RepBot Mix Up
Over the past couple of years, research crystal-ballers Gartner may have tempered the drive to go all-in autorepping. Here's a couple of their such recent findings.
"Our research reveals that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. But self-service digital purchases are far more likely to result in purchase regret."
"By 2030, 75% of B2B buyers will prefer sales experiences that prioritize human interaction over AI".
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they seem to favour a hedge-the-bets, hybrid approach. Getting the mix right between tech and human that's right for your clients and you shall prevail.
Depending on the day of the week right now, you'll read salespeople are high for the AI chop one day, then be one of only a handful of roles that'll stay outside the clutches of 'agents' the next.
If you've seen say, a dilapidated train station vending machine that part explains why the adjacent barista hatch is so busy, then you'll likely sense a balance is probably coming somewhere.
And that applies to solution selling too.
Nor can you leave too far out of reach the sneer that is, 'they care so much about their prospects they won't let them speak to an actual human'.
Yet there are certain elements of the buying process for which some (many?) may well wish to not speak to said actual human.
Do we know the difference between these two?
A year or so back, before the current wave of the 'agentic' bubbled up so big, I thought one useful gauge would be how AI firms in the Enterprise arena themselves sold. Turns out in the (albeit relatively small) sample size I talked with, it was decidedly all-human, no-bot selling.
What does that tell us?
Solution Sales is so often rooted in staying as close as possible to shaping what happens that to cede 'control' of such a project is to lose it.
By its very definition, we deal with the 'complex sale'. Anything where two or more people must decide. Imagine then, the complexities of the bid where teams of say - as is supposedly commonplace now - eleven must agree.
We're probably involved in some stab at how AI can help us in our selling. But what of how it might help our buyers buy from us?
If we could nail that, wouldn't it be a significant win? A truly unique route to 'better' buying, tailored to how clients purchase from us that no-one else permits.
I don't bank on anyone going down such route anytime soon. But you could start thinking about collaborating with existing clients on where the application of AI might help them better utilise, adapt and manage what we've provided for them. Thinking past the sale to get ahead.