20% fewer jobs in BtoB field sales functions by 2020? This is the forecast telegram data announced in a recent study by the Forrester group [1] on the impact of new digital prospecting tools on the sales function. In the United States, this would result in the disappearance of at least one million BtoB sales positions. There has not yet been a comparable study for Europe. But as the CEO of an ETI recently told me: "I think that digital prospecting will have a serious impact on my sales force... one day. In the meantime, I am not going to take the risk of reducing my sales staff and changing my sales organization.
All this without being certain of the added value of digital prospecting compared to my current situation." The admission is lucid: digital prospecting is perceived as inevitable. But it is socially risky while its benefits are still seen as random.
Without going into too much caricature, we can consider that there are two main categories of salespeople:
Inside Sales
field sales representatives (“Outside Sales”).
To be more specific, the latter can themselves be subdivided into “order taker” salespeople and “advisor” salespeople.
The basic principle of digital prospecting is to bring the customer into your sales funnel. With the ultimate goal of bringing them step by step towards the act of purchase. They come by being attracted by what you have shown them, but not by being sought out or approached. In any case, not in a way that is too visible and frontal. They are the ones who control the purchasing process at their own pace.
In this context, we understand that the rise of digital prospecting will profoundly change the BtoB sales organization. This organization to which these new generation salespeople belong. The need for sedentary salespeople will increase to ensure presence throughout the sales funnel. As for field salespeople, their role will be to be more and more "advisory" and their number should also increase. The demand for "order-taking" salespeople should structurally decrease. It is on this basis of reasoning that Forrester [1] concluded that there will be a decrease of 1 million jobs by 2020 out of the 4.5 million BtoB salespeople in the USA today.