5 sales trends that could fizzle this year [new data]

Sales has always been an industry of moving targets. Tactics like loading the funnel and pounding the phones worked a few years ago but have been fading in relevance. Buyers are savvier and more informed. AI is reshaping every step of the process, and the metrics that once defined success are slipping into irrelevance.

Our State of Sales report shows what’s happening. Sales teams aren’t judged on pipeline efficiency so much as revenue outcomes. Cold calling, once the lifeblood of outreach, is taking a backseat to social selling. And sales and marketing (two departments famous for butting heads) are finally (!) tearing down the walls between them.

Some timeless sales truths still hold, but plenty of others are showing their cracks. Here are six trends that might not make it through 2026.

HubSpot's 2025 Sales Trends Report

This in-depth report includes sections, covering:

• 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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5 Sales Trends That Could Fizzle This Year

1. Salespeople Acting as Primary Information Sharers

Salespeople report their biggest shift has been moving from pitching products to presenting solutions. Buyers are in the front seat and driving this change themselves.

With more information available upfront, buyers come into conversations already educated about options, pricing, and competitors. When they talk to a salesperson, they want to understand how a solution delivers value to them personally.

The State of Sales report shows why deals fall through: the top reasons buyers don’t close are because they don’t see product fit (37%) or value for money (35%). To meet this expectation, sales teams are shifting toward:

• Self-serve tools that demonstrate value early (40%), like free trials, pricing pages, and customer stories.
• Solution-based selling (35%), which positions the rep as a trusted advisor connecting customer goals to outcomes.

The payoff is clear. The most effective upsell strategies are rooted in value delivery: understanding customer goals (42%), providing consistent value (39%), and timing upsells for the moment after those goals are met (37%).

Salespeople should aim to be value translators. Buyers expect proof of value every step of the way, and the sales reps who go above and beyond to deliver it will be the ones closing deals.

2. Sales Reps Staying Invisible Online

A few years ago, you could get by with a strong contact list and cold outreach. Today, buyers check you out before taking a meeting. They want to see that you and your company are credible, knowledgeable, and active in the conversation.

What the data shows:

• The content most likely to influence buyers includes customer testimonials (36%), reviews (30%), and social content (24%).
• Nearly a third of sales teams (29%) say social media has become a core focus area for their sales process.
• Social media marketing is now the #1 source of high-quality leads (35%), ahead of cold email (29%) and email marketing (28%).
• Traditional channels lag far behind: referrals (15%), in-person events (12%), and field sales (11%).
• 45% of sales professionals rate social media as “very effective” at driving sales, the highest of any channel, even in-person meetings (44%).

As Chelsea Curtis, Director of Institutional Partnerships at Terra Dotta, explained:

“When and where possible, contributing back to the community or industry makes you visible, credible, and generates goodwill. People want to know the people they are buying from are trustworthy and invested in the same values right now.”

Dan Tyre, former Executive at HubSpot, echoed the value of showing up across channels, “Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Linkedin are my jam. Part of being an inbound executive is to make sure you are optimizing multiple platforms to make it easy for people to find you and reinforce your brand.”

3. Sales and Marketing Teams Working in Silos

Leaders have preached alignment for years but struggled to make it work day-to-day. That‘s changing. The latest data shows 90% of salespeople now report some level of alignment, and nearly half say it’s strong.

The payoff of this alignment is undeniable:

• Improved lead quality (41%)
• Increased revenue (29%)
• Better customer experiences (28.5%)
• More effective use of customer feedback (27%)

And it shows up in the bigger picture, too. Sales teams report better lead quality overall (68% say it’s improved) and stronger results despite economic headwinds — win rates, close rates, and even deal sizes are all holding steady or growing.

The cycle reinforces itself: better alignment generates better leads, which result in faster revenue growth, which in turn strengthens the case for alignment.

All of this will reshape how sales functions. Reps are starting to think more like marketers, focusing on narratives, timing, and trust-building instead of just activity metrics. Marketing teams, meanwhile, are moving closer to the front lines, building campaigns that are immediately useful in conversations. The result is a single revenue engine rather than two disconnected functions.

Andrew Romanyuk, Co-Founder and SVP of Growth at Pynest, has led this convergence at his own company. The approach: they use a shared SLA and mutual goals, and both teams only earn a bonus when the client achieves a clear, measurable outcome. They track it with a metric called ‘time to economic signal’ (T2ES).

“It actually works because our marketing stopped chasing high lead volumes just for the sake of it. They now look for campaigns that can be quickly verified for value. Same with our sales: they no longer pad for quantity results and deliver far more qualified leads to us,” he explained. A win-win!

4. Saying That Cold Calling Is Dead

Ah, the age-old adage “Cold calling is dead.”

In reality, the practice is very much alive — though it’s no longer the top performer. Social media now delivers the highest cold outreach response rate (42%), while only 22% of reps say phone calls get the best results.

Still, cold calling isn’t going anywhere. Only 6% of sales pros say they don’t use it at all, meaning the overwhelming majority keep it in their toolkit. The difference today is that cold calls are most effective when paired with smarter prospecting, lead scoring, and other outreach channels.

This is exactly what Romanyuk at Pynest has experienced too. “Cold calling and email are still powerful sales tools, but with one important caveat: only as a second step, not the first.” His team runs AI-driven reconnaissance before ever reaching out, generating a quick “micro-brief” with details like recent releases, hiring moves, or LinkedIn activity.

After a brief social warm-up, they call or email with a tailored offer. “By now we hit it with just the right tone and tailored offers (our AI has already gathered enough context and recommends us to emphasize what’s important to the client: risk, speed, cost savings, compliance),” Romanyuk explained. “The conversion rate with this approach is almost double what we had from just a ‘call from scratch.’

So no, cold calling isn’t dead. It’s evolved into a supporting role rather than the star of the show.

5. Defining Sales Success by Efficiency

For years, sales teams were judged on efficiency metrics like pipeline coverage, sales linearity, or lead score. In 2026, those numbers barely register.

What matters now are outcomes. Sales pros say the metrics that define success are:

• Annual Recurring Revenue (42%)
• Profit margin (30%)
• Conversion rate (29%)

Sales teams are being measured less on how smoothly the machine runs and more on the results it produces.

What this looks like in practice:

• Some organizations now compensate teams based on revenue growth or profitability rather than raw activity metrics.
• Leaders are moving to shared dashboards that tie marketing, sales, and customer success together around ARR and retention, creating visibility into the entire revenue journey.
• Reps are coached less on dialing faster and more on understanding the customer’s business, mapping solutions, and proving ROI.

Adapt or Get Left Behind

It’s clear to me that sales is no longer about being the loudest voice or the fastest dialer; it’s about delivering value where buyers actually live and proving impact fast. Old metrics and outdated habits are fading, and the teams that cling to them risk being left behind.

If you’re in sales leadership, this means re-wiring incentives around revenue outcomes, not just activity. If you’re a rep, it means building credibility in public, using social and thought leadership to earn trust before you ever make the call. The fundamentals — relationship-building, persistence, empathy — still matter, but they’re expressed through new channels and backed by sharper data and AI-driven insights.

Want to learn more? See the full State of Sales report below.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2024 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

HubSpot's 2025 Sales Trends Report

This in-depth report includes sections, covering:

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

Download the Free Report Learn more Download the Free Report

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Download Now