Why it’s more important than ever to have a highly experienced B2B sales team.

Several years ago Sirius Decisions released the statistic that 67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally.

Similarly, CEB (now Gartner) stated that the average B2B buyer is 57% of the way through the purchase decision before engaging with a sales rep.

Both of these statistics have been stated, restated, disputed, and discussed amongst sales professionals over the past few years, with most agreeing that they cannot be taken as absolutes.

However, it cannot be overlooked that decision-makers and influencers have access to vast amounts of information before even contacting your business, and it is rare to find anyone who hasn’t searched out a solution or product online prior to any type of “in real life” interaction.

Customers are more knowledgeable than ever, and your sales team should be ready.

Can your sales team add value to the conversation?

If decision makers are capable of gathering product features and benefits with an internet search, it’s more important than ever that sales reps have the skills and knowledge to uncover opportunities and add value to a meaningful conversation that helps a prospect define their pain point.

Easy access to features, benefits, pricing, and other information online means the bar has been raised for B2B sales callers.

But even though the bar is high, there is still very much a place for sales calls in B2B lead generation, this has not been replaced by online marketing.

In complex B2B sales, the sales cycle can be long, and sometimes winding, so a solid relationship with a qualified sales rep, or even an entire team, is necessary and beneficial to both parties.

However, sales calls cannot simply be informational pitches. They need to be real conversations where trust is built and business problems are revealed and met with real business solutions.

This means the caller must have a real knowledge of the product, service, or solution as well as a solid understanding of the industry into which they are calling. Is your sales team capable?

Outsourcing to the Experts

If you don’t have the resources or the bandwidth to build a team capable of making calls in the era of information, consider outsourcing.

Outsourcing B2B cold calling has many benefits including low overhead, and a focused calling program that doesn’t get sidetracked by internal demands. One of the biggest benefits, though, can be the expertise of the callers.

Outsource to a qualified lead generation firm and you get experienced professionals on the phone, capable of having business level conversations with decision makers.

They will understand that while a prospect may have started their search and could very well be 67% of the way into the process, they still are in need of a real conversation with a knowledgeable professional to take them the rest of the way there.

High-level buyers have no use for entry-level callers intent on pitching them information that could be found on a website. Make sure your prospects and potential leads are getting calls from sales reps who can add value to their decision making process, and close the sale.