Sales Teams Must Adapt to the New Customer Buying Journey

Customers have clearly changed how they conduct their buying process. Their expectations have changed as it relates to their process of evaluating product or service options, self-educating, participating in decision making groups, and ultimately deciding on and making a purchase.

Customers now spend significantly more time doing online research, they expect to be served up content aligned to their buying process and on their time frames. The last thing that most of them want to do is talk to a salesperson.

As a result of this change, sales teams are struggling to engage with customers and meet their targets leading to a loss in sales productivity.

The customer is increasingly difficult to reach, leading to sales productivity metrics dropping off a cliff. When sales reps finally speak with their target, they are viewed by the customer as woefully under-prepared, primarily because today’s customer is privy to endless amounts of information and perspective prior to ever engaging with sales. Customers who are under-whelmed aren’t inviting sales reps back to take the process forward, which means the money and effort invested in reaching those customers have been wasted. As a result, sales performance is suffering, with an estimated 67% of sales reps not meeting their quotas.

This infographic outlines the trends and changes in the buyers and also provides some resources to get sales leaders started on the changing journey to realize the potential of re-envisioning the way they engage customers (and achieve improved performance).

 

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