It’s official: when it comes to customer relations, the days of relying solely on salespeople and evangelists to build trust with your customers are long gone. In my time as a senior executive at various companies, as well as a consulting partner with Accenture, I’ve witnessed a shift in how vendors engage with their buyers, and in turn, how buyers engage with their vendors.
Research tells us that nowadays a buyer has completed up to 80% of the “buyer journey” before ever interacting with a salesperson. Companies that once relied on “wining and dining” potential customers are now finding themselves in a sales slump, and buyers who don’t make their voice heard to their vendors are consistently left disappointed by those vendors’ product releases and business strategies.
https://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/it-strategy/collaborative-design-let-the-customer-guide-the-way/a/d-id/1332218/
