It's Getting Harder To Do A Business Deal

Despite an initial shock to the system, the pandemic years were fruitful for technology innovators and providers. The combined stock market valuation of Apple, Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook increased by almost 70 percent to the tune of upwards of $10 trillion. That is roughly the size of the U.S. stock market in 2002.

Beyond Big Tech, business-to-business software, especially cloud-based offerings, saw one of the fastest spikes in expansion with people across the country stuck at home. In fact, Zoom’s 326% sales growth in 2020 far surpassed any of its U.S. tech peers. And more Silicon Valley companies went public in 2020 than in 2019, and they raised twice as much money when they did.

As teams shifted to remote work and all day-to-day functions turned digital, enterprises had to rapidly retool for the new normal and spent handsomely doing it. Likewise, the capital markets, especially in venture capital, created hundreds of new companies to seize the opportunities.

The tech industry is now going through a bit of an innovation hangover, with enterprises trying to make sense of all the technology they bought and new buyers overwhelmed by the proliferation of vendors. There’s skepticism about more new software and a high bar for sales teams to differentiate in order to land the deal.

Dealmaking Is Reinventing Itself  

The expansion of telehealth and the commerce boom are proof points that the pandemic forces many consumer-focused fields into accelerated expansion. Business-to-business dealmaking or sales – the way it is done and the people doing it – get less attention, but in the past couple of years, many sellers have had to reinvent themselves and how they communicate with their clients.

B2B buyers are opting for online research and less face-to-face communication. Two-thirds of all the interactions are now remote. Gartner reports that vendors are only involved in 17% of a buyer’s purchasing activities, with any one firm involved in just 5-6%.

McKinsey adds that 94% of buyers prefer the pandemic-necessitated approach of remote sales and that eight in 10 buyers prefer a ‘hybrid’ model, combining in-person, remote and digital engagement with their vendors. This is a tall order for the two to three million people who are reportedly working in the B2B sales sector.

Historically, salespeople are extroverted, life-of-the-party types, who thrive in face-to-face interactions and negotiations. LinkedIn reports that both sales managers and salespeople agreed that the shift to remote work wasn’t always a seamless transition. Over two-thirds (71%) of sales managers say overseeing a remote sales team is more challenging than anticipated. Similarly, 67% of salespeople say working remotely is more challenging than anticipated.

The answer to a tougher selling environment might seem obvious for the business and sales managers reading this: just sell harder. As a serial entrepreneur, it is easy to agree that this is part of the answer.

Today, customers have dramatically reduced how much they let sales teams and representatives engage. If your plan was to build confidence in your forecast by having your teams ‘walk the halls,’ you need a new plan.

New Technologies Powering Sales of 2023 and Beyond

The hybrid sales model has more than just interpersonal ramifications; completing a business deal is harder than ever. The good news is that technologies are emerging to help power the new sales reality. 

A recent McKinsey Quantum Black report found that generative AI is gaining ground across enterprises despite being in its early stages. Around 14% of respondents are already using it in marketing and sales, driving digital adaptation and efficiency in this sector.

So, the question for the 86% of the revenue and sales leaders not using genAI yet is: how can our team effectively adapt to the new hybrid model and close more deals. 

The AI Opportunity

With less time in front of the customer, and the need to cut through a confusing array of competitive offerings, sales teams need new and more compelling ways to deliver their propositions to customers. AI can help.  

Salespeople have long relied on their manager and internal networking to determine the ideal solution, often cutting and pasting from past deals. Using clustering methodologies and machine learning, firms can instantly benchmark comparable deals and offer price guidance on product configurations and pricing. Tribal knowledge can be replaced with data science.

Second, sales teams need to convey their messages when they’re not even in the room. Generative AI can help teams efficiently draft highly tailored proposals, even providing individual executive summaries that speak to specific concerns and interests of the stakeholder, making the one-size-fits-all PDF a thing of the past.

Finally, sellers gain new activity data on their prospects when customers engage directly with the sales content via digital channels. AI can automatically respond to basic questions, help discern the sentiment of comments and provide innovative metrics on the momentum of the deal.

Hybrid Salespeople are the New Normal

B2B dealmaking has undergone a transformation. With remote interactions becoming predominant, leading sellers need to adapt to new tools and communication methods. Technologies like generative AI are emerging to assist in the new hybrid sales model, enabling personalized interactions, optimized pricing and improved deal strategies.

Commercial customers want vendors that offer a tailored prescription for their pain and are willing to assume greater responsibility for solving it. It’s not just about listing your features and benefits and listening to the customer’s requirements; the hybrid sales model requires sales teams to provide a data-driven and customized proposal.