Ever since the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, Brexit has dominated the UK news agenda until the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. For more than four years, protracted negotiations, debates, demonstrations, media speculation, and business uncertainty were the order of the day, as the country waited to see what kind of Brexit we would eventually end up with; hard, soft, deal, no deal, or something in between.
For many in business and the public sector, it has been a challenging period, requiring preparation for significant change and disruption, whether relating to trade, regulations or immigration. Brexit also brings new opportunities for organisations to sell their services, set up new partnerships, and reevaluate how they build relationships. In many cases, this has accelerated the adoption of digital sales processes, particularly in light of Covid-19, to increase efficiency and expand professional networks.
To try to understand how Brexit has impacted organisations’ activity online, LinkedIn analysed data from its selling platform, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, to see how sales professionals across some of the UK’s most exposed sectors were using the platform in the 2 years before the UK formally ended the transition period in December 2020. Here are some of the key insights:
1. Public administration
Brexit has dominated much of the work of the government and civil service since the vote to leave, ranging from setting policy, and building international trade agreements, to preparing for various eventual scenarios.
This mammoth task is reflected in Sales Navigator data, which shows that the number of sellers in public administration roles on LinkedIn grew by 70% from 2019 to 2020. Moreover, prospecting actions (defined as profile views, saved leads and InMail sending activity) increased by 24% in this sector, as the country prepared to officially leave the EU at the end of the year. The findings indicate that professionals in public administration have been looking for new ways to engage with government and civil service to maximise the opportunity and help ease the Brexit transition.
2. Transportation and Logistics
The EU is the UK’s largest trading partner, making up 43% of the country’s exports, so organisations involved in overseas trade have been bracing themselves for Brexit. New customs arrangements and , the risk of delays or disruption to suppliers and trade routes mean that importers and exporters have been busy preparing for a whole range of eventualities. So, it is little surprise that transport and logistics sales professionals, including freight delivery, warehousing and maritime, have been particularly busy in the last 12+ months, with a 56% rise in sellers prospecting in the sector, and a 1.3M rise in prospecting actions YoY.
This activity is likely to have been driven partly by an increased market for warehouse space, with studies showing that UK companies have been stockpiling goods in preparation for disruption and delays with the pandemic and changes in trading arrangements. In addition, where exporters have looked to shift their distribution strategies, this has opened up opportunities for freight and maritime focused providers, while logistics technology companies will have spied an opportunity to help customers manage the transition and boost efficiency. The average number of actions taken on LinkedIn among sellers in the transport and logistics rose 27% on the year before.
3. Manufacturing
Accounting for 11% of the UK economy and 45% of total exports, manufacturing has been one of the sectors most heavily affected by Brexit. Manufacturers spanning sub-sectors such as automotive, aerospace, and food and drink, rely on the ease of trading with the EU, so have been reevaluating their trading strategies, and looking to shore up their sales pipelines to maintain revenues post-Brexit.
Studies have shown that many manufacturing companies have even been looking for new trading partners outside the EU. And LinkedIn Sales Navigator data supports this, showing over 43% growth in the number sellers from that industry in the past year, and an 81% growth in prospecting actions, indicating that manufacturing sales professionals have been keen to spread their nets wider to source new customers.
4. Financial Services
Much of the discussion leading up to Brexit was focused on the financial services industry, one of the UK’s biggest exports, with concerns ranging from regulation, to talent, and how financial trading with the bloc would be affected. However, Brexit has also brought new opportunities for finance organisations, with demand for loans and other financial support to help clients to adapt their operations, or equity investment from venture capital or private equity to help manage through the transition.
Sales Navigator insights suggest that many finance organisations have been tackling the challenge head on, with the platform seeing 39% growth in the number of finance sellers prospecting on the platform in 2020, and over 7 million more actions. In fact, data shows finance members are among the most active on the platform.
5. Corporate and Legal Services
Similarly, corporate services represent a huge part of the UK economy, spanning accounting, management consulting, recruitment, legal services, and numerous others; the kinds of organisations that have had a big role in helping their clients prepare for the Brexit changes.
For example, research has shown that government spending on management consultants increased substantially to help plan for Brexit, while a rise in demand for accountancy services to advise on tax changes has also been reported. In the legal space, indications are that firms have experienced a similar trend, with clients looking for advice on regulatory and legislative changes, with some firms, like KPMG, appointing a ‘Head of Brexit’ to capitalise on this trend.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator figures show that professionals across corporate and legal services have been making the most of the demand, with over 500,000 more sellers joining the platform in the last year, an increase of 40%. Combined with prospecting actions in this industry up by over 5 million, it’s safe to say this sector is starting to embrace virtual selling.
Virtual selling is here to stay
In LinkedIn’s latest State of Sales survey, 41% of top sales performers in the UK (those who exceeded their sales quota by 25% or more) described themselves as ‘very active’ on LinkedIn. It’s clear that more and more sales professionals are bolstering their virtual sales skills, and looking to technology to support them. Much of this has been accelerated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but an increasing reliance on sales technology has been underway since well before then. What’s more, research shows that only 15-25% of UK buyers wish to interact with reps in person even in their ideal post-COVID-19 model.
With so much sales activity moving online, having robust and reliable sales technology and data supporting you is a must. LinkedIn Sales Navigator users see a lift in sales outcomes across the board, such as 15% increased pipeline and 42% larger deal sizes on average.
Conclusion
Brexit has been a long time in the making, but businesses have shown resilience and agility in how they have dealt with the uncertainty and disruption, while also maximising opportunities for growth. We’ve begun by highlighting a number of acutely exposed industries to the changes posed by Brexit - and in some cases exacerbated by the pandemic, but really, our data shows a growing belief in what sales technology can provide when it comes to seizing the opportunities of new selling realities.
Digitisation has made it easier than ever to build relationships around the world, and with tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, businesses have everything they need to diversify their sales network for a post-Brexit future. So if you’re interested in learning how to take advantage of this seismic shift to virtual selling, you can find out more about LinkedIn Sales Solutions here.
This is the first in a series of blog posts from LinkedIn Sales Solutions on how sales professionals are responding to Brexit. Keep an eye out for future instalments in the coming weeks.
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