You Can’t Sell Without a Strategy: Statistics for High-Performing Sales Teams

The B2B sales landscape has experienced drastic changes over the last decade; an increase in readily-available content, a migration to mobile-friendly interactions, and the elevated expectations of buyers have all contributed to new challenges for sales professionals. It’s not enough to simply know what you’re selling, you need to be an expert in the field with a documented strategy for acquiring customers and closing sales. Currently, 61% of executives believe they don’t have sales managers who have been adequately trained in sales enablement strategies and techniques. They know that as a result, they’re losing out on sales, time, and profits.

Below we’ve collected statistics that illustrate how sales departments can improve their acquisition and revenue by providing their sales professionals with the right training, resources, and tools.

Strategy and Training is Key

• 44% of executives believe their organization is ineffective at managing its sales process. (source)
• 75% of the sales cycle is not automated for optimization and ease. (source)
• 55% of salespeople lack basic sales skills. (source)
• 84% of sales training is forgotten in the first three months. (source)
• 82% of B2B decision-makers think the sales reps they deal with are unprepared. (source)
• 65% of sales professionals say access to high-quality training and learning opportunities positively influences their engagement. (source)
• Companies that provide quality sales coaching see 7% greater annual revenue growth. (source)
• Companies with dynamic sales coaching programs achieve 28% higher win rates. (source)
• Failing to align your sales team around best practices and process can result in a 10% loss of revenue.

Your sales team doesn’t operate in a vacuum. You can provide them with top-quality training and coaching, but a good sales enablement strategy means nothing if they don’t have resources from other teams and relevant, personalized content for customers as they move through the funnel, the customer will get stuck or drop off. Your sales team needs resources and support.

Sales Cannot Function in a Silo

• 50% of sales reps’ time is spent working with unqualified leads. (source)
• Only 12% of buyers want to meet with a sales rep. (source)
• 57% of businesses say high-quality content is their top driver of sales. (source)
• Without a good process in place, 60% of quality sales content goes unused. (source)
• 95% of buyers say they purchase from reps who supply them with content at every stage in the sales cycle. (source)
• 19% more growth occurs when sales teams have an open line of communication and collaboration with the marketing team. 
• Sales teams who work closely with marketing see 41% greater growth in reaching their quotas. (source)
• 74% of high-performing companies have strong sales and marketing alignment within their organization. (source)
• 58% of deals stall in the pipeline because the sales department is unable to offer tailored content for the customer. (source)

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Content is an important asset, but it doesn’t necessarily mean whitepapers or case studies every time. Tools that can demonstrate value to your buyers also serve as highly effective content and might be the key to winning a deal.

Sales Tools Are Changing the Game

• High-performing sales teams use 3x more sales technology tools than underperforming teams. (source)
• 74% of buyers will choose to work with the sales reps who can demonstrate value. (source)
• 95% of buyers say that they want benchmarks to measure against industry standards and competitors. (source)
• 94% of B2B decision makers seek out sales teams that can show specific insights into the problems their company is trying to solve. (source)
• B2B buyers are 5x more likely to engage with a sales professional who offers new insights into their business. (source)
• 89% of B2B buyers say that the vendors they’ve made successful purchases from provided content that made it easier to show the ROI for the purchase. (source)
• Over 75% of companies using sales enablement tools saw an increase in sales in the first year. 40% of those companies reported an increase greater than 25%. (source)

A well thought out strategy paired with the right content provided at the right point in the funnel leads to a higher performing sales team, increased revenues, and higher acquisition rates. To do so starts with a skilled team of sales professionals, a strong relationship with the marketing team, and a toolkit of sales technologies that demonstrate real value and provide key insights to your buyers. With these tactics, you’ll become more than just a rep to your buyers, but an expert they can trust.