• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 15, 2023

Sales professionals are largely focused on buyer needs and team cadences when searching for content online, according to Bombora Sales Pulse Q2 2023, a new study on B2B intent. But it does not necessarily mean immediate revenue.

On a per-weekly basis, the popular topics in Q1 2023 included:

• Dynamic Negotiations — 69,330 
• Compensation Management Software — 67,216
• Buyer Needs — 64,052
• Sales Compensation — 40,021
• Team Cadences — 33,926 
• Sales Data — 20,074
• At-Risk Customers — 19,802
• Contract Negotiations — 18,937

In terms of growth, though, sales automation far outpaced other topics:  

• Sales Automation — 3,796% 
• Sales Channels — 1,648% 
• Sales Compensation — 396%
• Retail Management — 372% 
• Group Purchasing Organization — 313% 

Why automation? The study notes that “modern sellers are leveraging automation to improve productivity by automating routine and repetitive tasks such as data entry, lead generation, and follow-up emails.” 

But it depends on company size. Medium-size firms showed the greatest lift in sales compensation research—600%, versus 561% for small companies and 287% for enterprise organizations. 

Of course, these topics weren’t the only ones to show growth. 

Research for Buyer Needs grew by 121% and for Team Cadences by 68% over fourth-quarter 2022. 

At the same time, research on “At-Risk Customers” grew with 20,000 businesses searching the topic in the first quarter. 

The study cites research showing that it takes organizations nearly 12 hours to send a personalized email following a lead capture, with less than 1% of B2B organizations responding to an inbound lead within 5 minutes. 

At the same time, the study notes that new tools can provide “prescriptive guidance to sellers. For example, emerging tools can look at upcoming external events that may impact a customer’s needs, such as a severe weather event that disrupts operations. Based on the occurrence and customer, the tools enable sellers to be more proactive and efficient, like customizing emails and contracts for sellers to approve and send.” 

Dismiss this section if you must: It was written by ChatGPT, the study notes. 

This was the inaugural version of Bombora’s quarterly Sales Pulse. It measured intent data collected from Bombora’s Data Co-Op of more than 5,000 B2B websites.