The increasing demands of e-commerce are requiring new approaches to all aspects of business, and a revised sales strategy is certainly integral to success.

The rise of e-commerce means sweeping changes for companies whose primary customers are other businesses. Effective selling in the world of business-to-business e-commerce is going to require a new set of skills. This is because these clients are themselves in the midst of change. Client companies are in the process of accelerating to a faster pace of commerce. As a result, they each have their own rapidly evolving business goals. The adroit business-to-business salesperson will be required to forecast how the needs of their corporate clients will change as their goals develop.

It should come as no surprise that the perfect business-to-business salesperson is hard to find. The introduction of e-commerce requires a different skill set as compared to the salesperson of five years ago.

New skills to consider as e-commerce makes it easier to combine products and services is the ability to cultivate a strong network of sales partners. A consideration may be the possibility of forging alliances with traditional competitors to help provide client solutions. In addition, understanding the specific business problems online processes pose to clients is a must. The ability to recognize that bundling multiple products and services might offer comprehensive client solutions is imperative. Finally, an evolving familiarity with business-to-business e-commerce trends and the knowledge to communicate this to clients is essential.

Experts say most companies will have to invest in training programs to help their sales professionals learn the necessary skills to succeed in the new e-commerce environment. Ultimately companies may have to go outside their industry to find salespeople with the right skills and training to make it in the business-to-business world.

Source: B2B e-commerce: Hard sell
Maria Seminerio
eWEEK
Aug.14, 2000
http://www.zdnet.com/ecommerce/stories/main/0,10475,2613076,00.html