The Sales Conference 2021

The Sales Conference annual event

On the 18th of November we attended The Sales Conference. The Sales Conference is an annual event that brings together sales leaders from across the Nordic region to discuss, educate and inspire on the latest findings and trends in the field. At the conference we listened to a presentation by Henrik Broman Larsson which we found very interesting. Mercuri International Research is a network, focusing on marketing and sales in B2B. This year Mercuri International Research conducted a survey and asked over 2000 B2B decision makers, sales and marketing managers about what they think are the most important trends and strategies that will affect the future of B2B sales. Here we've summarised some of the points we found interesting, but if you want to read the full report you can find it here.

Sales & Marketing Alignment

Although this has been on the map for a long time, it remains a challenge for B2B companies to create a fully integrated sales and marketing function that serves/guides customers and prospects through the customer journey as a whole (right message, right time, right format and right channel). Data integration has of course been a major challenge to make this work.

"55% of executives rate integration between sales and marketing as one of the most critical trends for business success"

Thought Leadership

Positioning yourself as a thought leader in your field to establish trust and credibility will be an important source of competitive advantage as much of the buying journey is digital and customers do a lot of research and due diligence before they even make contact with the sellers.

The rise of happynomics (happy employees)

An important factor in reducing burn rate, increasing innovation and productivity in the company.

Many sales and marketing professionals cite this as one of the most important factors in choosing a company as their employer.

Social responsibility / CSR

80% of companies include CSR initiatives in their annual reports. This also affects the valuation of companies and will play a major role in the positioning of the company.

"Future sales position is not just about profit but finding a purpose behind profit"

Battle for sales talent

Finding sales talent is becoming increasingly difficult, with 69% of participating companies citing this as one of the biggest challenges facing the sales organisation. This is because candidates lack industry knowledge, experience or have expectations that cannot be met as an employer.

New age of sales automation

The future of sales will be heavily automated (the sales team can focus less on admin and more on sales) this will have a big impact on future sales. 77% are investing more in sales technology and are using multiple sales technologies in their sales efforts.

Sales skills transformation

Great need for up-skill and re-skill due to digitalisation and the emergence of a new sales role that requires great skills in digital sales systems such as CRM, prospecting tools, socialselling etc.

"28% of companies lack the skills to get started with digital sales"

Increase of remote / hybrid sale

New norm - this shift is permanent.

Mainly driven by changing expectations (70% of B2B buyers prefer a remote sales process)

50% of B2B buyers say that remote has made the purchase easier.

57% of B2B salespeople say that remote selling is more difficult, and this requires a change in the sales process.

The need for innovation acceleration

Selling is not just about how we sell, but what we sell.

Behaviour is changing, needs are changing and services need to evolve at the same pace.

Customer-facing salespeople need to work closely with R&D and business development departments to use customer insights to further develop services and products more than ever before.

Are you curious what other trends will change the future of B2B sales & marketing. Then you can download the report here.