What are the key trends that are likely to impact B2B sales and marketing in 2013? OpenView Labs recently published 22 predictions. Funnel Coach, Bob Apollo was among the contributors and here he summarizes their key headlines.

I was pleased to be asked to be one of the contributors. You can read all of the opinions in the full blog post here, but just to give you a flavour, I’d like to share the headlines below.

Inevitably, some of the predictions are at odds with each other. Which do you agree with? Which are likely to have the most impact on YOUR go-to-market strategies in 2013?

  1. Aligning content with the on-going sales conversation is going to be key
  2. Successful salespeople will position themselves as people of value
  3. Buyers will control the prospecting process
  4. Inbound marketing won’t replace traditional prospecting
  5. Say goodbye to the road warriors
  6. Sales (as we know it) is dead
  7. No room for dead weight: focus on grooming sales talent with promise
  8. Increased investment in recruiting & retention
  9. Time to get personal with lead nurturing
  10. Touch points, touch points, touch points
  11. The days of manually dialling are over
  12. Social selling surpasses cold calling
  13. LinkedIn becomes the premier prospecting tool for b2b selling
  14. Social collaboration leads to new opportunities
  15. Sellers will join in on more social conversations
  16. Buying process maps are going to be crucial
  17. It’s time to add buying facilitation to your sales efforts to influence the buying decision path
  18. Salespeople will have unprecedented access to buyers
  19. It will become even more challenging to connect with buyers
  20. It’s all about value-add — and customers will be willing to pay more for it
  21. Benchmarking is key
  22. Finding opportunities, sales enablement, customer retention, controlling costs, leading from the front
Aligning content with the on-going sales conversation is going to be key
Successful salespeople will position themselves as people of value
Buyers will control the prospecting process
Inbound marketing won’t replace traditional prospecting
Say goodbye to the road warriors
Sales (as we know it) is dead
No room for dead weight: focus on grooming sales talent with promise
Increased investment in recruiting & retention
Time to get personal with lead nurturing
Touch points, touch points, touch points
The days of manually dialling are over
Social selling surpasses cold calling
LinkedIn becomes the premier prospecting tool for b2b selling
Social collaboration leads to new opportunities
Sellers will join in on more social conversations
Buying process maps are going to be crucial
It’s time to add buying facilitation to your sales efforts to influence the buying decision path
Salespeople will have unprecedented access to buyers
It will become even more challenging to connect with buyers
It’s all about value-add — and customers will be willing to pay more for it
Benchmarking is key
Finding opportunities, sales enablement, customer retention, controlling costs, leading from the front
Aligning content with the on-going sales conversation is going to be key
Successful salespeople will position themselves as people of value
Buyers will control the prospecting process
Inbound marketing won’t replace traditional prospecting
Say goodbye to the road warriors
Sales (as we know it) is dead
No room for dead weight: focus on grooming sales talent with promise
Increased investment in recruiting & retention
Time to get personal with lead nurturing
Touch points, touch points, touch points
The days of manually dialling are over
Social selling surpasses cold calling
LinkedIn becomes the premier prospecting tool for b2b selling
Social collaboration leads to new opportunities
Sellers will join in on more social conversations
Buying process maps are going to be crucial
It’s time to add buying facilitation to your sales efforts to influence the buying decision path
Salespeople will have unprecedented access to buyers
It will become even more challenging to connect with buyers
It’s all about value-add — and customers will be willing to pay more for it
Benchmarking is key

Click here for the full post.

Bob Apollo is the Managing Partner of Inflexion-Point, and an accredited align.me Funnel Coach. To read more of his insights, go to the Inflexion-Point blog.

funnel-plan-sales-and-marketing-planning-tool