Outsell Q4/Q1 Sales Benchmark
Once again, we’ve completed our quarterly sales benchmark looking at Q4 and an outlook for Q1. We also asked a few questions about 2024 and 2025 overall to garner important benchmarks. It goes without saying if you are interested in participating, please join the program. You’ll receive an important summary each quarter and more robust benefits if you are an Outsell Leadership Community member. Contact us today.
Meanwhile key takeaways as we start the year.
- Average sales cycles remain the same with staff turnover stabilizing. The table below reflects mixed performance on achieving plan but slight improvement over prior quarters.
2. Customers’ decision-cycles lengthening is still a problem alongside driving new business efforts.
3. As with prior starts to the year (we’ve been doing this quarterly now since 2020) there is general optimism about the year ahead and in ability to achieve annual sales targets. Average sales growth projections are 12% consistent with this time last year.
4. In the past three years — 2022, 2023, 2024 — optimism waned as the year progressed especially in 2023 and 2024 as external factors made things more tough as the year progressed. In Outsell’s opinion organic growth of 12% in aggregate is unlikely given historical norms both in this respondent pool and across industry growth rates.
5. Key actions being taken: adding sales team members, launching new products, and driving more cross-sell and up-sell activity.
In aggregate, respondents are raising prices 5% reflecting a relative calming of inflationary trends and customer intolerance for anything more excessive. Renewal rates are relatively stable in the mid-80% range which is solid performance in recurring revenue businesses; workflow-application centered solutions range higher.
In discussions with participants and our resident sales expert and Outsell partner, Christine Rogers, CEO of M3 Learning, essential actions include:
· Keep a Renewals Mindset: Anticipate changes and surprises during renewals.
· Monitor Sales Cycle Complexities: Stay ahead of slow decision-making, late-stage stakeholders, and deals stalling late in the quarter.
· Optimize Pipeline: Improve pipeline quality by removing unqualified prospects and understanding customer pain points. (A personal favorite of mine: remove maybes. Move yes’s forward; and no’s out. They are both blessings. Maybes kill us.)
· Accelerate Sales Team Onboarding: Interested in best practices to speed up sales team onboarding and enhance skills. Reach out to us or Christine directly for M3 Learning sales training.
· Use Sales Methodology & Tools: Focus on aligning buyer and seller stages, with tools like Gong gaining traction for renewals. Growing interest in the sales tech stack is something we’re targeting in a follow-up meeting for members.
Happy Selling. We trust 2025 is off to a great start and will see you at next quarter’s benchmark results digital meeting. Participate! It’s all confidential and there’s plenty to gain!