According to research findings released by ValueSelling Associates, Inc., 69% of business-to-business (B2B) salespeople said they do not have enough leads in their pipeline to meet quota. Given the global pandemic and recession, selling anything that isn’t considered essential right now is not going to be easy.
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For the time being, salespeople need to practice patience as their buyers are making difficult decisions to cut spend in order to mitigate losses, prevent layoffs, and in a worst-case scenario avoid going out of business. A new Gartner survey reveals CFOs will continue scaling back spending by 4-11% across their selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) functions for 2020.
“Now is a good time to ‘be human’ when talking with prospects,” said Julie Thomas, CEO and President of ValueSelling Associates. “Engage in active listening, employ empathy, ask informed questions and elevate conversations to a business-level. By forging a human-to-human connection, you may learn how to provide value to the buyer when they rebound. Alternatively, you may be working with companies that are suddenly experiencing exponential growth and are in need of your product.”
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The study revealed that the three biggest obstacles that impact sales quota attainment are having enough sales pipeline, having the right sales process, and the salesperson’s ability to communicate value to the prospect or customer.
“Meeting and surpassing quota is all about selling behaviors,” said Thomas. “Our research demonstrates that salespeople who do not receive the proper training or coaching tend to underperform.”
ValueSelling Associates, Inc. and Selling Power magazine surveyed online 300 U.S. B2B sales professionals, including individual contributors and sales leaders. The purpose of the study is to explore why sales teams are missing quota, especially when sales representatives are surrounded by tools and information to help them sell better, faster, and more effectively.
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