What has changed?

A lot has changed. Here are the four biggest shifts sales and enablement are having to adjust to:

No sales selling: Customers increasingly do their research online and determine vendors and products/ services long before engaging with sales “Overall, 72% of B2B buyers prefer a “rep-free” experience” (Gartner Sales Enablement Leadership Vision 2023)

Sales as change consultants: Sales have always had to play something of a consultative role, especially in IT. But today customers want a different relationship with ‘sales’. SaaS and Marketplaces may be providing the platform for customers to acquire and access services, but they look to “sales” to help them navigate through almost constant change as they adopt new technologies: “88% of sellers say they’re frequently required to respond to unexpected changes”. (Gartner Sales Enablement Leadership Vision 2023) And this role for sales is vital to ensure customer retention and increase share of wallet within customers through well-timed cross and upsell of additional offerings.

Selling people vs technology: building on our second point, sales must also sell very different, often non-technical, “services” to win a technology solution deal. Customers are already familiar with the SaaS or platform-delivered solution they are considering – they’ve done their research, so sales don’t have as much of a sales job there. Rather sales now need to sell the people-led services required to deliver that technology-enabled service. Conversations are less ‘what is the product and what does it do’ and more, “how we help you adopt it, customize it, train your people, or integrate it”. Less speeds and feeds, more people and skillsets. It’s a very different conversation, often with very different stakeholders who have little interest or knowledge in the technology aspects.

Sales left out of the loop: Another historical set of frustrations – not getting the latest information or being overloaded/ unable to find information that is then not related to the conversations they are actually having with customers. But it’s getting worse. Consider: “58% of buyers agree that information on the supplier website conflicts with information shared by a seller or subject matter expert” (Gartner Sales Enablement Leadership Vision 2023). Add to this a shift to virtual sales that isn’t going to reverse anytime soon (23% of CSOs report plans to permanently shift field sales to virtual sales roles) (https://www.gartner.com/en/sales/role/sales-enablement) and sales are left ever more reliant on virtual training and online resources that may or may not line up with what the customer is being told.

Move on Sales Enablement. Welcome to Revenue Enablement…