THE DIGITALISATION ARMS RACE
Over the past three decades
Over the past three decades, there has been an explosion of digital connectivity. Of the eight billion people on the planet, 5.35 billion use the internet and there are more than 15 billion connected devices globally.
Sixty-nine per cent, or 5.6 billion, subscribe to a mobile service, and this is expected to hit 74 per cent by 2030. Active social media identities are also approaching the five billion mark.
The adoption of digital technologies
The adoption of digital technologies, including personal computers, mobile phones, the internet, social media, AI and digital platforms, has radically changed and evolved the requirements for effective selling and buying.
Consider social selling a common approach used by salespeople to find and interact with potential buyers which wouldn’t be possible without social media technology.
In a similar vein, vendors and suppliers are being forced to adapt their approaches to match each other. In this digitalisation arms race, the use of new technologies on one side necessitates adaptations on the other.
Digital Search Engine
For instance, as vendors use Google and other search engines to find solutions, suppliers must develop websites, advertise their products online, create content and develop e-commerce solutions so they are able to be found in the new environment.
These changes come with a range of benefits such as automating and speeding up tasks, increasing communication efficiency, and giving both buyers and sellers greater access to information and the ability to disseminate that information. However, challenges have also arisen from the adoption of these technologies.
Relationship-based professions
In traditionally relationship-based professions like sales, one of the clearest implications is the reduction of face-to-face interaction. Seventy-five per cent of B2B buyers use social media to research vendors, with 50 per cent naming LinkedIn as a trusted source.
Digital technologies are able to replace human salespeople for up to 47 per cent of the sales process, with multiple predictions over the years reporting that the need for salespeople will continue to decline. In fact, as of 2019, buyers already completed 87 per cent of their purchasing journey before contacting a vendor salesperson.
And this is the way modern buyers prefer to engage nearly 75 per cent of B2B buyers would prefer to buy from a website than a human salesperson, with 93 per cent preferring to buy online once they have decided what to purchase. When sellers and buyers do interact, it is often through digital channels.
Investing in new technologies
This is why increasing numbers of sales and buying organisations are investing in new technologies to support, supplement and replace human workforces, with digital technology being used in buying to autonomously process orders and replenish inventory, or in selling for content creation and identifying prospects.
Activities that were previously conducted exclusively by humans are now completed more efficiently and effectively through digital technology, demonstrating an unmistakable trend in selling and buying away from human-to-human interaction and towards digitalisation and automation. This has reduced the importance of humans in selling and buying approaches and has significant implications for the future.