New Study Reveals the State of Competitive Sales in the U.S.

At Semrush, we’re all about helping you grow your business, and for an increasing number of customers, that includes enabling sales teams to outsell the competition. 

To better understand the state of competitive sales, we developed the “2023 Competitive Sales Benchmark Study,” which asked 400+ U.S. sales leaders about their successes and challenges when it comes to hitting sales goals and winning competitive deals.

Here’s a preview of our findings:

This means that a stunning 18% of all deals are lost to competitors. Additionally, 42% of respondents said their teams did not meet their sales goals over the past six months.

We also examined whether company or sales team size, percentage of inbound leads vs. outbound leads, industry, and use of sales assets would correlate to a better chance of closing competitive deals and, ultimately, the likelihood that a company would reach their sales goals.

So, what activities correlate to a higher likelihood of hitting sales goals, and how can we use the findings to get ahead? Let’s take a closer look at what the data revealed.

We found that 57% of all deals are competitive, but with considerable variation by industry. Those in the financial industry report 70% of deals are competitive while the food and beverage companies only report 49% of deals are competitive.

Not surprisingly, longer deal cycles and deals involving higher monthly recurring revenue (MRR) values experience a higher percentage of competitive deals. Interestingly, though, those with a higher percentage of competitive deals were no more likely to use sales enablement assets, such as Battlecards, than those in less competitive fields.

“With data indicating that 1 in 3 competitive deals are being lost to the competition, it underscores the pivotal need in today’s business environment: the absolute imperative of robust competitive intelligence and sales enablement. Now, in 2023, sales teams more than ever, need to remain agile, informed, and stay ahead with the right competitive strategies.”—Pere Codina, CEO, Kompyte

With 32% of competitive deals lost, that means companies lose 18% of all deals to the competition. The length of the sales cycle and company size made little difference in this area. Variation by industry was minimal overall, but a small sample size of food & beverage industry respondents report just 24% of competitive deals lost.

“With the ever changing talent landscape and economic environment, companies’ need for sales professionals to ramp faster and more efficiently will continue to be a priority. Understanding your prospects’ challenges will remain paramount, but understanding your competitors’ products and positioning will be a superpower to closing more deals. Building competitive intelligence into the sales process is quickly becoming a need-to-have component of every successful organization.”—Mike Castellani, Vice President, Mid-Market and Enterprise Sales, Semrush

Of our sales leader respondents, 58% say their teams hit their sales goals over the past six months. We didn’t find any relationship between higher competition and likelihood of reaching sales goals, nor did company size or industry seem to make a difference. We did discover that the smallest sales teams (1-5 full time sales reps) were the least likely to reach goals, with only 45% reporting sales goals reached. 

Use of sales enablement assets, though, is where a strong pattern emerged. Sales enablement assets are associated with a 32% relative increase in the likelihood of hitting sales goals.

“The competition in sales is fierce at the moment, especially with businesses struggling to find money and resources to invest in new ventures, so we have to rely on everything available to us to secure the deals. Sales enablement assets are crucial to finding success in today’s climate, and we see more and more sales teams investing in these assets and tools to funnel their growth.”—Michael Maximoff Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Belkins

We looked for variations across industries, and found that, while sample sizes are small, those in the retail & wholesale and food & beverage industries report an oversized boost when using sales assets and a notable decrease in the likelihood of hitting sales goals if they did not. 

Not surprisingly, the number one reason given for not reaching sales goals is “economic challenges,” with a full 45% of those who missed goals citing this as a factor. And while we can’t do much to change the economy, we can all work to overcome the No. 2 most-cited challenge, “strong competition.” 

The reasons for missing sales goals were fairly consistent across companies of various sizes, percentage of competitive deals, and all industries, with one exception. In the financial industry, “unrealistic sales targets” took a strong No. 2 position.

“Companies need to engage their sales teams fairly and adjust sales goals if they’re going to roll back on hiring plans, resource investment, and digital transformation. You simply can’t have a team doing more with less while the economy is slowing. The math doesn’t work that way.”
—Corey Donovan, President, Alta Technologies

Sales teams with 26-100 members report “product/service issues” and “pricing issues” as the second-most common reasons for missing goals.

Sixty-three percent of our respondents’ teams use sales assets at least half the time. And across all groups, an average of 34% of all leads are generated by inbound marketing as opposed to outbound efforts.

Which teams are more likely to use sales assets? Not surprisingly, those selling annual contracts, those with larger deal sizes (except sectors with deal sizes over $100K), and those with larger sales teams. 

The smallest sales teams (1-5 full-time representatives) are the least likely to use sales assets, reporting a 46% adoption rate. They’re also the team size associated with the lowest likelihood of hitting sales goals.

“Having 32% [relatively] better odds of hitting goals when you arm your team with helpful content and tools? Now that’s an eye-opening stat. It just confirms what we’ve seen with our own clients. Equipping our sellers with researched and tailored pitch decks, ROI calculators and one-sheeter templates, that’s the extra edge when deals hang in the balance. Sales needs dynamic assets that speak to each prospect’s situation. Content that moves the needle.” 
—Jason Smit, CEO, Contentellect

What about the impact of generating more leads from inbound vs. outbound efforts? This didn’t seem to correlate to a team’s likelihood of reaching sales goals.

Our Benchmark report gives sales leaders a source to evaluate their own performance and take advantage of practices associated with a greater likelihood of reaching their sales goals. How will you use it to improve yours?