探花精选

AI isn’t the biggest hurdle for sales teams anymore — that’s what I learned after speaking with several sales professionals.

As 2025 unfolds, I’m seeing a clear shift in where sales leaders are putting their focus. Pipeline growth and revenue performance are taking center stage — 64% of sales leaders told us that’s their top priority, compared to just 14% who are still focused on AI adoption.

Sales has always been about adaptation. The market changes. Buyer expectations evolve. New tools emerge. And your playbook has to keep up.

In this guide, I’m walking you through 11 of the biggest challenges salespeople are facing in 2025 — plus the practical strategies I’ve gathered from experts to help you tackle them head-on.

11 Sales Challenges for 2025

1. Buyers crave personalization.

believe personalizing the buying process to each prospect will become more important in the future.

No surprise because “trust in organic search platforms fading, ads are flooding every corner of the internet, and LinkedIn is overrun by self-proclaimed gurus. Buyers are more skeptical than ever,” says , CEO at .

“They rely on trust signals, peer opinions, and proof of solutions more than ever — and that trend isn't slowing down,” he added.

Likewise, , Principal Manager of Corporate Sales at 探花精选, believes personalization is becoming a non-negotiable. “I believe that non-personalized sales email blasts will become even less effective,” he said. “Reps will need to ensure they've not just researched an account, but that they come with a strong 'point of view' and a very clear call to action, regardless of medium.”

However, these suggestions stem from salespeople. Do customers share the same position?

According to S&P Global’s report, people prefer personalization over privacy and are ready to give out their data in exchange for relevant offers. There’s also a striking growth in such a desire compared to data from the previous year.

Now, 20% more GenX care not about data privacy but personalization.

How can salespeople go the extra mile to personalize their outreach, lead nurturing campaigns, etc., when time is of the essence?

How to Handle This Challenge

from shared his perspective, and I couldn’t agree more:

“Sales teams need to adjust their nurture sequences rather than pushing for quick closes. AI can predict where a lead is in the buying process and suggest the right touchpoints. Sales reps should work closely with marketing to create segmented follow-ups based on the deal stage,” he said.

“By providing value at every stage instead of rushing the process, companies will avoid losing deals due to hesitation and lack of personalization.”

2. Sales teams must find the right balance with AI.

75% of sales professionals believed that AI could make them more efficient at their jobs, according to 探花精选's . In 2025, our survey showed that 27% of sales leaders fear buyers will resist AI-driven interactions and prefer human engagement.

Yet, most of us are still testing the waters with this technology, and there's plenty of room for missteps along the way.

Take sales outreach, for example. You could use AI as a content machine to rev up your outreach, but that isn't the best use case.

As , chief content officer at , told me, "AI is a very powerful tool — one that can definitely help you scale your outreach. However, the same principles still apply: nobody likes to get blasted with tons of irrelevant emails. Just because you can send more outreach using AI doesn't mean you should."

How to Handle This Challenge

If you‘re feeling pressure to rebuild all of your processes around AI, you’re not alone. However, a better approach is thinking of AI as a tool to improve your existing processes.

For example, instead of using AI to increase the volume of your prospecting emails, you can use it as a research tool to better understand each prospect and write more impactful messages.

Look over the tasks salespeople reportedly automate successfully with AI.

And remember, balance is key. The best AI systems will be those that empower sales professionals to do more without losing the personal connection at the core of sales.

3. Sales cycles are getting longer.

U.S. consumer spending in January 2025 fell for the first time in nearly two years, reported . Meanwhile, in late 2024, Investopedia published alarming numbers — .

When wallets get tighter, sales cycles get longer. Consumers need more time to make purchasing decisions, and they tend to lobby more objections throughout the process.

How to Handle This Challenge

Focus your energy on engaging with prospects with the highest likelihood to convert, rather than spreading yourself thin over numerous leads. By intensifying your interactions with these leads, you'll use your time more effectively and enhance your prospects of closing a sale.

Additionally, consider offering flexible pricing plans. Among sales reps who offer freemium options, a staggering 90% say it's “very effective” at turning prospects into paying customers.

Dan Tyre echoes this point, telling me, “Offering a free tool or widget, product trial, consultation, or services checklist can increase your visibility early in the sales process.”

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4. Marketing and sales struggle to find alignment.

There's a reason why report that improving marketing/sales alignment would result in the most growth for their company. Yet, 30% of sales teams struggle to strike that perfect balance that reportedly slows them down.

What happens?

When this alignment is fragmented, both sales and marketing teams suffer. Marketing teams are unable to effectively generate and pass on high-quality leads, tailor content to the specific stages of the buyer's journey, or get the feedback they need to refine their strategies.

Sales teams, on the other hand, are unable to leverage insights from marketing to fully understand the customer's needs, waste time chasing poor-quality leads, or capitalize on the full potential of the marketing materials and campaigns.

How to Handle This Challenge

Step 1: Everything begins with a good customer relationship management (CRM) system as a central part of aligning sales and marketing teams. In fact, 78% of sales professionals say their CRM is effective at improving sales and marketing alignment.

Additionally, sales professionals who use a CRM are 79% more likely to say their teams are strongly aligned.

For example, 探花精选's offers a wide range of tools — including lead scoring, email templates, and a high-powered analytics dashboard — to help increase alignment and collaboration between marketing and sales.

Step 2: “Deepen your understanding of your target customers. Not just lip service. Take surveys, review sales transcripts, and analyze solution adoption by volume to paint an accurate picture,” suggests Rashid, giving you a nudge toward the next steps.

Step 3: Rashid then recommends that you simplify your messaging. “In 2025, buyers should understand what you do differently and how you do it in under 10 seconds. We've stripped away jargon and made everything as clear as possible across channels.”

Step 4: Then you’ll want to define what success looks like between marketing and sales. “Each department has its own KPIs as leading indicators, but ultimately, we've … clearly defined what a qualified opportunity is and made sure everyone on the team is aligned,” said Rashid.

5. You need more than a solid product to close a deal.

Manos asserted that sales reps won‘t be able to rely primarily on how sound their product or service is to land deals. According to him, "The quality of the technology you’re selling alone doesn't close big deals."

Touting your solution's bells and whistles and technical performance is less effective in the “seas of same” that characterize the competitive landscape of most modern industries — particularly SaaS. In 2025, there needs to be much more to your efforts.

How to Handle This Challenge

According to Manos, “With the sheer number of competitors offering any specific SaaS solution, running a strong sales process is more important than ever. When sales reps push for a close, without having executive buy-in and a clear ROI, more deals will be lost to 'no decision' and timelines will push.”

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• How buyers are becoming more self-informed
• How sales teams are using AI and automation
• Adapting to tighter budgets
• And more!

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6. A buyer-first mentality is dominating.

According to , VP of Sales at , prioritizing buyer interests will have more bearing on how reps conduct their sales efforts going forward. He says, "When we think about the concept of buyer-first, it's redefining the paradigm.

“We're going to look at how buyers want to buy versus how we choose to sell to them. It's all about mindset and scrapping out or wiping the hard drive from that old mindset, especially in the way we're selling now in this market.”

How to Handle This Challenge

Adopting a more consultative, helpful, empathetic approach to selling is the key to handling this challenge — taking steps like listening actively and having conversations tailored to getting at the “why” behind a sale will be key going forward.

Sales efforts can't be presentation-first anymore. You need to avoid “talking at” your prospects if you want to adapt to a buyer-first landscape. Emphasis has to be put on elements like extensive buyer research and relationship-building to adjust to a world where the buyer has the power.

Familiarize yourself with concepts like customer-centric selling. Learn how to conduct your sales efforts without pressuring buyers. Try to plan your efforts around your prospects' timelines as opposed to your ideal schedule.

One way or another, acquaint yourself with your buyers' unique challenges and put them first. Strides like the ones listed here provide the best avenues for you to better understand and adjust to a world where the buyer has a disproportionate amount of power in the prospect-salesperson dynamic.

7. Incorporating social selling into broader efforts is necessary.

Social media is more or less omnipresent in virtually every aspect of modern life — and the sales world is no exception. Social selling skills are becoming much more of a “need to have” than a “nice to have” for sales professionals.

, 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don’t use social media.

How to Handle This Challenge

Salespeople need to have a grip on how to leverage platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter for processes like prospecting, sharing relevant content, seeking referrals, and developing clout in their spaces.

This challenge isn‘t necessarily new, but it’s as pressing as it has ever been. Every salesperson needs to account for the rising tide of digital transformation. Social media, as a sales resource, isn‘t going anywhere — so it’s in your best interest to incorporate it into your repertoire if you haven't already.

8. You have to sell to buyer groups instead of just buyers.

Gone are the days of appealing to individual buyers. According to research from and , purchases involve from 6 to 22 stakeholders, whereas the latter occurs in complex purchases. These buyer groups typically involve prospects with varying degrees of authority and influence.

The people you engage with when selling to a business can include gatekeepers, influencers, blockers, champions, users, decision-makers, and a host of other representatives who can make or break your deal.

How to Handle This Challenge

Thorough research and personalization are central to overcoming this challenge. You need to be prepared to connect with all of the types of contacts listed in the previous paragraph — a process that's much easier said than done.

At the end of the day, those contacts are individuals, so naturally, they're going to be receptive to an individualized approach. Research the prospects you talk to and get a feel for their priorities, personal inclinations, and level of seniority at their companies.

Along with that, understand the common denominator that connects them — the business they work for. Know its ins and outs. Understand its industry and where it stands relative to its competition. Have a feel for its pain points, and be able to speak to all of those elements when talking with anyone you connect with from it.

9. Standing out from the competition is more important than ever.

According to 探花精选's recent survey, 28% of sales professionals stated that standing out from the competition is one of the most prevalent challenges.

Differentiation is a key issue across virtually every field, and sales is no exception. Salespeople are some of the most important agents when it comes to setting their companies apart from their competitors.

Businesses distinguish themselves with their specific value, and at its core, sales is the process of conveying that value as effectively as possible. And if your industry is flooded with a variety of options that all serve the same fundamental purpose, that process can get complicated and frustrating.

How to Handle This Challenge

Overcoming this challenge starts with determining value through understanding — having a thorough pulse on how your product or service works, the vertical you operate in, your buyer personas, who your direct competitors are, and how they try to set themselves apart.

Obviously, that‘s a lot to keep tabs on, and developing that kind of knowledge is easier said than done, but you need all of that if you’re going to craft an effective value proposition. Know your offering's features and the benefits that stem from them, inside and out.

Thoroughly research the businesses in the space you serve to identify common pain points. Talk to your existing customers about why they chose your solution. Put together a solid picture of the typical prospect who might buy from you, and adjust it as your landscape changes.

Understand your competitors as best you can. What do they offer that you don‘t? Where are you stronger? Where are you weaker? Do you have features they don’t? Do you charge at a more accessible price point?

The unique value your company can offer provides the basis for your differentiation. If you want to stand out from the competition, you need to know what makes your business special — if you can get there and sell on that basis, you'll be in a solid position to stand out from your competition.

10. Prospects need to be engaged throughout the sales process.

17% of our survey's respondents said keeping prospects engaged is a major challenge. That makes sense; your sales efforts can only go as far as your sales process permits — even the best salesperson can be limited by a lackluster one.

And though that trend is troubling, it‘s a fact of sales life. And if you want to get the most out of your efforts, you need to know how to keep your prospects intrigued and enthusiastic throughout the process’s entirety.

How to Handle This Challenge

Approaching this challenge falls on both sales leadership and the individual reps they oversee. It starts with leadership putting together a sales process that lends itself to engagement — ones that strike a balance between thorough communication and timeliness.

Next, the reps who leverage the process need to execute it effectively, specifically when it comes to communication and building rapport. You, as a salesperson, need to quickly develop and sustain trust with prospects.

That means communicating with them throughout the sales process and finding ways to convey value at every stage with the parties you engage with. Touch base consistently but not intrusively. Research the companies you sell to and the contacts you get in touch with, and shape your conversations around what you find out.

Let your prospects know you're there without being overly eager or obnoxious. As I said, engagement stems from tactful, effective communication. Learn how to keep them aware without annoying them.

11. Sales teams face capacity issues.

One or two sales reps can’t do it all. Oftentimes, businesses mistakenly blame sales teams for long sales cycles, overdue touchpoints, inefficient management of the sales pipeline, etc. In reality, the issue lies in the team’s capacity and not in their hard skills.

As , from , pinpointed, “One cannot simply say to a sales rep ‘make 20 more phone calls per day.’ At some point, we reach the maximum capacity of humans.”

How to Handle This Challenge

Start with digging into sales analytics. Look at your pipeline.

• How many leads can sales reps receive every day?
• How much time does it take for a discovery call, demo, or meeting?
• Do reps craft each follow-up message, or do they use templates?
• How much time did they spend with one lead on different stages of the sales pipeline?
• Do these numbers correlate with benchmarks or colleagues?

If you identify that it’s too much for one person to handle, your next can be adopting AI technologies. It will solve your human capacity issue with little routine tasks like crafting a follow-up message or data entry.

Harris offers a straightforward example of how it can work.

“You want to focus on meetings with the highest level executives at a company, say a VP of sales. That is what your sales team focuses on,” he said. “You should also focus on some of the sales managers at that company. Here, you can leverage AI to send nurturing messages to lower-titled people.”

He continues: “The old-school way to handle it was to throw more bodies at the problem. The new school will leverage the technology as a partner with the sales rep.”

Back to You

So long as sales reps and managers demonstrate persistence, adaptability, and a constant commitment to solving for the customer, they should be able to handle the challenges of the new sales landscape.

If you’re navigating the same challenges, I hope this guide gives you a few clear next steps.

Free Sales Plan Template

Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.

• Target Market
• Prospecting Strategy
• Budget
• Goals

Get Your Free Template

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You're all set!

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