Sales are becoming a more powerful, strategic voice within companies. Seventy-three percent of sales professionals say the attention paid to sales has increased over the past five years.

It is reported that high-performing sales teams are 2.8x more likely than underperformers to say their sales organizations have become much more focused on personalizing customer interactions over the past 12—18 months.

Without further ado, let’s dive deep into the sales insights.

The Sales Insights: 60% of Sales Professionals Say That Collaborative Selling Has Increased Productivity by More Than 25%

It is known that collaboration is seen as a key and a way to a connected sales journey. According to the sales insights, 60% of sales professionals mentioned that collaborative selling has increased productivity by more than 25%.

Moreover, more than half 52% mentioned that it has done the same for increasing pipeline.

The charts below show the percentage of sales teams who rate the following selling techniques as absolutely critical or very important to their overall sales process.

• As shown in the chart, 73% of sales teams think collaborating across departments such as sales, marketing, service is highly important to their overall sales process.
• On the other hand, 62% of sales teams think collaborative selling such as: integrating other departments like service, marketing, etc… in the selling process.

Check the full “State of Sales Report” here.

Sales Teams Rate Six Channels as Absolutely Critical/Very Important for Connecting With Customers

The data of the sales insights shows that the desire for one-to-one human connection is still more powerful than technology innovation for its own sake.

Moreover, Two-thirds of consumers, besides a percentage of 72% of business buyers say that they are likely to switch brands if they’re treated like a number instead of an individual.

Check the chart below to know the top teams’ scale engagement with new channels.

The chart below shows the percentage of sales professionals who say it’s absolutely critical or very important to connect with customers using the following communication channels

• As shown, connecting with customers in person at the top of the list with a percentage of 87%.
• Comes next is communicating with customers via phone, with a percentage of 83%.
• The email comes in third place with a percentage of 78%.
• However, the communication channels which got the least percentages were :
• Knowledge basses such as a library of information (to search for and find answers from a company’s website) with a percentage of 54%.
• Also, online forums got 45%.
• Using social media as a communication channel got only 44%.
• Online communities such as interacting with other customers got a percentage of 43%.
• Lastly, the mobile app, including the ability to contact sales, support, service, etc. got a percentage of 42%.

Make sure to check the full “State of Sales Report” for more sales insights in 2020.