By 2025, 80% of B2B Sales Interactions Will Occur Digitally

By 2025 80% of B2B Sales Interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels.

Gartner Research - 80% of B2B Sales Interactions Will Occur In Digital Channels by 2025

Gartner conducted research on the Future of Sales which shows that by 2025, 80% of B2B (Business-to-Business) sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur through digital channels.

Gartner's' projection is based on survey data which indicates that 33% of all buyers prefer a seller-free sales experience – a preference that climbs to 44% for millennials. B2B buying behaviors have been shifting toward a buyer-centric digital model, a change that has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore Gartner, expects that an exponential rise in digital B2B interactions between buyers and suppliers will break traditional sales models.

Gartner recommends to meet customers’ buying preferences and adopt a more digital-first approach, chief sales officers (CSOs) and other sales leaders must consider the following:

Diversify Digital Selling Tools & Channels: Sellers need digital tools that build engagement with customers, particularly with their customers’ decision makers, in a way that replicates the traditional forms of selling. These digital engagement tools are necessary to overcome the challenges of aligning larger groups of internal stakeholders virtually and asynchronously. Sellers must be able to use multiple, different, simultaneous digital sales channels.

Rethink Sales Enablement: To learn how to align selling activity to customers’ preferred engagement channels and purchasing journey, sellers will need entirely new methods of sales enablement. Gartner’s 2019 survey of B2B sales organizations indicated that sales enablement was the most critical priority last year. The pandemic accelerated this priority, as CSOs seek new techniques to reduce the risk of lost sales.

Prioritize the Seller Experience & Coaching: To keep sellers engaged and executing sales, CSOs must find the right balance between the technology deployed and the volume of content that sellers interact with to do their jobs. CSOs and sales enablement leaders must train sellers both synchronously and asynchronously in order to better optimize virtual sales enablement practices.