Sales tech ‘is changing the game for sellers’ (and buyers)

From the LinkedIn report

Ironically — according to a new LinkedIn-sponsored report — sales tech now allows B2B buyers to turn the tables on B2B sellers.

That’s because B2B buyers now frequently pre-qualify sellers, when it used to be primarily the other way around.

The company’s second annual “State of Sales 2017” report is out this week, focusing on “sales technology, adoption and success.” In summary, it finds:

Sales technology is changing the game for sellers. It is making them smarter about their prospects and customers, enabling them to surface the hard to find information that the offline world doesn’t offer. It’s also making them more efficient and productive, while helping them transform their position with buyers, and evolve their role from vendors to advisors.

That role evolution, the report finds, is being driven by the buyer’s most important consideration: trust.

“Trust is paramount,” VP of Marketing at LinkedIn Sales and Marketing Solutions Justin Shriber told me. To establish buyers’ trust in the seller, he said, they “are focused on pre-qualifying.”

[Read the full article on MarTech Today.]

About The Author

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.