Recently, I have been in many conversations with people claiming, social media reduces the need to have sales people. Some going so far as to declare the extinction of the sales person. I don’t buy this, in fact, I think it is just the opposite, I think it increases the need for strong sales people engaging their customers in new ways.

Social media changes the role of the sales professional, it doesn’t eliminate it. At least in B2B Sales, I believe the role of sales professionals is even more important.

Traditionally, sales people served a role of informing and educating customers about solutions. Today, the customer gets much of that information from the web. Some claim the sales person no longer needs to educate the customer. I think that’s wrong, just because it’s on the web, doesn’t mean it’s accurate. The sales person may have to spend a lot of time re-educating the customer, correcting misunderstandings. Additionally, many of our solutions are very complex, so while the customer gets a lot of information from the web, they still need to solve THEIR problem. The sales person still has the role of showing specifically how their solutions should be implemented to meet the customer’s specific situation. They bridge the gap from the experience of others to the specific and unique needs and priorities of the customer.

The change in the sales person’s role goes far beyond this. Some claim, with social media, the sales person gets involved later in the buying process than traditionally. Some would way, the customer has already done their needs assessment, narrowed their solution alternatives and engage sales people for those solutions that have been “short-listed.”

I think this is dead wrong, bordering on dangerous! This assumes the customer is perfectly knowledgeable about how to analyze their needs and narrow the solutions to those that best fit their needs. It assumes the customer has taken the time to research alternatives and apply them to their own business improvement.

To be honest, customers are prisoners of their own experiences (we all are). They will look at their business in a certain way-best on their own experience. Research on the web may broaden that perspective, but it will not address their specific situation. They still have to bridge that gap. Additionally, solving problems with your business starts with asking the right questions-to make sure you are solving the right problems.

Too often, because we are prisoners of our own experience, we may not be asking ourselves the right questions. One of the great roles of the sales person is that because they see many other customers, they can ask different questions, they can help the customer to reconsider how they are viewing the problem.

So far, we’ve focused on the role of the sales person in “the last mile,” the value they create by helping the customer understand solve problems or address opportunities the customer has already recognized. Rather than educating the customer about their products, they focus on the application of the product to solving the customer problems (but I always thought that was what great sales professionals do).

I’ve always thought great sales people don’t just help their customers solve problems, they don’t wait until the customer has a problem then propose great solutions. Great sales people help their customers consider new opportunities to grow their businesses, they help them understand new opportunities to improve performance.

Great sales people bridge the gap our marketing materials can never bridge. They can bridge a gap, that social media has difficulty in addressing. Great sales people know the customer’s specific strategies and priorities. They know how the customer works, they know how to make things happen within the customer. Knowing this, they are in a great position to go to their customer saying, “I’m seeing a lot of discussion about this…., have you ever considered what might happen if you tried doing this….?”

Great sales people are constantly working on behalf of their customers, finding them ideas about how to improve their businesses.

This is why I think it’s so important for sales people to be engaged in social media. As I’ve mentioned in other articles, I strongly believe sales people need to be listening-they need to see what their customers are doing, what their customers’ customers are doing, what their customers’ competitors are doing. They need to use social media as a source of ideas, opportunities, and possibilities for the customer to improve their business. They need to engage their customers before the customers are searching for solutions to help the customers understand new opportunities for their businesses. It may be pointing them to provocative blogs or news articles on the web, it may be a quick phone conversation to alert them about new possibilities.

Social media is not disintermediating the great sales people. It provides them the vehicle to be a more important contributor to their customers’ success. It changes the role of the sales person. Great sales people recognize this and are embracing it. Are you?