As a sales professional, your skills are in demand more than ever. That’s because sales continues to be a top investment priority for businesses. In the U.S. alone, companies spend $15 billion each year training sales employees and $800 billion on incentives to retain sales talent.

Despite this momentum, B2B sales has never been more challenging. Highly personalized services like Netflix and Amazon are driving customers to expect more from the brands they interact with, including those with B2B sales teams. Millennials, who have especially high expectations for personalization, are gaining influence in the workforce and will make up 46% of professionals by 2020.

Sellers today must meet these heightened expectations while building consensus among a larger group of stakeholders: the average buyer’s circle is now 6.8 people. They must also team up with their marketing counterparts to reach each of these individuals at every stage of the path to purchase. To be successful in modern sales, you need to build relationships at scale—tapping into advanced sales technology to engage with the right contacts faster, while fostering human connection and trust.

The third annual LinkedIn State of Sales report studies this new landscape, including the expectations of today’s B2B decision makers and the modern selling strategies and technologies employed by B2B sales professionals to scale their impact, outperform their peers and close more deals.

Read on for the Key Findings from this year’s LinkedIn State of Sales report—and how you can use these insights to boost your sales performance.

Businesses are increasingly investing in sales technology. Sales teams are turning tocloud-based software, in particular, to accelerate productivity, gather contextual detailsabout customers and automate tedious tasks.

Three-quarters of sales professionals (73%) use technology to close more deals. Of this group, 97% consider sales technology “very important” or “important.” The majority of sales professionals (59% overall and 65% top performers) say they’re spending more time using technology, too; 93% are using sales technology just as much or more than in 2017. CRM adoption alone has grown 113% since 2016, with 64% of sales professionals reporting that they use CRM tools

Personal connection matters. As beloved B2C brands have conditioned everyone to expect highly personalized recommendations, content and personalized interactions, decision makers have embraced similar expectations of the B2B path to purchase. Conventional sales approaches don’t stack up—buyers now find them cold, impersonal and obviously automated.

As a result, decision makers are more likely to consider a brand’s products or services when the experience is personalized, for instance if a sales professional has a clear understanding of their business needs (96%) or their role (94%); shares content relevant to their role (93%); provides personalized communications (93%); or targets the appropriate people at their company for initial discussions (92%).

Decision makers are more likely to engage with sales when introduced through a mutual connection, particularly if the sales professional represents a strong brand. The influence of a strong brand increased by 37% since last year and is the No. 1 factor cited by decision makers when choosing to engage with sales.

Decision makers are least likely to engage with sales professionals who lack knowledge about their company (79%)and whose products or services are irrelevant to their company (76%).

Sales and marketing are starting to work more closely together, benefiting both sales professionals and decision makers alike. Forty-four percent of sales executives say they work more closely with marketing than in past years. Overall, those who say they work “very closely” or “closely” with marketing has grown 35% since the 2016 survey.

Top sales professionals have a stronger relationship with their marketing counterparts. They are 13% more likely to say they work “very closely” or “closely” with marketing in prospecting efforts than their peers.

On a scale of one (a very small role) to 10 (a very big role), 57% of the top sales professionals rate marketing’s importance in closing deals at an eight or above, while 41% of their average counterparts say the same.

Still, the data divide remains. While many sales and marketing teams are keen to partner more closely, data is often siloed in the technology platforms used by each function. Only 20% of sales professionals say they see significant overlap in the data used by marketing and sales to target prospects.

This misalignment could contribute to the quality of leads sales professionals say they receive from marketing. Only 22% say leads from marketing are excellent and 42% say they’re good.

Millennials are quicker than other age groups to use new strategies and technologies. These younger sales executives mirror the technology usage of the most successful sales professionals at the highest rates. Sixty-two percent of millennials (and 65% of top performers) say they anticipate spending more time this year using sales technology. On the other hand, 56% of Generation X and Baby Boomers say they anticipate investing more time this year compared to last year.

A tight-knit relationship with marketing is paying off for millennials, who tend to outperform Generation X and Baby Boomer sales professionals. Top performing millennials are 23% more likely to say they work “very closely” with marketing than Generation X and 73% more likely than Baby Boomers.

This partnership has strengthened over the past year. Millennial sales pros are 12% more likely than Generation X and 24% more likely than Baby Boomers to spend more time working with marketing than in past years.

In turn, millennials say they see excellent leads from marketing at 56% higher rates than Generation X and 115% higher than Baby Boomers.

It’s more important than ever for sales professionals to earn and maintain trust as consumer skepticism of big brands peaks.

Ninety-nine percent of sales professionals say trust is “very important” or “important” to winning new business. Forty percent rank trust as the most important contributor to closing a deal—even above ROI of the product or service (28%) and price (18%). An additional 24% rank trust second. Trust has led as a priority factor influencing deals since our first survey in 2016.

Fifty-one percent of decision makers rank trust as the No. 1 factor they desire in a salesperson, followed by responsiveness (42%), expertise in the field (42%), problem solving (37%) and transparency (34%).

Today’s selling landscape comes with heightened consumer expectations and skepticism—without a personalized purchasing experience, you’ll quickly lose buyers’ interest.

That’s why it’s important to implement a modern selling strategy: tap into technology to scale, lean into marketing to align insights, but don’t forget real human connections are irreplaceable. Top sales professionals are closing more deals on a foundation of trust; relationships are still at the heart of selling.

This approach will enable you to better target prospects, personalize experiences and meet buyers’ expectations, today and in the future.

Market Cube, a research panel company, conducted two online surveys from August 7-15, 2018.

For 2018, two sample groups were surveyed representing both sales professionals and decision makers. The first was a sample of 507 professionals from the United States who primarily work in B2B sales. The second was a sample of 502 business decision makers from the U.S. who have influence over purchasing decisions at B2B companies. Both samples includes respondents over 21-years-old who are employed at companies of different sizes and functions.

The report also references a group of “top sales professionals” who are defined as sales professionals who exceed their sales target by at least 25%.

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State of Sales
Report Pocket Guide

Introduction: A human touch at scale

The third annual LinkedIn State of Sales report studies this new landscape, including the expectations of today’s B2B decision makers and the modern selling strategies and technologies employed by B2B sales professionals to scale their impact, outperform their peers and close more deals.

Read on for the Key Findings from this year’s LinkedIn State of Sales report—and how you can use these insights to boost your sales performance.

Executive Summary: 5 key findings

Sales technology is ineffective without a human touch

Conclusion

Methodology

State of Sales Report Pocket Guide

Introduction: A human touch at scale

The third annual LinkedIn State of Sales report studies this new landscape, including the expectations of today’s B2B decision makers and the modern selling strategies and technologies employed by B2B sales professionals to scale their impact, outperform their peers and close more deals.

Read on for the Key Findings from this year’s LinkedIn State of Sales report—and how you can use these insights to boost your sales performance.

Executive Summary: 5 key findings

Sales technology is ineffective without a human touch

Conclusion

Methodology

State of Sales
Report Pocket Guide