Rethink Sales Podcast: 2022 Predictions

Mark Donnolo
Welcome to the SalesGlobe Rethink Sales Podcast. I’m Mark Donnolo.

Michelle Seger
And I am Michelle Seger.

Mark Donnolo
So Michelle, how’s it going?

Michelle Seger
I’m doing good. How about yourself, Mark?

Mark Donnolo
Great. We’re gonna talk about predictions. You know, we’re going into ’22. And we got a lot of predictions about ’22 and beyond. And I think these are going to be fun to go through. So we’ve been thinking about these for quite some time.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, this is great. I mean, as we look, over the past year, we’ve been doing a lot of research. And through our work, we’ve come up with some pretty good opinions and beliefs about what we think is ahead.

Mark Donnolo
So don’t take this as investment advice. Don’t plan your life by it. But if we get it right, then, you know, we can we can roll back the tape and actually listen to it. So let’s get let’s see, we got

Michelle Seger
Alright, sounds great.

—-intro music plays—-

Michelle Seger
Okay, Mark, so let’s start with the juicy topic of the war for talent.

Mark Donnolo
I hear about that every day.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, we sure do, don’t we? So let’s just start with what’s happening to pay.

Mark Donnolo
Right.

Michelle Seger
What we know is that employees are making some demands on pay, and employers are shelling out 20 to 25%. What market pay is for a lot of jobs out there. We’re also seeing signing bonuses we’ve never seen before, things, perks like extra vacation, and then of course, work from home benefit that we’ll be talking about.

Mark Donnolo
Right, right. Yeah. And I think I think what’s happening, and and this is a very unpopular opinion. So don’t, don’t get too shocked. But I think if you’ve ever taken economics class, there’s this concept of supply and demand curve, and the short run in the long run. So I think what we’re seeing is a short run, difference between supply and demand. So you’ve got a lot of demand and for labor, not enough supply for labor, the price goes up in the near term, right in the short run. So my unpopular opinion is that I think that people are going to take advantage of that, which they are right now. And you’ve got these near term pay opportunity seekers, people that are going after the cash grab, and they’re going to benefit from that in the near term. The problem is, when you’re really playing above your paygrade, as they say, and you’re getting paid more than you can actually produce in value that doesn’t last forever, right?

Michelle Seger
No, it doesn’t, not until the next person comes along who’s better, right, and we’ll take that job at what that job is actually worth. I’m with you on that one.

Mark Donnolo
Exactly. So you’re gonna, you’re gonna see, you’re gonna see that happen in terms of people getting pay increases, and and a good portion of those aren’t going to be worth the pay in terms of their productivity, that’s going to lead to some involuntary turnover, or maybe some voluntary turnover. The ones that stay again, in the in the short run, that’s going to create some pay compression issues for companies. So companies are going to have current employees are going to bring new people on at a higher cost. So question is, are they going to recalibrate the whole pay structure? Or are they going to deal with the new people separately? And whatever those increase costs? Are we already know we’re hearing from companies are hearing from CEOs. They’re passing those costs back on to the customer.

Michelle Seger
What else can they do but that?

Mark Donnolo
So we’re talking about inflation? Well, that’s just feeding inflation. So you’re getting an increase in pay, but you’re also feeding the more macro inflation, which I’d still take the increase in pay. But that’s going to have an implication in terms of costs for companies and where they are they passed that on.

Michelle Seger
You know, this whole thing about people doing the land grab for increased pay. A couple things can be learned from this one is how companies choose to give people their annual merit increases. Because the reason that people are leaving companies to begin with is because when you get into a company, what they know is that’s when they get their biggest pay increase opportunity. And after that, it’s pretty limited based on what corporate corporate guidelines are.

Mark Donnolo
Right.

Michelle Seger
So this is a good thing for HR leaders to be thinking about. But also, I believe, that people are making decisions on roles they’re going to take because of the pay, not because they even like the job. Yeah, and what’s that going to lead to in the end?

Mark Donnolo
Yeah, I think we’ve seen We’ve seen that with some of our clients people taking jobs that they’re it’s not really what they want, right? And so they’re taking that for the for the pay increase. So then let’s look at long run.

Michelle Seger
Yes.

Mark Donnolo
Right. So we talked, we know what’s going on with the short run. And so many of these themes. It’s funny people look at the headlines, they look at what’s happening right now. And they assume that the present predicts the future, like what’s happening right now is going to continue to happen in perpetuity like, yeah, you know, we’re always going to work virtually are always going to work remotely. Well, that’s quite a prediction. So if you look at the long run, here’s what again, part of my unpopular opinion here. I think what we’re going to see right now where it’s an employee’s market, right, it’s basically a seller’s market for employees, I think we’re going to start to see a shift over time where it becomes an employer’s market and becomes a buyers market. And here’s why I think that I think we’ve got the great designers, we got people to decide they’re going to do something else, maybe they leave the workforce, and we’ve got retirees, but you also have a lot of people coming into the workforce, younger people coming into the workforce. And then another big factor we were talking about earlier, which is an increase in technology, AI and automation, that’s going to offset the need for labor and a lot of industries. So what that does is that decreases the demand and increases the demand for new actual humans. And it also increases the supply of people with new entrants into the workforce that are going to replace those great designers. So you’re going to start to see a new equilibrium level where where the pay levels are going to even out or even start to potentially come back down.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, one of the things that we are hearing out there is that manufacturing companies are pushing towards automation, and with a little bit of of frame of reference or how they’re thinking about it, whereas before, it’s how do we make our people more efficient? Now they’re saying, how do we replace them?

Mark Donnolo
You’re hearing that from a client.

Michelle Seger
that’s a real thing.

Mark Donnolo
That’s something they’re pushing for.

Michelle Seger
Yes. Now, let’s move on to something on everyone’s mind, which is remote work? And how are people going to work in the future? So here’s one stat that everybody knows now, right? It’s an every survey out there, every major publication. There is a disparity between employees who would like to continue to work remote, and employers who are saying that their people can work remote at least part time. And that differential is somewhere around 40%, which is a pretty huge differential. Yeah.

Mark Donnolo
And then there’s also a big number in the middle of that, which is with that differential and expectations, you’ve got a certain percentage of employees that say, Well, if I can’t keep working remote, then I’m going to find a new job.

Michelle Seger
Yes.

Mark Donnolo
So you got a few populations in this whole work from home thing, you got a lot of the people who are just great with working from home, they’re actually more productive. Now we’ll talk about the implications in terms of connection and collaboration and creativity and innovation later, but they’re, they’re productive, right? So things are going well for them. Then you’ve got the group of people, Michelle, who are working at home, and they think they’re fine. But they’re not, right? They’re the ones that they just shouldn’t be working at home, because they really need to have somebody around and they need to be working with people. Those that group I think, is kind of suffering, but they don’t know it right. And they’re probably not helping the organizations they work with either. So you got that group, then you have, and we mentioned the new entrants into the workforce. So you have new college graduates, you got people coming into the workforce, right? And they’re very comfortable, virtually, because they’ve grown up that way. But they’re not getting the development they need when they start to come on to the job. So they get a new job, and they’re working out of their apartment. And they’re not actually working with people. So, for decades, we’ve gotten the development or over a long period of time that they’re just not getting. So what we’re going to see is these kids are going to be doing to other jobs, because they’re going to you know, this is not really what I wanted to do, I actually wanted to work with humans, or we’re going to have a future deficit in terms of talent, because we’re going to have people that never got the benefit of the proper development earlier in their careers, and they never even knew it, right. And then you got the group like us, or maybe like me, like the middle aged people, right. So spent decades learning in the field working with clients working in offices. So I did all the developmental work. And a lot of you know, a lot of people like us have done that, like many people, and we’re benefiting from this because we’ve already done all that hard work. We’ve paid our dues over the over the decades. And so we’re enjoying this whole remote thing. And it’s actually working pretty well although I still want to work with people. I just kind of like humans, right? But, so I think you got a few different groups. You can’t just look at them all as one group.

Michelle Seger
Okay, let’s get into some of the nuances of these groups because you just made my head spin. I want to talk about first the kids let’s call it new to the job market. And I’ll bring up an example of my nephew graduated the top of his class double major and statistics and, you know, some other mathematical something or other. But anyway, he’s very intelligent kid he was recruited a year before he graduated. And he went to work. He moved to Wisconsin, and COVID hit, like, why he was in transition. So he spent over a year working out of an apartment. He got a cat. He had no friends, the cat went with a man who quit his job a year later to move to Colorado. And you know what, he went to go work for Americor. Because he was outside actually chopping lumber. He was around people. He wasn’t you know, he wasn’t locked up in this apartment and now he’s gone back for a company that is requiring people are in the office. And that’s what he was looking for.

Mark Donnolo
Yeah. So so what did he do with the cat?

Michelle Seger
Oh, no! The cat is still his best buddy and the cat went with him!

Mark Donnolo
Oh, okay.

Michelle Seger
Yeah.

Mark Donnolo
But no, I think you’re right, we were hearing a lot of that. Now, the hiring models different post COVID. Because he got hired before COVID. But post COVID. One of my daughters, she got out of college. Yeah, majored in biology, medical anthropology. And she’s like, Hey, I need to be out with people I need to be working. So she went in the medical device sales, and she’s working in the LR and, and everybody is on the job, everybody’s working. But she’s not the kind of person that just wants to sit in the apartment, and just work remote. So I think you’ve got a lot of those situations, and you got a lot of people who are just going to stay in the apartment and, and kind of be be isolated.

Michelle Seger
So it’s just not a one size fits all, as we’re saying and companies need to be looking at that. I

Mark Donnolo
think I think that’s the big point about this prediction is that different populations are going to be impacted differently. And it’s not a monolithic situation, right?

Michelle Seger
Let’s talk a minute about because we were on a call mark not that long ago with a chro of a company, very large fortune 1000 company. And we got on that call with his direct reports. And if you remember him saying and that this somebody worked in New York City, right outside the city, right, and he’s like I was so looking forward to this call with you. I was so looking forward to talking to people, even though it was still a zoom call outside of my own organization, right. And then he said, he was talking about how development has suffered and how innovation and collaboration has suffered, and that he cannot wait to get back into the office. He had three direct reports that were there. And all three of them did not agree. They all thought they were performing very well as a team and collaborating. And we’re being innovative. He’s like, What are you guys talking about? And we laughed, it was a friendly conversation. But there is a disconnect between employers or managers and Frontline.

Mark Donnolo
Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. That’s, that’s very true. So. So then there’s this whole topic, Michelle, of how people have responded to remote work.

Michelle Seger
Yeah.

Mark Donnolo
And we talked earlier about the war for talent. And it’s a it’s a seller’s market – an employees market right now. But we think it’s going to shift to a buyers market or an employers market at some point. And then you’ve got people kind of creating these camps saying, Well, you know, there’s power in numbers and power to the worker. And, you know, I’ve had time to think about what I want to do in my career, you got the great resignation. And then you got people building resentment, looking at the employer as the man right. And the man needs to do this, the man needs to do that, which I think is hilarious, because that’s so retro, right? Yeah. So you’ve got like, some unhealthy things going on. But then you have some healthy things going on. So you got some unhealthy things going on. If people are looking at this as an opportunity to get what they want, but not really explore what it is they really want to aspire to. And so I think of them as kind of becoming kind of grassroots pseudo unions of people that become a force, right? And then you have other people in this great resignation, or at least this period, that have thought about aspirationally, where they want to go. And they’ve actually, and you made this point earlier, they’ve actually taken the time to think about the decisions that they’ve made in their careers to this point that led them to where they are, because he didn’t always make aspirational decisions. They decided based on like the next pay level or whatever it was, and now they’re going hey, you know, I get to really rethink what I want to do, which I think is a healthy attitude.

Michelle Seger
Yes, that is a good attitude. So what we were talking about and I want people listening to really think about you in your own career is what were the drivers behind taking that first job, and then getting to you to all the way where you are today. So we’ve got people that will take a job because well, okay, I’ll bring up myself as an example, my very first job I took because I was in my last year of college, I was working internship, I was putting to use my skills and speaking Spanish. But I never really thought that I would be for a career, a production plan or doing Spanish translations for South American operations for a large shirt manufacturing company. And I took it, because I was also I’d been accepted into law school. And I thought, Okay, I’ll take this job, it’ll help offset the law school thing, right. But I didn’t take it because it was my preference. So how many people have taken a job because they thought it was the right thing to do at that time, and then, you know, continued to take jobs more opportunistically or out of need, not necessarily because it was something they really want to do. Now, for me, just to straighten this record out, when I decided to go to grad school, I did take an opportunity to assess where I really wanted to go. And that actually led me to where I actually went to school and what I did for a career, and here I am doing exactly what I want to do, I wouldn’t be anywhere else right now. Unless it was Tahiti or something.

Mark Donnolo
But people, the people that are that are looking at this aspirationally taking responsibility for their careers, that’s going to end up being a group that I think is going to drive productivity, they’re going to have a better sense of well being is going to be better for organizations. So what we’re saying there is you got a couple populations, too, right, you’ve got the aspirational people that are really thinking about what they want to do in a productive way. And then you got the people that are trying to, you know, kind of oppose whatever the the movement of the employers is, or whatever the traditional position of the employers is.

Michelle Seger
It’s almost like there’s a blame game going on. And so I’m just encouraging people to take a look at themselves, and take responsibility for whatever job that they’re in today, and the role that they played in it. Right. So I think that those that do that are the ones that will win in this whole war for talent and the next generation of worker, because I believe that employers are going to be looking for people that are motivated, energized and aligned with where that company wants to go.

Mark Donnolo
Yep, yep. And then let’s talk about two other groups while we’re cutting populations here. One is what I would call it a lifestyle, there’s right these are the people that have decided they want a different lifestyle. But with some of that, I think has come a little bit of apathy. Right? Or what I were calling the COVID slumber, right? They’re not as engaged, they’re not as connected. And they’re really more focused on you know, when I got to pick the kids up, and all this and all that, and they’re not they’re not as as oriented toward their jobs, I think that there’s going to be a chasm between that group. And there are a lot of people out there who are still driven achievers, career oriented, that are saying, Hey, this is a big opportunity for me to do something special. Right? And so it’s almost like the the competitive set is shifting, because the lifestyle is making way for the achievers. And what does that look like longer term?

Michelle Seger
Yeah, the challenge for the lifestylers, Mark, is, as we are talking to leaders, and we’re observing this ourselves is that most of them don’t even realize that they’re at risk, or that the decisions they’re making may not be the right ones for their career, meaning that they think they’re fine, right? So they’re a little too comfortable. And what’s gonna happen, some people are going to start showing up, and you know, literally, and they’re going to be more motivated and driven and aligned. And they understand where the company’s going. And they’re the ones that will have better opportunities.

Mark Donnolo
So then you take some of these big factors like, war for talent. Yeah. And short run versus long run, right, an employee’s market versus an employer’s market. And then you take the fact that you’ve got people benefiting from a lot of pay increases and companies passing that cost on, but a lot of the people that are benefiting from the pay increases aren’t necessarily the achievers. They may be also the lifestyles. Yeah. And so you’ve got this dynamic that shifts around in terms of what’s going to happen with the workforce. So you know, a number of factors to consider there that I think are really interesting. So again, taking away this is not like one big movement, but there are a lot of moving pieces here.

Michelle Seger
That’s right. And, you know, just a side note on that. We were having a discussion you and I, I think just yesterday and we were talking about companies being very clear about you know what their mission Is the values they have where they’re headed as an organization, and they’re going to be looking to attract people that are aligned with that. Right?

Mark Donnolo
Great point. Yeah, yeah. So when you think about the employee value proposition, and what it takes to get great talent in this market, is not just a pay thing, it’s a total value proposition thing. So not just offering people more pay, but as a company, it’s being honest and clear about what you really stand for and what your values are. And again, I’ll be the cynic here, it’s not corporations pandering to whatever the latest, you know, social mantra is, it’s corporations talking about what they really believe. And then bringing in people who are aligned with that, right, and also making sure what they believe aligns with, with, with where, where the world is going and where people are, obviously. But it’s not just about, you know, the corporation doing things and putting messages out there, just because that’s kind of the management trend of or the leadership trend of the week or of the year.

Michelle Seger
Ouch. That kind of hurt Mark.

Mark Donnolo
Yeah, well it hurts doesn’t it? And so just look around, and you can see a lot of that happening, right? So there’s gonna be an alignment, I think, in values. And that’s going to be a big value proposition differentiator for, for companies to be able to get great people.

Michelle Seger
That’s right. Hey, can we talk about sales for a second, let’s talk about salespeople, because we’re, I feel if we’re talking about remote, then it’s a good opportunity to talk about face to face interactions, because there’s still a big question out there on how the future of sales is going to look. Right. And if we talk about field sales, so Field Sales, those the ones that they’re meeting customers face to face. We don’t believe that is going away anytime soon.

Mark Donnolo
Well, right. So it’s the big pendulum swing. Yes. Right. So we are hearing while everything is going to go to virtual, everything is going to go to remote. And that’s like the extreme of the pendulum. And then you’re then you realize, okay, well, it’s not going to because what’s going to happen, I think, is Field Sales and b2b, there are going to be probably fewer sales interactions, face to face interactions, than we’ve traditionally had over the years, because I’ve always had to show up in person. But I think that’s going to increase and I think those interactions are going to become more important and more intentional.

Michelle Seger
Yes, I would agree with you on that. So what we believe is, what we’re predicting is that there’s going to be more hybrid work models, whether your sales or any other type of role. It I don’t think there’s going to be a big swing to just remote and I definitely do not believe that face to face is going away anytime soon.

Mark Donnolo
Right. Not as long as we’re human at won’t. Now, you do again talking about?

Michelle Seger
Are you human? I’m not sure you’re human, right?

Mark Donnolo
I’ll have to check. One second little check.

Michelle Seger
Oh, boy. Okay, gone.

Mark Donnolo
Is this model number me?

Michelle Seger
You got a serial number?

Mark Donnolo
No, it’s a model number.

Michelle Seger
Okay.

Mark Donnolo
So, but but right, so I think I think we’re gonna see we’re gonna see that. And we’re also gonna see though, a migration in terms of the buying experience, including field migration, from you know, the b2b Buying is going to take on more b2c business to consumer customer experience characteristics.

Michelle Seger
Let’s talk about what that means in layman’s terms, right?

Mark Donnolo
Because that I just confused myself. So the companies that are selling to other companies have I’m selling, you know, technology hardware to another company. My customers may not want to talk to a rep face to face they may want to do the research and get all the information online, get all their questions answered online or through other types of media, that’s me either pushed to them or they, they, they they pull, but they may want to go through the whole interaction, the whole experience without having to talk to a person. So we’re talking about face to face will they still want to may want to have that option of not having to meet with somebody face to face. So that tends to be drawing upon a lot of the business to consumer things that we see in terms of how you can buy retail, online, you know, online or retail in stores. So the seamless integration from getting information to be unable to make the purchase to be able to be supported operationally with providing the product to support after I buy. So b2c custom beat a business to consumer customer experience shifting to b2b.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, we like to call that the next generation of omni channel. Yeah.

Mark Donnolo
That’s right. And and so omni channel is also, it’s totally integrated so it’s seamless. And then you take your field salesperson in It’s also seamless for them. So they don’t try to steer the customer towards is buying from them. But they’re saying, Well, I can talk to the customer about what they’re looking for. And if the customer says, well, I need to think about it, can I go online and make the purchase? Well, of course you can. That doesn’t happen nowadays in most environments, that’s not integrated.

Michelle Seger
Right, it’s not. So one of the things that we’re going to predict is, as that omni channel experience, if you will, extends over to the b2b sales motion, we believe that the salespeople will be paid for compensated and encouraged to allow the buyer right, they’ll be able to buy any way that they want. So the big controversy today, is that people are saying or leaders are saying, Should we really pay our salespeople for orders that are made online? Bottom line is, you need to just figure it out?

Mark Donnolo
Yeah, I’m multiplying my sales cost, which is kind of an old school mentality, versus how do I make it seamless for the buyer? And how do I make it seamless for our people to be, you know, unbiased in terms of how the buyer actually makes the purchase?

Michelle Seger
The numbers are just the numbers, right? They can always be worked out. But yep. So we think that that’s what’s going to happen.

Mark Donnolo
So that and you know, what’s strange, as you mentioned, is a lot of companies like most companies aren’t even there. Now, there’s a lot of talk about it. There are some companies that are out on that leading edge now that are actually integrating that. But we’re dealing with this across a lot of our major clients now where they recognize the need to have that more integrated experience.

Michelle Seger
Okay, Mark, now let’s talk about one of my favorite topics, the sales rep of the future.

Mark Donnolo

You mean like a RoboRep.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, I guess. I don’t know.

Mark Donnolo
I’m showing my 80s vintage.

Michelle Seger
Let’s hope it’s not just a robot. Anyway, okay. So let’s start with a few foundational things. And, and some of the things that we believe is that hybrid work is here to stay. So you’ve got sellers, you got buyers, and you know what, they may not be working in the office at the same day of the week. Hmm. So you got that dynamic. So when we look at the remote selling is here to stay in face to face interaction is even more important. And we already knew pre pandemic technology, like the internet was already changing, buying behaviors with buyers going out there and it wasn’t a matter of should I buy from you. It was more a matter of why should I buy from you instead of somebody else?

Mark Donnolo
Oh, so I’m going to go into the metaverse and buy NFT’s then.

Michelle Seger
You could.

Mark Donnolo
I guess I could, couldn’t I?

Michelle Seger
Yes, you could.

Mark Donnolo
But hopefully I’m not going to be like selling in the metaverse.

Michelle Seger
You could be! But let’s get back to sales people.

Mark Donnolo
I would be a better looking sales rep.

Michelle Seger
Oh, my. Okay. Let’s I – I’m not going to comment right now what I’m going to do is take us back. So let’s discuss some of the things that we believe we’re going to be necessary for a salesperson to be successful in the future.

Mark Donnolo
Yes. So you know, if you look at hybrid, or remote, okay, I’ll get academic for a second. That’s a mode. That’s just how you’re connecting. That doesn’t define who you are as a salesperson, but it does affect how you work. Right? It’s like saying everybody’s going to work on the telephone. Well, it doesn’t make you a telesales. Rep, what it does is it changes your mode of communication.

Michelle Seger
That’s exactly right.

Mark Donnolo
But some of the impact it has is it lessens our connection with the customer because, you know, we’re talking over technology, we’re not talking face to face. So last time I checked, and I was checking my model number few minutes ago, but we’re all still humans, right. And the problem is we need human connection. So the questions are, how do you keep relationship going? And we talked about before that the face to face interaction is going to increase and become more intentional and more impactful? Yes. And another question is, how do you continue to add value. And I think one of the ways you’re going to people are going to do that is by being more data enabled by the back office, to come to sales meetings, and not just talk to the customer about what they do, or you know, the old cliche, what keeps the customer up at night, but they’re going to have information about that customer to be able to then use to give them better insight and to solve problems more effectively. So that means beefing up the backroom capabilities, the back office capabilities, so that reps are better enabled and training reps so they can do that and making sure the reps are skilled and have the talent to be able to handle that as well. Yeah, you

Michelle Seger
Ya know, it seems a foreign thing to a lot of people in sales for like what when we’re saying you need to become excellent In the industry, and really understand your client and the business that they are in the customers that they serve, we do believe that’s one of the differentiators. So bringing information is going to be something that will help differentiate. We know that as we’re talking to sales leaders, there is acknowledged acknowledgment that most products and services are pretty much the same. Right? And so now it’s like, how are we going to differentiate? And one way to do that is I want to buy from people that not only I like, but people that can give me information and insight that I just can’t get on my own.

Mark Donnolo
So that means beefing up the backroom capabilities, the back office capabilities so that reps are better enabled and training reps so that they can do that. And making sure the reps are skilled and have the talent to be able to handle that as well.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, you know, it seems a foreign thing to a lot of people in sales for like, what, when we’re saying you need to become expert in the industry, and really understand your client and the business that they are in the customers that they serve, we do believe that’s one of the differentiators. So bringing information is going to be something that will help differentiate. We know that as we’re talking to sales leaders, there is an acknowledgment that most products and services are pretty much the same, right? And so now it’s like, how are we going to differentiate? And one way to do that is I want to buy from people that not only I like people that can give me information and insight that I just can’t get on my own.

Mark Donnolo
Right. Which brings us to the point that when you think about a differentiator, one of the big differentiators for salespeople, for people in their careers overall, it’s that one asset that they have that can’t be offshored. It can’t be outsourced. It can’t be a AI. And we talked about automation before. And that is your ability to creatively solve problems or customer problems in a data driven way, right. So we’re not just going through rote stuff, reciting information, or providing data, what we’re doing is we’re actually becoming better problem solvers. And that’s something that you can’t automate. I mean, you can automate the logic of it, but you can’t automate the interaction and the creativity of it. So I think that’s going to be an asset in the next frontier for people in their careers and in their jobs, and especially in sales in the sales profession.

Michelle Seger
So it’s not about my product that I’m selling and how good it you know, it will perform in your business or why it’s preferred. It’s really more about understanding the point of reference and the pain point of your customer, what

Mark Donnolo
they’re trying to solve for what they’re trying to sell for, right. And so if I can restate the customer’s problem statement, with a better challenge question, that’s different than what they’re hearing from the competition. I’ve already started out with a differentiated point. And I’m already different, right? I’ve already differentiated, then I can start going into okay, what are different ways we might solve this problem with our offer? Or maybe how we combine it with partners or maybe how we partner with the customer? And there are multiple dimensions, you could look at them, but I think people aren’t looking at that enough. But I think that’s going to become a differentiator.

Michelle Seger
Yeah, I think you’re right. So I think this is a pretty good roundup of our 2022 predictions. What do you think Mark?

Mark Donnolo
Yes. So join us in 2023 to see if any of these. Yeah. But I’m betting you a few of them will be and some of them may take longer than 2022 to come to fruition.

Michelle Seger
Yeah. So we’re pretty excited about what’s ahead in 22 and excited for the things we’re going to be bringing to the podcast this year.

Mark Donnolo
Yep. No, we’ll be talking to a lot of cool people and have some great conversations and Michelle also looking at the future sales and seeing how that unfolds.

Michelle Seger

That’s right. So please subscribe to our podcast and you want to know anything else about sales globe and what we do, visit us please at sales globe.com and we will talk to you all the next time.