In the sales industry, volume has been replaced with value. Technology has helped salespeople to analyse data to understand which leads are most likely to convert and which will go to a dead end. According to HubSpot, 67% of companies use lead generation as a metric to determine their success, so making this a priority is key. New programmes also assist salespeople in creating slick, professional and easy-to-read materials, creating the best sales deck ever. The systems often have templates, which allow users with limited design skills to focus on the content rather than the aesthetics. Such technology has helped the sales world level up and move away from the deluge of printed documents that once dominated the industry.A key indicator for how approaches to marketing have changed is the evolution of social media. A decade ago, no one could have predicted that marketing budgets would be directed away from advertisements in magazines and on television to influencers online with thousands – or millions – of followers. The way the public consumes content has been altered by evolving technology, and with that so must sales and marketing.According to Forbes, privacy is the most important technology, topic or space for marketing in 2022 for the almost 500 CMOs and other marketing leaders the publication spoke to. Video and audio, AI, metaverse, web3 and ESG all made up the top six trends for marketing technology – more commonly known as martech – which offers food for thought for marketers and technology creators alike.It’s an exciting time for tech in sales and marketing, with many of the aforementioned technologies only recently getting on people’s radar. Some boomed instantly, like the metaverse, which has seen global companies like HSBC, Adidas and CitizenM get involved. Innovation continues to evolve at an impressive rate, making the future of sales and marketing technology full of opportunity.