The best sales insights of 2025

This article is part of the Gong Labs series, where we publish findings from our data research team. We analyze sales conversations and deals from teams that use the Gong Revenue AI Operating System (OS) and share the results so you can win more deals. Subscribe here to read our upcoming research.

In the era of AI, do the fundamentals still matter in sales? Our team at Gong Labs went looking for answers on your behalf.

In 2025, we analyzed tens of millions of interactions to uncover what still works and what sets the top reps apart from their peers, even with the mass adoption of AI. We measured the true impact of fundamentals like active listening, multi-threading, and effective cold outbound strategies. In doing so, we looked past AI’s hype to isolate the exact behaviors that elevate the top sellers above the rest.

Whether you’re just catching up or refreshing your game plan for 2026, here are five of our favorite Gong Labs revenue insights of 2025. Add them to your data-backed playbook for a record-breaking year ahead.

Nearly a decade ago, we first analyzed the optimal talk-to-listen ratio during sales calls, and it came in at 43% talk to 57% listen.

Revisiting this same metric in 2025, the biggest separator between high and low performers isn’t necessarily how much they talk, but how consistent they are in their speaking patterns.

Our research shows that high performers maintain the same talk-to-listen ratio whether they win or lose a deal, while low performers’ talk time swings by 10% — from 54% in won deals to 64% in lost ones.

This inconsistency suggests that lower performers tend to react to conversations rather than drive them. High performers, on the other hand, follow a repeatable process that keeps the focus on uncovering buyer needs, pain points, and goals.

Confidence builds consistency, and consistency closes deals.

In today’s buying landscape, nobody’s single-threading deals. Multi-threading — or engaging multiple stakeholders within the buyer’s organization — is now a table-stakes requirement.

After analyzing 1.8 million opportunities, we found that while 77% of deals involve multiple contacts, those that close successfully have twice as many buyer contacts as those that don’t.

As you might expect, the bigger the deal, the bigger the buying group. Strategic enterprise deals include an average of 17 contacts, proving that success depends on connecting broadly and deeply.

Most importantly, multi-threading boosts win rates by 130% in deals over $50K.

If a deal is single-threaded, don’t commit it to your forecast just yet.

Winning isn’t a solo sport. The most successful reps don’t try to be the hero who does it all. Instead, they act as orchestrators who mobilize internal resources to sell as a team.

Our analysis found that selling teams for closed-won deals are 67% larger than those for lost deals.

Top reps know when to bring in specialized teammates to move a deal forward, like sales engineers, customer success leaders, CXOs, or sales leadership.

For example, when enterprise reps bring in a sales engineer to deliver a demo or tackle technical questions, win rates jump by up to 30%.

The best sellers are collaborators who choreograph every move, assembling the right team at the right time to deliver maximum value to buyers.

This summer, we “ran it back” with our friends at 30 Minutes to President’s Club to bring you everything you need to know about cold email.

Here’s one of our favorite insights from that collaboration:

Not all email subject lines are created equal, and the ones that work don’t look like a sales pitch.

Our data-backed research reveals that the most effective subject lines resemble internal messages. They’re short (four words or fewer), lowercase, and use priority-based language.

Here’s an example of what we mean:

Instead of a long subject line like “Reducing Outbound Squad’s Hiring Time,” that reeks of a sales pitch, try something straightforward like “new sales trainer hire.” 

That internal “camo” helps your message stand out from the inbox noise, and it works. It’s one of the simplest and most effective tweaks you can make to instantly boost your open rates.

In 2025, AI went from a time-saver to a revenue driver.

In our Gong Labs analysis of 7.1 million opportunities, we found that sellers that frequently use AI generate 77% more revenue than those not using AI at all. Wondering why? Us too.

It turns out that when reps use AI like the Gong Revenue AI OS to automate their administrative tasks, they regain hours each day that they can spend moving deals forward. They can also send more tailored and personalized outreach that’s more effective. Those are just two of the many ways in which AI helps reps pump their revenue generation well beyond what they could achieve without it.

The key point for sellers is that AI isn’t replacing reps, it’s amplifying them.

In the past year, AI has gone from giving early adopters a competitive edge to being essential to more than 90% of revenue teams. Looking at the top five insights above, we’re not surprised.

There’s a clear story here: Technology isn’t replacing sellers, it’s clearing a path for them and boosting their achievements even higher. The reps generating 77% more revenue aren’t just automating tasks — they’re using that time to double down on consistency, multi-threading, and team selling as ways to generate more revenue.

As we look ahead to 2026, the winning sellers won’t just be the ones with the best AI solutions; they’ll be the ones who use AI to execute on the fundamentals at a previously impossible scale. When they do, our Gong Labs team will be there, poring over the data to find out how you can use AI to boost sales on your own team.

Here’s to an upcoming year of selling smarter, connecting deeper, and breaking records.

Happy selling —
The Gong Labs Team