B2B sales jobs to be wiped out by e-commerce - analyst
Forrester predicts by 2020, one million B2B salespeople in the US alone will lose their jobs as self-service takes hold
The rise of e-commerce and self-service is set to make a huge chunk of B2B salespeople redundant in just five years' time, according to an analyst.
Forrester claims that by 2020, one million B2B salespeople in the US alone will lose their jobs due to e-commerce as business buyers increasingly prefer to go it alone in the procurement process.
"B2B buyers now favour do-it-yourself online options for researching and buying products and services, and they are demanding that B2B sellers fully enable those digital paths to purchase," said Forrester analyst Andy Hoar on the analyst's blog. "Yet too many of today's B2B companies still insist that B2B buyers interact with sales reps in order to complete a purchase."
He added that there will still be some need to talk to salespeople when buying complex kit, but he stressed these cases would be rare.
"For a minority of customers who are buying complex and expensive products and services, talking to a sales rep can be a value-added experience," he said. "But for the majority of B2B buyers who are self-educating online about products and services, or who already know what they want, the diversion is inconvenient and unwelcome."
B2B companies that want to stay ahead of the game must reshape their channel and distribution strategies and "fundamentally rethink" the role of their sales teams, he added.
He said expanding the role of self-service e-commerce should be a top priority for B2B companies, claiming three quarters of B2B buyers prefer buying from a website. When customers do want to buy from a sales rep, they should be matched to someone with in-depth knowledge of the product or service, Hoar added.
"Forrester believes that today's B2B buyers fall into four distinct quadrants based on a combination of the complexity of the product or service they are seeking and the complexity of the buying environment within which they operate," he said. "B2B companies must pair the appropriate B2B seller archetype with each quadrant's B2B buyer type."
Embracing digital is another important way B2B companies can keep their customers happy, he said.
"Digital channels are here to stay, and both B2B buyers and companies' internal sales professionals are using them to complete transactions," he said.
"B2B e-business and channel strategy professionals and their ecosystem partners must create websites that network B2B buyers researching online with call centres inside sales agents, field sales professionals, and their own internal websites."