Sam Jacobs created the Revenue Collective, a group of more than 1700 sales professionals at some of the fastest-growing companies. With chapters across the US, Revenue Collective has broad reach within the sales community. I’ve known Sam a long time and he’s done remarkable work with this community. Recently, Revenue Collective surveyed its members about the impact of coronavirus on businesses.

The data is insightful both as a tool for benchmarking your own company and also to understand the mentality of sales leaders in this challenging time. You can download the survey here.

Here some of the highlights that I observed in my reading:

• 96% have seen some impact to their business.
• 72% of respondents have adjusted revenue targets and forecasts, or expect to soon. Only about 1% have seen a benefit and are increasing their forecasts.
• 61% will see a decline in Q2 bookings relative to Q1. About 15% will see an increase.
• 62% have or will change quota in 2020. Typically, sales leaders have reduced quota somewhere between 10-50%.
• 80% of respondents have paused hiring, and a similar number have reduced their budget.
• Business travel, new hires, and new software purchases were the top categories of budget reductions.
• About 54% of respondents have seen higher churn; the other half has seen no change.
• A majority of revenue leaders believe the impact of COVID-19 will persist through 2020.

These trends fall in line with what we are observing across our portfolio. Typically, go to market hiring is paused for most businesses. Founders and CEOs are evaluating their options to lengthen runway and increase margin. One of the key challenges is determining how to manage quotas for the rest of the year given the turbulence in lead generation, sales cycles, and priorities.

If you are a revenue leader or a CEO, these metrics may help you get a better grasp on what happening in the market and what changes you might make to your business.