2024 in Sales: The Sales Professionals Survey

As 2024 winds down, sales teams are taking stock of their performance and looking ahead to what 2025 might hold. To better understand the wins, challenges, and opportunities shaping the sales landscape, we conducted a survey of sales professionals. The results reveal some fascinating insights. 

1. The Most Effective Prospecting Channels

When it comes to engaging prospects, LinkedIn emerged as the top choice for most respondents. Email, calls, and in-person meetings also received notable mentions, but LinkedIn stood out for its ability to blend personal touch with professional reach.

Why it works:

• “Email is just noise these days. LinkedIn works for me as a follow-up.”
• “It’s perfect as a starting point for the relationships-based sales funnel.”

This trend highlights the growing importance of platforms that facilitate authentic, relationship-driven outreach, especially in a crowded and noisy digital world.

2. Sales Quotas: The end year Results

2024 saw mixed results for sales professionals:

• 40% met or exceeded their quotas  by leveraging persistence, refined sales habits, and targeted strategies.
• 60% fell short, citing challenges such as poorly defined ICPs and inconsistent prospecting habits.

Key lessons from success stories:

• Developing healthy sales habits can turn performance around. Ensure your team has clarity and focus on their approach. 
• Focusing on customer pain points and offering tailored solutions is critical for building trust and conversions.

Challenges to overcome:

• Longer deal cycles and client indecision.
• The need for sharper ICP definitions to prioritize high-quality leads.
  
  
  

3. Where Does Time Go in Sales?

Time management is a perennial challenge for sales teams. Here’s how respondents allocated their time:

• 50% on outreach  (cold calling, email campaigns, LinkedIn messaging).
• 30% on follow-ups (nurturing leads and responding to inquiries).
• 5-10% on prospecting and discovery calls.
• A surprising amount of administrative tasks  like CRM updates and meeting prep.

The data underscores the need to minimize time spent on non-revenue-generating activities, enabling sales teams to focus on closing deals.

4. The Biggest Challenges in 2024?

Survey participants highlighted key hurdles they faced:

• Inconsistent sales habits: A lack of structure led to missed opportunities for some.
• Personalization struggles: Researching contacts to craft tailored outreach remains a time-consuming but essential task.
• Market uncertainty: Fear and hesitation in a volatile market impacted both salespeople and their clients.

What Worked:

• Multi-channel outreach (research, calls, email, LinkedIn, follow-ups).
• Offering solutions rather than products, which built stronger client trust.

What Didn’t:

• Poorly executed product rollouts.
• Inadequate ICP targeting, leading to wasted effort on low-value prospects.

5. The Tools Driving Sales Success

Sales tools play a crucial role in enabling productivity and success. Here’s what our respondents rely on:

• Most-used tools:  LinkedIn,  Dux-Soup,  HubSpot, and other automation platforms.
• Most essential tools: CRMs were the unanimous choice as indispensable for managing pipelines and tracking activity.
• Least valuable tools: Interestingly, Apollo was mentioned as the tool most respondents would be happy to replace.

What This Means for 2025

The findings highlight several actionable insights for sales teams as they gear up for the new year:

1. Lean into LinkedIn and multi-channel outreach to build stronger relationships.
2. Focus on improving prospecting and ICP targeting to prioritize high-value leads.
3. Invest in tools that truly enhance productivity, and be willing to reevaluate those that don’t.
4. Build healthy, consistent sales habits to ensure steady progress toward targets.

Looking Ahead

Sales in 2025 will require sharper strategies, smarter time management, and a focus on personalization to stand out in an increasingly competitive market. If you would like a see how Revium can power you to sales success in 2025, book a demo below.