2018 Salesforce State of Sales Report Key Findings

Salesforce's market-leading CRM technology enjoys great popularity among sales teams. The Spring 2018 State of Sales Report provides insights into the sales techniques, applied technology, and trends of 2,908 sales professionals.

The Salesforce Report highlights five main trends:

• Growing expectations of customers
• Increased data usage
• The expansion and application of artificial intelligence in sales processes
• Steps to virtual sales
• Growing collaboration between sales, marketing and customer service

The study finds that the increased use of advanced technologies and the collaboration of customer service teams leads to greater sales success. Such high-performing teams grow faster, sell more, and report higher user satisfaction in all areas than their less-performing competitors.

In contrast, those who refrain from mastering and applying the latest technologies and a customer-centric approach tend to sell less, grow more slowly, and have less comprehensive knowledge of how to sell to customers.

This article dissects the most interesting conclusions of the 2018 State of Sales Report.

Growing expectations of customers

It's all about the customers, now the needs of the buyers determine the evolution of the sales processes. Since the consumer market is paying more attention to personalization and consumer experience, 82 percent of buyers expect the same from B2B and B2C sellers, blurring the difference between the two.

However, sales reps only work directly with customers 34 percent of their time. The remaining two-thirds of the time they perform administrative, non-sales-related tasks (updating information, optimization, correspondence, etc.).

This shows that there is a lot of pressure on sales teams to better understand customers, to do business with them personally, and ultimately to make the customer happy and return, but in the meantime, they also need to manually update the data and produce the kind of information that helps the sale.

Increased data usage

The last few decades have seen an increase in the use of technology in sales, and with it an explosive expansion of the data set related to sales, which companies are just beginning to use to determine sales decisions. Only 33 percent of companies use data instead of intuition to understand their willingness to buy. High-performing teams are 1.6 times more likely to process their data than less-performing competitors.

But closing a deal still requires a personal presence, which is why sales teams are increasingly forced to prioritize in their schedules, spending less time analyzing sales (e.g. Presentation of ROI, provision of customer references) and rather individual skills (soft skills) are developed instead.

So while data is becoming more prevalent and important in the overall sales process, its current use in forecasting sales goals and monitoring the customer journey in the initial and intermediate stages of the sales funnel is paramount. Customers still value a personal presence, something that sales teams should keep in mind for the highest level of user satisfaction.

AI

Returning to the problem explained in the first point, sales teams must individualize their efforts and reduce the amount of administration. Artificial intelligence (AI) makes this easier.

According to sales executives, the number of people using AI will jump significantly by 2020, although only 21 percent of teams currently use this technology. High-performing teams are nearly 5 times as likely to use AI as less successful teams.

People want technology that makes their work easier, but even if it saves a few clicks and a few hours of data entry, they fear AI. The difference between the usefulness of the tool and the number of people who actually use it is striking. Only less than half of sales teams use artificial intelligence, but 80 to 85 percent of these teams say AI helps their work.

Contrary to common fear, AI does not eliminate jobs, but creates new ones. 76 percent of companies have increased their sales teams after implementing AI. Human participation is still important, AI only makes suggestions, but people are needed in government when it comes to making deals.

However, despite the fact that AI technology helps in sales, its mastering is still slow. Perhaps due to underlying difficulties such as lack of training or investment capital, perhaps due to a limited choice of options. Just as AI has proven feasible for larger companies, we should experience the same for smaller sales teams.

Virtual Sales

Given the proliferation of communication tools that allow salespeople to connect with customers virtually, it's no surprise that virtual sales have taken off. Most salespeople now spend more time engaging with customers than they did in 2015, but the spread of virtual selling is even more significant: growth is three times as strong as in in-person sales.

Virtual salespeople also build relationships with customers, but they do so through virtual meetings using webcasts, webinars, VoIP, and other conference-calling tools. Technology is a good way to get in touch even with an extensive range of consumers and also saves travel money. A special advantage is that teams spend more time together, are more cohesive, which means greater coordination during projects and new initiatives.

Data management and analysis tools (CRM, contact management, etc.) show a 50 percent transition in this new virtual work environment. The star of the mobile sales app shines high, with a conversion rate of 46 percent. It helps both salespeople and customers get in touch where and when the customer is ready to do business.

Breaking Out of the Silo

The customer experience is becoming increasingly important, and yet the gap between understanding and execution is still greater than expected: 77 percent of teams see the importance of cross-selling, but less than 50 percent have successfully integrated the technology.

Collaboration helps sales and marketing teams better understand high-value opportunities and the best targeting methods. Those who do well are twice as likely to understand why marketing has handed them the lead than those who do less well.

Interestingly, 80 percent of these high achievers also use ABM (account based marketing model). There may be related reasons for this: ABM tactics require sales and marketing teams to work together, which breaks the silo mentality, promotes better and easier communication outside the teams, which will make them more unique sellers, which is an advantage for ABM.

According to the study, the success of sales is based on the technology used, more flexible sales models and the collaboration between teams to improve the customer experience. High-performing teams use more technology to simplify day-to-day processes, so they can spend more time doing business in person, and are also in touch with marketing and customer service teams. Less successful performers are stuck at a point where they use their intuition, manual methods, and less sales-aiding technology, so they're less likely to engage in face-to-face interaction when they could make a deal.

As we watch trends evolve over the next few years, it will be interesting to see how the use of information and technology continues to shape how sales teams operate in and out of the office.

Source:Article by Tamara Scott, July 11, 2018, and based on the 2018 Salesforce State of Sales study