B2B Sales Must Reform: Lusha Data Report Finds Poorly Targeted Sales Outreach Directly Damages Company Reputation
Almost 50% of B2B sales professionals believe wrongly targeted sales outreach has a direct impact on their company’s brand and over 50% believe it has an impact on their revenue; 96% want more help in the early stages of the sales cycle
According to a recent survey conducted by Lusha, the B2B data community and sales intelligence platform, almost half (49%) of B2B sales professionals believe one of the most common effects of wrongly targeted outreach is damage to their company’s brand reputation. Along with damage to company reputation, poorly targeted outreach can result in an ongoing (52%) and/or immediate (37%) loss of sales. In addition, a whopping 96% of sales professionals feel they could use help in the early stages of the sales cycle. More help would have a direct impact on the amount of poorly targeted outreach, thus reducing the negative impact on the company reputation and lost sales.
B2B sales processes still haven’t modernized to the extent they should have. They still rely on un-targeted sales techniques (spray and pray) rather than using technology and data to make sales the ultra-focused process it should be. As a result, salespeople reach a high volume of potential customers with low relevance and spend too long on calls that are a waste of their time. This approach has a direct impact on those targeted to the extent that it directly damages their perception of the company’s brand and reputation.
“This survey shows how great the potential damage to a company’s brand can be, based simply on poorly targeted sales calls”, said Yoni Tserruya, CEO & Co-Founder of Lusha. “Similar to the shift that marketing underwent a decade ago, sales professionals are abandoning spray-and-pray outreach in favor of super-targeted selling based on data. But the industry needs to move faster and utilize data-based insights to ensure they aren’t doing more harm than good to their company reputation with poorly targeted sales processes”.
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The Impact of Poor Outreach
According to the survey, on average a fifth (20%) of their monthly outreach calls are not optimally targeted and do not materialize into sales. With salespeople spending around 65% of their time on non-sales and administrative activities rather than engaging potential customers, it is essential that every one of their calls are highly targeted.
Access to Sales Intelligence Tools
The survey found that 96% of sales professionals feel they could use help in the early stages of the sales cycle, with the majority (30%) saying they would like more information about their prospects to initiate conversations.
Respondents’ pleas for more help are echoed in the access and usage of the tools at their disposal. While 95% report already having access to sales intelligence technologies provided by their companies, nearly two-thirds (60%) report having to supplement these with additional tools and/or prospecting efforts – leaving questions as to the accuracy and value of the tools already employed.
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When the Tables are Turned
Even the professionals themselves see the damage that poorly targeted sales calls can have. Having been on the other end of the sales process themselves, respondents were asked about their typical response. 80% indicated that they are put off in some way when receiving irrelevant and/or wrongly targeted sales outreach from other companies looking to sell to them, and 29% reported that they’d be unlikely to do business with the company as a result.
The survey, conducted in May 2022, was based on a representative sample of 500 B2B sales professionals across the United States, in organizations of all sizes (between 50 to >10,000 employees) in the Financial Services, Information Technology, and Technology industries.
