“Sales has dramatically changed in recent years...shifting from cold calls to potential customers to consulting with companies that often seek out products.”
Interesting opinion raised in the Wall Street Journal
However, if true that does present a dilemma for early stage B2B companies looking to hire new sales staff specifically to execute against short-term, bottom-of-funnel tactics.
eg. cold calling appointment generation
So how do they overcome the challenges of external expectations about the role they are hiring for versus the reality of the prospecting work they need them to do?
Perhaps the answer lies in a reframing of the question?
Is there the potential that these businesses’ may be misguided in thinking a hire is the right move for them at their current stage?
Owing to how tough they find sales prospecting, many B2B founders try to figure out how to hire sales way too early without considering whether that is the right next step.
Well, the good news for early-stage founders is that the explosion in sales and marketing technologies is opening up ever more accessible avenues to create highly targeted & impactful Go-To-Market campaigns that can be spun up in a matter of weeks.
The right tech can:
- Remove much of the inefficiencies of the prospecting ecosystem,
- Score potential customers in a way that founders can understand how much buying intent they really have, and
- Amplify their message in the most optimised and efficient manner.
However, before founders get caught up in a potential technology spaghetti they have to remember the golden rule – the tech always comes second.
Tech Is great — but it’s never a replacement for talking to your prospective customers to understand how your product makes their lives better.
