Key Takeaways
Introduction
Sales can feel like an impossible balancing act: trying to meet customers’ heightened expectations while simultaneously striving to scale. Now, a new era of sales has arrived to solve this capacity crisis and provide a better way to sell.
This exciting new era is enabled by AI, which is quickly becoming a must-have for sales leaders. In fact, 80% of Singapore sales professionals currently use some form of AI for daily tasks, such as prospecting, forecasting, lead scoring, and drafting emails.
Now, teams are taking the next major leap and accelerating the adoption of AI agents. Today, 50% of Singapore sellers report they are already working alongside agents, and another 44% plan to do so by 2027. Why? These digital teammates not only save time, but drive real results.
An overwhelming 98% of Singapore sales professionals say that using AI agents actively increases their odds of hitting their sales targets.
These insights — and many more — come from our 7th Edition State of Sales report. Packed with the latest tips and tactics to help you succeed, the report draws on data from more than 4,000 sales professionals worldwide, including 100 from Singapore.
Ready to see how the best sales teams plan to drive success in 2026? Let’s dive into the four biggest takeaways.
Unlocking limitless capacity with agentic AI
Changing customer demands are the number one challenge for sales teams. In Singapore, these demands include a greater preference for fast and personalised buying experiences. According to the State of Sales report, 78% of local sales professionals say a speedy purchasing process is more important to customers than it was last year, while 71% report a growing demand for personalised experiences.
The difficulty in meeting these expectations isn’t a lack of desire or skill, but a simple lack of capacity. Sellers are stretched incredibly thin, spending more than half of their time on non-selling tasks like manual data entry and hunting for leads.
3 areas where AI agents are adding value
With the constant pressure to do more with less, it’s no wonder that 94% of sales leaders with agents say they are essential to business growth.
We asked sales teams where they are seeing the biggest benefits from agentic AI and three key areas stood out.
- Smarter sales planning: The State of Sales report found that sales reps spend up to 16% of their time planning. Agents can help reps make the most of this time by making planning both more effective and efficient. In Singapore, sales teams are enthusiastically embracing this, using AI to take the heavy lifting out of forecasting (63%) and territory planning (42%).
- Stronger customer retention: It’s hard to retain a customer you don’t understand. A massive 91% of Singapore respondents say AI helps them better understand their customers. By synthesising customer data and providing actionable insights, agents allow teams to deliver highly personalised experiences that keep buyers engaged and loyal.
- Supercharged prospecting: Despite devoting nearly a full day of their workweek to prospecting, 71% of Singapore sellers say they lack the bandwidth for adequate cold outreach. To close this capacity gap, 46% of local sales professionals now use AI for prospecting, with another 49% planning to do so soon. This is also a top tactic used by the best sellers, with our report revealing that top-performing reps are 1.7 times more likely to use prospecting AI agents than their underperforming peers.
Ultimately, AI agents help to scale your sales team’s impact. By offloading administrative and manual-intensive tasks, reps are free to focus on higher-value tasks like building human connections and closing deals.
Discover the future of selling in ASEAN
Dive into the 7th Edition State of Sales report for the sales statistics, tips, and tactics you need to succeed moving forward.
2. Unifying data and tech to fuel agentic AI initiatives
While the enthusiasm for AI agents is undeniably high, sales professionals are quickly realising they are only as effective as the data that fuels them.
If your data is trapped in silos, duplicated, or inaccessible, even the smartest agent will struggle to provide accurate, helpful insights. This is a real roadblock for many teams today, with 32% of Singapore sales professionals citing incomplete or inaccurate data as the reason their organisations are not yet using AI agents. Over half (64%) also say disconnected systems are slowing down AI initiatives.
Those at the forefront of AI adoption are fixing this by transforming data and simplifying their tech stacks. Right now, 85% of Singapore sales professionals are focusing on data cleansing — doing the unglamorous but essential work of removing duplicates, correcting errors, and standardising formats across siloed systems.
The numbers show that this groundwork pays off. The State of Sales report reveals that high performers are significantly more likely to do the foundational work required for AI success: 79% of high performers prioritise data hygiene, compared with only 54% of underperformers.
One great example is Panasonic Asia Pacific, who has done the foundational work to unlock the benefits of AI. The company’s vision was to create a seamless, personalised customer experience by using cutting-edge technology and empowering teams to deliver superior service. It turned to MuleSoft to accelerate its transformation and bring together the information employees need to deliver better customer experiences.
With MuleSoft, Panasonic can now seamlessly integrate data from any system and automate workflows across its IT environment. This has set the company up to take full advantage of generative and agentic AI and carry out its SAP S/4HANA migration.
3. Pulling on three key levers for accelerated growth
As teams build and deploy sales agents to solve their capacity constraints, they are looking for additional ways to scale. According to the State of Sales report, top teams are pulling on three specific levers to accelerate growth: better sales planning, investing in partners, and delivering usage-based pricing.
Sales planning is the #2 growth tactic across industries
37% of Singapore sales professionals say improving their sales planning will be the most important thing in driving their company’s growth over the next 12 months.
Fortunately, planning no longer has to be a manual, time-consuming task. 100% of sales professionals in Singapore say that AI actively benefits sales planning. For example, AI helps sales teams test what-if scenarios to predict how changes to variables such as territory design or customer segments will impact revenue growth.
Nearly every sales team relies on partners
Scaling efficiently means expanding your reach. The State of Sales report shows that 82% of Singapore sales teams currently use partner selling, up from 79% last year. A large majority (91%) of Singapore sales pros also say partner selling is increasingly important to hitting revenue targets.
Recognising the growing value of these relationships, companies are actively investing in their partners’ success, with 87% using dedicated tools to manage partner and channel selling.
Usage pricing meets customer demands
Customers today want to see immediate value, driving a shift toward consumption-based models. According to our findings, responses from Singapore sales teams indicate that usage-based pricing is 66% more important to customers now than it was just a year ago.
The benefits go both ways. More than 40% of sellers with usage-based pricing indicate that the model reduces the barrier to entry for customers, making it easier to sell.
While impactful, usage pricing introduces a layer of complexity — specifically the need to track usage accurately. Agents can help by tracking product usage, delivering the transparency customers demand.
4: Beyond pay: Here’s what reps really want
Top sales talent is hard to find and even harder to keep. In fact, 73% of Singapore respondents to our survey agree there’s a shortage of experienced sales professionals. This puts a premium on attracting and retaining your best sellers.
While compensation remains a primary motivator, our report makes it clear that today’s reps — especially those from Gen Z — are looking for more than just a commission check. They want dedicated coaching, transparency, and more time with their managers.
Unfortunately, there’s an enablement gap. When we surveyed sales professionals in Singapore, we found that:
- 71% say remote work prevents them from learning from peers and managers
- 66% feel traditional sales enablement doesn’t provide the skills they need
- 58% admit they rarely get feedback on their sales conversations
AI can help leaders close this gap. Already, 51% of respondents in Singapore are using AI for sales coaching, with 42% more planning to do so in the future.
We are seeing this type of AI-driven enablement at Globe. The company piloted Agentforce to provide its sales team with instant access to critical data while out in the field. Moving forward, this pilot use case could be expanded to give sales staff a personal sales agent they can converse with in natural language, for details on accounts, products, and pricing. The agent could even allow reps to escalate issues directly to the support team, eliminating delays from email exchanges.
Of course, retention isn’t just about coaching; it also hinges on trust. Globally, 76% of sales professionals wish there was more transparency around how their compensation is calculated.
This is where automation becomes a critical retention tool. By automating your incentive compensation management, you can motivate performance and build trust by giving sellers real-time, accurate visibility into their commissions as they sell.
The future of sales in ASEAN
As we look towards the future of sales, reps no longer need to choose between driving scale and developing human connection. By unlocking capacity with AI, pulling on strategic growth levers, and empowering your reps with the transparency and coaching they crave, you can meet rising expectations head-on.
At the centre of this transformation are AI agents. With 9 out of 10 sales teams already using or planning to use them, agents are no longer just a trend, but the new standard for driving sales success.
State of Sales in 2026
Explore sales insights from over 4,000 reps, including game-changing AI agent use cases and promising new sales strategies that will fuel your team’s growth.
Read more:
- Learn how to build and activate your own sales agent
- Discover Salesforce on Salesforce: 100 Million Missed Opportunities Later, We Found a Better Way To Sell
- Join the Salesblazer Community to grow your selling career
