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B2B SALES

ISN ’ T EASY , BUT WE FIND OURSELVES NOW IN A SITUATION WHERE SPAM HAS BECOME AN ACCEPTED EVIL AS SALESPEOPLE ADOPT COOKIE-CUTTER APPROACHES .

make their targets more achievable . The majority of respondents ( 67 %) said they are able to dedicate less than an hour of time to research each prospect for deals worth over £ 20,000 .

2B buyers prefer sales outreach via telephone over any other method of communication as they struggle with ‘ inbox overload ’. However , the majority of buyers say they ’ re most influenced to make a purchase if the seller demonstrates a sound understanding of them and their business ( 81 %), regardless of the channel used to connect . That ’ s according to a study from AI-powered market intelligence platform , AMPLYFI .

The Censuswide poll of 500 decisionmakers at B2B businesses and 500 sales leaders in the UK sought to uncover how outreach strategies must evolve in the age of Artificial Intelligence . The study found outreach via telephone ( 44 %) and LinkedIn ( 40 %) ranked highest among buyers , with just over a third ( 37 %) favouring email .

Paul Teather , CEO at AMPLYFI , said : “ We ’ ve long known that buyers suffer from inbox overload , where having an email address has become akin to having a letterbox on the worst street imaginable . B2B sales isn ’ t easy , but we find ourselves now in a situation where spam has become an accepted evil as salespeople adopt cookiecutter approaches .”

The survey found buyers receive more than 10 cold emails a day , with a third receiving as many as 15 . They average eight sales calls a week , admitting they give their full attention less than 50 % of the time .

AMPLYFI ’ s poll found salespeople appear to lack the time and resource to research prospects . Two-thirds ( 66 %) said having additional time to conduct greater research to tailor outreach would

Teather continued : “ The shift towards a more human connection in business interactions should tell salespeople that they can no longer hide behind template emails . Personalisation is the way to go – and they must arm themselves accordingly .”

Instead , salespeople say LinkedIn ( 47 %) is their preferred method of outreach , followed by email ( 46 %). Just 35 % say they will make a phone call , despite it being the preferred method of buyers .

The survey also found salespeople struggle with availability of information when researching prospects , with most relying solely on social media , with less than a quarter ( 25 %) using the wealth of data in the deep web to find out more about potential clients . This is despite the growing use of AI to help salespeople in their roles . According to the study , 60 % of salespeople are afraid of adopting Generative AI to help them close deals . �