In this bonus podcast episode, Bobby LeHew, Chief Content Officer at Commonsku, expands on his blog series "Marketing is the New Sales" and argues that the pandemic‑driven, digital‑first shift in buyer behavior has fundamentally changed the role of sales and elevated marketing to the primary engine of new‑business acquisition. He outlines eight specific disruptions—digital‑first buyer entry points, millennial/Gen Z preferences, the decline of trade shows and cold calls, the blurring of field and inside sales, the predominance of remote B2B sales, the rise of omnichannel effectiveness, high‑value digital spend by buyers, and the reduced expectation for in‑person meetings—that collectively make marketing the new sales function. LeHew critiques the lingering 2000‑era sales‑and‑marketing mindset, emphasizes that marketing must now encompass branding, content, social, and omnichannel experiences to drive acquisition, upselling, and cross‑selling, and calls listeners to share their own marketing transformation stories. The episode also promotes an upcoming Product Summit Holidays event focused on gifting experiences and strategic selling, encouraging registration.
Chapters
Hi friends, I'm Bobby LeHew, the Chief Content Officer at Commonsku. Every now and then we read a popular article from a recent series we've published on our blog. We'll choose something that really resonated with folks. We just started a series titled "Marketing is the New Sales," and I wanted to share that with you today. You can read subsequent releases on our blog at community.commonsku.com. Now here's the article, "Marketing is the New Sales." One danger in running a business post-pandemic alongside massive supply chain issues is that we're overwhelmed handling critical HR challenges such as hybrid workplaces and new virus variants while swatting away supply chain problems project by project. Naturally, we're so busy reorganizing, restructuring, and reacting that we're leaving little to no room for strategic planned sales growth, either by way of new business acquisition or intentional existing client growth. What's suppressing our sales strategy even more, most of us are back in growth mode simply because the economy is taking shape again. Organic economic growth always gives us the false illusion that we are strategically growing sales. Complicating this a little further, some say we distributors are not really salespeople, we're order takers. It's not entirely true, but there's enough truth there to impugn virtually everyone. Where the truth stings a little is that on average, We spend 90% of our time taking care of existing business that comes to us and about 10% of our time thinking about new business or strategic client growth. Granted, the pandemic forced many of us to rethink our efforts, and we saw a renewed focus on biz dev by some. Bubbling beneath the surface of all of this is a massive paradigm shift ready to break open, and one that is barely getting noticed. Sales has changed. Sales is no longer about lead gen. It was once upon a time. Sales is now defined as advancing the client relationship. Lead gen is now driven exclusively by marketing. What's changed? And why is marketing now the driver for new biz and sales the passenger? Here are 8 disruptions that now make marketing the new sales. Number 1, prospects now come to your business through the digital-first doorway. Thanks to the pandemic changing our buyers' behavior, it's now more true than ever. 2. Millennial and Gen Z buyers, your largest percentage of buyers, prefer digital as their primary form of interaction. 3. The death of the trade show, the cold call, and the networking event as the core lead gen source. 4. The eroding distinction between field sales and inside sales. That's a quote from Mary Shea with Forrester. Number 5, the fact that 80% of B2B sales is now done remotely. Number 6, how 8 in 10 B2B decision makers believe omnichannel is as or more effective than traditional channels. Omnichannel meaning in-person, remote, and digital self-serve. Number 7, proof now that buyers will spend 6 figures or more digitally. And number 8, how only 15% of B2B buyers expect in-person sales meetings to be the norm going forward. Now, each of these points on their own should get our attention, but the cumulative effect of the pandemic's impact on buying plus the rise of Gen Z and millennial buyers represents a tectonic shift in how we sell. In most industries, this is giving way to a rapid rise of B2B e-commerce and the crucial need for primacy in all things marketing— branding, message, image, social, and content.
But in our industry, except for the leading few, much of our sales and marketing strategies are still stuck in a circa 2000 framework.
This is the most resilient and adaptive industry around when it comes to eruptive crisis management and even crisis selling. Hello, PPE. But proactive strategic selling has rarely been our strong suit. When business is cratering, we brilliantly pivot. But when it's growing again, we have a tendency to sit back in reactionary mode. Think about the opportunity this new shift in buying behavior represents. If buyers prefer digital-first interactions and sales is now done almost exclusively through digital experiences—video chat, messages, etc.—there's a tremendous upside. Marketing is scalable, adaptable, and highly effective in this environment. Forrester cited that one of the biggest mistakes business leaders make with marketing is misinterpreting what the business needs from marketing. We all have our definition of what marketing is, but most of us reduce the art and science of marketing to branding, image, social media, communications, company's identity. But now, thanks to the disruptions I mentioned, marketing is a primary driver in acquisition, upselling, and cross-selling. Marketing is the new sales. In this series, we're going to explore this paradigm shift and what marketing now represents. We'll explore the tactics, technology, and techniques you must master to drive lead gen opportunities. We'll understand the revised sales funnel and how it applies to your strategy and tactics. Plus, we'll explore how marketing can empower sales to advance the relationship from suspect to prospect to customer to a client who loves you. Join us on this journey and share with us your marketing transformation stories. You can email those to me at bobby@commonsq.com. Stay tuned for more.
And by the way, many of you attended our previous product summit, which was focused exclusively on sustainability. We had such a tremendous response and such positive feedback from that experience. We wanted to continue this highly concentrated combination of strategic selling with innovative product ideas. Registration is now open for our new product summit called Product Summit Holidays, which is built specifically for gifting experiences of all kinds: employee engagement, client recognition, community engagement, holiday gifting, and more. Our new summit features expert advice from distributor pros in the business as well as creative products shared by the industry's leading suppliers. Plus, we're kicking off the event with a conversation with Jesse Genet from Lumi on how to build beautiful unboxing moments. Bring your team for a highly concentrated few hours that combines sales strategy with tactics the latest in product trends. Product Summit Holidays will be held on September 14th from 2 to 5:30 PM ET. Be sure you register in advance at commonscue.com/productsummit.
