When your customers DO want to speak to a sales person

There’s been a great deal of comment – often from people and organisations who frankly should know better – about how today’s B2B customer doesn’t want to engage with a sales person until late in their consideration.
That comment is based on studies and statistics that appear to show that the average potential customer is variously 57%, 60% or more than 70% through their decision-making journey before they see value in a sales conversation.
But no customer is “average”. And those simplified statistics and headlines – supported by naïve and often self-serving interpretations from people and organisations attempting to peddle a particular point of view – hide a much more nuanced reality.
When you dig into the facts behind the facts, a much more complex reality emerges…
I’m no great fan of averages. They often act as a comfortable crutch to support stupidly simple assertions that deny the complexity of