A letter to the sales industry: It's time to put the buyer first

Dear sales colleagues, 

We’re now more than six months into the reality of living in and doing business in a virtual world. As each of us — sales professionals and our customers alike — has reevaluated and reinvented how we do our work, I’ve asked myself: how might our industry use this moment as an opportunity to invent systems that work better for our customers and therefore our sellers? 

After all — virtual selling is here to stay. According to a LinkedIn survey of over 500 sales professionals, 80% said they have somewhat or completely shifted to virtual selling due to COVID-19. Of those respondents who said they shifted to virtual selling, 57% believe the new virtual selling model is better than their previous traditional selling approach, and 46% expect to continue selling virtually beyond 12 months.  

Designing a sales model that embraces this reality isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ — it’s imperative. The companies that act now can realize a significant competitive advantage, those who don’t face up to this reality run the very real risk of being left behind. 

There’s a growing divide between buyers and sellers 

Over the last year, the team at LinkedIn has conducted interviews with and surveyed thousands of sellers, as well as buyers, analysts, and leading voices in sales. What we learned is that across the world sales professionals believe they're putting their buyers first, buyers don’t feel that way. 

The transition to virtual selling, accelerated by the pandemic, has only amplified this growing divide between buyers and sellers. At the onset of COVID-19, sellers increased their email outreach by 59% as they did their best to adapt to a new model of sales, according to HubSpot. Yet, buyer responses decreased by 25% to 30% compared to pre-COVID benchmark. If the current model of sales wasn’t working before the pandemic, our new virtual sales climate has made it completely unviable.

This moment calls for a new model of sales. One that treats buyers like the modern consumers they are, and equips sellers to be the trusted advisors they can be. An era where buyers and sellers are truly working together. At LinkedIn, we’re calling this model Buyer First selling. 

Buyer First selling places the interests and needs of the buyer at the core of the selling experience. It means always acting in service of the buyer’s goals, and for the benefit of the long term relationship between seller and buyer. 

‘Everything moving forward really needs to be constructed around how the buyer wants to buy versus how we want to sell." - Mary Shea, Forrester

When buyers win, sellers win 

Buyer First selling isn’t just a philosophy, it’s a practice. Sales leaders have told us they want to put the buyer first and 81% think more solutions should be buyer first. In our research, we’ve uncovered five principles that sellers can incorporate into every part of their business: 

1. Learn, then define: Active listening is a critical foundation for the buyer-seller relationship, in fact in our research buyers rank active listening as the number one attribute they value from salespeople. This trait didn’t even rank in the top five for sales managers in their hiring process for sales reps. A Buyer First seller works to understand the buyer’s unique situation, then defines the path that will help them best achieve their goals, even if it requires more steps, a different solution, or walking away from a deal if the product isn’t the right fit.
2. Share, readily: If buyers can find the price of their neighbor’s home online, why does the sales industry still gate information about their products and solutions, and restrict access to reviews? Buyer First selling is about transparency and always empowering buyers with information. 
3. Solve, don’t sell: A Buyer First seller measures success in problems solved, as well as products sold. They surface new opportunities that go beyond just what the product can do for them, and recognize when solving the buyer’s problem means recommending a different solution.
4. Deliver value: It’s critical to see the relationship through, long after a deal is signed, to ensure the buyer is seeing maximum value from your solution. A Buyer First seller doesn’t see a sale as the end of a buying cycle — instead, it’s the beginning of the next buying cycle and a mutually beneficial relationship.
5. Earn trust: A Buyer First seller develops long-term trusted relationships by always acting in the buyer's best interest. LinkedIn research tells us 35% of decision-makers list trust as the most important contributor in closing a deal – even above ROI of the product or service, or price. By implementing these first four Buyer First principles, sellers will be certain they are prioritizing relationships over short term gains, and always investing in the customer’s success. 

The result of adopting these practices is a better buyer-seller relationship, and better long term results for sellers. This approach has already been embraced by the leaders – 81% of top sales performers say they always put the buyer first, versus just 60% of their peers. 82% of sellers also confirmed they identify with a buyer first approach to selling. 

It’s clear: when buyers win, sellers win. 

Our commitment 

At LinkedIn, we’ve always believed that nurturing long term, trusted, value-driven relationships is the future of sales. Now, we’re doubling down on Buyer First approaches. We’re making them central to our Sales Navigator platform by prioritizing Buyer First features in our product roadmap, including the recent introduction of Buyer Interest Alerts, the first of many features that will signal buying intent, which helps sellers to understand if buyers are researching them, their company, or engaging with their content. These signals will also surface recent job changes and promotions. In the future we’re considering new features which provide greater transparency, for example allowing buyers to share their experiences with sellers, and giving sellers the ability to add their industry expertise and products they sell to help them establish and grow their reputations.

We’re incorporating Buyer First principles in every aspect of our own sales strategy. For example how to integrate active listening into our sales process and how to identify and understand who is in a customers’ buying circle and the role they play. And, we’re going to be supporting our customers to adopt a Buyer First approach by sharing knowledge and resources to help integrate this practice into their own sales processes. 

Buyer First is our vision for the future of selling. We believe it's how virtual selling can be most effective. And it’s a call to action to every sales organization to transform our industry, and to become truly Buyer First. I hope you'll join us on the journey.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. How will you infuse a Buyer First mindset into your sales process? What changes to your strategy are you making to rise to the occasion of this moment?