Sales Teams Combat Shrinking Demand by Researching Buyer Needs and AI Automation Tools, According to Bombora Study
Bombora Sales Pulse Shows Desire to Get Closer to Customers and Prospects, While Aligning with Marketing Departments
The current economic climate is one of the biggest challenges to sales professionals. Fewer prospects and reduced budgets have decreased demand, forcing sellers to identify the accounts most likely to convert while making a clear case for the value that their product or service can provide.
Sellers are responding to this need by focusing on buyers, synchronizing with marketing departments, and researching the potential of AI as a sales automation tool, according to this year’s first Sales Pulse report from Bombora.
“Economic uncertainty is forcing every profession to make adjustments, and the clearest indication of what’s actually changing is revealed through the topics and content that people research,” said Jeff Marcoux, CMO of Bombora. “The Sales Pulse shows that sellers are looking to make shifts in their strategy that will drive success throughout the year. Amid prolonged buying cycles and greater budget scrutiny, relationships are more important than ever. Building a strong foundation with prospects, as well as the marketing department, will keep sales on solid footing amid the upheavals still to come.”
Bombora’s Intent data shows that sellers are tirelessly working to get closer to their customers and prospects. The report shows “Buyer Needs” among the top trending topics with a 121% increase in the weekly average of businesses spiking, as sales professionals look into customers’ functional, situation, social, knowledge or psychological needs.
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At the same time, sales teams clearly understand the need to align more closely with marketing if they want to achieve the best results. “Team Cadences,” a topic that allows sales leaders to control and qualify sales messaging, quickly align with marketing initiatives, and seamlessly initiate team-wide campaigns, spiked in Q1, with nearly 34,000 businesses actively researching related topics per week. It’s the 11th most researched topic over the quarter with a 68% increase over Q4 2022 weekly averages.
Sellers are also exploring all of the tools at their disposal, including the AI platforms that are taking the tech world by storm. While still in its early days, it’s clear that AI can drive automation and improve productivity. “Sales Automation” is the highest increasing topic in Q1, growing 3532% quarter-over-quarter, while research around “Sales Productivity” increased 41% compared to the 2022 average. Sellers are very interested in new tools that can provide these services, as research for “ChatBots” skyrocketed 509% in Q1 compared to 2022 averages, while “AI Automation” increased by 85% over the same period.
This inaugural version of Bombora’s quarterly Sales Pulse uses Intent data collected from Bombora’s Data Co-Op of more than 5,000 B2B websites to illustrate how interests are evolving over time and explore how marketers can best elevate their business through these uncertain and rapidly changing times. This was the second report Bombora has unveiled this year, following the Q1 Marketing Pulse in April. These quarterly reports will be updated throughout the year.
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Other key findings in the study include:
-Content gets a closer look. Every component in the seller’s arsenal is getting a second look, as research into “Sales Content Effectiveness” is up 7% in Q1 compared to 2022 averages, with more than 11,500 businesses actively researching the topic. This effect was particularly pronounced for enterprise organizations, which saw a 38% increase across the same periods.
-Businesses explore compensation. Changing strategies require adjusted commission structures, and businesses researched related topics in Q1. “Compensation Management Software” is the fourth most researched topic, with more than 67,000 actively researching the topic each week, a 265% increase over the 2022 weekly average. Meanwhile, “Sales Compensation” dramatically increased in Q1. As the eighth most researched topic in the quarter, the number of businesses researching Sales Compensation increased by 467%.
-Sellers seek to reduce churn. Increased research on “At-Risk Customers” across Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, with more than 20,000 businesses researching related topics, highlights the urgency around customer churn in a potential market downturn.
Methodology
Bombora measures “Intent”—i.e., whether a company is actively researching a particular topic, thus signaling interest and intent to buy—through its proprietary Company Surge® Score. With visibility into what topics marketers are researching over time, Company Surge® data provides deep insight into what is happening in the marketing space, including what is top of mind for marketers, what topics are trending up and down, differences by company size and industry, and much more. The Sales Pulse evaluated data from January 1 to March 31, 2023.
