The reports on sales are bleak. Increasing numbers of buyers avoid interacting with salespeople. Remote work makes it more challenging for sellers to get face time with customers. Selling continues to become more complex, and sellers struggle to stay relevant. Social media feeds are flooded with stories of massive layoffs. Sellers are exhausted, burned out, and looking for new jobs. We are a far leap from easy times.
There are, however, reasons to be optimistic. Advancements in technology, buying behavior, and career development are creating exciting opportunities for sellers. The time is ripe for a new era of selling.
Technology disruption brings a new era
Selling has evolved from the days of trading goods in Ancient Greece to the Industrial Revolution when advances in manufacturing led to mass production. In the late 19th century, frameworks for selling emerged with pioneers like E. St. Elmo Lewis inventing the AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action). TV and radio changed sales again with the arrival of telemarketing and door-to-door sales. Today, technology disruption abounds.
Artificial Intelligence is helping sellers research customers to gain insights and draft tailored messaging. For sales this is a game changer. These essential tasks which previously consumed hours of a seller’s time, can now be executed in a matter of minutes. This advancement is a game changer, boosting seller productivity tremendously. AI is helping sellers get and stay relevant for their customers.
Sales Operations has significantly matured in the past ten years. The ability to synthesize data from many sources brings powerful insights into territory planning, go-to-market strategy, and forecasting. Critical advancements in machine learning and analytics technologies are making vast improvements in CRM hygiene, delivering the right information to sellers when they need it. As this technology matures, seller productivity takes a massive leap forward.
Digital selling has been on the rise for the past two decades as we’ve seen the introduction of social media, personal branding, online prospecting, and virtual networking. The good and bad news is that sellers have more ways to contact customers. Sellers can use these resources to be more relevant but now have a new challenge: breaking through all the noise generated by digital channels.
As technology changes the world, it’s an excellent time for innovators to craft new approaches to selling.
Buyer evolution creates opportunity
Buying behavior continues to evolve. The proliferation of information and the desire to reduce risk has changed buyer behavior. For the change-averse, this has been a major hurdle. For organizations and individuals with a growth mindset, it’s an opportunity to gain the upper hand.
Customers who previously relied on sellers for education are now finding information just as quickly and effectively online. Savvy buyers aren’t just looking for product info and vendor comparisons. Buyers can see how much vendors have charged other customers and what they concede in a negotiation. Armed with information, buyers are no longer willing to suffer through tedious sales presentations. As a result, sellers who rely solely on product expertise struggle to secure time with buyers.
Some sellers are still getting meetings. These sellers are in demand from the customer because they have figured out how to be relevant during the customer’s purchasing process. They know that being a “product hack” isn’t going to cut it, and they look for new, meaningful ways to contribute. Sellers who do this well thriving in the new era. Selling organizations can learn from this by rethinking some of their practices and shifting how they invest in talent.
Reducing risk is another major factor in changing buying behavior. It’s old news that several people might influence a single purchase (intended to reduce the risk of making poor purchase decisions). Conceptually we know this, yet deal reviews show that sellers still count on just one or two decision makers to get the deal done. Driving consensus in the buying center - the group of individuals participating in the purchase decision - is a major blind spot and skill gap for today’s sellers.
Sellers and organizations that can win the buying center have a significant competitive advantage. Few sellers, however, have the skill set or patience to drive consensus decisions. Driving consensus takes longer and is more challenging but compared to the number of deals that die to no decision, it’s a path worth taking. Sellers have a real opportunity to harness a new skill set and help customers make progress toward their business goals.
A growing attraction to sales
Like technology and buying behavior, the sales profession is entering a new era. Sales education is maturing, and the appeal of sales as a profession is broadening.
In the past, college students aspiring to a sales career had limited choices of undergraduate programs. Today, US News shows that over 60 colleges offer a major in sales. Top universities like Northwestern and Cornell now offer sales certificate programs. These university programs provide a variety of selling techniques, practical experience, and job placement. The popularity of this stand-alone major signals the continued evolution of sales, likely resulting in thousands of freshly minted sellers graduating each year.
Sales is growing in popularity among undergraduates due to some unique attributes of the job. It’s an excellent profession for naturally curious people who seek a sense of purpose. Uncovering information, finding creative solutions, and connecting dots are the essence of the sales profession. By deeply understanding a customer and working across the organization, a salesperson is uniquely positioned to provide original ideas to help the organization move forward. Buyers may engage with sellers less often but have better outcomes when working with a great seller.
Sales is also appealing to those who crave variety. Sellers learn about different business models and see decisions play out across organizations. Additionally, salespeople have access to senior leaders across many functional areas. Compared to peers who only engage with employees at a single company, sellers can learn exponentially faster. With the explosion of sales-related disciplines (sales operations, sales engineering, sales enablement, to name a few), selling gives valuable perspective to many business areas. It’s easy to see why there is a growing attraction to sales.
Disruption creates opportunity. The explosion of technology and changes in buying behavior generate endless potential for the sellers of tomorrow. For those up to the challenge, it's a great time to be in sales.
