The State of Sales: Why Europe is Beating the US – Part 1

There’s never a silver bullet when it comes to high performance sales results. There are, however, repeatable patterns and best practices in sales activity that can lead to outstanding results. I’ve combed through the “State of Sales 2017” research from XANT Labs. It’s an incredible snapshot of the sales landscape and covers sales technology, structure and people. The surprise was that Europe and the UK are better at adopting sales technology and better at some other aspects of sales when compared to their peers in the United States. Here’s how and why Europe is beating the US at the sales game.

Europe Recognises the Value of Sales Technology More than the US

The US is certainly a hub for great technological innovation, but it doesn’t mean they recognise the value as much as they should. European companies report spending more per rep than the US (an average of £4,508 ($5,950) compared with $4,622.)

For some this may be surprising, but I’ve been in the game long enough to know that it’s not. We are in some respects still playing catch up with the US. Additionally, the selling complexities in Europe require greater investment across a range of sales acceleration technologies. Sales leaders are looking for ways to streamline and optimize their sales process through scalable measures – technology.

Expect this trend to continue as European companies say they will maintain the same spend in 2018 as they have in 2017.

Why European Sellers Have Better Numbers than the US

According to the research, only 60.9% of sales reps reach quota. But when breaking down the numbers between US and European sellers, we had the surprise that Europe is doing much better at quota attainment.

I’ve broken down these differences in an in-depth article on LinkedIn, which explains why:

  • The US is at 58% quota attainment, while Europe is at 65%
  • Sellers from the US are using phone calls much less than their european peers
  • How use of email changes your sales results

The XANT study included nearly 1,200 companies in 28 countries and was created in partnership with the Association of Professional Sales (APS), Top Sales World, and AA-ISP.

I’ve broken the State of Sales study down into a number of articles…so more to come.

Connect with me on LinkedIn to read more articles on sales technology and strategy.

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