You're Using Text Messages at the Wrong End of the Deal
TextUs surveyed 763 revenue professionals and found SMS gets a 34.7% response rate against 8.5% for email. The catch: the stages where texting performs best, closing and renewals, are the ones reps use it least.
I've treated text messages as a top-of-funnel trick for years, one more channel to try before or after a cold call, in case the prospect happens to check their phone faster than their inbox. That framing turns out to be backwards, and a survey released this year makes the case better than I could on my own.
TextUs surveyed 763 revenue professionals across software, financial services, and recruiting, and found the average one-to-one SMS response rate sits at 34.7%, against 8.5% for outreach email, roughly four times higher. That part isn't surprising, everyone already suspects texting gets read faster than email does. The finding that actually stopped me was buried further into the same report: the stages where SMS performs best, deal close and renewals, are the stages reps use it least. The channel is strongest exactly where sellers barely touch it.
Why that gap exists in the first place
I think I know why, because I did it myself. Texting feels like a top-of-funnel tool because it's fast and informal, which matches how we think about a first touch: quick, low-stakes, easy to send without overthinking it. A renewal conversation feels like it deserves more ceremony, an email with the contract attached, a scheduled call, something that looks like it took effort. So reps default to the heavier channel exactly when the lighter one would actually work better, because the moment feels too important for something that quick.
But a renewal or a close isn't a moment that needs ceremony. It's a moment that needs a fast, direct answer to one specific question, "are we still good for Friday," "did the paperwork go through," "any blockers before we sign." That's precisely the kind of message SMS is built for, and precisely the kind of message that gets buried in an inbox next to fifty other things competing for the same five seconds of attention.
What this actually means for how you sequence a deal
None of this argues for texting a cold prospect out of nowhere, that's a different problem, closer to spam, and it's worth getting explicit consent before you text anyone you haven't already talked to. The finding is about the other end of the deal: once someone's already a real conversation, already said yes to a next step, already agreed to a specific date, that's when a text does more work than the email you'd otherwise default to. Confirming a call, nudging a stalled signature, checking in before a renewal date, all of that is closer-stage communication, and all of it is exactly where the TextUs data says the response-rate gap is widest.
The part that's still on you
None of this replaces the actual conversation. A text confirming a close doesn't close anything by itself, it just removes the friction of getting a fast answer at the one moment friction costs you the most, a signature that's sitting half-finished, a renewal date that's about to slip because nobody got a quick yes in time. The skill underneath still has to be there: knowing what to ask for, and asking for it directly enough that a one-line text is actually enough to get a real answer back.
That's the same skill a live call is built to sharpen, being specific and direct instead of vague and hoping. If your closing conversations are clear enough that a text can carry the last mile, the channel does the rest. Daily practice on the calls that get you to that stage is still what gets you there in the first place.