In this latest article by Gartner, they mention some research they undertook.
A Gartner survey of 725 B2B buyers from December 2021 found 72% of B2B buyers recently completed a significant transaction via a digital channel, compared to 28% who used a rep-led channel. You can get access to the report here.
Now I don't know about you, I don't believe what I sell can be purchased over the web, I'm like many, if not all B2B companies, I need to a conversation to get a level of commercial interaction. Or put it another way, I need a conversation to get a sale.
But what I do know is that my buyers are online.
In my book "social selling - Techniques to influence buyers and changemakers" the first edition came out in 2016, I wrote it in a way to connect, social media with pipeline generation and revenue creation.
It's worth reminding ourselves about this article I wrote back in 2016
How to use Twitter to get 10 C-Level Appointments Per Week — A Case Study
Just think a method that allows you to get 10 C-Level meets a week using Twitter, just think if this was rolled out across the whole of your sales team?
Even if your sales team got one extra C-Level meeting a week this would be transformational for your business. Each meeting is a conversation.
Or more recently.
If you check out this video of Chris Mason CEO at Oracle reseller Namos, and DLA Ignite customer, fast forward to 19 minutes 55 seconds. Chris talks about a $2.6 million win from being on social, after completing the DLA Ignite social selling and influence course.
What happened? They buyer was on social media looking for a solution to their problem, spotted one of the Namos salespeople, who had a buyer-centric profile and asked if the salesperson could help them. That turned into a $2.6 million deal.
Again, how can your sales team be positioned on social media to buyers walk towards them and your salespeople get conversations?
This is why we set up DLA Ignite to connect social media to won business
It was why Adam Gray and I set up DLA Ignite, to demonstrate to business that leads and meetings and revenue can be generated from social media. If you are interested in our "introduction to social media" presentation, we can take you through how businesses have been using social media and have been for years to create leads and meetings and revenue.
After all. it's how we generate business here at DLA Ignite, we use social selling. We have NEVER spent a $ on advertising, cold calling or email marketing. I was on a call with a CEO the other day and he said "I don't believe social selling works." and I said "so how do you think we got on this call?"
There was an "aha" moment.
If you want to go away and do your own research then check out my third book, "social selling - techniques to influence buyers and changemakers - 2nd edition".
In this brand new edition, I have updated all the text, I have also got 15 practitioners, so people who are doing this already to explain how they are get (practical) business benefit. From the CEO that has been running a digital business for over 18 months to sales leaders who use social selling every day.
Articles on how these business have and are implementing digital, from Mercer, Telstra Purple, Ring Central, Cyberhawk, Namos, Ericsson, Crux Consulting, DLA Ignite and more.
It's available on Amazon worldwide. Link to Amazon.com here and Amazon.co.uk here.
Two years of constant and compounding disruption in the sales environment have left many chief sales officers (CSOs) with a burned out workforce and revenue target pressures. 2023 will serve as a tipping point for sales where the decisions CSOs make in response to challenges such as scarce talent and shifting buying dynamics will separate the winners from the losers in the years to come.
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