New London-specific findings from Pipedrive’s UK report, Hard sell: How sales teams can reclaim the profession, suggest the capital is the country’s most sales-receptive market, but also home to a quieter confidence problem inside the profession.

In London, 32% of people say salespeople are trustworthy, the highest figure of any UK region and well above the national average of 21%. More than a third (34%) say they have a positive opinion of salespeople, compared with 18% nationally, while London is also the region most open to buying from AI-driven sales tools (42%, versus 24% across the UK).

That openness appears to be grounded in experience. Just 23% of Londoners say they can’t remember ever having had a positive experience with a salesperson, versus 34% nationally, and 31% say they have had one within the last month. Londoners are also less likely to say phone calls are the main way they are contacted by salespeople (46% vs 57% nationally) and more likely to cite email (55% vs 45%). Even in London, though, AI does not get a free pass: among those not fully open to AI-led sales, 46% say they value human connection and 44% say they do not fully trust AI.

But the capital also reveals sales’ identity problem. Despite being the region most trusting of the profession, 32% of London-based salespeople say they have rebranded what they do to avoid saying they work in sales, 30% say they have felt judged when telling people they work in sales, and 81% say negative perceptions of the profession have affected their performance.

Sean Evers, VP of Sales & Partner at Pipedrive, said: “London is clearly more open to modern sales than much of the rest of the country. People in the capital are more used to commercial outreach, and more willing to respond positively when it feels relevant, credible and human. But the data also shows the profession’s image problem has not gone away. When people in the UK’s most sales-friendly region still feel the need to disguise what they do, it suggests sales has become both a trust and an identity issue. More humanity and empathy helps make those mutually beneficial business relationships flourish.”