Sales Trends 2025: Could This Be the Year Sales Becomes Not a Numbers Game?

This post is part of G2's 2025 digital trends series. Read more about G2’s perspective on digital transformation trends in an introduction from Tim Sanders, VP, research insights, and additional coverage on trends identified by G2’s analysts.

Goodbye spray and pray sales outreach, hello signal-based outreach

With the massive volume of sales outreach occurring in B2B today and the commoditization of contact data, organizations will start to rely on signal-based outreach (rather than volume) to drive revenue and meet buyers in their buying process.

Sellers will leverage signals from—first-, second-, and third-party—to better identify when a buyer is ready to be engaged and has a higher propensity to purchase.

Signals give sellers a better picture of a buyer’s interest and their current stage in the purchasing process. Sellers will leverage AI solutions to provide detailed account research and combine it with signals to conduct smarter and more productive outreach.

Signal aggregation platforms enable businesses to intelligently prioritize their ideal customer profile (ICP) based on buyer signals rather than relying solely on a stagnant ICP of tiers and strategic accounts.

About 69% of buyers only engage a salesperson when they’ve made their decision; buyers are more educated than before

According to G2’s 2024 Buyer Behavior Report, buyers typically (69% of the time) only engage with a salesperson when they’ve made their decision. Buyers are more educated than ever and have become immune to spamming sales outreach. Of course, buyers still need to buy, so it’s imperative to cater sales outreach purposefully.

To effectively engage, solutions should integrate intent from multiple sources and integrate to execute engagement, such as sales engagement software. G2’s report reinforces this need, stating that integrations are the number one reason buyers purchase sales software.

G2’s report also noted the heightened expectations for ROI, as 57% of buyers expect to see positive ROI within three months of purchase. As shown below, G2's AI Sales Assistant category, which houses many signal aggregation providers, has seen a steady improvement in ROI in the past 12 months.

G2’s report also noted that employee productivity was the number one method used to measure the ROI from AI software (44% of respondents).

GTM Partners performed an ROI study on MadKudu, a signal-based selling platform, which revealed that a customer increased sales team efficiency by 33% and reduced SDR ramp time by 50%. The study also noted customer stories that resulted in 45% higher conversion rates and 57% more revenue with 46% fewer leads.

The ROI study highlighted MadKudu’s impact on the sales pipeline, which is top of mind for all GTM leaders. By leveraging a signal-based approach, a customer generated 90% of the pipeline from 25% of leads; another customer reported 60% more sales opportunities.

With most of an organization’s TAM not in the market to purchase, sellers should focus on those in the market and prioritize through signals and intent data. As seen in the ROI study above, sales teams can meet revenue targets by focusing on high-intent leads instead of trying to capture all.

Sales is about helping solve problems: Lead outreach with knowledge to break through the noise

In 2025, all successful salespeople will lead outreach strategies based on signals to better serve prospects and maximize those who are most willing to buy.

It’s important to understand different segments of an ICP, as different signals (and combinations of signals) could indicate different needs and, thus, different outreach strategies, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Organizations will be less bound by outreach volume and instead learn to orchestrate outreach strategies based on signals, which will differ by company segment, industry, signal strength, and the buying stage.

Learn about the consolidating sales tech landscape and the desire for unified solutions in sales trends from 2024.

Edited by Jigmee Bhutia