The world of modern sales moves quickly. We all know it. Strategies we think might work today may not work tomorrow, or even at all.
To get a high-level view of what’s happening in the industry right now, GetApp surveyed 200 consumers and 250 sales professionals for their 2016 Sales Trends Report. The research delves into whether salespeople have the right selling process and tools in place to serve consumers.
Here are five key statistics from GetApp’s report on modern sales, each followed by insights from the research’s author, GetApp content editor Karen McCandless.
5 modern sales insights from GetApp’s “Sales Trend Report”
- Nearly 90 percent of salespeople have seen an increase in revenue as a result of using sales software.
“Sales management software can have a huge impact on a company’s bottom line. By leveraging the power of analytics, salespeople can accurately assess the sales cycle and the effectiveness of certain campaigns to help them focus on what’s really working. Even further, the forecasting tools within sales management solutions like these help to make more accurate predictions so that it’s easier to allocate resources during the entire the sales cycle.”
- Only 15 percent of salespeople are using social media to contact potential customers.
“Small businesses may still be reluctant to use social media as a sales channel because of the perceived difficulty of measuring ROI from these sources, as well as the fact that it means adding yet another channel into the multitude of channels already available in the sales mix. Done properly, however, social media can be a powerful platform for selling online, and sales software can help businesses plan, execute and measure social selling campaigns to be able to maximize their potential.”
- Less than a tenth (9.5 percent) of salespeople think that consumers are looking for personalized customer service.
“Delivering a personalized service has been touted as the holy grail of customer success, so it’s interesting to discover that salespeople still don’t consider personalization as a key criteria for garnering leads and closing deals. Once the importance of customer personalization is recognized, sales management software can help automate the personalization process by tailoring messages to consumers using data already in your software.”
- Ninety-five percent of consumers have abandoned a purchase in store, while 85 percent have abandoned a purchase online.
“Shopping cart abandonment is clearly a huge problem for online retailers, but there are ways to try and bring those high abandonment rates down. User experience improvements are one of them, like adding clearer security verification logos and better progress indicators at checkout. Marketing tactics can also play a huge role, like using Facebook retargeting to reach out to customers who have abandoned their purchase and pulling them back in.”
- Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of consumers rank low price as the most important factor when purchasing goods in store or online, while only 1 percent rank customer service as key.
“It’s clear that price is still top of mind when consumers are shopping. Because of that, it’s more important than ever that businesses price products effectively and monitor what their competitors are charging. It may even be worth adopting pricing optimization software to help make sure that they’re not overcharging their customers.”
What other modern sales insights do you think should be included in this list? Share your ideas in the comments below!
