
LinkedIn State of Sales Report 2022: 10 Illuminating Stats Reveal the Future of Selling
The findings of LinkedIn’s new 2022 State of Sales Report show that winning in sales and sales management is inextricably linked to handling change. Winning sellers understand this dynamic. In the 2022 State of Sales Global survey, 84% of sellers said that it was more important than it was just a year ago for sales managers to adapt to changing market conditions.
And while the global pandemic drives some of the change hitting the sales sector, at the heart of these shifts is digital transformation. In large part because of advances in technology that enable, for instance, remote work, what buyers want is changing. What sales activities are effective is also changing. How top-performing sellers are staying on top is also shifting, and the increasing usage of sales technology and a growing reliance on data is helping propel even change within sales organizations.
Our 2022 State of Sales report surveyed 750 buyers and 750 sellers in the United States and Canada. Here are 10 illuminating statistics from the report that shine a light on how sales is changing now and is poised to shift in the future:
These 6 trends are shaping the future of sales.
Trend #1
Remote working facilitates sales: More than half of buyers (55%) say that working remotely has made buying easier.

50% of buyers say that working remotely has made the purchasing process easier.

Trend #2
Top performing salespeople do more research: More than three-quarters (80%) of top performers say they “always” perform research before reaching out to prospects (compared to just 49% for other sellers).
Trend #3
Keeping tabs on your buyers is crucial: The overwhelming majority of sellers (86%) say they have had deals lost or stalled in the past 12 months due to a key stakeholder leaving a client or prospect company.
“The selling process has changed to the buying process is the best way I can put it.”
— Ed Calnan, Chief Revenue Officer, Seismic
Trend #4
Virtual selling is here to stay: A significant percent of sellers (40%) say that they have closed deals over $500,000 without ever meeting the buyer face to face.

48% of buyers won’t buy from sellers who proffer misleading information.
Trend #5
Warm outreach is increasingly popular: Only 21% of buyers prefer cold calls as an outreach method.

77% of sales professionals say their sales org plans to invest more in sales intelligence tools.
Trend #6
Dirty Data is a huge problem: Almost half of sellers (45%) say their biggest data challenge is incomplete data.
“Data is table stakes now. I mean, you can’t sell without data.”
— Matt Heinz, President, Heinz Marketing
Download the “2022 State of Sales Report: U.S. and Canada Edition” today.
