Why Spotify, Netflix And Amazon Will Change The Future Of b2b Sales

Our relationship with Spotify and Netflix has become so personalised that we’ve come to expect the same from our experiences in b2b sales.

Hyper-personalisation might not be a new term, but those selling to businesses have failed to match the seamless ability to scale individual relationships in the same way.

There are now 200 million of us listening to Spotify, over 100 million using Amazon Prime and Netflix recently celebrated moving beyond 139 million accounts.

It’s more than likely that your “discover weekly” playlist knows the music you like better than you do. Behind it are the combined insights of over 2bn playlists, the listening habits of those with similar tastes and some secret Spotify magic thrown in.

Take it a step further and consider the depths of profiling that Netflix are now building from map-it-yourself shows like Brooker’s Bandersnatch.

In their letter to shareholders earlier this year, Netflix credited their growth, which accounts for an estimated 10% of all TV viewing in America to how good the experience is.

Sales performance goes hand-in-hand with customer intelligence. It relies on a bank of information that grows deeper and more personal with every engagement you have with each customer.

What does this mean for sales teams working in b2b?

Whether it’s conscious or not, we’re influenced by these platforms. Our increasingly individual connection with the world around us means we’ve come to expect this level of understanding from all our engagements.

Shiny technology alone is no longer the advantage that it once was. Businesses have to differentiate themselves on the thing that can’t be so easily replicated – experience.

As a consumer or as a business, your customers are only ever a click away from your rival. In 2019, your relationship with them and their experience during the sales cycle are the most important thing.

Over twenty-years ago, Jeff Bezos shared in open letters to shareholders that “tomorrow, through personalization, online commerce will accelerate the very process of discovery.”

“That, if we have 4.5 million customers, we shouldn’t have one store. We should have 4.5 million stores.”

Fast-forward two decades and after cresting 100m subscribers on Amazon Prime, Bezos has made his prediction an ongoing reality.

You have to be continuously improving how your sales teams are using their CRMs and build scalable personalised journeys. How are they collecting, digesting and actioning information in the sales cycle?

Through the looking glass at b2c

It seems like the second greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the marketing and sales worlds that selling to b2b was really that different from selling to b2c.

It’s not, the decision to buy is made by a person to answer a need.

Behind every sales decision is a human, so it stands to reason that the more you understand and personalise the sales journey the more likely people are to purchase from you.

The future of b2b sales is the same as b2c. Customers want direction in identifying the right service or product at their own pace, when they need it and for the best price.

Every touchpoint you have with your prospect has to be timely, relevant and continuous and that only comes with a much deeper and wider understanding of your customer.

The individual(s) buying within a business.