Time is money, and I have to agree with Mr. Guterman. As stated, restricted budgets and prolonged more competitive sales cycles are forcing organizations to make better and smarter business decisions. With highly cost effective and time efficient cloud-based sales demo and POC solutions available such as Skytap (Skytap.com), companies can engage prospects and close more new business faster. Long gone are the days of wine me dine me. Embrace the cloud.

The less you personally touch your prospective customers, the lower your sales price will be. This may open up sales opportunities at certain price points, but overall, I think it means less revenue for the industry.

A typical SaaS company is tiny compared to a traditional software company like Oracle or SAP.

Biff and Willy Lohman would roll over in their graves if they were flies on the wall and viewing the "clouds" roll in that are currently roiling sales and marketing.

I will give you some observations and from the perspective of 30 years as a marketing executive, field sales person, and director of sales training, and organizational development.

Currently I am in the ivory tower of academia, but the facts are clear; companies have always wanted their sales persons to tell their particular story accurately and precisely as to performance, pricing, and delivery.

That is at the root of why C-suite executives and above are in love with technology,

How and when you tell the story is not relevant. What is relevant is that the story be told jut the way the CEO wants it to be told. That is it, and that will always be the bottom line.

IP Silver
Yangcheng Teachers University
Peoples Republic of China

Technology will help, but it is the person to person, face to face interface that will close the deal. Trust is the key. You are agreeing to a relationship with people, not things. The higher the deal, the more it is essential that you know the people you are dealing with and what they are really like. No, technology is there to help clinch the deal, but it is the people on the ground that will sign the papers.

Technology is not the only thing being sold out there...but tech people seem to think it is. For the tens of thousands of business people buying produce, shelving, gasoline pumps, vehicle parts, copiers, kitchen equipment, and countless other things, an in-person demonstration from a trusted sales rep is still the way to go. No matter how big some of the online services (like WebEx) may seem, the fact is that the vast majority of businesses don't use them.

Frankly, having been both on the sell and buy side for initial sale (the trust initiating sale) I would not buy from a sales call over electronic media. After trust is built, then a media sales call will likely be effective.

Modern technology has made it possible for sales and marketing people to increase their productivity, if they use it effectively. And, it is impossible to cover the vast array of products and services opportunities. Especially, in technical sales, a sales rep. can find out more about a company before an initial sales call, and perhaps more accurately target a decision maker, embed an e-mail with an introductory film clip, etc. Ultimately, as one goes up the value chain, the talented sales rep. who uses communication technology appropriately will be more successful than one that doesn't. Most have a favorite story of that chance call that resulted in a big order; technology can improve the odds.

There is no substitute for talking to people face to face. An in-person meeting can't be clicked off like an online presentation.

I find the cloud-based solutions to be complementary to the in-person, face-to-face interactions.

Call me old-fashioned, but I strongly believe that business relations are based on a common trust between people. Once the relationship is up and running, a lot can be done virtually, but make no mistake, the human relations, as imperfect and biased as they may be, play a huge part.

Both are correct. It is absolutely indisputable that not only is online 'everything,' displacing storefronts and outside sales calls, but we are all left wondering: "How is anybody ever going to make any money, again?" However, I digress.

The "con" side of the coin also has merit: Name one huge initial deal in business that was concluded without a face to face meeting at some level. Yeah, subsequent sales, possibly. No initial huge deal.

Thought provoking post, thanks!

Today prospects can get most of the information they need without ever contacting sales. In fact, in the name of efficiency, many companies are trying to do more and more "selling" with online media.

Thankfully, until AI is reality, no amount of information will be able to replace a good sales person's ability to communicate with a prospect, react to what they say (and their body language), and to persuade them to buy.

A cloud-based presentation over the web is fine for lower-priced solutions, but once a deal goes enterprise wide, a face to face is still required and necessary.

Despite all the technology hype, people still purchase from vendors that they know and trust. The best way to quickly build that trust (for better or worse) is still face to face.

I've sold millions and millions to Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Lowes, Costco and many, many others. In this industry more leverage has gone to the buyer every decade, particularly in their ability to buy directly in China and cut out the manufacturer who may have just outsourced 5 to 10 years earlier to China. This is in fact a new source of American unemployment--closed and shuttered import firms who thought it was smart to get out of manufacturing. The loss of interpersonal selling has been one of the more recent power shifts as these global retailers put their vendors through on-line reverse auctions and automated 'line' reviews. It then all comes down to price and terms and the product eventually becomes so cheap--it's almost unrecognizable to your parents. Take a look at household products that barely work with such lightweight plastics & anemic motors. Yuck, bring back the lunch and dinner schmooze and let's get it done.