37 Sales Leadership Stats to Know in 2020

Sales leaders, be honest - you're curious about what your peers are up to.

This year has been unconventional (to put it lightly) and leaders have been faced with challenges that they likely haven’t seen at other points in their careers. The ability to share information with other leaders, or to ask "how are you managing?" is invaluable.

However, that’s far easier said than done when you’ve got work to do. If you don’t have the time or resources to commission your own data, you’re in luck because we’ve compiled a list of important data points sales leaders need to know.

[New Data] The 2021 Sales Enablement Report

Sales Leadership Stats

Sales Performance

1. 65% of sales leaders that outperformed against revenue targets have a dedicated sales enablement person or team.

2. 61% of over-performing leaders use their CRM to automate parts of their sales process, vs. 46% of underperforming leaders.

3. 64% of sales leaders who invested in remote selling met or exceeded revenue targets this year.

4. Inclusive organizations report 28% higher revenue, 2x net income, and 30% better economic performance on profit margin.

5. Sales leaders who did not invest in remote selling fell behind — 50% of this subgroup did not hit their sales targets this year.

6. After a significant dip in March 2020, American businesses experienced a 45% increase in deals won in September 2020.

7. 70% of sales managers say a manager’s ability to navigate change is more important now than it was five years ago.

8. 43% of sales leaders believe customer satisfaction is the top insight for measuring sales performance.

9. According to LinkedIn, 60% of sales leaders anticipate their team won’t be able to hit quota by year end.

10. 51% of sales leaders rely on data to measure sales rep performance.

11. The most valued traits sales managers see in salespeople are problem solving, relationship building, critical thinking, confidence, and oral communication.

12. The top data insights sales leaders use for decision-making are forecasting data, rep productivity data, and team performance to quota.

13. High-performing companies are twice as likely to offer personalized training for their sales reps.

14. Only 9% of sales leaders have conducted business as usual without adjusting their sales strategy since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remote Selling

15. In 2021, 68% of sales leaders plan to implement a hybrid or fully remote sales model.

16. Sales leaders ranked video conferencing software as the most important tool for their teams, followed by their CRM.

17. 63% of sales leaders believe virtual meetings are as effective as in-person meetings.

18. When moving to the next deal stage, 72% of high-performing sales leaders find virtual meetings to be more effective than face-to-face meetings.

19. The top challenges of virtual sales organizations are getting the buyer’s attention, keeping the buyer engaged, and changing the buyer’s point of view on how to solve a problem.

Sales Leader Priorities

20. 90% of sales leaders say sales technology is important or very important, and over half of sales leaders plan to spend more resources on sales technology in the future.

21. 58% of sales managers say they have a hard time completing their work tasks in the time given.

22. 52% of sales managers have to work around their organization’s processes to complete their work tasks, negatively impacting their quota attainment by 18%.

23. 44% of sales executives believe their organization doesn’t manage sales processes effectively.

Sales Management

24. 27% of companies don’t have an onboarding process for salespeople. Of new reps that did go through an onboarding program, only 26% said their training was effective.

25. In the U.S., job opportunities for sales managers are expected to grow by 4% through 2029.

26. Per research conducted by The Brooks Group, only 31% of sales managers had strong confidence in their sales team’s ability to meet key business objectives.

27. 74% of sales managers oversee their own sales accounts in addition to managing their teams.

28. 65% of sales leaders find behavioral interview questions effective when hiring sales talent.

29. Selling skills is the number one area of focus for 38% of sales managers when coaching their reps.

30. 45% of managers say they spend 30-60 minutes individually coaching sales reps each week.

31. 23% of sales managers spend less than 30 minutes individually coaching their direct reports each week. This amount of time spent coaching reps is associated with lower quota attainment.

B2B Sales Leadership Stats

32. C-Suite leaders from buying companies are 2.2 times more likely to participate in sales calls than C-Suite leaders from sales teams.

33. By 2025, 60% of B2B sales organizations will move from experience-based selling to data-based selling.

34. 57% of B2B sales leaders plan to invest more in AI and automation tools in 2021.

35. For B2B sales teams, the number of stakeholders and decision makers involved in the buying process is a notable obstacle. B2B sales leaders are looking to grow their sales teams to balance out large buying groups with various stakeholders.

36. On average, seven people are involved in buying decisions for companies that have between 100-500 employees.

37. According to LinkedIn, 1 in 5 B2B decision makers change roles annually.

Did any of these data points surprise you? As companies and leaders continue to adapt to our changing economic landscape, we’ll add new data and information to this post. For more pertinent data, check out these 75 Sales Statistics That Will Help You Sell Smarter.