Technology

RAIN Group Research Reveals Pipeline Is Growing, but Sales Performance Isn’t Keeping Pace

Published

5 hours ago

June 18, 2026

New study finds sales leaders need stronger capabilities and execution discipline to turn opportunities into revenue

BOSTON, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — RAIN Group, a global sales training company helping enterprise teams drive business outcomes through tailored learning experiences, coaching, and technology, released the results from its latest study, 2026 Sales Challenges & Priorities.

Our latest research shows that pipeline growth alone doesn’t guarantee stronger sales performance. The real question is whether organizations have the capabilities, manager reinforcement, and execution discipline to convert pipeline into revenue.

Led by the RAIN Group Center for Sales Research, analysts examined responses from more than 250 sales management, leadership, and enablement professionals to identify the top challenges facing sales organizations, how sales performance has changed, and where leaders are focusing their priorities for the year ahead.

As the third wave of this study, following research fielded in 2019 and 2023, the findings show that while pipeline momentum is improving, many organizations are struggling to translate that momentum into wins, quota attainment, and revenue growth.

“For years, sales leaders have pushed for more pipeline, more opportunities, and more at-bats,” said Scott McDonald, CEO of RAIN Group. “But our latest research shows that pipeline growth alone doesn’t guarantee stronger sales performance. The real question is whether organizations have the capabilities, manager reinforcement, and execution discipline to convert pipeline into revenue.”

Among the performance trends uncovered in the study:

47.2% reported an increase in qualified pipeline37.1% reported an increase in quota attainment39.7% reported an increase in opportunities won48.4% reported an increase in sales cycle length

The data reveals that opportunity flow is improving for many organizations, but performance is not keeping pace. Conversion gains remain inconsistent, and deal velocity continues to be under pressure.

Respondents also reported widespread challenges across the sales environment. The top challenges, ranked by the percentage of respondents who said they were very or somewhat challenging, include:

Recruiting and hiring strong sales talent: 86.3%Selling in an uncertain economy: 86.1%Dealing with longer sales cycle times: 83.0%Losing deals to no decision or status quo: 82.4%Winning against strong or difficult competitors: 80.2%Developing sales managers: 79.6%Dealing with more decision makers, buying teams, and committees: 79.5%Developing sales skills: 79.5%Generating qualified sales-ready opportunities: 79.3%Buyer budget constraints: 79.0%

“Sales leaders are facing immense pressure from every direction,” McDonald added. “Many of these challenges can’t be controlled directly. What leaders can control is how well their teams qualify opportunities, communicate value, engage stakeholders, tackle no decision delays, and execute consistently throughout the sales process.”

While overall sales priorities span pipeline generation, customer growth, coaching, and execution, the study found that when respondents were forced to prioritize, leaders concentrated their attention on a narrower set of issues tied directly to conversion, retention, and revenue realization.

The top forced-choice priorities were:

Win more against difficult competitors: 44.0%Reduce sales lost to no decision: 40.8%Improve customer retention and renewals: 39.7%Improve ability to communicate value: 30.0%

According to the research, stronger execution capabilities are especially critical as market pressure increases. Opportunity planning, value communication, stakeholder engagement, deal qualification, no-decision prevention, coaching, and manager reinforcement all influence whether opportunities advance, stall, or convert to revenue.

McDonald continued, “The organizations that improve performance in 2026 won’t be the ones that simply demand more activity. They’ll be the ones that diagnose where performance is breaking down and build the sales capabilities and management systems needed to improve conversion.”

Download the full report at: https://hubs.li/Q04lssxq0

About RAIN Group

RAIN Group is an award-winning leader in sales transformation, with over 20 years of researching and enabling top sales performance. The firm’s modular, multi-modal approach to sales training provides flexible, tech-enabled, and customizable solutions for complex global teams. Trusted by leading companies, RAIN Group partners with clients to ensure learning is adopted, creates lasting behavior change, and drives measurable results. Learn more at raingroup.com.

Media Contact
Aly Jamison, APR, RAIN Group, 1 508-405-0438, ajamison@raingroup.com, https://www.rainsalestraining.com

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SOURCE RAIN Group

Technology

Monnit Introduces NIST Detachable Leads to Streamline Compliance Monitoring

Published

44 minutes ago

June 18, 2026

New hot-swappable lead architecture reduces downtime, simplifies recertification, and helps organizations maintain continuous monitoring.

SALT LAKE CITY, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Monnit announced new NIST Standard and Low Temperature and Humidity Detachable Leads for compatible ALTA® Sensor Bases designed to simplify sensor recertification, reduce downtime, and support continuous compliance monitoring.

“Organizations shouldn’t have to choose between maintaining compliance and operational continuity,” said Brad Walters, Founder and CEO of Monnit. “Our detachable lead architecture allows customers to hot-swap certified leads in minutes while preserving traceability and keeping trusted monitoring programs running.”

Each NIST Detachable Lead is uniquely calibrated and designed to support traceability requirements aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards.

Rather than removing and shipping an entire sensor for recertification, customers can disconnect only the lead, connect a certified replacement, and send the original lead for recalibration. This approach is ideal for pharmaceuticals, healthcare facilities, laboratories, food storage operations, manufacturing environments, and other applications that require calibration records.

In addition to these hot-swappable, removable leads or cables with probes, we offer short Monnit Standard Temperature and Humidity Detachable Non-Leaded Probes that you can connect to compatible sensor bases.

Each NIST Detachable Lead or Probe connects to compatible ALTA Industrial and Enterprise Sensor Bases via sealed, keyed M8 6-pin connectors designed for field installation. Embedded memory within the lead stores unique lead and sensor identification, calibration data, certification information, and traceability records.

Key features and benefits include:

Hot-swappable lead replacement that minimizes downtime and monitoring interruptionsNIST-traceable calibration support and ISO 17025-accredited lab certificationSupport for FDA 21 CFR Part 11 workflows and audit programsAutomatic synchronization of calibration information with iMonnit® SoftwareLogging of lead connection and disconnection events in iMonnitHot-swapping capability while powered on or off for easier servicing

Monnit and its accredited lab partner, Sensor Calibrations, provide 25-month certificates for NIST Detachable Standard Temperature Leads and 13-month certificates for NIST Detachable Low Temperature and Humidity Leads.

Compatible ALTA Sensor Bases automatically recognize connected lead types and maintain digital maintenance records, helping organizations avoid monitoring gaps caused by traditional recertification.

About Monnit Corporation
The origin story of the Internet of Things (IoT) begins with Monnit. Before our inception in 2010, we were already at the forefront of embedding technology into machines and devices to enable them to talk and deliver valuable data to business leaders. Monnit Remote Monitoring Solutions for nearly any industry use case have delivered 72B+ data points in 130+ countries for 90K+ customers. Monnit’s 80+ long-range IoT sensors remotely monitor many conditions such as temperature, light, humidity, water, vibration, pressure, and more. You can analyze data using iMonnit cloud software and get alerts via email, text, push notification, or call when our sensors detect a change you should know.

Media Contact:
David Hill
Marketing Communications
801-505-8172
417089@email4pr.com

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SOURCE Monnit

Technology

Monnit Introduces NIST Detachable Leads to Streamline Compliance Monitoring

Published

44 minutes ago

June 18, 2026

New hot-swappable lead architecture reduces downtime, simplifies recertification, and helps organizations maintain continuous monitoring.

Each NIST Detachable Lead is uniquely calibrated and designed to support traceability requirements aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards.

Key features and benefits include:

Compatible ALTA Sensor Bases automatically recognize connected lead types and maintain digital maintenance records, helping organizations avoid monitoring gaps caused by traditional recertification.

Media Contact:
David Hill
Marketing Communications
801-505-8172
417089@email4pr.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monnit-introduces-nist-detachable-leads-to-streamline-compliance-monitoring-302803906.html

SOURCE Monnit

Technology

deepset Joins HPE’s Unleash AI Program to Accelerate Sovereign Agentic AI

Published

44 minutes ago

June 18, 2026

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — deepset, the company behind Haystack, the production-ready open-source AI agent framework and platform, today announced it has joined the HPE Unleash AI partner program to help government, defense, and regulated enterprises deploy production-grade AI systems in sovereign, self-hosted, and air-gapped environments.

As part of the collaboration, deepset will leverage the Haystack Enterprise Platform, deepset’s platform for building, orchestrating, and governing AI agents and applications, and HPE’s AI ecosystem and infrastructure portfolio to help organizations rapidly identify and operationalize high-value AI use cases while reducing deployment complexity and risk. This enables customers to access AI-ready infrastructure, strategic guidance, and accelerated pilot execution to address their most challenging AI adoption and operationalization needs.

Together, the companies enable organizations to deploy AI agents, multi-agent systems, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications on self-hosted, sovereign, and air-gapped infrastructure while maintaining full ownership over sensitive and classified data, models, and AI operations.

Customers can leverage the joint architecture to operationalize governed AI applications faster while maintaining the security, compliance, and deployment flexibility required for sovereign and mission-critical environments.

The HPE Unleash AI partner program is a curated ecosystem, combining ISV solutions that go through comprehensive validation testing with engineered HPE AI systems, including HPE Private Cloud AI and the broader HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA solutions, to deliver the performance, security, and scalability enterprises need for production AI. By joining the program, deepset expands access to governed AI platform capabilities designed for organizations operating in highly regulated environments, including public sector, defense, cybersecurity, and enterprise industries.

The Haystack Enterprise Platform enables organizations to:

Build and govern AI agents, multi-agent systems, and RAG applicationsDeploy AI on self-hosted, private cloud, and air-gapped infrastructureOrchestrate modular AI pipelines across models, databases, and enterprise systemsEnforce governance, auditability, and lifecycle management for production AISupport sovereign AI initiatives aligned with European and national security requirements

The collaboration builds on deepset’s experience supporting sovereign AI initiatives with organizations including the European Commission, the German Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), and other government, defense, and enterprise organizations deploying sovereign AI systems under strict governance and security requirements.

“With agentic AI moving into operational deployment, organizations need infrastructure and AI platforms they can control and trust,” said Milos Rusic, CEO and co-founder of deepset. “The challenge is getting agentic systems into production while maintaining control over infrastructure, governance, and sensitive data. Together with HPE, we’re helping customers deploy governed AI systems faster across highly regulated and mission-critical environments.”

Use cases supported through the joint architecture include:

Sovereign AI platform for public sector & regulated industry institutionsSovereign AI intelligence and decision-support systems for classified operationsCybersecurity investigation and threat analysisAI agents for technology, manufacturing, research, legal, and financial workflows

“The Unleash AI program is designed to help organizations deploy AI solutions faster and with greater operational confidence,” said Robin Braun, Vice President of AI Business Development, Hybrid Cloud, HPE. “Together, HPE and deepset are delivering secure, governed AI solutions that combine enterprise-grade infrastructure with flexible and governed AI agent capabilities to help customers operationalize AI across hybrid, sovereign, and classified environments.”

For more information, visit https://www.deepset.ai

About deepset

deepset is the company behind Haystack, the leading open-source framework and platform for building production-grade AI applications and agentic systems. deepset enables enterprises and public sector organizations to develop, deploy, and govern flexible AI applications powered by their choice of large language models, enterprise data, infrastructure, and governance policies across cloud, hybrid, and sovereign environments.

Media Contact
Steph McGuirk
417109@email4pr.com
845.269.8868

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SOURCE deepset