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Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, today released the new State of Sales report, sharing insights from 5,500 sales professionals across 27 countries — including 100 from Singapore.

The report highlights how sales teams are balancing technological advancements and building trusted customer relationships as they seek growth in a crowded marketplace.

Key Singapore insights include:

Sales Professionals Struggle Finding Time to Meet Customer Expectations. Changing customer expectations is the #1 sales challenge globally, but it’s hard finding the time to connect.

• 66% of sales professionals in Singapore say changing customer expectations is more of a challenge now compared to a year ago, and only 9% say it’s less of a challenge.
• Sales professionals in Singapore spend an average of just 29% of the work-week connecting with customers.

Adoption Surges, But Trust and Data Gaps Linger.  More sales teams are adopting AI in a push for productivity and personalisation. However, concerns about trust, data, security, integration, and insufficient employee training mean the full potential of AI is yet to be realised.

• 73% of sales teams have fully implemented or are experimenting with AI. An additional 16% are evaluating the technology.
• Sales teams say the biggest benefit they get from AI is more efficient training and enablement.
  • AI can provide real-time selling guidance, customised enablement to meet specific seller or deal needs based on historical deal data, and support call coaching.
• Bad data is holding back sales professionals, as only 17% of sales professionals in Singapore trust the accuracy of their data.
  • Sales professionals state that the key sales processes which are impeded by bad data include setting achievable sales targets and quotas (42%), accurate forecasting (40%), and competitive intelligence (35%).
• Top obstacles sales teams in Singapore encounter while implementing AI are security concerns (38%), poor integration with existing tech stack (36%), and insufficient employee training on the use of AI (36%).

Employee Retention Is Rising Globally.

• As labour markets tighten, sales staff are largely staying put. Globally, sales teams report 18% average staff turnover over the last 12 months — down from 25% in 2022. In Singapore:
  • The average estimated sales staff turnover rate over the past 12 months was 20%.
  • Only 8% of sales professionals say they are currently looking to change jobs.

Comments on the news:

• “Evolving customer expectations means that sales professionals must find more time to better understand and build deep relationships with customers. AI has the potential to enhance sales professionals’ productivity, giving them more time to deepen connections with customers,” said Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce ASEAN. “For sales teams to successfully implement AI, companies must address the root of AI effectiveness which is in data accuracy and trust. Unifying data that can be accessed on a single trusted platform will deliver accurate AI outputs that sellers can take action with and in turn, increase productivity.”

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