Sales are changing, and a number of key trends will come to define the sales landscape of tomorrow. Where both virtual selling and remote work will play large roles.
In LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report 2021 (US and Canada), they outlined a number of key sales trends that will shape the way we approach sales. Where we’ve handpicked and discussed a few that we find especially interesting:
Virtual sales
Virtual selling is here to stay, and both sellers and buyers have come to realize the upside of selling and buying virtually. In fact, LinkedIn reports that “50 % of buyers say that working remotely has made the purchasing process easier”, and that’s in addition to earlier research from McKinsey showing that 3/4 of B2B buyers and sellers prefer a digital approach to sales.
It is, in other words, very clear that virtual sales will be a key sales trend – a trend that will probably become the new standard in the future.
Working remotely
Remote work will remain a fundamental change to adapt to, and LinkedIn notes that sales teams and organizations “must adjust to a remote working world — now”. Which we’ve talked about in the past, and that, of course, ties in to the previous point on virtual sales.
Building trust with Sales tech
When sales representatives are not meeting and building trust with customers physically, it will be important to utilize sales technology that can help build trust from a distance. Where a whopping “77% of sales professionals say their sales org plans to invest more in sales intelligence tools”.
This is also aligned with a recent McKinsey report (which we covered here), and that underlines how top performing sales teams utilize more advanced sales tools than their peers. With this, it is probable that sales technology and tools will become one of the most important sales trends moving forward.
To summarize, the key sales trends for 2021 – and beyond – will be heavily focused on adopting a digital, remote mindset and adapting to the changes that are happening. Which can be a good thing to keep in mind and work toward, in order to keep growing sales into the future.
Read about the remaining, key sales trends from LinkedIn in their report here.
Want to know more about growing and closing sales in a digital and remote world? Check out our Remote Sales Hub or contact us to talk to a Remote Sales Expert.
