Phone calls continue to dominate B2B sales engagement, generating the lion’s share of meetings according to memoryBlue’s newly published Spring 2025 Global Sales Engagement Benchmark Report.
The research, based on 1.4 million emails and over half a million calls, analysed how different outreach channels contribute to pipeline performance across global markets.
Of the 321,000 sales meetings tracked, a striking 85% were booked via phone, while just 8% stemmed from email. LinkedIn accounted for the remaining 7%, highlighting the growing but still limited role of social selling in isolation.
The findings reinforce the importance of multichannel strategies in B2B outreach. “Today’s B2B buyers are constantly shifting between multiple channels and expect sellers to meet them there,” said Aurelien Mottier, president of memoryBlue. “The data clearly demonstrates the urgency for sales teams to embrace a hyper-personalised, multichannel approach — one that leverages intent signals to align precisely with their buyers’ preferences, behaviours and urgency.”
While emails may be less likely to secure an initial meeting, they still play a critical role in the wider buyer journey. The report also highlights that 88% of buyers welcome outreach during the buying stage — a clear signal that relevance and timing, not just channel, determine success.
Meeting conversion rates varied by region. North America led with a booked-to-occurred rate of 85.2%, compared to 74.5% in EMEA and 65.4% in APAC. Company size also made a difference: large firms (1,000+ employees) saw the highest follow-through rate at 90.5%, while small and mid-sized companies lagged behind at 68.9% and 63.5%, respectively.
With B2B purchases increasingly involving four to ten stakeholders, the report stresses the need for more sophisticated data strategies to reflect diverse buyer roles and stages.
The findings provide further evidence that while automation and intent signals matter, high-touch personal engagement remains a critical factor in converting outreach into results.
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