Average cost for a sales meeting

November 21st, 2008
  • What's the cost for the average sales meeting, not including airfare, meals, hotel? I've seen this statistic in the 80s and it was $250. I'm not sure how it's calculated, but I think it's related to the cost for making the appointment, driving there, meeting with someone, driving back.


  • Are you seeking information about "sales meetings" (gatherings of a companies sales personnel with administrative staff to discuss sales plans and techniques" or the average cost of making a "sales call" (calling on a customer to make a presentation regarding your product or service)?? seedy


  • Hi Seedy, The cost I'm seeking is for a sales call. I've seen stats for the cost for a business letter ($100), a business phone call ($25), and a sales call/meeting ($250). These are old prices, and I saw them in a presentation made by Pacific Bell when they were selling telemarketing. The point they were making: It's cheaper to call then go to the meeting. I hope this helps and Thank you!!! Randy


  • Hi Seedy, You're right....I'm looking for "the average cost of making a "sales call" (calling on a customer to make a presentation regarding your product or service)" Thanks, R.


  • One of the main sources to publish the changing cost of a sales call, is Sales & Marketing Management Magazine. This magazine is available for an annual subscription of $48 per year. If you are interesting in following the estimated cost of a sales call historically, you will need to subscribe to a magazine such as SMM or subscribe to a rating service such as the Hay Group. http://www.salesandmarketing.com/salesandmarketing/index.jsp http://www.haygroup.com/ http://www.targetonline.com/ Frequently, data that is one year old or more is published for the general public while the most current year's data is protected for subscription service. Of course, the value of the sales call cost infomation is questionable since the cost estimate does vary depending on the method of selling from quantity calls to quality calls. Service businesses which depend on consultative selling will have a higher sales call cost as will capital project sales. Commodity products where the product is quite specific and the benefits and comparisons with competition are easily made, will have a lower cost of sales call. The sales call cost generally includes, salespeople's compensation, benefits, and travel-and-entertainment expenses. For commodity sales, the average cost of the sales call is described by SMM as $169 per call in the year 2000 while the cost of a consultative sales call is reported to be $212 per sales call. This data was picked from several printed sources of industry magazines including Modern Plastics, Injection Molding, Printing Industry, and Converting Magazine. I hope this information is satisfactory to you. Without the paid reports, the historical data and future projections are difficult to follow. My experience is that the numbers shown have not changed that dramatically in the past 5 years and will be projected flat for the next five years since general inflation affects this cost factor and general inflation has been quite low in the recent past and seems to be projected low for the immediate future. search strategy: Google search "sales & marketing magazine" (I knew of its existence from my business experience) The correct name is Sales & Marketing Management Magazine. It lead to the other sources. Google Search: ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22marketing+magazine%22 I will be happy to clarify information contained in this answer if necessary. Thank you for asking this question and for having the patience to clarify it and to wait for the answer to develop. seedy


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