7 Enduring Trends Defining the Future of Sales
7 Enduring Trends Defining the Future of Sales
Sales organizations adapted quickly to the new reality brought by COVID-19. LinkedIn research showed that salespeople, suddenly working remotely, embraced virtual selling almost immediately:
• 77% of salespeople said they were holding more video meetings
• 57% said they were making more phone calls
• 51% said they were sending more emails
With conferences and other opportunities for face-to-face meetings sidelined in the current environment, LinkedIn’s new State of Sales Report 2020 found that COVID-19 is having more than a short-term impact. Our research indicates that seven long-term sales trends that were already in motion are accelerating in today’s economic conditions.
Long-term, customer-focused metrics are stepping to
the forefront.
Understanding data and analytics is an increasingly important tool for survival, and sales organizations are embracing long-term metrics of sales success, such as customer satisfaction and customer churn over individual and team quotas.
The State of Sales Report 2020: United States Edition found that the top metrics for measuring sales performance were customer satisfaction (43%) and customer retention (40%), which were higher priorities than individual quota and team quota, both of which came in at 37%.
The data-driven sales org is on the rise.
Sales organizations are putting data to work long before reaching out to buyers. Data is increasingly crucial for sales orgs, and sales executives must take greater control of how their sales organization use it.
Fifty-six percent of salespeople are using data to prospect, and another 49% are using data to select industries to target.
Sale technology is transforming the sales org.
When face-to-face meetings are limited, sales technology has increasingly moved to the forefront of how sales professionals strengthen existing relationships and begin to build new ones.
Almost three-quarters (74%) of salespeople who use sales intelligence tools say they are crucial to closing deals.
Trust gets deals done.
Survey data from the State of Sales Report indicates that buyers want trust in the sales process but find it in short supply. For sales professionals, achieving trust with buyers is often the first step to getting deals done.
Only 40% of buyers see the sales profession as “trustworthy.” But 88% of buyer describe the salespeople they ultimately buy from as “trusted advisors.” These numbers indicate that the salespeople who gain buyers’ trust are the ones who close deals.
Building a sales team with the right skills is challenging.
Active listening is the skill that buyers prize most in salespeople, but sales managers are not prioritizing this trait in their hiring.
Forty-two percent of buyers value “active listening” in salespeople, making it the top trait buyers want. But only 26% of sales managers value this trait in their hiring process. It’s a disconnect that sales managers should be aware of in seeking talent.
Top performing salespeople do things differently.
Our State of Sales research found that there are several key ways that top performers (which we defined as sales professionals who reached 125% or more of quota) differ from other salespeople. These insights can help elevate your entire sales team.
Top performers are more likely than other salespeople to use data to analyze closed-lost business by a margin of 56% to 45%.
LinkedIn plays an expanded role for both buyers and sellers.
The survey results show that both buyers and sellers are increasingly relying on LinkedIn in their day-to-day jobs.
The percentage of buyers who “strongly agree” that an informative profile is important for a salesperson has increased from 25% to 36% between 2016 and 2020. Salespeople agree that LinkedIn is important: 84% are active on the platform in 2020 compared to 70% two years ago.
Check out the full blog post if you wanted to read more.
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