The Exaggerated Death of the B2B Sales Rep - Mediafly + Brainshark - Sales Enablement + Sales Readiness
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Three years ago Forrester pronounced the “Death of the B2B Sales Rep”, boldly predicting that 1 million B2B salespeople would be displaced by 2020. Their belief, as B2B buyers favor digital self-service they will by-pass sales reps, especially those that are not adding value to their buying experience. Now, three years on, the forecast from Forrester is still gloomy, with faster than anticipated disintermediation. Every B2B sales and enablement leader needs to be asking themselves the following critical questions: Are we starting to see this with our buyers? Is my sales organization delivering the type of value our buyers want? What should we be doing to ensure that this does not happen with our field-force? Jim Ninivaggi, ex Sales Enablement Practice lead for SiriusDecisions and Tom Pisello, the ROI Guy, will have a lively debate, helping answer these important questions and more, providing a roadmap to address this potential Tectonic shift and help you avoid the death of the B2B Sales Rep.
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The Exaggerated Death of the B2B Sales Rep - Mediafly + Brainshark - Sales Enablement + Sales Readiness
- 1. Copyright © 2018, Mediafly, Inc. All rights reserved The Exaggerated Death of the B-to-B Sales Rep? 1 Jim Ninivaggi Chief Readiness Office @jninivaggi Thomas Pisello Chief Evangelist @tpisello
- 2. One MillionB2B sales reps will lose their jobs by 2020 Death of the B2B Sales Rep? +10% of the 4.5 million B2B sales agents 22% -33% -25% -15% (Forrester)
- 3. Selling Relevancy in a Digital Age? 2 million Licensed agents in US (ARELLO 6% growth over next 10 years (Bureau of Labor & S Unique Insights Prescriptive Advice Facilitate Journey
- 4. The New Facts of B-to-B Buying? 62 % report they can finalize a vendor list or selection solely based on digital content, and this “do more on your own” trend has been accretive (Forrester) 60%of B2B buyers preferred not to interact with a sales rep as their primary source of information (Forrester)
- 5. Sellers are Struggling to Meet Expectations? 21%Of buyers / customers view interactions with sales reps as low-value (Forrester) 80%of sales conversations are still about pitching products & services, with only 20% focused on buyer’s specific needs and potential outcomes (Forrester) 64%of B2B executives DON’T believe that reps understand their business problems and offer clear solutions for their unique needs (Forrester)
- 6. Digital vs. Sales Reps? SiriusDecision 6 8 9 5 6 8 CommitteeConsensusIndependent B-to-B Buyer Interactions Non-Human Human SelectionSolutionEducation Sales Rep Interactions 49% 62% 67% 42% 56%55% 38% 53% 54% Independent Consensus Committee Independent Consensus Committee Independent Consensus Committee Percentage of the 1,005 respondents who reported that they or someone from their organization received information from the sales repfrom the winning provider organization (vendor) to help inform their decision at that phase. # 1 Sales Presentations = most meaningful content 25%Complete the purchase digitally, with especially complex decisions requiring seller involvement SiriusDecisions
- 7. 7 Non-linear / sequential CEB / Gartner - 2017 Time Spent in Decision Making Process 27% 18% 22% 17% 16% Researching online Researching offline (peers + analysts) Meeting with internal buying team Meeting with potential suppliers Other
- 8. Driving Seller Relevancy? Content & Conversations Capability & Credibility Coaching & Confidence Diagnose Discover Prescribe Outcomes
- 10. Capability & Credibility? Perpetual Readiness Interactive Personali zed Up to date Prescripti ve Value
- 11. Coaching & Confidence? Practice and feedback Human & machine analysis
- 12. Next Steps? Content & Conversation Capability & Credibility Coaching & Confidence From Pitch to Purpose Evolved Selling Roadmap & Diagnostic Value messaging Financial justification & Outcomes Skills Education Content Find, Freestyle & Fuel Interactive Tools Assist Perpetual training Practice and feedback Validate and reinforce positive outcomes The Rebirth of the B2B Sales Rep: Transitioning to Relevancy Sales Enablement + Sales Readiness
- 13. Copyright © 2018, Mediafly, Inc. All rights reserved Q&A 13 Jim Ninivaggi Chief Readiness Office @jninivaggi Thomas Pisello Chief Evangelist @tpisello
Editor's Notes
- ”Order takers,” who generally process orders that customers could easily place through online self-service. Job loss: 33%, or close to 550,000 out of 1.6 million jobs; ”Explainers,” who provide buyers with more information about complex products. Job loss: 25%, or close to 400,000 out of 1.5 million jobs; ”Navigators,” who help buyers understand what their own companies need to purchase. Job loss: 15%, or close to 150,000 out of 900,000 jobs; ”Consultants,” who have extensive knowledge about the buyer’s company to help the buyer understand what her company needs to purchase. Job gain: 10%, to 550,000 from 500,000.
- Is there an example of selling relevancy in a digital age, where death was predicted, but the trend is actually the opposite?
- There has been a lot of research published recently by different analysts over the apparent “death of the B2B sales rep”, specifically how digital is disintermediating the rep. Can you tell us about these metrics and what they say about the future of B2B selling?
- There has been a lot of research published recently by different analysts over the apparent “death of the B2B sales rep”, specifically how digital is disintermediating the rep. Can you tell us about these metrics and what they say about the future of B2B selling?
- So as we look at the buying scenarios, what do we see between buyers who are influenced by digital vs. sale reps? And what about interactions when we look at the decision making process …. Sales reps turn out to be very influential throughout each phase, but especially for the winning B2B vendor early in the cycle, as opposed to what many of the myths perpetuated?
- Researching on-line – website - how well aligned is the website aligned with each stage of the buyers journey …. How well does it replicate sales rep engagement and support offline Internal buying team – a lot of selling occurring without you …. Justify why change and why you within … quantify the value Meeting with suppliers – of all the time spending, next to Other smallest amount …. So how are reps doing with this small window
- So if you are in sales enablement, training or content development, how can you help sellers overcome this challenge?
- Tell us about making content and conversations more relevant and effective?
- Tell us how to boost sellers capability and credibility?
- How does coaching come into play, to make reps more confident?
- What are the best next steps to drive seller relevancy? The Right Tech Stack Elevates B2B Sellers Myriad solutions can increase sellers’ efficiencies and effectiveness, but weaving together the optimum tech stack can be difficult. To elevate the role, B2B marketing and sales leaders must determine the right mix of tools. With the right stack in place, you can free sellers from mundane activities so that they can interact with buyers in a contextual, personalized, and collaborative manner presale and post-sale.