Are buyers evolving faster than salespeople?

There are few professions that have changed as much as sales. (Well, I assume you think of sales as a profession like I do LOL). In my multi-decade B2B sales career I have learned a lot selling everything from telecommunications to sports drinks to syndicated research to media and now IT consulting. I have worked at both Fortune 500 companies and some companies my prospects have never heard of. Key lessons: Selling a $5,000 monthly contract to a small business owner is often harder than selling a $1 million deal to a VP at a Fortune 500 company and that selling internationally is not that much different than selling domestically as long I uncover/solve customer problems. Due to the pandemic, I also realized that I often can close six figure deals to prospects without ever meeting them in person. The tools at my finger tips today make the way I approached selling early in my career seem quaint and amusing. I often know the exact career progression of the person I am calling on, where they went to school, what hobbies they might have and sometimes even the biggest challenge their organization is facing all before I speak to them for the first time.

However, the more important changes are occurring on the buyer's side. Foremost among them is the lack of any information asymmetry between buyer and seller. Armed with more data about products and pricing, buyers are pushing back on shallow sales pitches or not even giving salespeople a chance to persuade them. This means that every salesperson today has to overcome the mistakes of the most aggressive and "old school" approaches of their peers. It makes my job that much more challenging but in the end more fulfilling.

What has worked best for me is to ask the uncomfortable questions most salespeople are reluctant to put on the table: What impact would there be if you didn't buy whatever I am selling? How do you actually measure success with the alternatives you have vs. my product? And my all time favorite "strategy" is to ensure that the prospect is 100% aware that it's Ok to say no to me. They do not need to fear that for every single objection they bring up that I will have a canned answer because the truth is that not every prospect should be my customer because the relationship has to be two-way; both sides must profit from it.

This doesn't lead to easy sales or magical solutions but at least it lowers the wall between buyer and seller and illuminates the actual conversation going on in each other's heads. If nothing else, I have also learned to be more kind to other salespeople who are trying to sell me because I know how much more complex the process has become.