“Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future” – John F. Kennedy

Selling is considered by many to be a persuading ‘art.’ Door-to-door salespersons take this one step further and persuade potential customers to purchase a product or a service in the comfort of their own homes. The effectiveness of this technique is debatable, yet it has been adopted for years. In times of innovation and digitalization, we are seeing a huge shift in the way selling is being done.

In an interview with WHU Inside Business, Prof. Dr. Ove Jensen, Chairholder of Sales Management at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, mentions how managers are questioning the role of sales. He points out that field representatives, or door-to-door-salespersons, are disadvantageous from a cost and competence perspective, and hence the importance of ‘theta’ representatives i.e. inside sellers and insight sellers, will increase.

There is an increasing need for alignment and integration of corporate sales and marketing functions, instead of both functions operating in siloed capacities. In the age of the customer, sales organizations need to understand and quickly adapt to new sales trends. Additionally, with changes in technology and easier consumer access to final products, it is interesting to see what the future role of manpower in the sales force will be.

‍