not.[1]
- 47% of men in B2B sales said they would accept a similar job offering rapid career advancement in 2023.[19]
- A BDR cadence lasted 53 days on average before the representative moved on in 2025.[1]
- Nearly 25% of surveyed women in B2B sales said they were actively job searching in 2023.[19]
Remote Work in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Across management, marketing and sales respondents, 20% reported working fully remotely in the State of Sales and Marketing Report.[20]
- Across marketing organizations, 37.8% reported working from home all the time in Fall 2024, according to a U.S. CMO survey.[21]
- Across marketing organizations, 55.6% reported working from home some of the time in Fall 2024, according to a U.S. CMO survey.[21]
- Among U.S. marketing, advertising and public-relations office job postings, 12.2% were advertised as remote in 2024.[22]
Hybrid Work in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Among marketers, 68.7% said in 2024 that their current balance of office and home-working days was appropriate.[23]
- Across management, marketing and sales respondents, 57% said their employer offered a hybrid work option to at least some employees.[20]
- Across advertising professionals, 64% preferred hybrid work over fully remote or fully on-site work in the 2024 Myers Report survey.[24]
- Across advertising professionals, 74% reported working in hybrid situations in the 2024 Myers Report survey of 3,462 respondents.[24]
Upskilling in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- A majority of BDRs received minimal to moderate training on the AI tools they used in 2025.[1]
- 83% of women surveyed in B2B sales said they constantly looked for ways to do their jobs better in 2023.[19]
- 68% of women surveyed in B2B sales said they volunteered for additional duties in 2023.[19]
- 76% of women surveyed in B2B sales said they frequently helped colleagues with heavy workloads in 2023.[19]
Employee Engagement in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Across the global workforce, 21% of employees were engaged in 2024, according to Gallup’s worldwide workplace measure.[25]
- Across organizations with low-activation communications strategies, 23% reported increased employee engagement in Gallagher’s 2026 global survey.[26]
- Across organizations with highly activated communications strategies, 40% reported increased employee engagement in Gallagher’s 2026 global survey.[26]
- Across organizations surveyed globally, 32% reported an increase in employee engagement from their previous survey in Gallagher’s 2026 Employee Communications Report.[26]
DEI in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 31% of senior-level B2B sales employees were women globally in 2023.[19]
- 68% of women surveyed in B2B sales reported volunteering for additional duties in 2023.[19]
- 47% of men in B2B sales said rapid career advancement would make them accept an otherwise similar job in 2023.[19]
- 40% of mid-level B2B sales employees were women globally in 2023.[19]
08 Statistics
Customer & Sales
Customer experience in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 69% of B2B buyers preferred validating AI-generated insights with sales representatives in 2025.[19]
- 43% of B2B buyers reported high purchase regret when using self-service digital commerce in 2023, versus 26% for traditional rep-led purchases.[19]
- 69% of B2B buyers reported inconsistent information between a sales organization’s website and its sellers in 2024.[19]
- 67% of B2B buyers preferred a rep-free buying experience in 2025, based on a survey of buyers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.[19]
- 61.5% of B2B buyers acquiring a new capability said category justification was harder than choosing a vendor in 2025.[1]
Customer retention in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 36% of sales leaders listed improving customer retention among their top five revenue priorities in 2025.[27]
- 21% of sales leaders cited customer churn as a top-five challenge in 2025.[27]
- Customer retention was reported as 5 to 25 times cheaper than customer acquisition in 2026 B2B revenue research.[28]
- 75% of B2B companies saw net revenue retention decline despite increasing customer-success spending in 2026.[28]
Customer acquisition in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 55% of sales leaders listed expanding existing accounts as their top revenue priority in 2025.[27]
- The average B2B sales win rate was 21% in 2023, according to HubSpot’s sales-professional survey.[4]
- 44% of sales leaders listed increasing new logos among their top five revenue priorities in 2025.[27]
- 28% of company revenue came from new customers and 72% came from existing customers in HubSpot’s 2024 B2B sales research.[4]
Customer loyalty in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 83% of B2B buying groups had mostly or completely set their requirements before contacting sellers in 2025.[1]
- 82% of B2B buying journeys ended with the vendor ranked first on the Day-1 shortlist winning in 2025.[1]
- 71% of B2B buying groups began a purchase journey already holding preferences for at least two vendors in 2025.[1]
- 91% of B2B buying groups had ranked their vendor shortlist before contacting sellers in 2025.[1]
- 82% of sales professionals said building relationships and connecting with people was both the most important and most enjoyable part of selling in 2023.[4]
Lead generation in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 66.7% of B2B marketers said their lead-generation tactics were changing in 2025.[23]
- 22% of sales leaders cited poor lead quality as a top-five challenge in 2025.[27]
- 69.5% of B2B marketers at small and medium-sized firms said their lead-generation approach was evolving in 2025.[23]
- 58.2% of B2B marketers allocated at least half of their marketing budgets to lead generation in 2025.[29]
- 63.7% of marketers at large B2B firms said their lead-generation approach was evolving in 2025.[23]
09 Statistics
Marketing & Brand
Email influence remains high for closed deals: 47% of closed B2B deals in the 2025 Sales Channel Survey began or were primarily influenced by email. Buyers also avoid irrelevant messages, with 73% reporting avoidance in 2025.
Marketing in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 34.5% of B2B marketers expected pressure to prove marketing return on investment in real time to increase during 2025–2026.[29]
- 40.0% of B2B marketers planned to increase brand-building budgets during 2025–2026.[29]
- 47% of closed B2B deals in the 2025 Sales Channel Survey began or were primarily influenced by email.[30]
- 45.5% of B2B marketers would allocate more than half their marketing spend to brand-building if budget were not a constraint in 2025.[29]
- 62.7% of B2B marketers said brand was critical for long-term success in 2025.[29]
Digital marketing in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 51% of B2B buyers said they were more likely to encounter misleading information from generative AI than previously in 2025.[19]
- 49% of B2B buyers said they were more likely to encounter misleading information from sales representatives than previously in 2025.[19]
- 75% of B2B buyers preferred a rep-free sales experience in 2023.[19]
- 45% of B2B buyers said they used generative AI during a recent purchase in 2025.[19]
- 63% of sales leaders said AI made it easier for their organizations to compete in 2023.[4]
Branding in the b2b sales prospecting industry
Influencer Marketing in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- $37 billion in U.S. creator advertising spend is projected for 2025, growing four times faster than the broader media industry.[5]
- 58% of global marketers reported dedicated and growing budgets for creator or influencer partnerships in Nielsen’s 2026 survey.[34]
- 74% of surveyed brands, agencies and creators reported year-over-year creator-marketing budget increases in the 2025 survey covering nine countries.[35]
- 77.7% of surveyed U.S. companies increased their creator-economy budgets in 2025, according to a survey of 139 marketers.[36]
- Six in 10 multinational brands had dedicated influencer-marketing budgets globally in 2025, up from 37% in 2019.[10]
10 Statistics
Operations & Execution
Automation effects show up in time savings, with sales professionals reporting 2 hours per day saved by AI tools in 2024. Manual exposure persists via spreadsheets for 54% of revenue leaders.
Process optimization in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 2 hours per day is the average time sales representatives spend actually selling, according to a 2024 survey of sales professionals in the United States.[4]
- 64% of revenue leaders reported using business-intelligence tools to gather, analyze and report revenue data in the 2024 Revenue Leak Report.[37]
- 63% of sales leaders said AI makes it easier for their organizations to compete with other businesses in 2024.[4]
- 1 hour per day is the average time sales representatives spend on administrative tasks, according to a 2024 survey of sales professionals in the United States.[4]
- 81% of sales professionals said AI can help them spend less time on manual tasks in 2024.[4]
Operational efficiency in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 72% of company revenue came from existing customers and 28% from new customers among organizations surveyed for HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Trends Report.[4]
- 2 hours per day were reported as saved by AI tools among sales professionals surveyed for HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Trends Report.[4]
- 40% year-over-year revenue growth was reported by 6sense for its fiscal year ending January 31, 2024.[1]
- 7% was the average cold-prospecting email response rate reported in the 2024 State of RevOps survey.[38]
- 21% was the average sales win rate reported for 2023 in HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Trends Report.[4]
Quality management in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 80% of surveyed B2B marketers identified lead generation as a business area affected by data quality, according to a B2B data-quality industry survey.[39]
- 71% of prospects reportedly preferred conducting their own research instead of speaking with a sales representative, in HubSpot’s 2024 survey.[4]
- 96% of prospects reportedly conduct their own research before speaking with a human sales representative, in HubSpot’s 2024 sales survey.[4]
- 55% of B2B organizations used an automated method to manage data accuracy, according to a B2B data-quality industry survey.[39]
Outsourcing / Offshoring in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- 57% of marketing respondents outsourced video production fully or partly in 2024, the most commonly outsourced marketing function in the survey.[40]
- 93% of companies used third-party resources such as agencies or contractors for content to some degree in 2024, while 57% planned to outsource more than half of content creation.[41]
- 63.1% of marketers outsourced work to an agency or third party during the previous 12 months in the 2025 survey, covering more than 3,500 respondents globally.[23]
- 45% of marketing respondents outsourced design functions fully or partly in 2024, according to the Marketing Benchmark Survey.[40]
- 67.5% of B2B brands outsourced work to an agency or third party during the previous 12 months in 2025, compared with 60.2% of B2C brands.[23]
11 Statistics
Finance & Pricing
Market sizing varies by definition, with Mordor Intelligence projecting $4.99 billion for 2026 and Grand View Research projecting $4.4 billion. Lead-quality dissatisfaction appears alongside tighter scrutiny of budgets.
Pricing strategy in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- $4.99 billion was the projected sales-intelligence market size for 2026, according to Mordor Intelligence.[42]
- $4.4 billion was the projected global sales-intelligence market size for 2026, according to Grand View Research.[17]
- 12.89% was the projected sales-intelligence market compound annual growth rate for 2026–2031, according to Mordor Intelligence.[42]
- $4.0 billion was the estimated global sales-intelligence market size in 2025, according to Grand View Research.[17]
- 10.1% was the projected compound annual growth rate for the global sales-intelligence market from 2026 to 2033, according to Grand View Research.[17]
Cost reduction in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 54% of revenue leaders reported using spreadsheets or Excel-based tools to manage revenue data in the 2024 Revenue Leak Report, indicating continued manual-process exposure.[37]
- 2 hours per day were reported as saved by AI tools among surveyed sales professionals, creating a measurable labor-efficiency opportunity.[4]
- 54% of revenue leaders reported using purpose-built sales or revenue technology point solutions in the 2024 Revenue Leak Report.[37]
- 64% of revenue leaders reported using CRM systems to gather, analyze and report revenue data in the 2024 Revenue Leak Report.[37]
- 45% of revenue leaders reported using a unified purpose-built sales or revenue platform in the 2024 Revenue Leak Report.[37]
Profitability in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 30% customer growth was reported by 6sense for fiscal year 2024.[1]
- 40% year-over-year revenue growth was reported by 6sense for fiscal year 2024.[1]
- 5% to 10% annual net-revenue uplift was identified by Boston Consulting Group as potentially available to B2B organizations that use sales intelligence more effectively.[43]
Financial planning in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 70% of surveyed sales professionals said budgets were more scrutinized in 2023 than in 2022, according to HubSpot’s 2024 Sales Trends Report.[4]
- 51% of B2B teams reported dissatisfaction with lead volume in Belkins’ 2026 B2B pipeline statistics.[44]
- 62% of surveyed sales professionals said their organizations were taking fewer risks in 2023 than in 2022.[4]
- 60% of B2B teams named lead volume among their top three priorities for the next 12 months, according to Belkins’ 2026 B2B pipeline statistics.[44]
- 38% of organizations that measured forecast accuracy usually missed their forecast by more than 25%, according to Belkins’ 2026 B2B pipeline statistics.[44]
12 Statistics
Product & Service
Platform layering and workflow additions are visible in major vendor roadmaps, including two new product layers added to ZoomInfo’s data foundation. ZoomInfo also reported $1,249.5 million in 2025 revenue.
Product development in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- Hundreds of product enhancements were delivered across HubSpot’s customer platform during 2024, including the relaunched Service Hub and Breeze AI.[12]
- 8,882 full-time employees supported HubSpot’s product and customer-platform development at December 31, 2025.[12]
- 2 new product layers—Orchestration and Engagement—were added to ZoomInfo’s data foundation to support enrichment, workflow automation, prospecting and engagement.[12]
- 1 generative-AI assistant, ChatD&B, was launched by Dun & Bradstreet in 2024 for instant insights on companies and professional contacts.[12]
Product lifecycle in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 16% was HubSpot’s customer growth rate from December 31, 2024, to December 31, 2025.[12]
- 14% was HubSpot’s year-over-year customer growth rate at June 30, 2026.[12]
- 96% was Dun & Bradstreet’s annual revenue-retention rate in 2024.[12]
- 49%+ of ZoomInfo customer contracts, measured by annualized value, were multi-year agreements in 2024.[12]
- 87% was ZoomInfo’s net annual retention rate at December 31, 2024.[12]
After-sales in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 49% of HubSpot revenue came from Solutions Partners and customers referred by them in 2025.[12]
- 25% of HubSpot customers were represented by Solutions Partners at December 31, 2025, supporting implementation and ongoing customer services.[12]
- 17 of Dun & Bradstreet’s 25 largest clients by revenue had relationships with the company for more than 20 years in 2024.[12]
- 100% of ZoomInfo subscription plans include access to customer support as part of the subscription offering.[12]
Value proposition in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 77,000 SMB clients were served by Dun & Bradstreet in 2024.[12]
- 35,000+ companies used ZoomInfo’s software, insights and data to support go-to-market activities in 2025.[12]
- 288,706 customers used HubSpot’s customer platform across more than 135 countries at December 31, 2025.[12]
- $1,249.5 million was ZoomInfo’s 2025 revenue from software, insights and data that help companies go to market more effectively and efficiently.[12]
- 215,000 clients worldwide used Dun & Bradstreet during 2024 for data, analytics and workflow solutions.[12]
13 Statistics
Sustainability & Ethics
Workforce disclosure highlights representation in the same year window as major revenue reporting: 33% of ZoomInfo’s U.S. workforce identified as female in 2024. Privacy opt-out reporting is also quantified at less than 0.25% in 2022.
ESG in the b2b sales prospecting industry
Ethics in the b2b sales prospecting industry
14 Statistics
Risk, Compliance & Legal
Compliance requirements are tightening across states, with California’s Delete Request and Opt-out Platform launched January 1, 2026. In parallel, 61% of organizations reported a third-party breach or security incident during the previous 12 months in 2024.
Compliance in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- Approximately 20 U.S. states had adopted comprehensive privacy laws affecting ZoomInfo’s operations as of January 2026, United States.[12]
- More than 90% of ZoomInfo’s total emailable universe had been provided a privacy notice in 2022, globally.[45]
- January 1, 2026 was the launch date of California’s Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, relevant to ZoomInfo as a registered data broker, California, United States.[12]
Risk Management in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Across 500 senior executives globally, 12% rated their company’s resilience to reputational issues as very good in 2024.[46]
- Across 500 senior executives globally, 66% rated their company’s resilience to reputational issues as good in 2024.[46]
- Across 500 senior executives globally, 94% said their company had reserved a budget for a damaging reputational event in 2024.[46]
- Across 500 senior executives in 20 countries, 65% named cyber-attack among their top reputational risk factors in 2024.[46]
Cybersecurity in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Across companies surveyed globally, 65% said information-security teams were more involved in third-party risk management than in the previous year in 2024.[47]
- Across companies surveyed globally, 61% reported a third-party data breach or security incident during the previous 12 months in 2024.[47]
- Across companies surveyed globally, 74% identified a data breach or other security incident caused by poor vendor security practices as their top third-party concern in 2024.[47]
- Across surveyed organizations, one in eight IT dollars was allocated to cybersecurity in 2025.[48]
Data Privacy in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Across U.S. consumers, 70% said they were familiar with current state-level data privacy legislation in 2024.[5]
- Across U.S. consumers, 40% knew they could access or delete collected data in 2024.[5]
- Across U.S. advertising and data decision-makers at brands, agencies, and publishers, 95% expected continued signal loss and/or privacy legislation in 2024 and beyond.[5]
- Across U.S. consumers, 80% preferred ads for products or services they were interested in or shopping for in 2024.[5]
Crisis Management in the marketing and advertising sector (sector benchmark)
- Across corporate, government, nonprofit, and education communicators, 55% said crises were usually managed internally in 2022.[49]
- Across marketing and advertising agency professionals surveyed in 2024, more than 40% said they were brought in once a client knew it needed to develop a crisis plan.[50]
- Across 500 senior executives in 20 countries, 34% reported having a formal crisis team that trains together, responds to adverse publicity, and is measured by established KPIs in 2024.[46]
- Across 500 senior executives in 20 countries, 53% reported having a formal crisis team that trains together and responds to significant adverse publicity events in 2024.[46]
- Across 500 senior executives in 20 countries, 13% reported relying on an informal crisis team assembled when a significant adverse publicity event occurred in 2024.[46]
15 Statistics
Globalization & Expansion
Regional concentration remains material: North America held 42.3% of global sales intelligence revenue in 2025 at an estimated $2.05 billion. Customer and data-engine expansion also shows up as verified location data for 160 million contacts in 2025.
Globalization in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- $149.2 million of ZoomInfo revenue came from the rest of the world in 2024, compared with $1.065 billion from the United States.[12]
- 40.0% of global sales-intelligence-market revenue came from North America in 2025.[17]
- 160 million contacts received verified location data in ZoomInfo’s 2025 data-engine expansion.[12]
- More than 8,000 paying customers used Apollo.io when it announced its Series B financing and international-dialer expansion.[51]
- 1.8 million international mobile numbers were added across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands in 2025.[12]
Stakeholder management in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 6% of respondents worked in revenue operations, marketing operations or sales operations.[18]
- 38% of respondents in ZoomInfo’s 2025 customer-impact survey represented enterprise businesses.[18]
- 7% of respondents were account managers or customer-success professionals in ZoomInfo’s 2025 customer-impact survey.[18]
- 11,432 respondents from 4,200 accounts participated in ZoomInfo’s 2025 customer-impact report.[18]
- 31% of respondents represented midmarket companies in ZoomInfo’s 2025 customer-impact survey.[18]
Distribution channels in the b2b sales prospecting industry
- 48.14% of sales-intelligence-market revenue came through B2B direct sales in 2025.[42]
- ZoomInfo sold subscriptions priced according to functionality, users and records under management in 2024.[12]
- ZoomInfo offered five core paid products in 2024: Copilot, Sales, Marketing, Operations and Talent.[12]
- 12 months of Outreach revenue were included in ZoomInfo parent company ZoomInfo’s fiscal-2025 marketplace results, versus one month in fiscal 2024.[12]
- $13.5 million of platform-revenue growth at ZoomInfo parent company ZoomInfo was attributed to marketplace revenue in fiscal 2025.[12]
Key questions about the B2B Sales Prospecting Industry
What is the size of the global sales intelligence market in 2025?
How fast is the market expected to grow in 2026–2034?
Which companies lead the b2b sales prospecting industry?
What technology shifts are reshaping B2B prospecting in 2026?
How is the market structured across applications and deployment?
What adoption and integration gaps affect prospecting teams?
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
Catherine Wu. (2026, February 13). B2B Sales Prospecting Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/b2b-sales-prospecting-industry-statistics
Catherine Wu. "B2B Sales Prospecting Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/b2b-sales-prospecting-industry-statistics.
Catherine Wu. 2026. "B2B Sales Prospecting Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/b2b-sales-prospecting-industry-statistics.
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63 sources cited across this report
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Social media in the b2b sales prospecting industry