Outreach's Survey of 500 Sales Leaders Reveals New Selling Strategies, Continued Use of Gen AI, and Slowdown in Hiring

Findings Show Sales Leaders are Using Generative AI to Enhance Customer Interactions and Update CRM Data

SEATTLE, June 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Outreach, the leading sales execution platform helping revenue organizations create and close more pipeline, today announced the Outreach Spring '23 Sales Confidence Index. The survey of 500 B2B sales leaders in the U.S. and U.K. at the end of April 2023 revealed that while they are optimistic about current economic conditions, respondents are slowing hiring, and focusing more on selling to new industries and geographies to increase revenue.

Sales Leaders Remain Optimistic on Economy Citing Shift of Strategy

Eighty five percent of sales leaders surveyed this spring expect to increase revenue in the current quarter, matching the 85% of respondents in the fall and up from 82% in the winter. Respondents cite customer buying intentions (37%) as the main factor attributed to their revenue outlook, along with overall sector performance (34%) and intro of new sales tech (29%).

In contrast to previous surveys and despite optimism for a positive revenue performance, only 65% of sales leaders are planning to increase headcount in the next six months, down from 74% of those surveyed in the winter and 77% in the fall. Of those increasing, 60% expect to Increase by 5-15%. The amount of those surveyed that are decreasing headcount rose from 5% in the winter to 10% in the spring. However, investment in sales technology remains strong at 95%.

"We're seeing a number of sales leaders remain optimistic about meeting their revenue goals for the quarter. However, many are also signaling a slowdown in hiring which means they must focus on increasing seller productivity from their existing teams," said Manny Medina, CEO and co-founder of Outreach. "Harnessing the power of AI, the Outreach Sales Execution Platform unlocks seller productivity and empowers teams to create more pipeline and close more deals."

Adoption of Generative AI Remains Strong, Used to Enhance Customer Interactions

After the initial discovery in the winter survey that 62% of respondents are already actively using generative AI in the workplace the adoption rate remains flat with only 63% using it day-to-day this spring. The recent survey dove deeper into how those sales leaders are using generative AI, discovering 60% are using it to enhance customer interactions, 56% use it to update CRM data, and 46% are responding to proposal requests with it. Only 44% are using generative AI to generate emails, a feature Outreach announced earlier this year which auto-generates personalized email copy based on the prior context of conversations between buyer and seller. Outreach delivers AI-driven insights to drive targeted actions based on the 33 million weekly action-outcome pairings from over 6,000 customers.

The percentage of sales leaders not actively using generative AI in the workplace increased slightly to 24% this spring from 21% in the winter. Additionally, 14% are not using it, but their workplace is interested in implementing it. Forty one percent of those not using AI in the workplace are worried that the communications will be impersonal, inappropriate, or incorrect/inaccurate and 18% do not believe it is relevant to their work.

Sales Leaders Share Top Social Media Platforms and Most Popular University Majors

New in the spring survey, sales leaders were asked about their university majors - if they attended - and how they engage with customers across social media. Nearly 70% of Millennials and Gen X respondents were business majors, with communications/public relations the next highest. A business major was the most popular major of all generations, but the survey revealed around 20% of Gen Z and Baby Boomers did not attend university compared to only 2% of Millennials and 9% of Gen X not attending university.

When asked which social media platform is the go-to for a salesperson to connect with customers, LinkedIn was the most popular choice across sales leaders. However, when broken down by region, the US was evenly divided between LinkedIn and Facebook at 32%, whereas 42% of UK users selected LinkedIn and only 21% selected Facebook. When broken down by age, Facebook was the second most used platform by Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers, while Instagram was the second most used by Gen Z. Twenty five percent of Baby Boomers shared they do not use social media.

The next Outreach Quarterly Sales Confidence Index findings will be revealed in Fall 2023. Review the findings from the Fall '22 and Spring '23 Sales Confidence Index here.

Outreach partnered with Dynata to survey 500 B2B sales leaders in the U.S. and U.K. in April 2023. Of those surveyed, 81% identified as male and 19% as female. 30% of respondents identified as VP of Sales, 31% as director of sales, 27% as sales team leader or manager, 5% as sales administrators, and 6% as individual contributors.

About Outreach
Outreach is the leading sales execution platform that helps market-facing teams efficiently create and predictably close more pipeline. From prospecting to deal management to forecasting, our platform leverages automation and artificial intelligence to help revenue leaders increase efficiency and effectiveness of all go-to-market activities and personnel across the revenue cycle. Outreach is the only company to offer sales engagement, revenue intelligence, and revenue operations functionalities in a unified platform. More than 6,000 companies, including Zoom, Siemens, Okta, DocuSign, and McKesson depend on Outreach to power their revenue organizations. Outreach is a privately held company based in Seattle, Washington, with offices worldwide. To learn more, please visit www.outreach.io.

Media Contact:
Haley Flanagan for Outreach.io
[email protected]

SOURCE Outreach