Global leader in CRM, Salesforce has released the State of Sales report, highlighting how sales teams are balancing technological advancements and building trusted customer relationships as they seek growth.
Sales representatives struggle finding time to meet customer expectations. Changing expectations is the number one sales challenge worldwide, but it’s hard finding the time to connect. Sales representatives in Australia and New Zealand spend an average of just 29% of the work week connecting with customers.
Two in five (59%) sales professionals in Australia and more than half (54%) in New Zealand say changing customer expectations is more of a challenge than last year; only 12% in Australia and 14% in New Zealand say it’s less of a challenge.
Sales adoption of AI is climbing as teams push for productivity and personalisation, but concern regarding integration, security, and customer distrust mean the technology’s full potential for the profession has yet to be seen.
93% of sales teams in Australia and 91% in New Zealand have fully implemented or are experimenting with AI. An additional 5% of teams in Australia and 6% in New Zealand are evaluating the technology.
The top sales benefit from AI in Australia is data quality and accuracy, while New Zealand’s top sales benefit is personalisation for customers. Top obstacles encountered while implementing AI are security concerns and insufficient employee training on how to use the technology, respectively.
Salesforce APAC area vice president, Jane Brown said, “AI is transforming how sellers operate, allowing sales teams to thrive in the current competitive environment. By leveraging AI tools, sellers can effectively drive revenue growth with the ability to personalise customer interactions, adapt to market changes, build trusted relationships, and leverage in depth data for more informed decision making.”