Nailed or Failed It? A 2024 B2B Sales Predictions Reality Check

Prediction: New B2B Customers Will Remain Elusive
Rating: Nailed it.

Steve: This proved true in 2024. And I don’t see any signs of things changing in the future. As investments remain cautious, buying groups continue to expand in both size and complexity, and sales cycles continue to lengthen, I expect new customers to remain elusive in 2025 and well beyond.

Ben: We’ve received strong validation for this prediction. New customers have not only been elusive in 2024 but will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, as sales response rates continue to plummet.

Prediction: B2B Sales Investments Will Be Precarious
Rating: Nailed it.

Ben: This came true in 2024. Let’s remember that shifts in consumer buying behaviors inevitably make their way into the B2B sales cycle. This year, so did inflation. Between those factors and the heated geopolitical climate, some businesses responded with increased caution and stepped back. I do expect this to change in 2025, with lower interest rates paving the way for more B2B investments that will drive spending. And as new technology advances, job growth (especially around AI) will increase. A lot of these pieces will come together in 2026 and fuel even further investments.

Prediction: B2B Sales Roles Will Reflect New Tech
Rating: Nailed it (Mostly).

Steve: As we predicted, sellers’ roles—which are becoming more consultative—are all about new tech. We just didn’t anticipate how fast things would change. Tech is advancing so quickly, making sellers more productive and effective. The sales tech consolidation we’ve been reporting on for the past few years continued into 2024, leaving us with fewer cool, niche products. One thing I didn’t predict is the rate of tech advancement that happened this year—it’s been simply unprecedented. I haven’t seen anything like it in my entire career.

Ben: This is true (for sellers who embrace it, that is). For those who do, gen AI is dramatically reducing red time, helping them with messaging, research to help prepare for solution development, and personalized outreach.

Prediction: Outside B2B Sales Teams Will Be a Differentiator
Rating: Nailed it.

Ben: This definitely proved true. As sales are becoming more consultative, face-to-face sales are essential for building trust with key customers and prospects.

Steve: While their roles are changing, outside B2B sellers are still essential. To meet the needs of today’s self-reliant, self-educated B2B buyers, sellers are playing more of a trusted advisor role, assessing the client’s goals, conducting gap analyses that can help clients address their problems, and changing behavior. That said, face-to-face visits are no longer about the salesperson. The sale now revolves around the customer – adapting to their needs and preferences. And it’s no longer enough to be a good seller. It matters less what a seller knows than them being willing to learn what they don’t.

Prediction: B2B Lead Gen (the Old Way) Is Dead!
Rating: Nailed it.

Ben: The need for an omnichannel approach to reach prospects is only growing as phone, email, or face-to-face alone continue to prove to be insufficient. And the spray and pray approaches that were popular in 2010s have negatively impacted the buyer’s willingness to respond. Buyer preferences continue to move toward doing their own research on their own time in a way that meets their needs prior to engaging with sales. That said, buyers still need personalized discovery, solutions, and decision-making. Gartner found that 20% of buyers who made purchases without involving a salesperson end up regretting their purchase. Salespeople aren’t going away—but they need to adapt to buyer preferences for self-education and engagement on their terms. That’s why account-based sales approaches continue to be the most successful. And marketing + sales alignment is no longer optional. Marketing helping sales with messaging is more important than ever, and they must work together to share and leverage intent-based data to identify the optimal time and way to reach out to prospects.

Prediction: B2B Sales Will Advance Further in the Next 24 Months Than it Has in the Last Decade
Rating: Nailed it (Mostly).

Ben: We mostly got this right. AI, evolving buyer preferences, and inflation drove this observation, and it’s still the case. Another significant advancement in the next 24 months we didn’t address will be in partner ecosystems. It’s going to be an increasingly popular method for generating new business opportunities because it meets buyers’ evolving preferences to interact with referrals or trusted providers within a partner ecosystem that brings clients and partners together. Read more about that here.

Steve: As I mentioned, tech advancement alone has catapulted B2B sales at rates and to levels I haven’t seen in my entire career. From a strategic standpoint, no matter how fast or slowly the landscape evolves, the value we provide our customers diminishes by 50% every year unless we iterate. We also encounter new stakeholders every year and need to adapt to accommodate those. Keeping up with this exponential rate of change is essential. That’s why we’re so intentional about our Continuous Improvement process.

Prediction: Relying on DIY B2B Sales Teams to Hold on to Customers Will Become More Costly
Rating: Nailed it.

Ben: This proved true in 2024 and will continue to be the reality. Ebsta’s 2024 B2B Sales Benchmarks found that in 2024, B2B salesperson turnover increased by 64% from 22% to 36%, and 69% of reps missed their quotas. Companies can combat these issues by outsourcing sales to a managed services provider, investments needed to build, maintain, and retain a high-performing salesforce that can adapt to changing market realities.

Prediction: For B2B Sales Organizations, 2024 Will Be a Year of Balance
Rating: Nailed it.

Steve: Most companies spent the year trying to balance drinking from the AI firehose and tapping into its promises of enhanced seller productivity and efficiency faster than the competition. While I believe this will continue for the foreseeable future, companies don’t have to live with being stuck in limbo and unnecessary losses. Rather than taking the immense risks associated with vetting, investing in, and deploying AI tech that may or may not pan out, they can enlist the help of managed sales providers who have resources dedicated to testing, leveraging, and optimizing results from AI—safely.