Is Face-to-Face Selling Dead?

Face-to-face selling is arguably the most influential way to turn prospective buyers into loyal customers. However, increasingly, it requires more time than prospects are willing to give, and more expense than employers are willing to allocate.

This is certainly the case in the B2C market, where it's not just the face-to-face selling that's dying, but the entire sales job itself is dead. But what about B2B selling? In today's Internet-driven world, how often are technology sales professionals advancing prospects through the sales funnel without ever setting eyes on them—relying solely on phone, email, web conferencing, online video, and other technologies to close deals?

If tech companies can be successful with remote selling—which, by the way, may align better with today's inbound marketing and online lead generation focus—will they risk not having face-to-face sales meetings with customers, when their competition could be knocking at the door?

Apparently so...

According to research conducted last year by InsideSales.com and infoUSA in collaboration with Dr. James Oldroyd, the hiring of outside sales reps have stalled, while
companies were adding new inside sales departments at a 7.5%
annual growth rate. I'm sure these hiring decisions are well calculated and made to maximize company profits, sales reach, and the new buying process, but time will tell if customers miss the face-to-face meetings and interactions with insightful and personable sales professionals.

What percentage of deals that you or your sales team closed in 2010 were won without having a single face-to-face meeting with the buyer? How does that compare to years prior...and how do you think it will compare to 2011? Think about it and share your thoughts with the NETSEA community about the impact and trend of face-to-face selling.