A combination of ongoing trade discussions with the US and Europe, a confirmed Brexit in the UK and the recent implications of the coronavirus outbreak have accelerated the levels of uncertainty for many businesses worldwide. Findings from the latest Global CEO survey from PWC suggest that over half of CEOs believe the pace of global economic development will slow throughout this year. As consequence investment plans are taking a more cautious approach as businesses prepare themselves for a potential economic decline.

This rising uncertainty within the industry can be challenging, particularly for sales professionals who are expected to support driving businesses forward by generating new and effective revenue streams while companies prepare for a potential downturn. Sales professionals are expected to introduce innovative sales strategies to reveal new insights and enable potential revenue expansion without incurring further expense.

Jason Loh, the global head of sales solutions at Anaplan believes that the expected downturn in investment is creating further pressure on sales leaders. Loh strongly believes that predictive and AI technology provides great opportunities to enhance their sales strategies and improve sales potential for businesses.

Standard manual and time-consuming activities require extensive research and management. New and innovative systems are enabling sales professionals to focus their time and skills on specific areas and utilise targeted insights to make efficient decisions on business resources.

Managing accounts with the support of AI and predictive sales planning tools means internal systems can be augmented and sales leaders can leverage the qualities of analytics to identify key accounts with high revenue potential. 

Larger and complex businesses can also be challenging in terms of identifying where new opportunities may develop. In today’s business world, companies need to be flexible and prepared to adapt quickly. The insight-focused approach to sales has supported large businesses by reducing the time allocated in data management and enable skilled professionals to spend more time identifying new opportunities to improve business performance.

Having the capacity to predict future scenarios, review potential outcomes, and creating plans to manage this can enable decision-makers to be more prepared and implement real-time measures to enhance sales performance. Loh emphasises that as companies continue to enter new markets and competition intensifies, a structured sales plan is critical in terms of delivering a solid pipeline and potentially losing revenue. Loh believes that having the ability to plan a range of scenarios, fuelled by predictive tools can really strengthen sales professionals able to create and manage their approach to delivering sales strategies.

During this period of economic uncertainty, generating clear insights and having the ability to be adaptable is critical for business success. For sales professionals, the pressure is being placed on implementing the right decision to generate the most effective results.