2022 was another tireless year for B2B sales people across the field, and as we enter 2023, we spoke to various sales experts to understand how they will be making changes to their sales efforts, while facing sales challenges this year.

Working in sales does not come without its challenges, and in the face of a new year our experts share their thoughts on what is likely going to be a big sales challenge for their teams and their business in 2023. 

The biggest challenge next year will be all of the budget concerns that enterprise customers have.  You need to position your product as a MUST-HAVE not a nice-to-have.  Find the ways that your product can save the customer money while being an indispensable tool for their teams, and make sure to align with executive-level initiatives so you’re not surprised late in the deal cycle.  Dan Wardle – VP Revenue, Vidyard 

I think closing is always the biggest challenge. With the economy being a little dicey at

at this point, closing times I believe are going to be longer than normal. I am not sure in all

honesty how to overcome it. I think the only thing is to load up the funnel with as many

opportunities as possible and try to win on sheer volume.Steve Gruber- Co-Founder, VA Partners

We are extremely excited about 2023 and supporting frontline team members in being able to perform at their best. For the past 10 years, Axonify has been very focused on improving training and learning programs for frontline-focused organizations. In 2023, our challenge is to introduce a new intelligent product suite that enables team members to communicate with each other, train, and execute key tasks. In Q4 of FY22, we heard great feedback from a small group of early adopters about our new product offerings and the challenges it solves. We are excited to share what we’ve been working on with other organizations that are looking to optimize and empower frontline team members. Jon Jones- Director of Business Development, Axonify 

Given the economic headwinds and, even worse, headlines, I think there are going to be more tire kickers in 2023. It’s not that you won’t have pipeline or deals to work, but cycle times are likely to extend as buyers feel compelled to put extra drag or diligence into their buying process. And we know “time kills all deals,” so the danger is that you’re going to spend cycles getting people to the end of the process and having lots of hurry up and wait. The antidote to this is threefold – 

1. Get merciless about qualifying and having tougher conversations up front, confirming all of the reasons buying would stop and get commitment from buyer that if you tackle those with a willingness to work through objections together, there’s no reason to stop. 
2. Create as much urgency in the process as you can so that you avoid piling on of headwinds that don’t weigh down your race horses in the race. 
3. Add pipeline – You’re simply going to have to have greater pipeline coverage ratios to get to the same target given the likely slippage and conversion problem. Just make sure you’re working enough deals effectively. Ryan McCartney – Head of Strategic Partnerships 

Email deliverability is becoming a bigger issue. This year we will try to better leverage LinkedIn and some additional customization with email.  For LinkedIn this means new tactics on connecting, inMail, and identifying targets. For email we will be experimenting with new templates with 20% customisation and 80% consistent content. The team will be trying some experiments to start 2023 with both LinkedIn and email customization. Mark Elliott -Co-Founder, VA Partners 

With years of experience, these experts understand the ups and downs that come with sales, while also understanding the challenges that sales people face on a daily basis. With their insight, you can face these challenges with confidence. 
If you are looking for additional sales support for your business in 2023, connect with us. Additionally, take a look at what a group of marketing experts had to say about sales trends for 2023.