The Future of the Sales Profession

Book excerpt: B2B sales is harder than ever before. Product lifecycles are getting shorter, sales cycles are getting longer, there are more competitors entering the market, and buyers are doing most of their research online before they even call you. When you finally get the meeting, buyers only want your best price.Despite all of this, your manager keeps asking for more - more calls, more meetings, more pipeline, faster, faster, faster!You're stuck between a rock and a hard place - a more challenging sales environment than ever before on one side, and ever-increasing quotas and expectations on the other.How will you respond? Wait and see how it all unfolds? Or fight for your career and your livelihood? In The Future of the Sales Profession, sales leader Graham Hawkins shares the cold, hard truths about the new realities facing the sales profession, and how you can protect and enhance your career."The Future of the Sales Profession is a fascinating, sobering and enlightening book. If, as Graham suggests, over 20% of sales people will lose their jobs by 2020, then this book is the best survival guide you could ever hope for." - Cian McLoughlin, CEO of Trinity Perspectives"This book is a compelling and comprehensive insight into the changing nature of business in the 21st century. Sales people will all have to adapt, and Graham has articulate exactly how." - John Merakovsky, CEO SEEK Learning."Graham Hawkins has nailed the future of selling in this must-read for every sales person seeking to prosper in the age of automation and customer empowerment." - Tony J. Hughes MD of RSVPsellingGraham Hawkins is an author, speaker and the Founder of SalesTribe, the world's first career transition management company designed forB2B sales people. Businesses need access to modern sales best practices, and sales people need new opportunities. SalesTribe makes those connections.