#SaveTheB2BSalesRep
On May 14th, 2015, in Nashville, TN at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, at the Sirius Decisions Conference, Marisa Kopec and Jennifer Ross made the single most important presentation of 2015 so far, and perhaps the most important presentation for sales and marketing ever.
Here are some quotes from the 30 minute presentation that have massive implications to marketing, and to sales, and fly in the face of what other analyst firms have been saying for the past 12 – 24 months.
- “Sales presentations are probably an asset type you should pay more attention to.”
- “It’s time to pull the pendulum back from digital to sales”
- “It takes 11 to 17 interactions to sell a product in B2B, depending on which type of sale it is, more than half of which are human interactions.”
- “Buyers are interacting with Sales Reps the most in the education phase and then ongoing in every single phase of the buying process.”
- “Sales Reps still matter. Buyers need trust, confidence, and validation!”
- “Sales Reps still matter! The buyers journey is NOT always 57% complete before they talk to a Rep!”
- “Sales is not moving to a world where all purchases are made from machines!”
When the presentation kicked off, to set up the content, Marisa and Jennifer shared the following analyst quotes:
- “Death to the b-to-b sales person, 93% say they prefer buying online rather than from a sales person.” Forrester
- “Customers rate sales person as the least influential interaction in the buying process.” Gartner
- “57% of the buyers journey is complete before the customer’s first contact with a supplier.” Corporate Executive Board
The best part of the presentation was when Chris Beall, CEO of ConnectAndSell, went up to Jennifer and Marisa immediately following the presentation, got on his knees, and bowed to these two wonderful women of Sirius Decisions. Chris said, “I have been waiting for this presentation for four years, and today, you did not disappoint. This changes everything in b2b sales.”
