---
title: "Benchmarking Sales Prospecting Volumes, Deal Terms, and Meetings in the Coronavirus Era"
description: "Analyze how COVID-19 impacts B2B sales: 67% drop in cold calls, 2.5x increase in layoff discussions, and shifting payment terms. Key data from 10M sales calls."
categories: ["sales"]
keywords: ["Chorus.ai","B2B sales","sales prospecting","COVID-19 impact on sales","sales performance metrics","cold call statistics","deal closing risks","payment terms changes"]
ai_summary: "Explore how COVID-19 has transformed B2B sales dynamics, impacting prospecting volumes and deal terms."
date: 2020-04-29
lastmod: 2026-07-20
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/chorus-daily-briefing/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

How do you benchmark a sales organization in a time like this? This is one of the questions that Jim Benton, CEO of Chorus.ai, answers every day in his [Daily Briefings](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/category/the-daily-briefing). Using data across 10m telephone calls, Jim highlights how the coronavirus is changing sales team performance. Here are some of the highlights from my reading. 

[Cold calls are down 67%](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/the-daily-briefing-04-28-20), while connect rates have [fallen by about 10% since January](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/the-daily-briefing-04-23-20). Discovery calls are down 24%. It's curious that volumes have fallen, given the connect rates have seen such a modest decline. 

The risks to deals closing have evolved. Timeline risk, the likelihood a sale drags to a close, has doubled to about 2% of calls. But the more significant risk is employment risk. Conversations discussing layoffs have increased [2.5x to more than 5% of calls](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/the-daily-briefing-04-24-20). An additional 2% mention hiring freezes. 

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/v1588214297/chorus_daily_briefing.png)

Customers are asking for [longer payment terms](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/the-daily-briefing-04-15-20). In early March, 75% of sales conversations discussed net 30. But as of early April, a roughly equal number of calls request longer than 30 day payment terms. 

In a conversation with Greg Holmes, the former CSO of Zoom, Jim discusses the 11% meeting volume drop in March, which has stabilized at those lower levels in April. Curiously, these volume changes are not uniform across the country. New York reported a 2.5% increase, while [Utah saw a nearly 20% decline](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/the-daily-briefing-04-07-20).

If you're interested in how to benchmark your sales team and understand how other sales teams' performance is evolving, take a look at the [Chorus Daily Briefing](https://www.chorus.ai/blog/category/the-daily-briefing).