Research reveals how businesses are enabling their sales teams for success two years into the pandemic
Groove, the leading sales engagement platform for enterprises using Salesforce, today announced the findings from a “Return to Work and the Modern Seller: 2022 B2B Sales Trends” industry survey that reveals new insights into how sales organizations are equipping the modern seller to be successful in remote and hybrid-selling environments. The survey gathered responses from more than 1,000 B2B revenue professionals at companies throughout the US during a one-month period concluding in January 2022.
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“Gartner Survey Finds 73% of Chief Sales Officers Expect Sales Budgets to Increase in 2022”
Sustained Shift to Remote and Hybrid Selling
Two years into the pandemic, 91% of respondents report that their workforce hasn’t fully returned to the office and 46% report that their companies aren’t ever planning a full return. The findings below signal a more permanent shift in B2B sales that relies more heavily on remote and hybrid sales teams.
- 91% report that employees haven’t fully returned to the office
- 46% of companies are not planning a full return to the office
- 51% are concerned that the Omicron variant will delay return-to-office plans
- 33% of enterprise sales teams are currently hybrid vs 22% pre-pandemic
“When the pandemic shuttered our offices, we quickly realized the importance of seamlessly transitioning our reps to remote work without losing productivity or focus,” said Matt Mullin, Senior Director, Global Marketing Operations & Technology at Tenable. “The sales engagement capabilities we had through Groove played a big role in enabling management to stay connected to daily activities and team performance. By enabling our teams to easily collaborate cross-functionally in a remote environment, we boosted productivity by 30% and generated millions of dollars in efficiency gains.”
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Remote Work Creates New Challenges for B2B Sales Teams
More than half of field sellers are back on the road visiting customers, but they continue to face challenges with critical sales activities like preparing for meetings, scheduling follow-ups, and keeping their CRM up to date.
- 53% of enterprise field sales teams are back on the road visiting customers
- Field reps cite updating CRM platforms (48%), inputting account notes (46%), and scheduling follow-up meetings (45%) as top challenges
“Now that most reps are working in a hybrid role permanently, revenue teams need to focus on maximizing the value of their CRM,” said Chris Rothstein, CEO of Groove. “Extending the power of CRM to remote teams makes them productive and effective while also providing leaders with the visibility and insight needed to manage them effectively.”
Businesses Look to Increase Investment in CRM, Sales Engagement Platforms, and Data Sources
The shift to remote work is driving companies to increase their investment in sales and revenue technologies like CRM, sales engagement, and data enrichment platforms to meet their revenue goals.
- CRM (52%), Sales Engagement Platforms (50%), and Data Sources (44%) are top targets for increased 2022 budgets
- More than 90% of companies are either increasing and maintaining sales tech budgets in 2022
- Growing revenue (73%), hiring talent (57%), and expanding existing business (56%) are top revenue initiatives for 2022
The title of a January 25, 2022, Gartner® press release provides insight on future sales tech investment: “Gartner Survey Finds 73% of Chief Sales Officers Expect Sales Budgets to Increase in 2022.” The press release also states that, “After protecting technology budgets in 2021, CSOs continue to prioritize tech investments moving in 2022. CSOs plan to increase investment in sales technology, prioritizing pipeline generation, CRM data, and training and coaching use cases.”[1]