Sales has changed quite a bit in recent years. This is because of new technological developments and a general shift in attitudes and behaviors regarding how customers make purchasing decisions. Adapting to this rapidly evolving world of sales requires motivation, flexibility, ongoing development and a proactive approach to selling. Sales professionals are expected to be experts in both their product and solution as well as their client's business. They must understand the cultural and generational buying habits of an increasingly diverse customer base while adapting to changing sales technology. Whew, that's a lot to live up to. But you don't have to let these changes get in the way of your sales success. You simply have to roll with the punches, as they say. Before we dive into how you can stay relevant in this constantly changing environment, let's take a look at a few statistics about how sales has changed. 94% of B2B buyers conduct some degree of research online before making a business purchase, with 55% conducting online research for at least half of their purchases. (Accenture’s State of B2B Procurement Study) Buyers are less concerned with the qualifying topics salespeople are usually most interested in: Just one in four want to discuss budget, authority, and timeline. It takes an average of 18 calls to actually connect with a buyer. Only 24% of sales emails are opened. 90% of top performing sales people now use social media as part of their sales strategy. And for sales reps that invest in social media, 64% of them hit their team quota– compared to only 49% of reps hitting their team quota that don’t use social media. Half of revenue is influenced by social selling in 14 common industries, including computer software, healthcare, and marketing and advertising. Nearly six in 10 salespeople say that when they figure out what works for them, they don’t change it. Don’t fall behind —here’s 6 things to know to help you stay relevant and to keep improving your sales performance.

Today companies interact with their customers across multiple channels – online, offline, via social media, etc.

What is sales momentum? How do you build and maintain it? Sales momentum is created as a result of your ability to maintain a certain velocity and consistency in your sales efforts. Oftentimes, it’s really not about your sales skills, it’s about your persistence and grit. And deals can stall in the pipeline because you simply get busy or just flat out stop following up. The more persistent, yet respectful, you are in your sales activities the more momentum you’ll gain. So what can you do? Simply follow these four steps:

More than 40 percent of salespeople say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process, followed by closing (36 percent) and qualifying (22 percent) (HubSpot). But if you look closer, you can see that these three steps are all very related. If you're unable to generate good, quality leads then you won't be able to close the deal because the lead wasn't a good fit in the first place.

Almost all sales managers are now expected to transform their respective teams in order to succeed in a rapidly changing market environment. But how? The harsh reality is that it's not easy to get people to change and a lot of change initiatives fail. But why? In most cases, organizational-change failures are driven by … negative employee attitudes and unproductive management behavior. Driving change begins with you, the sales manager, and your mindset.

Why is your sales pipeline so important?