It’s the sales leader’s job is to pay attention to both what is working and what is not working in the sales department and to make the appropriate adjustments so that the sales force has the best possible chance for success. To do that, the sales leader must pay attention to several things including sales process, sales activity, sales analytics (KPI’s), and of course, the customer.
In fact, paying attention to the customer is perhaps the most important of them all. In recent years, the way that customers have been engaging with sales has changed significantly. If you are a sales leader and you have not adapted the way you run your sales department, then you might find yourself slowly starting to lose ground to the competition.
To find success, you will want to adjust and improve how you run sales meetings, do in-field coaching, implement sales training, structure your sales process, commit to strength development, and take advantage of:
- sales technology
- sales-marketing alignment
- lead generation
- customer service
- thought leadership
- on-going recruitment, selection, and on-boarding
All of these are keys to your success. With that, here are six B2B sales statistics you should pay attention to when leading your sales team.
6 B2B Sales Statistics You Want to Pay Attention To
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7 in 10 B2B buyers watch a video sometime during their buying process.
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59% of buyers prefer to do research online instead of consulting a sales professional because they believe that salespeople are likely to push their agenda rather than solving the problem.
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57% of buyer decisions are made before buyers even pick up a phone to speak to a supplier.
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84% of CEOs and VPs use social media to make purchasing decisions.
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91% of customers say they’d give referrals, but only 11% of salespeople ask for them. (Dale Carnegie)
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Over 50% of the average salesperson’s day is spent doing tasks that could be automated.
As a sales leader, you need to be paying close attention to how things are changing and what you need to do to continue to lead your team in the right direction. You might not want to move so fast that you are way out in front (although many do like this approach), but you certainly don’t want to get left behind. Identifying the trends, understanding how the customer is changing, and adjusting accordingly are all keys to long-term success.
