Challenges and opportunities in the sales landscape of 2024

Sales teams are still dealing with the lingering effects of such a challenging macroeconomic environment as 2023 and 2024, but we are getting closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.

The main goal of sales professionals is to exceed their targets or quotas, but this and last year has been harder to achieve. More than half of them, 54%, say selling has been more difficult this year than before, due to inflation, stiff competition, lack of high-quality leads, difficulty reaching decision-makers and longer deal cycles, according to HubSpot's most recent sales report.

Many face budget constraints and are being asked to do more with less, in terms of resources and teammates. However, despite the headwinds, most sales professionals continue to meet or exceed their targets, and there are many exciting opportunities on the horizon for 2024.

According to Christian Kinnear, Chief Sales Officer at HubSpot, the situation is trending upward: "First, inflation is finally slowing down, so we can expect companies' tight grip on their budgets to loosen a bit next year, which will make it easier for sales professionals to do their jobs. And after three years of experimenting with different working models, one of the most popular approaches-hybrid working-has also proven to be the most effective setup for sales teams.

In fact, our State of Sales 2023 in Latin America study reveals that 37% of professionals said their company currently faces many difficulties selling. In the same vein, 31% said they were concerned about the loss of efficiency in the sales methods they currently use. Both the business feasibility of making sales and the efficiency of their methods directly impact the confidence of reps and the relationship they have with prospects and customers.

In this regard, 76% of sales professionals agree that establishing personal and human connections is the most critical aspect of a successful sales process.

In today's landscape, companies expect sales professionals to do more with fewer resources, due to the economic factors noted above. To meet their goals, professionals rely on technology such as CRMs, data analytics and sales forecasting software, cloud telephony, and chatbots.

In 2024, we will continue to stress the importance of building relationships: one of the primary ways sales teams receive high-quality leads is through referrals from existing customers. This is especially important in times when buyers are still somewhat fearful of spending money: even in tough economic times, a trusted colleague will be able to convince his or her colleague that a product is worth investing in more than a sales rep could. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to increase sales efficiency using AI tools. Salespeople want to sell, but studies show that they only spend 33% of their time actively selling.

We've found that sales professionals who use AI tools to perform administrative tasks save two hours a day. That's two extra hours to connect with customers, build relationships, advance the pipeline and, of course, close more deals. Companies also believe that targeting new markets, improving sales and marketing alignment, improving efficiency, driving personalization and using data more effectively can mean future growth for your company.

But it's not that simple, is it? Ask a customer service and customer success professional and most will tell you how difficult it is to create an unforgettable customer experience when their buying experience is not the best or doesn't exceed their expectations. The New (Old) Golden Rule of Customer RelationshipsIn the early days of HubSpot, they wanted to understand what was causing customer churn and, at first, thought it was the customer success team. But the data revealed that churn was related to the salesperson and how they sold to prospects.

This was because the expectations set at the outset influenced the likelihood of churn. 67% of salespeople surveyed by LinkedIn for its Buyer First report said they prioritized buyers. However, only 23% of buyers believe that sellers have their best interests at heart. To improve any relationship, we need to focus on what they want, before we focus on ourselves.

What kind of buying experience do your buyers crave?

In their book Stop Selling and Start Leading, Deb Calvert and her co-authors at Santa Clara University, used research and retail data to figure out how to help sellers create more delighted buyers and evangelists in the B2B world. What did they discover? What buyers value most in a salesperson is the ability to collaborate with them to bring new ideas and insights and challenge their thinking about the problem.

Your buyers crave collaboration. This is partly due to what Harvard researchers called the IKEA Effect: we like things more-and value them more-if we have invested effort in creating them. But the skills needed to collaborate with buyers are not sought in salespeople or taught in training.

When LinkedIn researchers asked buyers what traits they valued most in salespeople, they ranked skills such as active listening first. However, when HR managers were asked what were the top traits they looked for in salespeople, active listening ranked last. How can you change the buyer experience in your organization to create delighted customers who not only stay with you longer, but become evangelists and referrers?

3 strategies to create a better buying experience.

1. Reduce sales engagement bias by creating a success profile and objectively measuring it with dataInclude criteria about your buyer, their role, the type of sale and how much they spend on solutions. Making sure you have the right person in the role that aligns with your target buyer reduces friction in the buying experience and faster ramp time.

2. Evaluate your onboarding process for new sales employee Start with product and process? The first thing you teach salespeople is the first thing you preach to buyers. This should be reversed and the entire product and process should be filtered through the buyer's perspective.To do this, you must have buyer profiles that include information on how they measure up in their role, how they become aware of the problem, what they believe about their problem, what they may not know about the problem, and the impact of that problem on them and the organization.Next, present your products or services in the context of the problems that buyers have.

3. Internal pressures to meet ever-increasing quotas cause emotional involvement in salespeople. This prevents them from being able to be active listeners and this is the number one trait buyers value. Train your managers in coaching so they can help salespeople develop the skills they need to meet buyer expectations.

The more they can practice their active listening skills and questioning before talking to buyers, the calmer and more confident they'll be. When your sales and customer success teams follow the new golden rule in their processes around the buyer, you've already shown them the love they want. Accelerate revenue with smarter sales tools Generate sustainable opportunities with the new prospecting workspace, which consolidates your activities into a unified dashboard.

Try new sales features to increase your team's win rate, such as in-sequence A/B testing and AI-powered email generation. HubSpot Sales Hub and AI tools can also: Accelerate revenue growth with new intelligent deal management tools, such as deal inspection and AI forecasting. Give teams access to deal journey analytics, lead funnel reports and more. Automatically record calls and track sales rep performance.