Business-to-business selling in the post covid era: Developing an adaptive salesforce

As firms are coming to terms with the reality that the Covid pandemic has irrevocably changed how salespeople will interact with their customers, three realities confront businessto-business sales organizations. The first and most striking aspect has been how the customer has taken control of the sales conversation, forcing the sales organization to become truly customer-centric. Second, the traditional sales process has changed (and continues to change) rapidly due to the pandemic, and sales organizations need to become more flexible in the way they have to adapt to these changes. Third, sales organizations have had to fast track their digital transformation initiatives to help their salespeople be effective and meet the customers' increasingly complex demands. Researchers have recently suggested that firms need to develop an adaptive salesforce to better address disruptions like Covid-19 and prepare for the future. Based on interviews with experts and sales executives, we provide evidence of how firms deal with the three interconnected realities identified above and offerglimpses of some best practices. We also provide some recommendations for managers to deal with these three realities.