This article is more than 7 years old.
- 30% of companies interviewed predict they will spend more on sales technology in 2016.
- LinkedIn found that 90% of top sales professionals are using social selling tools, compared with 71% of overall sales.
- 44% of employees of medium-sized companies (100-999 employees) use CRM tools versus only 23% of small companies (under 100 employees) and 27% of enterprises (1K+ employees).
- Millennials are 33% more likely to use sales intelligence tools.
These and many other insights are from the recent LinkedIn study, The State of Sales in 2016 (PDF, no opt-in, 10 pp.). You can download the PDF here. The study’s researchers have provided additional insights beyond those that promote
Key takeaways from the study include the following:
- 33% of CRM users spend three to five hours using CRM tools, and 24% spend more than ten hours per week. Also, 33% of sales intelligence tool users spend 3-5 hours per week using BI tools. 28% of sales reps and business development professionals are using social selling tools 3-5 hours per week with 20.9% spending 5-10 hours per week. 30% of productivity app users spend 3-5 hours per week using these tools. 26% of those sales reps and business development professionals using email tracking apps spend 3-5 hours per week using them. The following graphic provides a comparison of hours spent with each app or tool.
- 70% of sales professionals use social selling tools making them the most widely used sales technology. 1% of sales professionals see business intelligence tools as “impactful and “very impactful” which refers to how well this app category scales to drive greater sales. 64.2% see CRM as having the same levels of potential positive impact to sales. The following graphic compares respondents’ perceptions of which technologies most influence sales.
- Millennials are 33% more likely to use sales intelligence tools than industry peers aged 35-54. LinkedIn found that millennials dominated adoption of every technology in the survey including CRM, sales intelligence, productivity apps, email tracking and social selling. 62% of millennial salespeople use sales intelligence tools, 52% use productivity tools, and 78% use social selling It’s not surprising that 63% of millennials rate social selling tools as “critical” or “extremely critical” to their ability to close deals. According to PwC, 59% of millennials cite working for a company that provisions state-of-the-art technology as important to them when considering a job.
- LinkedIn found that
77 % of top salespeople rely on sales intelligence tools, compared with 52% of overall sales pros. The study also found that the highest performing salespeople are 24% more likely to attribute their success to sales technology. 82% of the top salespeople interviewed in the study cite sales tools as critical to their ability to close deals compared to 66% overall.
- Salespeople who rely on social selling platforms are 51% more likely to hit their quotas. LinkedIn also found all sales professionals view social selling tools as their most impactful sales technology for growing revenue and closing deals: Seven in 10 sales professionals cite social selling tools as “very impactful” or “impactful” on their ability to grow revenue. More than eight in 10 sales professionals cite social selling tools as “important” or “very important” for closing deals.