Putting all sales professionals in one bucket was a major mistake in Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human book and yes, I told him so.

Non-sales professionals should not write sales books unless you’re Geoffrey James who does meticulous research.

Pink also writes about two $100,000,000 and $250,000,000 dollar companies with no salespeople – sure. 

Maybe back in 2012 when he wrote the book, but one company he mentioned is looking for a few sales professionals and they’re even got Sales in their titles. And the other had 75 open sales positions as of today when I’m publishing this article.

When I first became a commissioned sales professional at IBM, my business card said Marketing Representative as even IBM recognized that Sales rep was not a respected title at that time.

Even if the position doesn’t have the word sales in it, no enterprise-sized company can survive without someone selling something as a business only starts when a sale is made.

Recently I read of another expert’s opinion that salespeople will no longer be needed. That they’re obsolete and over and done with, replaced by a website. WRONG!

Please stop staying that!

It makes for good copy or clickbait but it is so WRONG to say that for complex B2B sales. 

I agree that you can get away with no salespeople with commodity B2C products (which can be a pure marketing play) BUT when was a $1,000,000 system or service bought over LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram?

Please comment below if you have sold that big of a sale without ever meeting the client in a face-to-face situation or phone call. I’ve sold up to $50,000 via email but it was only an upgraded off-the-shelf system.

Maybe the connection was started over social media, but hardly the middle and the end of the sale happened there with no human intervention. Buying a complex system is not something even the most experienced CIO/IT manager can usually do or want to do on their own.

The skills needed for B2B vs B2C sales is in no way comparable. I’ve had both kinds of companies and did both kinds of sales so I know this by personal experience.

In B2C, customers come to you either online or in person.  It’s a marketing ‘sale’ rather than a person-to-person sale in many cases now. Typically the sale is in $$ to $$$ range.

In B2B, you might start connecting with them online, through social media, but for any non-commodity product or service, it typically takes a human-to-human connection to seal the deal. Some products and services are complicated, can be highly customized, and cannot be bought off-the-shelf or ordered online. The implementation plan can take months to do.

When was the last time you bought a custom high-ticket software or hardware package without speaking to a person?

Buyer’s Remorse is real!

A recent study stated that buyers’ remorse is 23% higher for those buyers who did NOT engage with a salesperson before their purchase.

Isn’t that proof enough that the sales profession is hardly likely to go out of business in the next future, no matter what those other experts say?

Sales is finally becoming a respected profession, taught at over 175 universities and colleges worldwide, where you can get degrees in professional selling.

I now get paid to return to my alma mater TRSM @Ryerson University to teach Entrepreneurial Sales, starting my seventh class in September 2021. So I know firsthand that sales is becoming a respected profession.

The Sales Education Foundation research shows that graduates of sales programs ramp up 50% faster and experience 30% less turnover.  Also, they found that nearly 40% of a customer’s decision is based on the added value that the salesperson brings to the relationship.

Sales hasn’t really changed after all – people still buy from people they know, like, and trust. Salespeople are hardly obsolete, no matter what the other experts say.

And if you want your sales team to sell more with less effort (sell smarter not harder is my mantra) – please contact me to discuss at 416-951-3842 or Patti@SmallBizSalesCoach.ca.