The Great Resignation exposes challenges associated with
antiquated selling technologies and practices
AUSTIN,
Texas, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sellers
remain resilient despite challenges related to the pandemic and
ensuing Great Resignation. However, roughly one third of sellers
still struggle to close deals and meet quotas, according to a new
study conducted by CRM analyst firm Beagle Research Group in
partnership with Oracle. The study, "Does Your CRM Leave Money on
the Table," includes insights from more than 500 sales
professionals in the United States
that show struggles to keep up with dynamic industry changes and
the lack of technology-supported sales processes.
The pandemic and Great Resignation
have changed who sellers engage with and how
Now more than ever, sellers must quickly get up to speed — and
bring their buyers with them — on product history, past
communications, and deals progression.
• The vast majority, 81 percent, of the
sellers did not change jobs during the pandemic, however, 25
percent of sellers say customer contacts keep changing.
• 43 percent of sellers said customers are
pulling back on purchases, and 39 percent said customers are taking
longer to make decisions.
• Buyers are often engaging later in the buying
journey, yet they still expect sellers to understand their needs.
36 percent said customers are doing a lot of their own research and
40 percent said that customers are more willing to shop for the
best offer.
Sellers struggle to close deals as
they are distracted and lack resources
While seller resiliency emerged as a key finding, up to
one-third of sellers still consistently have trouble with various
aspects of their jobs, impacting their ability to make quota.
Several hurdles that sellers faced while trying to meet their goals
stem from deficiencies in time and resources.
• 37 percent of sellers say sales
organization churn has led to greater responsibilities, but no
additional resources or pay.
• 59 percent of sellers are involved in
training and onboarding new sellers.
° Of this group, over half (52
percent) say training takes four to five hours per week. Over a
quarter (26 percent) say these tasks take more than five hours per
week.
• 29 percent of sellers say if a colleague
leaves, they use digital notes outside of CRM to pass along
knowledge.
More automation is welcomed to
help offload routine tasks
Sellers would be happy to offload more mundane and
time-consuming tasks if it gives them more selling time. Rather
than simplifying record keeping tasks like traditional CRM systems
do, sellers would be glad to eliminate them.
• 39 percent of sellers said they spent too
much time working in different technologies.
• 16 percent of sellers describe their sales
processes as the Wild, Wild West — where sellers make decisions
based on intuition, rather than on data or best practices.
• Sellers are open to greater automation and
trust AI to take on greater responsibilities, including qualifying
leads (nearly 70 percent), identifying priority deals (60 percent)
and tracking deal progress (80 percent).
Supporting Quotes
"The pandemic exposed the challenges that many sellers face
every day. We knew before the pandemic that sales teams were not
performing at their best, but technologies built to help were not
being adopted," said Denis
Pombriant, managing principal, Beagle Research, Inc. "Our
data shows today sellers are beginning to embrace AI-based
technologies because these new tools are easy to use, offload
menial tasks, and give sellers more time to engage customers and
ultimately sell."
"Our research shows that sellers want automation technologies
that will off-load rather than just simplify tasks," said
Katrina Gosek, vice president,
Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX). "Inputting customer
information, documenting milestones, tracking materials shared with
the customer, and many other tasks can all be automated to keep
sellers focused on what they do best – building relationships and
selling."
Read the full report here.
Methodology
Beagle Research polled more than five hundred experienced sales
professionals (n=518) in January
2022. The survey inquired about how sellers have adapted and
what challenges they still face amid the pandemic and Great
Resignation.
Beagle Research identified over 500 line of business employees
with primary responsibilities of selling to new accounts via
digital tools, in the business-to-business space. During June and
July of 2022, we fielded a survey, inquiring about their jobs, the
wins, and frustrations they encounter, and the technologies they
use. Because we were able to pinpoint these individuals, we believe
our results are highly accurate (z-test = 95/90).
About Beagle Research
Founded by Denis Pombriant in
2004, Beagle Research is a Boston
based firm specializing in research and analysis of front office
business technology trends in CX/CRM. In addition to this report,
Pombriant is the author of many other studies and several books on
CRM.
About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure,
autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information
about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.
Trademarks
Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of
Oracle Corporation.
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SOURCE Oracle