It is without a doubt evident that we live in a more and more digitalised world, which has significantly affected our daily lives and routines in several ways. This digital transformation has also affected Sales, primarily by shifting the “balance of power” between seller and buyer in favour of the latter.

Nowadays, customers are way more information-empowered compared to the past, since everything is online, to such an extent that as a study from the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) has shown, B2B buyers make about 60% of their purchase decision before contacting any seller from their potential suppliers.  Moreover, developments in technology along with the catalytic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the ways that sellers and buyers interact.  Hence it comes as no surprise the prediction from Gartner, in one of their recent e-books, that by 2025 up to 80% of B2B sales interactions will be performed through digital channels.

From the above it is more than clear that the overall philosophy of sales and sales management has got to change radically, so as to follow the digital approach from customers.  With regards to processes, the Sales Cycle is no longer a linear, but an iterative process where the buyer has a much more active role as value co-creator from the very early stages of it.  On top of that, networks and “ecosystems” are replacing the traditional customer-supplier relationships, as there is a growing inter-dependence of the contemporary business activities. 

According to relevant research from Cuevas (2018), emphasis should be given to proactive client orientation, in order for the salespeople to be able to cope with this new and challenging environment.  Therefore, we need to adopt sales approaches such as value-based selling, in which suppliers and customers interact to identify business opportunities and “hidden” needs, and craft customer-specific value propositions. 

This poses a significant challenge to sales organisations, since, as salespeople, we are “programmed” to talk about the features of our products/services and handle objections in order to close the sale, rather than be proactive in looking for new development opportunities and assist our clients in learning about new possibilities, which will help their organisations achieve their own goals.

Hence, if we as modern sales professionals aim to sell successfully in a digital world, we need to review our “analogue” approaches and processes and bring them up to date.  With regards to ideas on how we are going to achieve that, please stay tuned, as the second and final part related to this topic will be out next Sunday.