Sales Slow Down: 'Silent killer' for sales teams

Sales teams are struggling with longer sales cycles and declining closing rates. The results of a study from the AI sector show the kind of transformation underway.

Sales conditions for companies are becoming more complex and the pressure to succeed is growing. This is not only due to the tense economic situation, but also to influences from digital transformation and shrinking sales teams. AI can be a lever to improve, for example, efficiency in customer communication or the speed of sales cycles and thus closing rates.

Figures from a survey amongst sales and revenue organizations conducted by the sales execution platform provider Outreach Insights Group show that 34 percent of companies report average sales cycles of one to two quarters—the most common figure. According to market researchers, longer sales cycles are now the norm rather than the exception. However, in their view, they can become a “silent killer” for sales teams. The analysis is based on millions of buyer-seller interactions, sales deals, sales workflows, and market trends. 

The following chart illustrates the average sales cycles in the primary sector of sales organizations in companies in 2025.

Win Rates Under Pressure

The win rate, i.e. the rate of sales opportunities that have led to deals, has fallen compared to 2024: The most common range is now 21 to 25 percent, compared to 31 to 40 percent in 2024. This is illustrated by the findings of Outreach's “Sales 2025 Report.” In contrast, deals closed within 50 days have a win rate of 47 percent compared to 20 percent or less after this threshold – twice the market average.

AI Speeds Up and Increases Sales Efficiency

Applications of artificial intelligence can increase sales success rates, as examples in the report show. For example, AI coaching assistants such as Kaia could shorten sales cycles by an average of eleven days. AI assistants of this type support sales teams in their skills, for example in realtime during

• calls,
• follow-ups in customer management, or
• closing strategies.

According to the Outreach report, all users of AI-powered sales assistants report time savings, with 73 percent of them saving four to twelve hours of work time per week. 

Mario Pufahl and Florian Dimmig, authors of the german Springer book “Intelligenter Arbeitsplatz im Vertrieb” (Intelligent Workplace in Sales), explain that sustainable and consistent efficiency development in sales is essential to achieving excellence in sales. The focus here is on having more time for customers. The technical requirements for sales management have expanded significantly in recent years. In their view, the focus has therefore “shifted strongly to the user experience and the support of sales staff by means of AI assistants in order to enable operational sales management in everyday life,” according to the authors in the book.

The sales experts distinguish three pillars of change in sales:

• In sales management systems, the trend is clearly towards AI-supported systems.
• Sales staff in B2B sales should be supported in their daily work as effectively as possible by modern IT platform solutions in order to

1. increase efficiency,
2. raise closing rates, and
3. concentrate sales activities on key customers with high potential.

• AI should provide sales teams with the best possible support so that they can act quickly and purposeful while achieving maximum efficiency.

According to Springer authors Pufahl and Dimmig, this requires a personal “intelligent sales workplace.” The ideal scenario is one that is mobile and provides sales staff with customized, condensed information and KPIs, enabling them to effectively find and use all essential information, ideally with the support of AI. AI assistants and cloud solutions are the efficiency tools here. Both experts formulate the requirements and the 'intelligent' environment for modern sales work as follows:

An intelligent, digital workplace for sales staff and sales management that supports and continuously optimizes sales activities in realtime on any device at any time.'

Leaner Teams, Better Tools

This view and development is supported by further findings from the Outreach study: Sales teams are becoming leaner, while tools are being consolidated. Teams learned how to build a pipeline with smaller sales teams and turned to efficient, unified platforms that consolidate their workflows. According to the study, for example 45 percent of the sales teams already use a hybrid AI SDR model.

Sales Excellence author and interim management expert Eckhart Hilgenstock calls for more “sales intelligence” in his german article “Becoming more successful with more sales intelligence” (Sales Excellence issue 7-8/2025): He predicts that 'the majority of companies will introduce AI in sales in 2025, if they haven't already done so.” However, in order for companies to become truly sales-intelligent within their sales organizations,

• process support and, above all,
• the mindset of those involved

must follow suit and be geared towards the new development. “Companies that fail to embrace this development will fall behind,” Hilgenstock stresses.

Marco Barenkamp states in the german Springer book chapter “Success factors and practical examples of value creation through AI”: By successfully integrating AI, companies not only have the opportunity to become more efficient, but can also develop completely new business models that lead to a significant increase in their sales and market share.

Greater Personalization Works

Changes are also having an impact on sales activities involving customer contact: According to further study findings, more personalized emails in sales achieve ten percent higher open rates and generate twice as many responses. AI reduces the preparation time from 20 to two minutes without any loss of quality, as the outreach experts note in their report. Personalized tokens, context from a phone call, or details from a recent news event are the trump cards that sales can play here. This is where AI can come into place and increase the chances of success in customer contact, for example when revenue agents are used. These agents help salespeople compile relevant content and set the content framework, while salespeople add the tone, further insights, or the hook. This way, emails can have a higher chance of leading to a customer conversation with B2B customers without any loss of quality.

Lead Qualification as the Top Challenge

The study publishers identify the following challenges for 2025

• Lead qualification (24 percent): Many salespeople have difficulty determining which leads should really be pursued.
• Opportunity management (23 percent): Last year, opportunity management was still in first place.
• Closing (17 percent) and
• tech/AI adoption (15 percent).

Looking at the requirements for 2026, it becomes clear what will drive sales: The transition from AI support to AI orchestration in sales tasks, fully automated workflows, real-time coaching by artificial intelligence systems, for example in the form of different types of AI agents, and intelligent, networked revenue systems are important cornerstones that the study highlights. The transformation in B2B sales is therefore continuing.

This is a partly automated translation of this german article.