did you hear this stat from our latest state of sales report well get ready because it's a
doozy only 28 of sales reps expected to beat their quotas last year so you know how are sales leaders
responding to the current selling environment we asked more than 7 700 sales reps in 38 countries
and 14 Industries about what they're doing to stay ahead in 2023 and we definitely got an earful
but hey I'm getting ahead of myself what's up everybody I'm Brian Tong your guide to All Things
Salesforce and I'm here to go through a few of the top trends from this year's report these are
insights that you can use to help you stay ahead of any challenges that blow your way this year so
let's get into it okay the first big takeaway from the report buyers expect reps to drop the Hard
Sell and offer personalized consultation buyers will come to the table with more information
and they're asking sellers nuanced questions to help them solve their unique problems in
fact 81 of reps say buyers increasingly conduct research before we reaching out to sales teams
so by the time they talk to a rep they want a trusted advisor to provide them with a tailored
consultation not a sales pitch and this can be a lot for reps to handle on their own that's why 81
of sellers in our report said Team selling helps them close and indeed reps are pulling resources
knowledge and information from around the organization so that's marketing I.T finance and
service to help them close deals now sales leaders reported cross-functional alignment as the number
one tactic for driving growth but it's also a top challenge in fact 82 percent of reps say alignment
with other teams was at least somewhat challenging in 2022 and that is something that we should be
looking at as we head into 2023 okay our next big trend from the report 94 of sales orgs are
simplifying their Tech stack and they're doing it for a good reason two-thirds of reps told us that
they are overwhelmed by too many tools so these are tools for getting quotes researching projects
prioritizing leads the list goes on and on and on in fact your peers told us that sales teams use
an average of 10 tools to close deals so that's 10 new opportunities to forget your login info I know
you've been there now 10 tools let's be real that is too many and sales teams can win by simplifying
getting rid of single function tools and adding that functionality to a CRM you know like
Salesforce you know what I'm talking about now that change can reduce costs increase
data visibility and boost efficiency so getting rid of a single function tool and bringing in
that functionality into a CRM can have huge wins for sales teams including reduced costs
data visibility and boosted efficiency thanks to less context switching between tools and
artificial intelligence this is a huge win here too many crms have ai features and when used
properly can remove busy work like updating deal records and scoring leads so sellers can
only focus on conversations with buyers and this isn't a theoretical productivity booster either
as our report reveals High performing reps in 2022 were 1.9 times more likely to use AI okay
last but not least a key state of sales Takeaway on the employee experience resource strap sales
organizations are zeroing in on training and coaching we know times are tough resources are
strapped and retention is still an issue now our report found that while the great resignation may
seem to be in the the rear view mirror turnover is still high 25 percent in 2022 and that's likely to
carry over into 2023 and then to compound the issue 85 of sales leaders told us that they
struggle to get budget for needed head count but limited resources doesn't mean sales teams
are off the hook they still have to hit those Revenue targets and that means it's critical
to keep the Reps you do have happy engaged and productive so they continue to close and whoo
that's a tall order like I'm trying to keep you happy and engaged to keep watching this video
like I'm there with you so there are a few ways that leaders are making it work they're
offering flexible working environments improving benefits and streamlining sales processes but
beyond benefits and updated processes they're helping every rep be a star player by expanding
training and coaching and it seems to be a good area for doubling down 81 of sales professionals
said they get valuable coaching from their manager there's a hitch though because just
26 of all sales professionals said they get coaching at least weekly so that means sales
managers are probably dealing with a lot when they sit down with their reps so enablement
technology can help managers make the most of their time that they do have with sellers by
automatically servicing big impact areas for rep coaching this is a big area of opportunity
because only 53 of sales leaders said that they use coaching Solutions like this the bottom
line is it's a different selling environment but sellers are adapting and mapping out strategies
to stay ahead of whatever challenges come next now if you're curious to see what other Trends
are happening in sales click the link on screen to review the full state of sales report and be
sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more valuable insights we'll see you next time