The Resurrection of the Enterprise Salesman

I recently came across Chad Garrett's "Death of the Enterprise Salesman" and with Halloween quickly approaching, I was wondering if I might be stepping over my career's grave in the near future. Fortunately for me, while Chad makes some excellent points about the evolution of the buying process, I don't believe my enterprise sales career will be dead and buried just yet - and here's why.

Chad's right - there are much greater levels of education taking place before a potential buyer ever begins the conversation with a salesperson (he mentions 65-69% completing research beforehand). On top of that, there are 40% more stakeholders at the table, assisting this research than there were 4 years ago (citing IDC). So what does this mean to B2B sales organizations as these numbers go up? The answer all depends on what technologies these organizations are investing in.

For starters, marketing organizations that care about their business development are leveraging the big data at their fingertips - which is arriving from those same digital channels that are providing the research to prospects. According to a DemandGen report, 68% of decision makers cited the vendor's website as an important source of information when researching and evaluating technologies & services (with the salesperson second, and newsletters third).

Marketers and salespeople alike should be interested in how they can identify organizations that are in that research phase, in real time. If marketers are using analytics effectively on their company's website, they are learning about the buying behavior and mindset of their prospects much earlier in the process - and acting on it.

Ironically, this is good news for both the prospect and the salesperson when you leverage these technologies. The salesperson is empowered by knowing the interests of the prospect when they're interested. He or she can then provide outreach that is more valuable to the prospect. In turn, the prospect can be more efficient in their research & evaluation phase - by diving deeper into relevant questions from the start. As a Demandbase salesperson, I can tell you first hand that prospects appreciate value driven conversations focused on their interests - much more than any cold call I could make.

Chad's focus on the "Modern A Player" that is a social influencer is a great one. However, it's certainly not the only arrow in the quiver. Company-Targeted Advertising is another way of engaging your prospects directly through digital channels (off the website) while they're in the buyer's mindset. If you combine both, congratulations, you’re way ahead of the prospecting curve.

Personalization is going mainstream, forcing organizations to evolve to stay competitive. In turn, the buying process is evolving, as Chad mentions. However, so are the tools with which to support both sides. Whether the sales cycle is lengthening or shortening depends on the way companies are leveraging their data.

The enterprise salesperson & marketing groups that support them have a perfect opportunity to work together. Until the Singularity occurs and the robots take over, I feel pretty great about my abilities to aid research and support the buying cycle, via consultative selling. In fact, as these tools become more widely known, I'd be so bold as to suggest it marks the resurrection of the enterprise salesman. Good thing I already have the Halloween costume ready.