The digital world is bringing great change to how buyers wish to interact with B2B sales teams.
Buyers who are at ease in researching, communicating, collaborating and buying on the internet are choosing to do business differently.
And I am not referring to the ‘Lost Generation’: those dying breed of executives who ask their executive assistants to print out their emails.
In a recent blog post, Steve Woods notes that:
As the emphasis on face-to-face interaction as a way to build trust decreases in lieu of other ways of building trust, the need to be “in the field” also decreases.
With the recession, corporations are pressured to cut sales costs. Steve Woods cites a stellar blog post from David Skok that compares the relative efficiency of different B2B selling models.
But if B2B sales teams reduce the amount of face-to-face selling time in favor of more efficient sales models using the web and telephone, will B2B buyers be receptive?
In fact, B2B buyers have been driving this change for some time and the pace is accelerating:
- The buying process starts online and so do sales meetings - Given that most buying is initiated with online search, buyers are naturally becoming more accepting of interactions with sales via web conference, email and online chat. These buyers expect a fast response from an informed sales rep and will not wait for the time it takes to schedule an in-person meeting.
- The digital buyer prefers data to voice - The social B2B buyer is more than likely on Facebook at home and at work, on email and LinkedIn. The buyer favors producing content that is written (data) and not spoken (voice). This week Facebook announced that it has reached 500 million users. LinkedIn has over 70 million members worldwide. Not only is this communication data-driven but it is now mostly mobile: mobile data eclipsed voice traffic in December 2009.
- The buyer is not at the office – How you can you meet face-to-face when your prospect is not at the office? The B2B buyer’s office is often in motion (e.g. plane, trains & automobiles) or a home office. The door to your customer is opened through their mobile device and not a fixed position PC.
- The buyer is time-starved – Buyers face inordinate demands on their time. Meeting face-to-face is becoming less frequent due to jam-packed schedules. The Corporate Leadership Councial found that the “average ‘job footprint’ (what a worker is expected to do) has increased by a third since the beginning of the recession” (see the Economist for more details). In the new book “Snap Selling“, Jill Konrath diagnoses the buyer as suffering from: Frazzled Customer Syndrome, a debilitating condition brought on by excessive workloads, 24/7 availability, information overload, lack of sleep, and job-related stress.
- The World (of Buyers) is Flat – Evaluation teams are dispersed across the country and even around the world. Meeting face-to-face with all team members is not a possibility given the dispersed nature of buying teams.
Do you sense that buyers are less reluctant to meet in-person? What are you seeing out there in the market?
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8 Comments
Robert,
You nailed it. Our business is helping companies transform their sales strategies to engage with more customers online and by phone. We see the most forward-thinking of small,medium and large companies recognizing that this shift is happening. They are building,growing or improving their “inside” sales groups to serve the increasing number of buyers who prefer not to meet face-to-face.
Robert, your post is spot-on and in my opinion, many marketers are using non-digital techniques to try and capture digital buyers. Buyers that start online tend to use online techniques and media to research, compare, price and sometimes purchase products. Such buyers can become frustrated if roadblocks are put in their way (such as dealing with a sales rep before they are ready). The trick is to let people buy using the process they prefer, instead of the way you want to sell them.
I agree with Anneke, Robert. You nailed it. You clearly described the world of the B2B buyer.
Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor
President, Find New Customers Lead Generation Made Simple
Robert, completely agree. In a recent blog post we also quoted Steve .. “the efficiencies of the inside sales model give it a significant advantage in smaller transactions. This efficiency win, combined with the new ability to build trust through means other than eye contact, are moving inside sales in many organizations from small transactions to much larger transactions. This trend is likely to continue as the communication tools and trust-building approaches continue to tip the balance in favour of the inside sales model.”
To back up this assumption, our 2010 Inside Sales Metrics & Compensation study found that since 2007, the average order size for inside sales has increased nearly 240%. Yikes!
Let me bore you with one more piece of data from the report. Since 2007, the average size of Inside Sales groups has almost tripled. Research by SKKU and MIT shows growth of 800,000 jobs (from 2009 to 2012) in Inside Sales while growth in traditional, fieldbased, sales positions stagnates.
The data confirms the position that buyers are busy and less face time is now the norm. Having the strategy in place supported by the right people, process and technology will be the keys to growth and sustainability moving forward.
What a great “trialog” of blog posts between Robert, Steve, and the other sources.
It reminded me of one B2B company that Steve’s and my company both have as a joint client. This high-tech B2B has 6000 SKUs and even their sales team has a hard time figuring out when to offer which SKU to which client. They business is about repeat sales, you see.
Taking your recommendations and translating them into a technical solution, they are mining web analytics data for their B2B registered website vistors. They profile and score how deeply each prospect/client seems interest in which product areas. That information is fed into CRM and SFA. Sales + Marketing outreach are tor prioritized and personalized accordingly.
The client was sharing response rates that are way above average for this approach and have expanded the program after initially testing.
These techniques have originated in the B2C world first, actually. Namely in considered purchases such as for automobiles and real estate.
The other comments show that there is much more than just a technology answer to Robert and Steve’s recommendations. I just wanted to contribute here what the techy / web analytics person can add to the discussion.
Let me also forward to Jep to add his 2c from a lead nurturing perspective.
Akin
Unica
Robert,
well put, and well communicated. It will be very interesting to see what happens to the concept of the “discovery call” as this trend towards buyer control continues and accelerates. As buyers gain more control over what information they need and what interactions they don’t need, the “discovery call” will be forced to evolve to include on the the bits that the buyer truly things are adding value to them, and not the bits that we as selling organizations believe are.
Akin,
that’s a great example to use – in fact whether or not the solution is done automatically or manually, vendor organizations need to evolve to a role of “information concierge” rather than just pushing out communications.
Best,
Steve
@Trish / Anneke – Thanks for confirming the trends with inside sales that you see taking shape
@ Akin – What a great example of how web analytics can heighten sales intelligence.
@ Steve – I agree that the ‘discovery call’ is that moment of truth for the B2B buyer. Will the call be value-add and consultative or not?
Great posts..
Agreed. Its really going to the inside sales 360 CRM view model.
(I tell my IT Field sales buddies this all the time)
Buyers at all levels are time pressed and getting comfortable with digital, virtual relationships.
However, selling to C levels.
Do it F2F..thats what they prefer.
http://images.forbes.com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/Business_Meetings_FaceToFace.pdf
regards,
Stuart