There’s this fairy tale that the future of sales is…
It's laughable really.
Sales is THE best career out there. Hands down.
The upside is higher than any other job.
But that comes with a sacrifice:
Just crush your quota? Let's increase it.
This year was hard? Let's 2x next year.
Oh cold calling is hard? Suck it up and build pipe.
The number always goes up in sales. It never end.
No matter how great the culture is—sales will always be a "what have you done for me lately?" career.
In my humble opinion, the future of sales is:
✅ Going back to more in-person
Hybrid at the least. People may not say they want it, but many teams get way more production from it.
And back to more in-person prospecting and selling.
✅ Hiring for quality > quantity
The "growth at all costs" playbook from 2009-2022 is over. Sales orgs will be way pickier about the talent they bring onboard.
✅ More pressure to create great sales cultures
There's too many review sites out there. And reps posting on LinkedIn. You can't hide from a sh*tty culture anymore.
✅ Less busy work for reps
Automation & AI will be built into every tool we use. If it doesn't require high level thinking, your reps won't spend their time on it.
Not more manually building lists, manually doing research, etc.
✅ Better remote enablement
Many enablement teams are still struggling to adjust to hybrid onboarding. It's way easier to control learning when reps onboard in-person. There's fewer distractions.
But the reality of 2024 and beyond is that you need to enable remotely. And do it effectively.
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Agree or disagree?