There’s one dirty little secret about B2B sales that most B2B sellers will ignore even if someone they trust tells it to them directly. Are you ready? Here it is: Your success in B2B sales is ultimately dependent on a bunch of automated bots.
Simply stated, B2B marketing is becoming a completely automated process, and that’s reducing the need for humans in the whole process. Since B2B marketing and B2B sales go hand-in-hand, that also means that automation is going to impact B2B sales, if only indirectly.
You didn’t think the robots were just going to go after the boring, routine, manual labor jobs, did you? No, automation is catching up in the B2B industry as well. In short, the robots are coming for your job.
And the first place they will start will be in automating the whole B2B marketing process. Those sales leads you get? That’s right, they’re going to be from bots. Those qualified leads you’re eager to sell? That’s right, super-smart algorithmic bots have qualified them.
Here’s one number that should get your attention: 57 percent of the buyer’s journey is completed before the buyer ever talks to the sales team, according to the Corporate Executive Board. And that percentage is only going to increase over time! 57 percent is still a staggering number – it means that half of the work has already been done for you by the time you pick up the phone for the first time.
That’s either exhilarating or scary. It means that your ability as a B2B seller can either be harder or easier not because of anything you’ve done, but because of the algorithms and computer code used to send out marketing promotions and track prospects.
This whole trend toward automating the B2B marketing process is so new, of course, that even most CMOs don’t know what to do about it. 64 percent of CMOs have either an informal or no process to manage their marketing automation, according to the ANNUITAS Group.
Even if the CMO doesn’t know what to do about it, there’s plenty that you can do. First and foremost, you need to understand what B2B marketing automation means for your own job. You need to understand how all this automation is feeding into your sales funnel and impacting its final size and shape.
Secondly, you need to start preparing for the future. Those bots are headed upstream. They won’t be making the sales call for you, but they could be taking over a lot of other details. Maybe they’ll be reminding you of who to contact, and when. Maybe they’ll be optimizing your B2B sales schedule for the next quarter. And maybe they’ll be checking up on you, comparing you to others in your B2B sales cohort. You’ll be answering to them one day, even if it’s only via an app.
So, that’s the dirty little secret. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes public knowledge. You have been warned – now it’s time to go out and make yourself indispensable to your B2B sales team before the bots decide they don’t need you after all.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.