Relationship Selling Goes Digital

“By 2025, 80% of B2B sales between suppliers and buyers will be done digitally,” it’s time to make sure the sales force is ready.

Sales professionals must learn how to sell how they buy. Literally being on the other side of the virtual table.  This is why continuous education is the new norm. Every salesperson is different and an individualized learning platform will be key to making sure everyone, from top-to-bottom understands the value of sharpening their skills.

This shift in the importance of digital interactions is reflected in customer behavior. Looking ahead, B2B companies believe that digital interaction is two to three times more important to their customers than traditional sales interaction.

During product research, customer preference for digital sales interactions increased significantly, with vendor mobile apps, social media or online communities showing the sharpest growth since 2019. Buyers have established internal purchasing processes that minimize the impact of vendor relationships, even with an existing customer base.

Today’s business buyer is more informed and has access to more information than ever, making it more difficult for a business customer to contact, interact and build relationships.

Part of that learning curve will be building relationships through a digital platform. It is important for businesses to be able to deliver an online experience, build loyalty among their existing customer base and be able to convert new customers into loyal ones.

While the relationship marketing of the previous era used the idea of a direct customer response in the space of an interactive marketing campaign, in the era of digital relationship marketing, the customer and the service provider are always in contact through the web, liquid information or the Internet.

One of the advantages of digitization and a lot of sales tasks being automated is that sales professionals have the time to personalize their approach and become better vered in value and the impact of the products on the buyer. This means an essential focus needs to be on sales enablement and training. You must keep sharpening the saw in this fast-paced environment.  If you don’t your team’s knowledge and approach will be out of date in one to three months.