Salesforce today released the new State of Sales report, sharing insights from 5,500 sales professionals across 27 countries, including 100 from UAE. The report highlights how sales teams are balancing technological advancements and building trusted customer relationships as they seek growth in a crowded marketplace.

Key insights from the research include:

Reps Struggle Finding Time to Meet Customer Expectations. Changing customer expectations is the #1 sales challenge worldwide, but it’s hard finding the time to connect.

• Sales reps in the UAE spend an average of just 27% of the workweek connecting with customers.
• 54% of sales professionals in the UAE say changing customer expectations are more of a challenge than last year; only 13% say it’s less of a challenge.

AI Adoption Surges, But Trust and Data Gaps Linger. Sales adoption of AI is climbing as teams push for productivity and personalization, but concern regarding integration, security, and customer distrust mean the technology’s full potential for the profession has yet to be seen.

• 75% of sales teams in the UAE have fully implemented or are experimenting with AI. An additional 22% of teams are evaluating the technology.
• The top sales benefit from AI in the UAE is forecasting accuracy.
• Top obstacle sales teams in the UAE encounter while implementing AI is insufficient human oversight.

Employee Retention Is Rising Globally. As labour markets tighten, sales employees are largely staying put. Globally, teams report 18% average staff turnover over the last 12 months — down from 25% in 2022. However, employee retention trends vary by region.

• 23% is the average estimated staff turnover rate in the UAE over the past year.
• 4% of sales professionals in the UAE are currently looking to change jobs.

Thierry Nicault, Area Vice President and General Manager, Middle East, Salesforce, said: “The UAE is surging ahead in its deployment of AI solutions, with the majority of sales teams now deploying innovative applications to enhance forecasting accuracy and deliver other benefits. The longer-term challenge will be successfully using AI to free up sales teams’ time and use the spare capacity to build stronger relationships with customers.”