B2B Sales Force Digital Reboot Report

FOR B2B MARKETING PROFESSIONALS
The B2B Sales Force Digital Reboot

Focus Your Sales Enablement Efforts On Navigators And Consultants
by Mary Shea
October 19, 2015
Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

Is the B2B salesman dead or simply in need B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed
of a reboot? As B2B buyers increasingly include Buyer preferences for engaging digitally
the digital channel in some or all of their purchase throughout various phases of the sales cycle are
process, B2B marketers must partner with sales changing rapidly -- 74% of todays B2B buyers
leaders to prepare their sales forces to adapt. conduct more than half of their research online
In this report, we look at Forresters four seller before making a purchase, and we predict that
archetypes, focusing on the Consultant, and 12% of all B2B sales in the US will take place
suggest new ways to design a scalable sales force online by 2020.
built to thrive in this rapidly evolving environment.
B2B Sales Forces Are Unprepared
Many B2B sales forces still adopt a company-
and product-centric go-to-market approach.
These sellers are largely unprepared for many
of the transformative changes they face, such
as buyers who want to engage seamlessly with
human and digital assets throughout the cycle.
Act Now Or Be Left Behind

B2B marketers and sales leaders must quickly
partner to develop new enablement strategies,
encourage their sales force to accept new
selling and collaboration models, and embrace
different organizational structures to ensure their
sales forces remain relevant and thrive in this
dynamic marketplace.
FORRESTER.COM
FOR B2B MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

by Mary Shea
with Peter ONeill, Jacob Milender, and Matthew Izzi
October 19, 2015
Table Of Contents Notes & Resources

2 B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed Forrester interviewed five vendor and user
companies: EMC, Google, Gordon Brothers,
B2B Sellers Fall Under One Of Four
InsideSales.com, and VMware.
Archetypes
Three Seller Archetype Populations Will

Related Research Documents
Decline While Consultants Increase
Scale Your B2B Customer Obsession With A Go-
5 The B2B Salesperson Of The Future
To-Customer Strategy
Consultants Are Rare In The Current Selling
Threats To Their Traditional Sales Force Will
Environment
Change The Focus For B2B Marketers
Identify Your Sales Forces Skill Gaps
8 Focus Your Go-To-Market Approach On

Customers, Not Products
Recommendations
8 Initiate Your Digital Reboot Now
10 Supplemental Material
Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

+1 617-613-6000 | Fax: +1 617-613-5000 | forrester.com
2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester,
Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester
Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying or
distributing is a violation of copyright law. Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
FOR B2B MARKETING PROFESSIONALS October 19, 2015
B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed

Buyer preferences for engaging digitally throughout various phases of the sales cycle are well
established 74% of todays B2B buyers conduct more than half of their research online before
making an offline purchase, and we predict that 12% of all B2B sales in the US will take place online
by 2020.1 Earlier this year, Forrester also notably predicted that the number of B2B salespeople in the
US would contract by 1 million in the next five years.2 B2B marketing professionals and their sales
leadership colleagues must begin implementing new strategies to enable their sales forces to embrace
and adapt to this rapidly changing landscape.
Despite the digital shift, buyers still want a personal connection in some cases. While B2B buyers
want to engage with a variety of digital assets in the early to middle phases of their evaluation
cycle, they still prefer to interact with a salesperson when dealing with complex and expensive
purchases; when the product or service requires on-premises rollouts or postsale service/training;
and when negotiating and finalizing the deal (see Figure 1). In addition, strategic B2B solutions
purchases have a personal component to them: When consummating the deal, buyers want to feel
connected to and validated by their salesperson.
B2B marketers must deliver a seamless, holistic buying experience. Leading organizations accept
that B2B buyers want to engage with both human and digital assets. Follow their example by
preparing your sales, account management, and other market-facing teams to deliver seamless
and holistic experiences consisting of custom in-person and digital marketing interactions
throughout the engagement cycle.
FIGURE 1 B2B Buyers Want To Engage With Sales Reps In Unique Circumstances
For what types of purchases do you prefer to interact with a sales rep?
91%
82%
64% 67% 67%
When When When Requires Requires

expensive complex negotiating installation service
price
Base: 224 US B2B buyers and sellers
Source: Forrester/Internet Retailer Q1 2015 US B2B Buyer Channel Preferences Online Survey
2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law. 2
Citations@forrester.com or +1 866-367-7378
B2B Sellers Fall Under One Of Four Archetypes
Marketers and sales leaders can leverage Forresters four seller archetypes, based on the B2B Go-
To-Customer Strategy Matrix, to assess and prepare their sales force to thrive in the digitally enabled
selling environment (see Figure 2).3 This framework can help you evaluate individual sales team
member capabilities, rethink your market coverage, and realign sales and marketing resources.4 The
four seller archetypes found in todays B2B sales organizations are:5
Order Takers. These sellers typically deliver quick, frictionless transactions and operate in a low-
complexity buying environment.
Explainers. These sellers take a product-centric approach when positioning more complex
products or services, and they also operate in a low-complexity buyer environment.
Navigators. These sellers specialize in mapping out buying organizations, securing institutional
buy-in, and leveraging personal relationships. They operate in a more complex buyer dynamic.
Consultants. These sellers are typically the best of the best within B2B selling. They take a more
strategic engagement approach, often persuading buyers, who may be unaware they need the
sellers product or service, to become clients. Consultants operate in a more complex buyer dynamic.
FIGURE 2 B2B Seller Archetypes Depend On Complexity Of The Product/Service And Buyer Dynamics
Buyer says show me Buyer says enlighten me
High
Explainers Consultants
Complexity of
product/service Buyer says serve me Buyer says guide me
Low
Order Takers Navigators

Low High
Complexity of the buyer dynamic
Source: Death Of A (B2B) Salesman Forrester report
Three Seller Archetype Populations Will Decline While Consultants Increase
Buyers will be able to engage anywhere, anytime, and in any way they choose. Selling organizations
will benefit from increased market coverage and the scalability and efficiencies of online and inside
channels. This means that:
Technology will mostly displace Order Takers and Explainers. By 2020, Forrester predicts that
37% of Order Takers and 27% of Explainers will be displaced by eCommerce websites and various
other digital channels where buyers can research competitors, evaluate pricing, interact with peers,
engage in live chat, and execute transactions (see Figure 3). Now this change sounds much more
dramatic than it is: The reality is that 62% of all B2B salespeople will still be Order Takers and
Explainers in 2020, but their impact on B2B sales success will clearly diminish.
Navigators will also decline in number, but to a lesser degree. Navigators, who maintain
personal relationships with buyers and have specific knowledge of client internal operations, will
decline by only 17% by 2020, as their skills are more difficult to replace with technology.
Only Consultants will increase their number within sales forces. By 2020, we predict that the
Consultant sales population will increase by 10%. Consultants who understand how to interpret
balance sheets, have strong analytical skills, and are technology and data savvy will become more
in demand. Navigators and Consultants are best equipped to deliver the services that buyers prefer
during their buying process. Neil Ringel, vice president of Staples Advantage, understands B2B
buyer preferences, as he wants his salespeople to be ubiquitous and customer-obsessed to
help customers buy whenever, however, and wherever they want.6
FIGURE 3 Only Consultants Will Avoid The Decline Of The B2B Seller
Order Takers: -37% Explainers: -27%

1.6M
1.5M
Navigators: -17% Consultants: +10%
1.1M
1.0M
0.9M
0.75M
0.5M 0.55M
2012 2020 2012 2020 2012 2020 2012 2020
Source: Death Of A (B2B) Salesman Forrester report
The B2B Salesperson Of The Future

Both Navigators and Consultants excel at leveraging relationships and knowledge of client internal
operations to advance sales. But Consultants have additional capabilities and characteristics that
will help them thrive in the changing buyer landscape: qualitative and quantitative analytical skills,
technology and data savvy, financial and operational knowledge, and the ability to engage with a range
of stakeholders from the C-suite to midlevel attorneys and procurement managers (see Figure 4).
Consultants are persuasive communicators, are intellectually curious, enjoy sharing new ideas, and are
motivated by client success. They embrace internal collaboration and actively partner with marketing
colleagues. Adding value and broadly supporting clients motivates the modern salesperson more than
simply matching problems to solutions and transacting the order.
Consultants Are Rare In The Current Selling Environment
Today, its hard to find Consultant sellers with the range of skills and mindset described above.
This is primarily because most selling organizations dont actively recruit for this profile, and sales
compensation plans frequently emphasize coin-operated versus value-added behaviors. Innovative
companies now recognize the need to acquire different sales talent and are seeking out new channels
for sourcing candidates. As an example, Microsoft recently hosted a Chicago MBA Sales Workshop for
current Booth MBA students. Delivered through an interactive panel, breakout sessions, and informal
networking, the workshop included an overview of Microsoft and its organizational direction, as well as
a perspective into sales roles and management opportunities at the company.7
Sales Consultants can be found working with top-tier clients and prospects, and they are typically
the most tenured professionals within the sales organization. While some of them have strong
communication skills, solid business acumen, and understand the role technology plays in the sales
cycle, insights gained from Forrester client inquiries indicate that most sales Consultants still lack the
full suite of competencies required to successfully engage in current and future selling environments.8
B2B marketing pros involved in sales training activities find that top-tier Consultants are typically not
well-versed in leveraging new technologies to gain insights and advance the sale; they lack deep
analytical skills and dont fully collaborate with marketing colleagues.9
FIGURE 4 Characteristics Of The Consultant Seller
Leverages Embraces
data technology
Seeks Shares
collaboration new ideas
Communicates Exhibits business

effectively acumen
Identify Your Sales Forces Skill Gaps
To overcome this talent gap, marketing and sales leaders must devise plans to train existing
Consultants and acquire new talent who will bring a broader and deeper skill set to the role. In both
scenarios, youll need more creative sourcing strategies along with different onboarding, training, and
development programs. Based on conversations with both buyers and sellers, weve created a list of
attributes that are critical to the Consultant salespersons success. Use this table to assess your own
sales force and identify skill gaps (see Figure 5).
Here are two examples of firms implementing new strategies to arm high-value sales resources so they
will thrive in the current and future marketplace:
InsideSales.com provides more support to both tenured sales and entry-level hires. The
company adopted selling best practices and built prescriptive sales workflows that it laid on top
of a set of sales-focused tools and data sets. InsideSales.com captures both the art and science
of selling to optimize reps output by aligning their behavior with best practices. It incentivizes all
reps to follow these practices and to meet the buyer at multiple points throughout the buyers own
journey of digital self-education and when they are likely to transact.
A large technology firm customizes its sales training. A VP of sales enablement, recognizing
the firm is in the midst of a disruptive transformation in terms of how buyers want to engage with
its sales force, has revisited enablement strategies. The company scrapped all traditional selling
methodologies and created custom sales training modules that emphasize business acumen
and sales manager training. Additionally, the firm is providing more training and support to first-
line sales managers, as it recognizes the importance of that role in cascading and scaling best
practices and in recruiting new hires with different profiles.
FIGURE 5 Assessment Of Consultant Sellers Critical Attributes
Skill/characteristic Current ability
Communicates effectively
Has business acumen Strong
Has financial and operational knowledge

Partial
Is conversant with new technologies

Skill gap
Shares new ideas
Is intellectually curious
Seeks collaboration
Has qualitative and quantitative analytical skills
Engages with a broad range of stakeholders
Relinquishes control
Is motivated by client success
Focus Your Go-To-Market Approach On Customers, Not Products

Todays sales forces are largely unprepared to engage effectively with B2B buyers, and many
organizations have not yet devised scalable go-to-market structures to match current and future buyer
preferences. While Consultant archetypes can be found here and there, most sales forces go to market
leading with company and product positioning, rather than using a customer- and market-centric
approach. Many selling organizations still dont consistently engage in a buyer-centric manner, while
others are beginning to enable their sales force.
We have a strong product and that is both a strength and weakness. Five years ago the product
sold itself. Now we need to be more market- and customer-centric if we want to remain
competitive. APAC is behind other regions as we lead with company and product. Some of that
is market-driven, but our CMO engagement is much lower than that of other regions. (Senior
executive, Asia Pacific, global media company)
EMC has begun to evolve how it goes to market by establishing a new position to oversee global sales
transformation, realigning internal structures, and thinking differently about sales profiles.
Two years ago we coined the term new age seller. The buyers journey has changed for the sales
rep. Control has shifted away from the salesperson, as sales is no longer the sole provider of
information. The buyer can use the Internet to self-educate, they can interact with peers online,
and they want to control the engagement. EMC shifted to a more customer-centric approach
by implementing global chat capabilities to provide real-time responses to questions to create
exceptional customer experience in their self-education process. (Linda Connly, senior vice
president global inside sales, EMC)
Recommendations
Initiate Your Digital Reboot Now

B2B buyers are becoming more and more digitally oriented, so B2B marketing and sales leaders must
act now to provide their sales forces with a digital reboot or risk being left behind. Work in concert
to assess your current sales forces skillset, ability, and willingness to acquire new skills and adopt
new models. You will need to up-skill and acquire new Consultant sales talent and reassign or reduce
existing talent. You must reconfigure and resize your go-to-market organizational structure to match
up seller and buyer engagement processes, provide optimal market coverage, and manage the cost
of sales. This new structure must be flexible enough to change and scale as B2B buyer dynamics
continuously evolve. B2B marketers should:
Assess individual sales team members capabilities, attitude, and ability to evolve. Identify
Explainers and Navigators who are motivated to acquire new skills and ways of engaging with
buyers. Spot the skill gaps that exist with current Consultants. Order Takers, Navigators, and
Explainers who cannot progress must be managed out of the business or reassigned to an
inbound/outbound channel.
Develop new sales training programs to teach new and extend existing skills. Custom training
modules should emphasize and reinforce business acumen, industry knowledge, basic analytic
techniques, how to leverage various tools and technologies to gain market and customer insights,
and how to become territory or account-based micro marketers.
Pursue more creative talent sourcing strategies. With enrollments up in sales courses, sales
clubs, and pitch contests at top-tier business schools, MBAs are now exposed to the various
benefits of a sales career. Build relationships with leading academic institutions, participate in on-
campus recruiting activities, and develop leadership programs to entice recently minted MBAs.
Identify which clients and prospects are better served by inside and Internet channels. Put
a strong marketer in charge of a group to revisit your existing market segmentation, and assign
marketing and sales resources to staff this team. This group will become a marketing and sales
machine that leverages various technologies and blends sales and marketing tactics to initiate,
advance, and transact sales.
Engage With An Analyst

Gain greater confidence in your decisions by working with Forrester thought leaders to apply our
research to your specific business and technology initiatives.
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Learn more about inquiry, including tips for Learn about interactive advisory sessions
getting the most out of your discussion. and how we can support your initiatives.
Supplemental Material
Companies Interviewed For This Brief

EMC InsideSales.com
Google VMware
Gordon Brothers
Endnotes
1
Forrester estimates that B2B eCommerce will top $1.1 trillion and account for 12.1% of all B2B sales in the US by
2020. See the US B2B eCommerce Forecast: 2015 To 2020 Forrester report.
2
Forrester estimates that 1 million of those sales professionals, mostly what we call Order Takers, will lose their jobs to
self-service eCommerce by 2020. See the Threats To Their Traditional Sales Force Will Change The Focus For B2B
Marketers Forrester report.
3
In this report, we introduce Forresters Go-To-Customer (GTC) Strategy Matrix based on a new concept of B2B
buyer archetypes to help B2B marketers engineer a go-to-customer strategy that will align marketing, sales, and
service on a path to customer obsession at scale. See the Scale Your B2B Customer Obsession With A Go-To-
Customer Strategy Forrester report.
4
To engage successfully with the modern business buyer from procurement level to the executive salespeople
require a different combinations of skills and competencies. The Forrester Salesperson Hiring Tool provides a
framework to assess candidates for a sales position, using a highly researched set of criteria that helps management
identify the specific type of seller to pair with a target buyer. The following toolkit is one of a series of tools for hiring
and developing salespeople. See the The Forrester Salesperson Hiring Tool Master Forrester toolkit.
5
These are the terms Forrester has selected. In working with clients, our experience has been that each organization
assumes its own version of these terms reflecting its own business history and culture.
6
Ringel stated this at the Forrester Sales Enablement Forum in March 2015. Source: Peter ONeill, This is what you
missed at the Sales Enablement Forum, Peter Oneills Blog, March 12, 2015 (http://blogs.forrester.com/peter_
oneill/15-03-12-this_is_what_you_missed_at_the_sales_enablement_forum).
7
On September 25, 2015, Microsoft presented a Chicago MBA Sales Workshop for The University of Chicago Booth
School of Business MBA students. The workshop featured Microsoft Booth alumni, recent Microsoft hires, and senior
executives. Cohosted by Microsofts sales office and Booths on-campus recruiting, the workshop exposed Booth
MBA students to Microsofts sales roles and culture and included A Day on the Job perspective.
8
Most sales training leaders tell us they want to deliver sales training to promote sustainable sales effectiveness,
efficiency, and revenue growth. Yet according to executive buyers, salespeople are patently unprepared to meet with
them and fail to have conversations that add value. See the Elevate Your Sales Training Impact With A Strategic
Framework Forrester report.
9
According to executive buyers we surveyed, most salespeople they meet with are not prepared to engage or help
them understand a problem and how to solve it. These buyers observe that 80% of the salespeople they meet with
have an agenda focused on presenting their products, rather than understanding the buyer, their company, and its
business challenges. See the Why Buyers Dont Want To Meet Your Salespeople And What To Do About It Forrester
report.
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FOR B2B MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

The B2B Sales Force Digital Reboot

Why Read This Report Key Takeaways

Act Now Or Be Left Behind

The B2B Sales Force Digital Reboot

Table Of Contents Notes & Resources

Three Seller Archetype Populations Will

8 Focus Your Go-To-Market Approach On

8 Initiate Your Digital Reboot Now

Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA

B2B Buyer Behavior Has Changed

64% 67% 67%

When When When Requires Requires

B2B Sellers Fall Under One Of Four Archetypes

Buyer says show me Buyer says enlighten me

Order Takers Navigators

Three Seller Archetype Populations Will Decline While Consultants Increase

Order Takers: -37% Explainers: -27%

2012 2020 2012 2020 2012 2020 2012 2020

Source: Death Of A (B2B) Salesman Forrester report

The B2B Salesperson Of The Future

Consultants Are Rare In The Current Selling Environment

FIGURE 4 Characteristics Of The Consultant Seller

Communicates Exhibits business

Identify Your Sales Forces Skill Gaps

FIGURE 5 Assessment Of Consultant Sellers Critical Attributes

Skill/characteristic Current ability

Has business acumen Strong

Has financial and operational knowledge

Is conversant with new technologies

Shares new ideas

Has qualitative and quantitative analytical skills

Engages with a broad range of stakeholders

Is motivated by client success

Focus Your Go-To-Market Approach On Customers, Not Products

Initiate Your Digital Reboot Now

Engage With An Analyst

Analyst Inquiry Analyst Advisory

Companies Interviewed For This Brief

Forresters research and insights are tailored to your role and

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