Future of B2B sales:
The big reframe
Customers nowadays expect more. Companies need to shift to put them at the center of sales—by improving channels, technology, talent, and culture. Here are the trends redefining the future of sales.
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While there is no one right answer to many of these questions, we found clarity on the following: the highest-performing organizations are rethinking skills, establishing new ways of working, and pushing cultural boundaries. Here are the highlights from the report. We hope to inspire your journey ahead.
“Should we replace marketing-qualified leads with predictive analytics that point to ‘conversation readiness’?”
“Can we automate our pipeline generation with AI?”
The new era of B2B sales is upon us and sales leaders are quickly making moves to adapt. We spoke with 50 global leaders to learn their game plan—and this is what we heard.
A new era of sales is upon us
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Future of B2B sales:
The big reframe
of B2B organizations face >30% turnover
45%
of customers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service over traditional interactions
65%
more hybrid sales roles hired in 2021 in outperforming organizations
71%
The case for change
Performance guarantees offered during sale:
78%
Consistent experience across channels:
72%
Product availability shown online:
74%
Ability to purchase from any channel:
72%
Real-time/always-on customer service:
72%
Top tier
Customers tend
to want all five of these must-dos
in combination
Experiences required for customer loyalty, % of respondents that will actively look for another supplier if given experience is not present¹
Five customer deal breakers in the new buying era.
Know my needs
High-performing companies use predictive and prescriptive analytics to successfully build 360-views on new and existing customers, including behavior and intent.
Personalize for me
B2B companies are hyper-personalizing marketing across touchpoints to connect with the right person at the right time.
Wow me
With customers using ten plus channels, they want seamless buying experiences. The more fragmented the marketing and sales experience, the higher the risk of losing the customer.
1
Put the customer at the heart of growth
Customers want simpler, on-demand, omnichannel engagements and are quick to move on if they don’t get what they want. B2B companies need to adopt a customer-first approach and create personalized, intuitive buying journeys that attract, excite, convert, and keep customers loyal.
Adopt hybrid selling model
Hybrid has become the default operating mode and represents 70 percent of the sales roles, followed by digital at 64 percent. Mixing the two and adjusting according to a customer's needs should happen at each stage of the sales process.
Meet customers where they are
With customers wanting personalized journeys, leaders are meeting customers where they want to be met. The transaction type now determines the go-to-market approach.
“It’s very easy in people’s personal lives to have access to information and to get what you want when you need it. People are bringing that same expectation into the business world.”
—Chief commercial officer, consumer goods company
Drive sales through unexpected channels
Companies are increasingly driving sales through unexpected channels, such as influencer marketing and buying communities. They look to customers to refer new buyers by offering incentives to them, thereby turning customers into channels themselves. Buying communities are platforms where buyers engage with each other without the intermediation of a seller.
2
Break the channel mindset
When customers get what they want, they're willing to spend in excess of $500,000 or more without ever meeting the seller in person. This changing behavior has prompted leading B2B companies to adapt in three ways.
Create cross-functional win rooms as the new standard
A win room brings together cross-functional teams comprising people from sales, marketing, product, delivery, finance, and technology, all working at a structured cadence to focus on closing deals. Top-performing sales functions have embraced and implemented this concept, bringing focus and rigor to the sales process.
Ensure the correct tech-stack intensity
While sales tech has made advances, many sales managers are not seeing the productivity boost they expected. Leading firms are streamlining their tech stack and focusing on quality over quantity. They lead with the desired outcomes rather than technology, and complement it with meaningful investments in data and change management.
It's more about having fewer tools, but thoughtfully integrating them—and focusing on the outcomes instead of the technology.”
—Head of go-to-market strategy and operations, technology player
Broaden the role of commercial operations
To operate at scale, leading companies broaden the role of commercial operations to one that adds analytical and strategic value. Our research shows that companies that do this perform significantly better than those that maintain a simplified sales-operations function.
How an evolved commercial operations lifts performance.
View of company’s performance vs. peers by maturity of commercial operations
Rate of company’s revenue growth compared to peers in market/industry, %
Source: McKinsey lorem ipsum dolor site amet, 2021
3
Companies whose commercial operations organization includes sales ops, professional services operations, customer care operations, and marketing operations. Figures may not sum to 100%, because of rounding.
1
7
14
43
36
14
100%=
Companies with only sales ops
13
38
50
18
Companies with full-suite consolidated commercial ops¹
>5% above
market
>5% below
market
0-5% below
market
In-line with
market
0-5% above
market
3
Create a scalable sales engine
The key to sales success is being able to replicate all best practices at scale. What separates average performers from distinctive ones is not just landing the perfect deal, but being able to do it again and again.
Five proven strategies from the world’s sales leaders
“Today’s buyers are more technically savvy. They're more digitally savvy. They’re spending more time on their devices. And they want to engage on their time, not your time.”
—Go-to-market executive, biotechnology company
~2/3
of buyers in 2021 opted for remote human interactions or digital self-service
“
McKinsey & Company
New sales reps for a new era: Rethinking talent
Sales people no longer just foster relationships with clients. They need to ensure they have a range of competencies to stay ahead of the customer, ranging from data analysis to digital skills.
“If a seller cannot talk to a customer’s P&L and tell them what is going to be done to enhance it, then they won’t be successful as modern sales reps.”
—President, technology company
Use analytics to hire and train the team
Leaders use analytics—from psychometrics to behavioral and relational analytics—to inform targeted interventions for sellers to improve their performance.
Rethink incentives to drive motivation and retention
Multi-year incentive schemes (instead of quarterly or annual targets) are now being used for sellers to develop a more customer-centric approach and an ownership mindset.
Analytical and quantitative skills
80%
of sales leaders surveyed ranked analytical and quantitative skills among the top capabilities to develop
Solution selling
85%
Believe solution selling will be a core sales capability, requiring strong product knowledge and solution design as well as account-planning skills
B2B sales organizations need to reskill frontline reps and add leadership roles.
Sales leaders see reskilling as their immediate priority…
Which best describes how your company thinks about upskilling your sales force?
% of respondents
Top priority
Low /not a priority
What percentage of your company’s sales force currently has the right capabilities to be successful?
% of respondents¹
… as less than half of sales leaders believe most of their reps have the right capabilities to succeed.
McKinsey & Company
Source: McKinsey insights
3
Figures may not sum to 100%, because of rounding.
1
42
39
15
4
1
<10%
>80%
60–79%
40–59%
20–39%
3
97
88
of B2B sales organizations rank reskilling as their top priority
97%
believe their reps don't have the capabilities to succeed
>50%
4
Rethink the people strategy
Employees are on the move. Times are uncertain amid fears of inflation and recession, and people are looking for meaning in their jobs as well as financial compensation. As companies now have to focus more on offering customers expertise-driven and personalized buying journeys, the need to attract and retain talent has become more important than ever.
Define a simple, compelling vision that the whole sales organization can understand
Sales organizations need to create a clear vision so that everyone comes on board to make the change happen.
Role model from the top
Sales leaders need to embrace the new concepts and be seen to be using them, so that reps model the behavior in their own sales pods and change moves throughout the organization, creating a sense of collaboration and purpose.
Embrace the two-pizza rule
The right cross-functional people can be grouped together in small teams (small enough that they can “share two large pizzas”) and be empowered to make decisions.
Create a culture of autonomy, but measure everything that matters
Companies can involve employees more to boost confidence and drive ownership to help with transformation, but they need to make sure that change is measured and tracked.
5
From concept to reality
Ideas are easy, but change is hard. However, our discussions with sales leaders have uncovered several practices that have accelerated change:
The new era of sales may be challenging, but it has created a new world of opportunities. By building hybrid channels, delivering consistent sales performance, and developing a new approach to attract and retain talent, companies can thrive with satisfied customers, driven salespeople, and
increasing profits.
Guilherme Cruz is a partner in McKinsey’s New York office, where Molly Lewis is an associate partner. Boudewijn Driedonks is a partner in the London office, Ben Ellencweig is a senior partner in the Stamford office, and Maximilian Fischer is an associate partner in the Denver office. Fidel Hernandez is an associate partner in the Miami office, where Maria Valdivieso de Uster is a partner; Josh Klemme is an associate partner in the Boston office.
Embrace the future now
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“Shall we stop targeting buyers—
and instead generate demand through end users, customer referrals, and communities?”
“Should we replace field sales with virtual showrooms and augmented reality?”
“Shall we build our sales teams offshore?”
“Should we throw annual incentives out the door and replace them with long term incentive schemes?”
“Can we leverage analytics to correct for our sales team’s lack of diversity?”
“What should our sales coverage model be in a world where our buyers are remote and prefer self serve?”