Are salespeople about to become extinct?

I was one of the first people in the United States to own a Blackberry.

I’ll never forget the first conversation I had with the Blackberry salesperson. He said, “Lee, get this… Email on the go! People will be able to send you a message and you will be able to send a response back. How cool is that! Forget those pagers that beep and you have to call the person to see what they want. You’ll have two-way communication at your fingertips.”

His story was compelling, which is why I had a Blackberry strapped to my belt the very first day the devices were available in the United States.

Imagine that same salesperson calling on me today with that same pitch to sell Blackberry. “Email on the go…” I’d think he was crazy for positioning “email on the go.” Why? The smartphone is an accepted part of the business professional’s toolkit. We bought into the “email on the go” concept long ago. What we need help determining is the right device for us given that the market is flooded with these devices with varying features and functions.

There have been countless articles written on the future of the sales profession with many of the authors concerned about what is to become of salespeople. No one has a crystal ball telling them what the future holds for salespeople. But, there are steps salespeople can and should take to, not only avoid extinction, but also to dominate the sales game. Quite frankly, the salesperson in the aforementioned story deserves to fall to the perils of extinction for failing to adapt his style with buyer purchasing changes.

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