☎️ 86% of Buyers Decide Before First Contact

📬 Friday, February 13, 2025

Happy Friday the 13th! We’re back with another Sales Report. Don’t let the spooky day 👻 slant your growth efforts the wrong way. If you missed January’s numbers, what are you doing to recapture momentum before the quarter's end?

Here’s what you missed this week while you were out selling and growing your business:

1) How CRM Is Being Redesigned From The Ground Up In 2026 🪏

In 2026, the industry is reaching a tipping point. We are seeing CRM evolve from a static, often siloed database into a system of action. Autonomous CRM can deliver natural, conversational self-service experiences via voice and chat while leveraging agentic workflows to automatically fulfill customer requests, even when humans still need to perform some backend tasks… Read more here. 👈🏼

📎 Sales Tip(s) of The Week:

Have you ever had a customer who ‘just wasn’t worth’ the revenue? Of course you have.

As you mature as a sales professional, or your business matures past the “all revenue is good revenue” stage, it’s important to consider how your customers align with your core values, or at the simplest form, if they're a good partner.

Don’t wreck your organization’s culture simply to increase revenue. Adding the right pieces at the right times, or subtracting the bad eggs, perhaps the least profitable customers, ultimately will help scale your organization.

🦉 Who Is Sales Homie?

To do this, we focus on three areas :

Fractional Sales Leadership, placing a seasoned Sales Executive at any level (Manager, Director, Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer) into your department. For organizations seeking a consultant, Sales Homie offers Consulting Services tailored to meet your organization’s specific needs.

In need of targeted recruiting for your business development teams? Sales Homie Recruiting builds sales teams that drive results for their organizations. Our retained searches offer 180-day placement guarantees, detailed 30-, 60-, and 90-day onboarding plans, and additional benefits.

Coaching and Training programming includes membership in one of our Sales Squads, a sales peer group ecosystem, individual Sales and Business Owner Coaching, plus our quarterly sales education series, the Revenue Hangout.

For more information, please visit our website.

CRM SUPPORTER

The CRM to get your sales organized. Pipedrive users close an average of 28% more deals after their first year. Learn more here. 👈🏼

2) How AI Search Summaries Are Redefining B2B Demand Generation 🕵🏽‍♂️

The impact of Generative AI on information discovery and B2B GTM strategies is substantial. AI search summaries are redefining discoverability in B2B marketing, enabling buyers to access condensed insights and key information on potential solutions without diving into long-form content such as blogs, case studies, e-books, and white papers... Read more here. 👈🏼

🚨Sales Squad Kick-Off Event: Did You Miss It?

✅ Did you know that only 60% of sales reps actually hit their quotas? - Hubspot

✅ Did you know that for every $1 invested in sales training, it returned $29 in incremental revenues? - Forbes

Sales Homie recently launched the Sales Squad community, a monthly peer group for 10-12 sales pros focused on skill-building, networking, goal accountability, and mentorship. We will be holding our next meeting on Wednesday, February 18th, from 1-4 p.m. in Edina, Minnesota. If you’re interested in learning more or attending, please check out our website.

3) 86% of Buyers Decide Before First Contact ☎️

In the corridors of enterprise sales organizations, a quiet crisis is unfolding. The vast majority of B2B buying decisions are effectively made before a vendor’s sales representative ever gets the chance to deliver a pitch. According to research highlighted by MarTech.org, a staggering 86% of buyers have already pre-selected their vendor on Day 1 of the formal buying process... Read more here. 👈🏼

📊 Weekly Financial Forecast:

Job growth was stronger than expected at the start of 2026, providing some relief to concerns about the state of the U.S. labor market.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 130,000 for January, above the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 55,000, according to seasonally adjusted figures the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday. The total was also an improvement over December, which saw a gain of 48,000 after a slight downward revision.

If you found this content relevant and helpful, please hit the subscribe button below to receive The Sales Report. You can also follow Sales Homie on LinkedIn and Twitter for more conversation and discovery!