LinkedIn has released its fourth annual State of Sales report, U.S. edition, and it examines different emerging and enduring trends, and the aftereffects of the coronavirus pandemic on sales.
This report also digs into insights about how sales organizations can rebuild their economic stability by following these trends.
The report is based on a survey study of 500 buyers and 500 sellers in the US. It also includes two additional surveys of sales professionals collected over the past two months to judge the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the entire sales sector.
The repercussions of this pandemic are huge, and one of the major emerging trends that have been noted is that salespeople are anticipating a lot of changes due to difficult times ahead.
Some 55% of people are anticipating a decrease in the pipeline, whereas 14% of salespeople are expecting this decline.
About the decrease in responsiveness to outreach, some 44% of people are anticipating, while 14% are expecting this change.
Considerable decrease in closing deals and hitting quota is anticipated by 60% of respondents, while 14% of people are expecting it.
Virtual selling is another emerging trend, and due to the general lockdown and social distancing measures, 77% of salespeople are noted to be holding more video meetings and conferences, while 51% of people are resorting to sending more emails. 57% of sales respondents have started making more phone calls.
There is also a rise in data-driven selling. Sales organizations are focusing on ways to use data to help clients make educated business decisions based on figures and facts. This makes things more transparent and honest between companies and their consumers. Almost 56% of salespeople believe in using data to find prospective clients, and 49% of these respondents believe in using data to select and target relevant industries for sales.
Now coming to some of the Enduring trends; it has been noticed that almost 70% of sales professionals are setting long-term sales metrics to step to the forefront, such as quarterly quota. Top metrics for measuring Sales performance include 43% of Customer satisfaction, 40% of Customer retention, and 37% of Individual and Team Quota metrics.
Sales technology and intelligence tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator play an important role to improve the workflow for most sales professionals. 47% of these people use such technologies daily, while 34% of people use them once a week. 52% of these professionals are planning to increase their reliance on these technologies in 2020.
For buyers, trust is a major issue to get deals done. 47% of the buyers want trustworthiness in their sales professionals, while 44% of them crave responsiveness and 40% of buyers look for expert salespeople in their field.
56% of buyers want someone who shows a clear understanding of their needs, while 51% of them want their salespeople to understand and help them in making their decisions. 47% of buyers value personalized communication and 43-44% of them want appropriate targeting and valuable content sharing from these sales professionals.
These and some more insights in this report can guide sales organizations towards the latest trends and improve their sales in the coming days in a, shattered and completely changed post-coronavirus pandemic world.
Read next: Remote working amid the coronavirus pandemic: A blessing in disguise or a condemnation
This report also digs into insights about how sales organizations can rebuild their economic stability by following these trends.
The report is based on a survey study of 500 buyers and 500 sellers in the US. It also includes two additional surveys of sales professionals collected over the past two months to judge the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the entire sales sector.
The repercussions of this pandemic are huge, and one of the major emerging trends that have been noted is that salespeople are anticipating a lot of changes due to difficult times ahead.
Some 55% of people are anticipating a decrease in the pipeline, whereas 14% of salespeople are expecting this decline.
About the decrease in responsiveness to outreach, some 44% of people are anticipating, while 14% are expecting this change.
Considerable decrease in closing deals and hitting quota is anticipated by 60% of respondents, while 14% of people are expecting it.
Virtual selling is another emerging trend, and due to the general lockdown and social distancing measures, 77% of salespeople are noted to be holding more video meetings and conferences, while 51% of people are resorting to sending more emails. 57% of sales respondents have started making more phone calls.
There is also a rise in data-driven selling. Sales organizations are focusing on ways to use data to help clients make educated business decisions based on figures and facts. This makes things more transparent and honest between companies and their consumers. Almost 56% of salespeople believe in using data to find prospective clients, and 49% of these respondents believe in using data to select and target relevant industries for sales.
Now coming to some of the Enduring trends; it has been noticed that almost 70% of sales professionals are setting long-term sales metrics to step to the forefront, such as quarterly quota. Top metrics for measuring Sales performance include 43% of Customer satisfaction, 40% of Customer retention, and 37% of Individual and Team Quota metrics.
Sales technology and intelligence tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator play an important role to improve the workflow for most sales professionals. 47% of these people use such technologies daily, while 34% of people use them once a week. 52% of these professionals are planning to increase their reliance on these technologies in 2020.
For buyers, trust is a major issue to get deals done. 47% of the buyers want trustworthiness in their sales professionals, while 44% of them crave responsiveness and 40% of buyers look for expert salespeople in their field.
56% of buyers want someone who shows a clear understanding of their needs, while 51% of them want their salespeople to understand and help them in making their decisions. 47% of buyers value personalized communication and 43-44% of them want appropriate targeting and valuable content sharing from these sales professionals.
These and some more insights in this report can guide sales organizations towards the latest trends and improve their sales in the coming days in a, shattered and completely changed post-coronavirus pandemic world.
Read next: Remote working amid the coronavirus pandemic: A blessing in disguise or a condemnation
