A recent report by Forrester Research showed that 75% of business to business (B-to-B) shoppers preferred shopping from a website compared to dealing with a sales representative. In addition, 92% of the buyers said they chose to shop on the internet once they’ve made up their mind on what to buy.
This is bad news for sales representatives. Forrester estimates that this trend will result in the loss of 1 million B-to-B sales jobs by 2020.
Andy Hoar, lead author of the report and a principal analyst at Forrester, said that to remain relevant, sales roles will have to change from simple order-taking to consultative selling.
He added that this trend will manifest more slowly among firms that sell more expensive products, which traditionally involve negotiation in the selling process, as well as products that require services.
Thus, Hoar noted that companies selling commoditized products will have to retool their sales and marketing teams to deal with this change. He explained that while technology will make some jobs redundant, it will also help the workforce move up the value chain and provide more specialized services.
For instance, he said, the more sophisticated technology currently available will make it easier to track returns on marketing dollars by using it to observe purchasing behavior patterns, and create customer experiences that will directly link wholesalers to their clients.
Despite the promise of the self-service online trend, Hoar observed that many companies still hesitate to adopt it because jobs are on the line and they are unsure about their transition strategies.
