My sales peers and I are always debating hot sales topics — because we genuinely believe salespeople must keep up with the latest to stay relevant and address what our leads care about most.
In this article, I’ve collected the hottest sales predictions for 2025 from leading sales experts and new, eye-opening data in the sales landscape to help you inform your sales strategy this year.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
9 Sales Predictions for 2025
1. AI won’t be the top priority.
In our HubSpot’s 2025 sales survey, only 14% of respondents prioritized adopting AI tools, while 55% of sales pros have already integrated AI, with 26% reporting AI as a net positive for sales.
Lauren Kiefer, Head of Sales at Americas at Intercom, believes sales reps must adapt quickly as more buyers are becoming reliant on AI.
“Sellers are going to have to deeply understand AI, the new buying process, and how their product is described by these tools to customize their pitch, cut off objections at the jump, and help prospects to understand your value and offering on a deeper level,” she suggests.
She also recommends forming a strong partnership between sales and marketing to help manage the information AI gathers about your product or service.
And she’s not alone in that thought: 18% of sales professionals believe improving sales/marketing alignment would result in the most growth for their company, according to our survey.
2. Buyers will turn to AI for product research.
65% of sales reps believe generative AI tools will make it easier for buyers to gather information about their products or services. Additionally, 69% believe if buyers use AI for research, it will have a significant impact on the way they sell to prospects.
Are they right?
Yes, according to the Adobe Holiday Shopping report. The team collected the data in late 2024 and discovered that retail sites had a shocking 1,300% traffic increase coming from AI-powered chatbots compared to the year prior. Cyber Monday also reported the biggest growth in chat bot usage, up 1,950% YoY.
It’s key to understand both how consumers are using AI and how sales teams can use AI to complement and enhance the consumer experience, according to Ashley Hansen Grech, chief revenue officer at Xero.
“It pays to be AI-optimized,” Grech says. “With an overwhelming volume of products and services available digitally, AI-enabled experiences will mean quicker and more accurate decision-making for customers, based on their inputs.”
Rather than solely focusing on how AI will impact you as a sales rep, step into your buyer’s shoes to understand how they are using AI during the sales process, specifically for research.
Grech suggests thinking like your customer.
“How are consumers using AI tools going to discover what you’re selling?” she states. “How will you use AI in your business to help you improve efficiency and make the right decisions? For example, AI programs can analyze your entire sales funnel and help create bespoke experiences for customers along the way so the right information is provided at the right time.”
3. A human touch will still seal the deal.
While AI plays a significant role in the sales process, specifically for product research, a human touch is still the key to closing a sale.
87% of sales managers agree that in-person meetings lead to strong business relationships.
“Sales professionals remain crucial to the customer sales flow,” says Grech. “AI’s analysis of the customer journey can help sales professionals to do what they do best — to bring a deft human touch to connect with customers and prospects at the right time, with the right information in the right way.”
She adds, “AI [tools] allow salespeople to be human — to really collect on relevant topics, at a relevant time, enabling them to spend their time more effectively.”
Sales reps must continue to hone sales skills like relationship-building and closing techniques to offer prospects the empathy and understanding that AI lacks.
4. The invisible buyer moves to the forefront.
Mark Tanner, Co-Founder and COO of Qwilr, believes that CFOs, IT, and security teams have immense power in the buying journey. To succeed in the year ahead, Tanner suggests sales reps will need to proactively identify these invisible buyers, address their concerns, and equip champions to push for a yes.
Gartner’s sales trends data also points to this shift, highlighting that the number of stakeholders now consists of 5 to 11 stakeholders. Not to mention, 28% of reps say that the biggest reason a prospect backs out of a deal is that they couldn’t get approval from key decision-makers, adding more friction to the process.
To engage a range of decision-makers, Tanner recommends identifying those key players and creating dynamic proposals that not only stand out but make the champion look good to everyone involved.
“Sales material and proposals must account for the invisible decision-makers and prepare champions for the internal sell,” he recommends. “Behind the scenes, sellers need to identify hidden decision-makers, understand whether there is true interest in a deal, and ruthlessly prioritize. In this age, it’s critical that reps spend their time and energy wisely.”
5. Meaningful interactions and personalization will be vital for long-term success.
HubSpot’s Sales Trends survey revealed that 53% of sales professionals believe providing prospects and customers with a highly personalized experience would result in the most growth for their company.
«Customer outreach, discovery, and selling within SaaS morphed last year from strategic to desperate while dealing with the slowdown in tech buying and new product procurement,” recalls Kiefer.
She continues, “Because of that, sellers got into the behavior of pushing bundles or one-size-fits-all solutions to try to get as much juice out of the squeeze. Buyers [now] have pressure fatigue and are desperate for a personalized and custom experience that fits their needs in today’s market.”
Katie Breaker, Sales Director at BirdieBall, also observes this trend in retail:
“As we dive deeper into our customer data, we‘ve seen how much people respond to a shopping experience that feels tailored to them. It’s not just about showing them products they might like, it’s about anticipating their needs before they even ask. I expect more brands will be leaning into this, offering customers a smoother, more customized experience that keeps them coming back.”
S&P Global backs Kiefer and Breaker’s predictions with new data showing that people prioritize personalization over privacy and are willing to share their data for relevant offers. Personalization matters most to 20% more Gen Xers and 18% more Millennials compared to the previous years.
Kiefer suggests the best thing sales reps can do is to spend time on discovery. Focus on uncovering the pain their buyer is experiencing and tailor your pitch and demo to solve that exact pain point.
She also suggests creating powerful efficiencies and ROI that align with what each customer values individually.
“This creates immediate buy-in and allows a prospect to see what impact purchasing could have on their broader teams, which will lead to a faster close and, hopefully, a healthy long-term partnership,» she says.
6. Data will drive engagements.
Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.
As we head into a new selling year, data will continue to play a critical role in the way sales reps engage with prospects.
Take Gong sales calls analytics. Mintel reported a 34% increase in win rates after Gong’s AI algorithms listened to sales call records and identified areas for sales reps’ improvement.
Measure everything you can reach with built-in analytics features in your CRM. Build custom cross-team (marketing and sales) dashboards in Power BI to understand what drives high-value leads and individual performance.
7. AI agents are the next big thing in sales.
82% of executives from large enterprises plan to integrate AI agents in the next 3 years. Customer agents hold the first position, according to Google’s AI Business Trends 2025 study.
For example, Best Buy resolves issues up to 90 seconds faster with gen AI-powered virtual assistants. They take care of managing subscriptions, rescheduling product orders, or troubleshooting product issues.
8. Social selling will play a pivotal role in attracting new leads.
“At Lusha, our data shows that sales teams using integrated social selling and CRM platforms are closing deals 45% faster than those using traditional methods, which I believe will make this approach absolutely crucial by 2025.
Looking at our own growth metrics and market analysis, I’m seeing companies that combine intent data with automated lead scoring experiencing 3x better conversion rates, suggesting this will become the new normal for B2B sales,” shares Yarden Morgan, Director of Growth at Lusha.
What platform comes to your mind for social selling? I bet it’s LinkedIn.
And their internal stats prove its utility — 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don’t use social media.
If your salespeople and stakeholders aren’t on social media, you’d better start devising a solid social selling strategy or hire an agency to get you started.
9. Localization — not globalization.
A hard pill to swallow is to acknowledge that English content on websites dropped by 14% between 2022-2025. Conversely, Spanish, German, Japanese, and French are growing.
In turn, Chargebee studied 6,452 SaaS companies worldwide to discover what drives their growth. Surprisingly, localization comes first. Even minor website localization, like adjusting currency and pricing page language, can drive nearly 40% growth.
Justin Smith, CEO of Contractor+, also saw growing engagement rates after implementing localization.
“Europe’s B2B markets are exploding, but cookie-cutter strategies backfire. Winners invest in local talent and adapt messaging to cultural nuances. When we stopped treating Germany like France or Italy like Spain, our engagement rates jumped. Local insights beat global assumptions every time.”
Even HubSpot is localized for five foreign languages like German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese. We have roughly 30 people on the localization team and LLMs that speed up the process.
How Sales Jobs Could Change in the Next Decade
As some of these trends are shifting, here’s how I think sales jobs could change over the next several years.
1. Larger companies will have defined roles, and smaller organizations will look for adaptable people to perform multiple functions.
As effective selling begins earlier in the sales process and the relationship continues after the sales, adaptability will be increasingly important in the sales role. In fact, a LinkedIn report for the most in-demand skills highlighted adaptability as the top skill of the moment.
Smaller companies will rely on multi-talented people for account management and customer success, so the lines may become blurred. Larger organizations, however, may break this up into multiple roles but still value cross-functional talent.
2. Robust sales tools will be considered coworkers.
With reliance on AI and cross-functional teams increasing, so too does the need for elegant sales software solutions that enable reps to make data-driven decisions and/or improve productivity.
In fact, sales management, sales productivity, and sales prospecting tools are the top tools sales reps leverage, according to HubSpot’s Sales Trends survey.
A recent study on AI for lead generation and qualification revealed that generative AI in B2B doubles conversion rates thanks to analyzing real-time lead behavior and prioritizing hot prospects in the pipeline.
Bottom line: The more sales tools that are needed (or the more elegant the solution), the more the company will invest in them, money-wise and time-wise. These solutions will be integrated into every facet of the sales process and beyond.
3. Tech-savviness will be part of the job description.
Reliance on email, tech, and now AI is already making tech skills more important in the world of sales. Familiarity with the most popular CRMs, comfortability with email communication and automation, and the ability to navigate the internet, social platforms, and generative AI tools are examples of skills that are necessary now more than ever. As technology advances, so too will the tech requirements for sales hires.
4. Entry-level sales roles will require more experience or focus on soft skills.
As some of the more manual and less strategic sales tasks (such as prospecting and following up) can be automated effectively, entry-level sales roles that previously spent a lot of time performing these tasks will need to evolve.
It’s possible that the “entry-level” gets bumped up to require more experience. Alternatively, organizations may evaluate reps based on softer skills, such as writing, to get more out of new hires.
5. More organizations will say goodbye to having the whole team under the same roof.
With SaaS and other solutions emerging, more companies are targeting national or even international pools of customers. This, combined with the need for more experienced sales reps, the need for more diverse teams, and inside sales trends, demonstrates a continuing shift toward remote work.
Hybrid is the norm now, with 64% of leaders saying their workplace is currently implementing a hybrid model. Additionally, 75% of leaders say that their organization will likely change its workplace model in the next two years.
Changing attitudes toward telecommuting and technology, making it even easier to connect with team members, will result in more integrated but geographically distant sales departments. And talent will be more accessible.
6. Salespeople with large existing networks will be highly sought after.
With marketing doing a lot of legwork to fill pipelines, additional prospecting being automated more and more, and a rise in self-serve purchasing, the value that sales professionals add will be in their ability to forge strong relationships and build trust. That puts candidates with existing networks at an advantage with proof of their adeptness at making connections.
Whatever the future of sales is, it’s never been a more exciting time for the profession. By having the experts look at where sales has been and where it’s likely going, it’s clear to see the future leaves plenty of room for innovation, education, and kick-ass salespeople.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.