02 A Data-Driven Sales Playbook Emerges State of Sales 14 While sales teams make more data-based A Balance of Human Ingenuity and Data Insights Wins Deals decisions, winning deals still takes a human touch. After all, 81% of business buyers expect Soft skills like listening and building personal rapport are essential to converting prospects, companies to understand their needs and but so are a variety of insight-driven factors. 1 expectations. In this regard, selling is a deeply personal activity that requires a great deal of Percentage of Salespeople Who Say the Following Have an Extreme or Substantial soft skills. Impact on Converting a Prospect into a Customer But not all soft skills are inherent to everyone, and not all customer needs are readily apparent. Listening 78% Some skills, like attention to detail and industry knowledge, can take years to hone. Others, like Engaging at just the right time 76% knowing exactly when to engage, aren't entirely possible without the aid of technology. Demonstrating attention to detail 74% The majority of salespeople credit a combination of their own ingenuity and data-driven insights in Demonstrating company reputation/trust 74% turning an opportunity into a deal. Knowing how to integrate these insights into their daily routine is an Demonstrating industry knowledge 74% emerging soft skill in and of itself. The top two factors for Demonstrating knowledge of business needs 73% converting prospects are a mix of human skill and Building personal rapport 71% data-driven insights. Having reliable partners 67% Supplying customer references 62% Demonstrating ROI 56% 1 State of the Connected Customer survey, Salesforce Research, April 2018. Data may or may not be represented in the “State of the Connected Customer” report. Base: Sales representatives, executives, and managers Salesforce Research