What Will The Sales Profession Look Like in 10 Years?

The correct answer:  It depends.  But for sure, it will change.

Thoughts about just how much things have changed started to formulate while watching a re-run of the film “In Pursuit of Happyness” (Will Smith, 2006).  As a backdrop, the film depicts the prominent investment rep boiler rooms of the 1990s.  It was a business that employed countless thousands of licensed investment reps all vying for control of employees’ retirement accounts.  The value of the portfolio was never an issue; times were good and those portfolios just continued to grow.  It was all about the relationships.  That’s all gone now.  The bubble has burst and almost every customer was burned.  Many of those companies have gone under or been merged out.  Consumer trust built on relationships between the seller and the buyer now need something more solid to stand on. “Business as usual” needs to be reinvented.

So, what will happen going forward?  I think it’s clear that consumer product companies will need to get closer to their customers.  Many of them threw their hats in the ring years ago and let the Walmart’s and Home Depots of the world do the heavy lifting.  Now, they are squeezed on margin and are frustrated that they can’t more directly control their futures.  I believe many of these companies will develop clearly defined direct channels to their customers.  General Motors has already started a test through Ebay in California to sell new cars directly to potential customers.  This is just the beginning.  Many other companies will continue to leverage technology to get their product in front of their target market at right place and at the right time.

B-2-B companies will also utilize technology and target marketing more effectively to sell their products and services.  These companies most likely will continue to maintain a mix of direct and channel sales.  The percentage of that mix will fluctuate from time-to-time, depending on business conditions.  Market share will be the leading indicator.  Additionally, expect some large-scale, third party sales agent companies to grow and flourish.  As has already occurred in banking, small niche organizations and the giants will survive.  The companies in the middle probably won’t.

In summary, it’s likely ten years from now, if current trends continue, direct sales forces will be at least 25% smaller than they are today.  On the other side of the coin, channel organizations could grow by more than 250%.  However, companies will push harder and harder for exclusive arrangements from their channel partners.  They will want more direct control of how their products and/or services are positioned to potential customers and how those accounts are managed.  On the other hand, expect channel players to seek larger commissions and a bigger piece of the pie from on-going maintenance or subscription contracts.

It remains to be seen how close to actual this maybe 10 years from now.  The only thing for sure is, there will be change.

The Three Things You Can Do RIGHT NOW to Increase Sales in 2009

Here at SPI, we receive many questions about how to improve sales performance from clients, prospects and interested businesspeople - but the one question we hear most often lately is: “What can I do RIGHT NOW to improve sales?”

This anxiety about producing immediate results is no doubt a product of the current unpredictable economic environment. Selling is generally tougher these days, and people in the sales profession are feeling the pinch - in a very personal way. Having run sales organizations at companies such as IBM and GE Capital, I understand all too well the current dilemma of sales executives – ‘Do we make some changes now to improve our sales position or do we just try to work harder and smarter?’

McKinsey published a white paper last month titled Cutting Sales Costs, Not Revenues. The article began as follows:

“There’s a reason companies fear experimenting with the sales force: It is the engine that drives revenue. No matter how patched up or spluttering that engine may be, the thought of overhauling it fills senior executives with dread. To keep sales flowing, companies will make piecemeal ongoing repairs as long as they can.”

Very few companies can afford to initiate a sales transformation initiative mid-year. However, after reviewing the findings of the latest research on sales productivity, and after interviewing many of our own clients, we have found that there are three things that almost any sales executive can do to generate significant and quick improvements in their team’s results. These three things are:

1. Target and prioritize sales efforts on accounts with the highest potential
2. Create new latent sales opportunities
3. Differentiate the value of your offerings, not just the price

What’s most interesting about these recommendations is that a surprising number of companies are not doing these things today. Instead, they are simply “paddling upstream faster” by making more calls or increasing the amount of sales activities, which simply generates a larger number of poor quality opportunities, most of which never close.

For many sales executives, it seems converse to logic to think that when times get tough, the best thing to do is to focus your energies on only those places where you can make the biggest and most immediate difference - the specific accounts where you can deliver real value and thus, create new, highly qualified sales opportunities.

Good selling.