HubSpot’s Sr. Trends Researcher, Max Iskiev, tracked a lot of evolutionary changes in 2024. But, there’s a major shift hitting the sales world that might be the most impactful of them all. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, you already know what I’m about to say.
While most folks spent all year prophesying about the way AI will disrupt marketing, customer service, and SEO, Max found that AI’s effect on sales is even more significant as its growth is indicative of a fundamental shift in human relationships.
To get these insights, Max expertly surveyed 1,477 sales professionals across the globe to find out what they’re hyper focused on – and get a better understanding of how AI will affect their roles as we move into 2025.
I also sat down with Mark Burdon, a former contributor to the HubSpot Sales Blog as well as IBM Solutions Sales Representative, to chat about what’s on the horizon for sales teams utilizing AI in 2025 as well as how sales pros are using its capabilities to their advantage. And not to spoil the surprise or anything but … things are looking mighty promising.
Low on time? Feel free to skip ahead to one of these sections:
Table of Contents:
- Sales Benchmarks
- Top State of Sales Findings & Trends
- Other Trends to Watch
- Putting Your Prospects In the Spotlight
Sales Benchmarks
Before we dig into the key themes that are leading, transforming, and impacting sales metrics, here are some sales benchmarks to help you get a sense of how your business stacks up:
- The average sales win rate is 21%
- The average sales close rate is 29%
- The median deal size is $4,000 (47% of all deals are between $1-$5,000)
- 91% of sales professionals upsell, and team upselling tactics drive 21% of company revenue on average.
- 87% of sales professionals cross-sell, which similarly drives 21% of company revenue on average
Now that you‘ve seen how sales teams are performing, let’s dive into our top trends – starting with what Max is calling “The Age of the AI-Powered Buyer.”
Top State of Sales Findings & Trends
1. The Age of the AI-Powered Buyer Is Here
Even before AI arrived, buyers overwhelmingly did their own research, with a whopping 96% of sales pros saying that when they first speak to a prospect, they’ve already done research on the product or service of interest.
What’s more, 71% of consumers say they prefer to gather information themselves rather than speaking with a human.
Now, with AI tools, a buyer’s ability to gather information is hypercharged, making them more knowledgeable and confident than ever. This also means they rely much less on sales pros to gather information.
Where Does AI Leave Sales Reps?
Rather than focusing on sharing information, sales pros will act as consultants. They’ll prioritize building strong relationships, boosting buyer confidence, understanding their needs and challenges, and using AI to offer a highly relevant, personalized experience.
During our conversation, I asked Mark about his perspective on AI and its role within the sales space, he agreed: AI is best used for prospect exploration and research.
He shared, “Whether it be used in understanding what kind of technology a company has or identifying what’s been circulating about a business in the media, having that information and, eventually, that sensitivity about your prospect going in … it helps to get to know the customer better.”
To sum it up, both parties using AI will create a better experience for all by fostering stronger relationships, more productive conversations, and shorter deal cycles.
2. Hitting quota may feel harder than ever before.
When it comes to sales professionals’ top goals, it’s no surprise that exceeding targets or quotas takes the top spot.
Top Sales Goals
Making the sales process more efficient, targeting new markets, winning market share, and improving sales-marketing alignment are also top of mind (we’ll come back to some of those throughout this report).
With those goals come challenges: 54% of salespeople say selling got harder in 2024.
Top Sales Challenges
Interestingly, many challenges still linger from the COVID period, with sales reps saying inflation and supply chain issues are major sales barriers.
A lack of high-quality leads is another top challenge, with just 59% of sales reps saying leads from their marketing team are high-quality.
Longer deal cycles are also a key challenge. On average, sales reps report that there are five decision-makers involved in the sales process, with 28% of respondents pointing to drawn-out sales processes as the biggest reason prospects back out of deals.
Next, let’s take a look at how sales pros are performing in 2024 and the ways they see AI boosting their effectiveness.
3. Sales professionals are still meeting or exceeding goals (and hope AI will help even more).
Despite making sales feel more difficult, 56% of sales professionals are surpassing their goals this year, while 29% are hitting them. Just 15% report underperforming.
While that’s great news, sales professionals see AI boosting their performance even further.
66% say AI can help them provide a more personalized experience and understand their customers better. On top of that, 63% of sales leaders say AI makes it easier for them to compete with other businesses in their industry.
Sales professionals also see AI significantly boosting their ability to upsell, cross-sell, and down-sell customers.
41% of salespeople already use AI to recognize and respond to buyer emotions or sentiment, with 83% of them saying it’s effective. Our data also shows that sales professionals using AI to recognize or respond to buyer emotion and sentiment are 52% more likely to exceed goals than those who don’t.
Even though most sales professionals are performing well, companies are still looking for ways to do more with less, bringing us to our next trend – a renewed focus on efficiency.
4. Sales organizations are hyper-focused on efficiency.
2024 has been branded the year of efficiency for many tech companies, so it‘s no surprise that sales professionals’ second priority is making processes more efficient.
Right now, salespeople only spend around two hours a day actually selling, with at least one hour per day on manual or admin tasks.
Now, if you’re wondering how exactly sales teams are doing this, I’ve got your answer: HubSpot’s Sales Hub. With HubSpot’s integrated AI technology, sales folks are streamlining their workflows and closing deals faster.
Again, AI is making a huge impact here, saving salespeople an average of two hours per day. A whopping 81% say AI helps them spend less time on manual tasks, while 78% see it helping them be more efficient in their role.
And Mark totally agrees. When I questioned him about his perspectives on the wide array of technology available to sales reps, he mentioned that “tech is improving the space,” especially with systems like HubSpot’s integrated CRM.
Plus, even despite having not been an actual salesperson for a while, Mark has kept his eyes on the emergence of new systems and platforms, observing how it has allowed sales folks to work smarter, not harder. “Even with the new Breeze technology, it can capture multiple conversations and email threads … you can access all these separate things from a single pane of glass, if you will,” he added.
With this focus on efficiency, 62% of sales pros say their company is taking fewer risks. Additionally, 70% say budgets are being scrutinized more than before.
One avenue sales leaders are considering to boost efficiency is trimming their tech stack, with one in four sales leaders saying they have too many tools.
On top of that, 45% of sales pros are overwhelmed by the amount of tools in their tech stack. More than one in four say if their company reduced the number of tools they use, it would make them more efficient, they would spend more time selling, and have higher quality data.
5. Sales is an increasingly hybrid job, but in-person meetings are still key.
“Sales has been hybrid for, well, since before hybrid was cool,” Mark admitted.
The numbers don’t like either. Hybrid work has been preferred for a while but has really taken precedence post-COVID era. Our State of Sales Report revealed that 71% of U.S. sales pros work hybrid, up a drastic 45% from May 2022. Another 20% work person, while just 10% are fully remote.
“Sales development reps and sales development reps used to be in the office before … smiling and dialing as they used to call it … but working from home enables them to now interact with customers more and be customer facing,” he explained.
Comparing the three work styles, hybrid sales pros are 28% more likely to outperform against goals than in-person and fully remote salespeople, respectively. Mark also added that the hybrid work life is “definitely beneficial for maximizing contact time,”
But in-person meetings are still critical: While 56% of hybrid sales reps say working remotely has made it easier to sell, they admit that meeting in person is the most effective approach.
Most Effective Sales Channels
Overall, the most effective sales channels are in-person meetings, phone calls, email, social media, video calls, and live chat tools.
6. Self-service tools and sales enablement content are vital.
We know buyers prefer to do their own research, so offering them self-service tools will remain key through 2024.
Currently, 64% of B2B sales professionals offer self-service tools to buyers to help guide their purchase decisions, and 85% of them say it’s effective. On top of that, sales pros who offer buyers self-service tools are 47% more likely to be performing better than their goals this year compared to those who don’t.
B2B sales professionals say the most effective self-service tools for helping buyers make purchase decisions are product demos, free trials, customer stories, user reviews, and chatbots.
Self-service tools are also becoming more popular among buyers, with over half (52%) of B2B sales pros saying buyers use self-service tools more than they did before.
Usage of sales enablement content is also up significantly, with 59% of B2B sales pros in the U.S. using it in 2023, a 48% jump from when we ran this survey last year.
Moreover 79% of B2B sales pros who use sales enablement content say it’s important when making a sale.
When it comes to the type of sales enablement content that’s most effective at helping sales pros win deals, social media content, market research, reviews, customer testimonials, and product demos take the lead.
One other plus for sales enablement content – salespeople who use it in their role are 58% more likely to outperform this year than those who don’t.
7. Smarketing continues to be an uphill climb.
While just 30% of sales professionals say their sales and marketing teams are strongly aligned, 61% say alignment is more important now than it was last year.
Sales professionals at companies with aligned sales and marketing teams are also 103% more likely to beat their goals this year than sales professionals at companies that aren’t aligned.
When it comes to what salespeople need most from their marketing teams, higher quality leads (43%) and alignment on goals and strategies (39%) are most needed.
One tip to get your teams aligned is to leverage your CRM to its fullest potential. 78% of sales professionals say their CRM is effective at improving sales and marketing alignment. Additionally, sales professionals who use a CRM are 79% more likely to say their teams are strongly aligned.
To wrap up, we‘ll dig into one of the sales teams’ most promising opportunities: current customers.
8. Existing customers drive both revenue and new leads.
Focusing on your existing customers is a key sales strategy, considering they make up 72% of company revenue on average, while new customers account for just 28%.
Not only is prioritizing existing customers highly profitable, but delighting them pays off when they spread the word about your company. In fact, sales professionals say the highest quality leads come from referrals from existing customers, followed by social media, and email marketing.
For more on the specific trends we saw in this particular survey, as well as sales themes that experts in the industry are pointing out, check out this post.
Other Trends to Watch
Quotas aren’t the only thing salespeople are focused on.
Like research has shown us in previous years, most sales professionals are obviously focused on crushing quotas. But, that’s not there only major focus area at the moment:
Channels offering the most leads don’t always provide high quality.
The top lead channels include social media, email marketing, and current customers — but not all of them provide the best lead quality. Look below to see just how effective they are.
The human connection is still important to sales teams.
Despite COVID-19, digital transformation, and the influx of AI, traditional human-based sales tactics are where salespeople focus their selling time. But are they the most effective? Find out below.
Good sales people know their customers. Great ones build rapport.
Throughout the last three years, we‘ve continued to see a growing importance of building rapport with prospects. In 2024, it will continue to be a key focus area of B2B and B2C sales professionals we’ve surveyed.
What are the keys to doing this? Sales people say it requires:
- Being attentive and engaged.
- Staying positive.
- Finding common ground.
Profit margin is still a key sales metric, but productivity tracking is gaining steam.
In past years, sales productivity was a close second behind profit margin when we asked sales professionals about their most important metrics.
Social selling will continue to rise.
While only 18% of sales people consider social selling one of their top five focus areas, as seen above, this strategy might only gain steam as more companies and users attach themselves to social media platforms.
Since then, we‘ve seen consumers grow even more accustomed to researching and buying products directly from social media platforms, as marketers — who you’ll likely want to align with, have increasingly made social selling part of their own cross-functional work.
To put it plainly, social commerce isn’t just a passing fad — and although it might not be big in B2B just yet — some brand is likely figuring out just how to leverage those audiences and channels as we speak. Check out this deep dive to learn more.
These traits set high-performing salespeople apart.
In 2024, we dug deeper into research on high and low performing sales people to identify the traits and tactics that set them apart. While some of these things might change in the transformative era of AI and efficiency processes, much of this data should still be taken down as it could be useful to you in the new year.
Most notably, here’s what high-performing salespeople are doing as 2025 approaches:
- Prioritizing trust amongst their fellow sales team members. 24% of high-performing sales teams highly rank the importance of building a culture amongst sales reps. A sales team culture that represents wins for one as wins for all, encourages camaraderie and collaboration.
- Providing transparent performance data. 17% of high-performing sales teams are in full support of making performance data available. Additionally, this helps sales pros stay motivated and on track to hit their goals.
- Knowledge sharing. 20% of high-performing sales teams think that collaboration and knowledge sharing have served them well. By encouraging both of these things, natural mentorships between established reps and newer reps will form.
Putting Your Prospects In the Spotlight
Now that you’re up to date with just a few key highlights from our State of Sales analysis, check out our State of AI in Sales Report to learn more about the impact of AI and actionable ways sales pros are already leveraging it.
Lastly, for more data and insights from this survey as well as experts in the sales field, check out our State of Sales Report below.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.