TREND 1: Race to the bottom
The business environment is now littered with broken companies and suppliers who engaged in a toxic race to the bottom, pushing prices lower than the supply chain could accommodate. Unprofitable supply chains can only deliver risk and failure to those who depend on them.
This year sees smart businesses adapting to mechanisms of cost reduction rather than price control. This means both buyers and suppliers are looking to deliver real value beyond product and price.
TREND 2: Retail – combining digital with physical
For a long time now, we have been hearing how e-commerce is killing the bricks-and-mortar retail industry. Low-performing retailers complain that the competition is unfair, since online retailers have fewer expenses (they don’t need a central location for their store – if any at all – they need barely any staff, etc). So what happens when online retailers decide to move into the bricks-and-mortar space? Retail is moving towards a hybrid model that embraces the advantages and challenges of combining online and physical channels.
TREND 3: The sharing economy
One of the worst consequences of Over-consumerism has been the exponential growth in the amount of goods that end up in landfill. Individuals and companies are recognising they have under-utilised goods and are now looking for new ways of doing business. The sharing economy emerged as an alternative way to solve many of these problems and create a whole new marketplace. Be it peer-to-peer sharing, collaborative consumption, companies owning the goods and renting them or individuals keeping the ownership, the sharing economy seems set to grow.
TREND 4: Putting ‘heart’ into business
The current corporate setting, Where there’s a frantic chase for more and more immediate, short-term profit is not sustainable. Companies have always been a part of the communities in which they operate, and a growing number of organisations are realising that there’s more to business than delivering dividends to shareholders. New movements have been appearing and now they’re becoming mainstream: shared value, profit for purpose, conscious capitalism, the blue economy, social enterprise, to name a few. Businesses with heart are the businesses of the future. Business leaders need to rethink the meaning of business and heed the messages of more integrated, meaningful business models.
TREND 5: New accountability in holistic learning
Learning and development have been changing over the past few years. We are now looking at a fundamental shift in organisations’ learning cultures and a major reattribution from organisational accountability to people’s individual responsibility for enabling their own learning. In sales, this will become the norm, as salespeople will be given more opportunities to learn and develop their capabilities as they go about their daily activities.
TREND 6: Recruiting for change and evolution
People have been trying to identify how to hire the ‘right people, especially salespeople, for as long as jobs have existed. Given the increased employee fluctuation within workplaces, workplace environments are in a state of continuous change. The ‘right’ person has shifted from Someone who fits the environment to someone who can bring about the greatest improvements. Organisations are focusing on the ‘learn to earn’ curve and how salespeople can deliver results quickly and sustainably.
TREND 7: Beyond KPIs
Ever since we recognised the complexities that come with sales paradigms like Solution Selling and Value Based Selling or segmentation approaches like Key Account – Management, sales strategists and managers have been eager to find ways to measure and ensure their effectiveness. Now we are moving from a performance review (postactivity) to a coaching situation (pre- or during activity); moving management from feared-based to support and empowerment.
TREND 8: Unearthing the real neuroscience in sales
The shift to emotional, psychological and scientific models has been occurring across other areas of business for many years, so it comes as no surprise that it is now happening in sales. However, rather than talking about emotion-based models, people are jumping straight to scientific terminology and talking about using neuroscience in sales. Savvy sales teams need to be wary of companies using the term ‘neuro in their offerings. They need to do their due diligence and ensure that the science these companies are using is correct and appropriate.
TREND 9: Back to the village
As the novelty of worldly products waned and the economic impact of the import/export markets was felt locally, people started to shift towards a buy local mindset. This trend points to some very interesting manoeuvring by big corporations and local businesses, as they vie for custom,
TREND 10: Oops! I’m in sales
The word ‘salesperson’ has a negative connotation for many people, so it’s not surprising that they don’t want to be associated with sales. They prefer to think in terms of ‘helping, ‘I just ask questions, and so on. However, more and more people are starting to realise what good selling is and discovering that they are in sales, too. This trend sees the emergence of the notion that everybody lives by selling something.
TREND 11: The value of the freelancer
Freelancers are becoming an essential part of the talent pool. Companies can no longer ignore them as a valuable resource to complement their permanent staff. Companies need to adapt to this working mode, and freelancers need to learn how to sell.
TREND 12: Procurement as a centre of innovation
Since the early 1990s, the modus operandi for a majority of procurement functions across the spectrum of public and private Sectors and industries has been the exercise of strategic sourcing. The value proposition has been cost reductions. Smart organisations know that the value of procurement now relies on its capacity for innovation and more resilient, lower-risk supply chains, based on true value.
