In the coming years, trends and developments will significantly shake up the B2B sales profession. Online will play an increasingly important role in the buyer journey, which will change purchasing behavior. In addition, decision-making is not only becoming more complex but also more personal. This requires new skills and abilities from your B2B sales team.

Benchmark research

Naturally, as a team you want to be prepared and be able to change course in a timely manner if necessary. But how do you do that and then succeed? And do sales teams have all the skills and abilities for this in-house? To see how far companies have come in the Netherlands, Kenneth Smit conducted a benchmark study at the beginning of this year 'Sales of the Future' executed. More than a hundred leading companies participated. What is striking in the results is that there is a small group of frontrunners (16%) who are already responding very well to the above-mentioned sales developments. I would like to share what they do differently so that you can learn from it and your organization can therefore adjust its sales compass in a timely manner.

'Research shows that a small group of frontrunners are already responding well to B2B sales trends'

Positive consequences

In the study, we compared the sales organization of frontrunners with the rest of the research group and this shows, for example, that it is much more agile and flexible. There is a culture that continuously focuses on change and improvement. This adaptive capacity is not only the starting point for the sales team, it is also the accelerator. To keep up with the strong change in B2B sales, you will, like the leaders, have to develop a clear sales strategy with an important role for the online part of the purchasing process.

'In the leading group, marketing and sales work together more intensively'

Marketing supports

To gain more control over the sales process and also be successful in the earlier phases of the buyer journey, the organizational structure of B2B sales also plays an important role. For example, you often see among the leaders that marketing supports the sales department satisfactorily. On average they rate this collaboration (sales enablement) with a large 8, while the rest of the group does not score higher than a meager 6. More than two-thirds even say that the coordination between marketing and sales is moderate to poor. The difference is made because sales teams of frontrunners more often receive the right support in the field of usable leads. Sales teams also receive adequate sales information and relevant content to optimally inform prospects during the purchasing process so that they are connected at an early stage.

Share content

A striking difference is that the frontrunners share relevant knowledge more often and successfully via social media (social selling). When creating this content – ​​whether for blogs, personal videos or webinars – marketing and sales work closely together. They then distribute this content via LinkedIn or other social and digital channels; depending on where the prospect is located. This is how you arouse curiosity, create value, share valuable knowledge and plant the first seeds in a prospect's head.

Personalisation

And what about the more traditional way of selling with a phone call, cup of coffee or networking drinks? The trend is certainly that the personal relationship remains extremely important. At the same time, attention to personalization in the earlier, online phases of the purchasing process is growing. Sales of the future will therefore be a combination of social selling and personal contact; both actually reinforce each other. I'm convinced of that!

Download our trend report and use the checklist

Curious to what extent your sales team is at all future-proof is or do you want to learn more from the frontrunners? Download the Kenneth Smit trend report 'Sales of the Future'. Using our handy checklist, you will know whether your sales team is ready or whether there are skills and abilities that could still use some attention.