The rapid advancement of SaaS has had an outsized impact on B2B sales. In 2014, there were fewer than 400 companies in the sales/marketing software space. Today, it has become the most competitive and crowded market in the world, with over 10,000 vendors across many categories. It has caused a fundamental change to how salespeople communicate.
The introduction of automated outreach, from email sequencing to LinkedIn automation tools, has skyrocketed the amount of noise in B2B sales and unfortunately caused a drastic change in how buyers perceive sales professionals. According to an HBR report, more than 70% of B2B buyers place very little value in interacting with a sales professional.
Automation Run Amok
We have reached a point in the advancement of automated outreach that is quickly getting out of hand. The ability to create an authentic and personal connection with prospects has long been a core skill of the best sales professionals. With the simplified ability to “customize” or “personalize” email outreach at scale, it has now reached the point where most cold outreach is assumed to be the result of software, and not the words and thoughts of a person.
Over time, this has caused the value ascribed to sales professionals in the eyes of their buyers to rapidly diminish. The default reaction to an unprompted email or LinkedIn message is to assume it is automated. With the software always improving, when will we reach the point where an authentically written email is no longer distinguishable from one that’s software generated?
Research? Whats That?
As I scroll through my inbound LinkedIn messages, I can easily find five individuals who have sent me over eight sequential messages. I would respect the tenacity, however four of them I'd actually consider my direct competition. When automation begins to affect quality, you’re heading down the wrong path.
This approach effectively tells many of your “prospects” that you spent zero time learning about their business prior to asking for a meeting. To send someone who is in no way, shape, or form a viable prospect for your business eight or more messages is a shocking and incredible waste of time. How many of their prospects are like me? The potential wasted time and resources should be truly frightening to sales managers. When the scenario described above begins to happen on a massive scale across all industries, how can we blame our prospects for assuming we have no genuine interest in their business? All important buying decisions are made using the Limbic Cortex, the most ancient part of our brain that has evolved over millions of years. It's also where emotions are produced in the brain. Simply put, how would you feel about interacting with someone who has zero interest in you, your business, or learning how they can improve it? I can say this is the case because had any of those four sales professionals messaged me and taken literally fifteen seconds to scan my LinkedIn profile, they would have seen the following - we're competitors and that my company was a one man operation at the time.
Looking Forward
In conclusion, the advancement of SaaS has created both opportunities and challenges for B2B sales professionals. While tools have enabled more connections and conversations at scale, the lack of personalization and over-automation has significantly diminished the perceived value of salespeople in the eyes of buyers.
To overcome the "Great Ignoring", sales professionals must double down on crafting authentic, empathetic, and personalized outreach at scale. Only then will we regain the trust and value we once held in the hearts and minds of our prospects.