In all my time as a seller, one thing has remained constant – building solid relationships is vital in the art of selling, and the foundation of any successful relationship is mutual trust.

Although technology has made sales easier, it is debatable if it has made us better at selling. Salespeople still rely heavily on personal engagement and building relationships to close deals. If you ask any successful seller what helped them close a deal, personal engagement and building relationships will likely be two of the top three factors on their list.

Technology has evolved sales, but it’s hardly transformed it, at least not yet…

The Evolution of B2B Enterprise Sales:

1. Face-to-Face & Relationship-based Sales (Pre-1980s): Before technology, sales relied heavily on personal charisma and relationships built over golf swings and clinched during lunches.
2. The Advent of Solution Selling (1980s-1990s): Products became more complex, and sales shifted from transactional to consultative. Mike Bosworth’s “Solution Selling” became the guiding principle. Relationships evolved: it wasn’t about knowing someone but understanding their problems. The days of ‘Want to buy my product?’ were replaced with ‘Tell me about your pain points.’
3. The CRM Revolution (Late 1990s – 2000s): Salesforce and other CRMs revolutionized relationship management, moving from face-to-face to screen-to-screen. Organized data took precedence over personal touchpoints. Slowly and surely the CRM replaced the rolodex and Filofax lol.
4. Inbound Marketing & Content Boom (the 2000s – 2010s): Companies like HubSpot popularized inbound marketing, emphasizing value-driven relationships. Crafting content became the means of drawing in potential customers, with blogs becoming the new cold calls.
5. Data-driven Sales & ABM (the 2010s – Present): Data takes center stage, and relationships focus on precision targeting. Insight comes from platforms including ZoomInfo for the “Who” with Bombora and 6sense offering the “What”. The goal is to enhance seller insights and increase conversion rates – why fish with a net when you can use a spear? The approach is sound – but only IF the data is correct and your seller has the wisdom to infer meaning from meta-based insights.
6. Rise of Sales Automation & Machine Learning (Late 2010s – Present): Outreach streamlined processes while Gong used machine learning for insights. However, in practice, as mass outreach increased, personalization suffered.Our inboxes are filled with unread, poorly written sequences where intelligence is placed in A/B testing results – but there’s more to how this has become the norm:

•  Scalability: The digital age has made it effortless to reach a large audience, with the hope of getting a handful of responses to yield significant results.
•  Venture Capital Influence: With a growth-first approach, increased investments led to the belief that quantity would eventually lead to quality.
•  Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): The success of one firm using a specific approach sparked a ripple effect, with others eager to replicate it.

The result? I’ll be cynical and ask you a question: 

Why is a 5% conversion rate seen as outstanding? 

It’s a colossal waste of effort. Imagine if 95% of everything you ever did led to nothing! 

This is using computing power in the wrong way. It’s not helping us build relationships; It’s just shouting what sellers and marketers want to say to prospects.

Where We Are Heading:

Today, we rely on technologies like LLM to personalize content using machine learning and generative techniques. However, this personalization is often superficial, with AI mostly used to create engaging introductions. Ironically, we’ve taught machines to imitate human behaviour, only to realize we may emulate them.

True personalization is not just about modifying a message. It’s about truly understanding the prospect. We’re on the verge of a revolution that promises to put the prospect back at the centre of the sales process.

Every era of sales has altered the way we build relationships. As we approach a true sales revolution, it’s time to redefine how we build relationships again. 

Stay tuned for more updates.

Laurence Pitt

CPO and Founder, Nucleus