In our 2018 Buyer Preferences study, we heard directly from B2B buyers, and they weren’t dismissive of sellers. But they weren’t impressed either. Buyers said that salespeople met their expectations, but did not exceed them. And buyers said that they did not view salespeople as business resources to solve their problems. Further, when picking a solution, buyers said that most of the time the winning seller’s solution and approach is seen as only a little bit better than the competition’s.
The “good” news is that this is not a surprise to sales organizations. Sales leaders agree there is an increasing gap between buyers and sellers. In our annual sales performance studies, sales leaders tell us that their sales organizations struggle with advanced engagement capabilities and that they are challenged to reach high levels of customer relationship with the majority of their customers. The implications for enablement, operations, technology, strategy and more
