In today’s digital world of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Machine Learning, I often got challenged if we still need (B2B) salespeople in the future. My answer is always yes! What do you think? Will robots take over the role of a sales rep?
A new year, time to look back and reflect on what 2020 brought us. For most of us, it went much differently than expected. Most people working in commercial roles have become experts in video calling, and it doesn’t like it will disappear.
Looking at this trend and adding all the digital evolutions in terms of AI, Robotics, and Machine Learning, I do see people arguing that salespeople will become redundant at some point in the future. Yes, we might need fewer people, but I’m firmly convinced that the sales job will still exist in the future. In fact, I am sure that in the digital world, where computers will take over many other jobs, the job of a sales rep will become more and more important.
Here a few reasons why we still need salespeople in the future.
Sales is a people business
People do business with people. A robot can’t merely be genuinely interested, emphatic, or emotional. While this might not be relevant in smaller (B2C) purchases, in B2B sales, we will always need the sales rep. Remember your last big purchase. The person where you bought from, did you like him or her?
People represent who you are
People are the face of a company. They are the main distinguishing factor in today’s business. The best companies have people that inspire other people to buy. Because in the end, people buy because of people.
”People buy because of people”.
CEO of Sales
Salespeople are the entrepreneurs of your company
What about the entrepreneurship in your company? A healthy sales culture with good salespeople will bring new ideas and will provide executives valuable insights into the market space. Salespeople decide on the strategy of your company. Without salespeople, you will likely miss the creativity, resilience, and perseverance to succeed!
A robot isn’t a good listener
Only real people have the emotional intelligence to listen carefully. And as we salespeople all know, listening is more important than talking. A robot might be a trendy instrument to give a product presentation, but it cannot deep-dive into specific customer needs.
A robot can’t deliver an excellent customer experience
We all know the automated message services, FAQ pages, and chat robots from large companies. Although this is indeed an excellent way to automate customer service, it misses the personal touch to sell something. I am sure that you prefer to buy and be serviced by ‘real’ people.
A robot can’t manage complex sales cycles
A sales cycle is complex when there’s a high number of decision-makers, a long sales cycle, and a high impact on the organization and its people. As Enterprise Sales becomes more and more complicated today, do you think a robot can handle this?
Only real people can challenge
Recent studies of CEB/Gartner showed that the outperforming B2B sales reps are challengers. They challenge the status quo, come up with new ideas, and change people’s minds. Do you think that a robot is such intelligent that he can do that in the future?
What do you think? Do you share our opinion that we still need salespeople in the future? Let us know!
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