What are the biggest challenges in virtual sales?
Prospecting. 40% of sales professionals say prospecting research and calls are their biggest virtual sales challenge, and reps and leaders agree the #1 challenge is having a successful prospecting call.
Factor 8 asked thousands of sales professionals, from individual contributors to managers and executives, to share the most critical pain points on their virtual and inside sales teams.
VIRTUAL SALES
70%
are experiencing three or more virtual sales challenges.
PROSPECTING
40%
say prospecting research and calls are their biggest challenge.
DISCOVERY
31%
say asking discovery questions that uncover needs is the hardest part of virtual sales meetings.
CLOSING DEALS
49%
say identifying all decision-makers early is the hardest part of closing deals virtually.
Who We Surveyed
Thousands of sales professionals, from reps and team leaders to managers, directors, VPs, and the C-suite, across virtual and inside sales functions.
Experience Level
Country
Job Functions
What makes virtual sales hard?
Prospecting comes first, by a wide margin. 40% name prospecting research and calls as their biggest challenge, nearly double the next answer: structuring and organizing the day (21%).
Progressing deals in a virtual environment follows at 17%, while running virtual meetings and closing deals virtually each come in at 11%.
What are your overall challenges with virtual sales?
What’s the hardest part of phone prospecting?
Getting prospects to engage. 45% say it’s the toughest part of a prospecting call, followed by asking effective questions that uncover opportunities (34%).
What is difficult about phone prospecting?
Do sales leaders know what their reps struggle with?
Not entirely. When we asked reps and leaders to name reps’ biggest challenges, they gave two very different lists.