Sales in 2024: Key Insights from Salesforce's State of Sales Report
Ubico recently partnered with Peter from Portage Sales for an interactive webinar to explore the key takeaways from Salesforce's State of Sales Report. Here are the highlights and actionable strategies sales teams can use to stay ahead in 2025.
Growth Amid Challenges
The sales landscape in 2024 has been dynamic, with 79% of teams reporting revenue growth, but 67% of sales reps expected to miss their quotas. Why the disconnect? The report points to rising competition, high expectations, market headwinds, and an evolving buyer journey as primary factors.
Key Insight: Personalization is the game-changer. Buyers demand tailored experiences and expect reps to deeply understand their needs, but many reps struggle to deliver.
Addressing Three Key Challenges
1. Falling Short on Quota
Buyers now engage sales teams only after completing 57% of their purchase journey. That means two-thirds of the process—forming opinions, learning specifications, and narrowing options—happens without direct interaction with sales reps. This shift requires clearer value propositions and stronger alignment with customer needs.
2. Increasing Rep Selling Time
Reps spend just 30% of their time selling, with the rest consumed by admin tasks, distractions, and misaligned priorities. High-impact activities like meeting decision-makers, conducting deep discovery, and delivering tailored demos often take a backseat.
3. Gaining Value from AI
AI adoption is booming, with 81% of sales teams experimenting with AI for productivity and customer engagement. However, many face challenges like poor data quality, training gaps, and integration issues.
Winning with Buyers
B2B buying behaviors have shifted significantly:
- Buyers are younger and increasingly mobile.
- They expect personalization throughout their journey.
- Buying teams have doubled in size, making the process more complex.
What Teams Must Do:
- Clarify value propositions that resonate with buyer needs.
- Train reps in skills like deep discovery and urgency building.
- Use structured frameworks, like the value hierarchy, for consistent messaging.
The Role of Sales Enablement
Sales enablement has become the #1 strategy for growth, helping teams align with high-impact activities that drive revenue. Once a niche strategy, enablement has gone mainstream, growing from 19% adoption in 2013 to a critical priority in 2024.
Defining High-Impact B2B Sales Activities:
- Engaging decision-makers and conducting tailored demos.
- Progressing opportunities most likely to close.
- Aligning solutions to both business and personal buyer priorities.
Take Back Your Day: Productivity Hacks
Sales leaders can empower their reps to regain control of their day with strategies like:
- Night-before planning to prioritize tasks.
- Power-blocking to focus on key selling activities.
- AI-assisted call planning for more effective customer interactions.
Result: More time spent on selling and customer-facing activities, leading to improved outcomes.
AI: A Competitive Imperative
AI is leveling the playing field, enabling small players to scale like enterprises. It’s also revolutionizing productivity by assisting with repetitive tasks and improving personalization. However, challenges persist in implementation, such as:
- Ensuring data quality.
- Addressing training gaps.
- Seamlessly integrating AI into workflows.
Three Pillars of Leading AI Adoption:
- Define specific goals.
- Tune AI tools with expertise and feedback.
- Build solutions around rich customer insights.
Key Takeaways
Hitting Quotas:
- Align solutions with customer pain points.
- Equip reps with tools like the value hierarchy.
Selling Time:
- Streamline workflows and eliminate low-value tasks.
- Leverage enablement to focus reps on what matters most.
Sales and AI:
- Centralize AI experiments to build robust tools.
- Train teams to use AI critically, ensuring accurate and impactful outputs.
By implementing these strategies, sales teams can overcome today’s challenges and position themselves for sustained success. As Peter from Portage Sales puts it, “The future of sales isn’t just about closing deals—it’s about creating meaningful, personalized interactions that drive long-term growth.”
