CommPRO.biz Editorial Staff

Time spent selling remotely by field sales reps has increased 89 percent (24 percent to 45 percent) from 2013 to 2017, according to the latest study The State of Sales Study, by AI-based InsideSales.com, developed in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP), Top Sales World, and the Association of Professional Sales (APS).

With a sampling of over 1,151 companies across 28 countries, the survey reveals that technology use is driving the trend.  The average number of sales technologies used by surveyed companies expected to grow 18 percent by the end of 2018.

“The results of this study should be eye opening for most sales organizations, especially within enterprises that often wonder if the extra investment in sales technologies is worth it—and it undoubtedly is,” said Dave Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com. “Of the many takeaways here, one is that enterprise organizations, which tend to be higher cost—due to higher salaries, cost of travel and personal relationships with customers—will only make it in today’s tightening enterprise B2B sales environment if they improve their efficiency by adopting sales technologies.”

Other significant findings in the study, which focused on structure, systems, and people to determine what entities focus on most highly in sales, include the following:

Sales Structure

Of professional sales reps, 43.5 percent are considered inside sales reps, who primarily sell remotely, with an anticipated increase to 44.4 percent by the end of 2017 and 45.5 percent by the end of 2018. Increased productivity is the number one motivation for creating inside sales teams in a sales organization, the study reports.

Sales Systems

The average spend per rep on sales technology is $4,581 and the average rep uses 5.2 tools—a 10 percent increase from the previous year. According to the study, the top sales tools that have seen the biggest growth in adoption from 2016 to 2017 include contract and e-signature, gamification, forecast management, and phone/voice tools.

People

The study revealed the average base salary for inside sales account executives is $42,833 with an average on-target-earnings (OTE) of $96,299. The mix between base and variable was nearly a 50/50 split. The average quota for an account executive was $793,566 with 60.9% of reps achieving that number each year.

Read the full report here.