An MP-led inquiry is warning that Britain is suffering from a shortage of salespeople and of sales skills. Much more needs to be done to recruit and train people with strong business-to-business selling skills, to drive the economy out of the recession caused by the Covid-19 crisis, and to find new global trading opportunities outside the EU.
The findings of the inquiry are published today by MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Professional Sales.
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“Much more must be done to recruit skilled salespeople to drive the economy out of recession and to find new global trading opportunities.”
Their report,reveals that job adverts for business-to-business salespeople increased in intensity by 25% during the last 12 months,[1] with employers’ needs for advanced expertise in digital selling going unmet. Lack of capability to sell through digital channels is a barrier to British businesses selling abroad, and needs to be tackled with government support to promote recruitment and training.
- Trade between businesses is hugely valuable to the UK economy, worth an estimated £1.7 trillion annually.
- B2B companies pay nearly £22 billion in corporation tax, and employ more than 10 million people.[2]
In January, B2B selling was recategorised by the Office for National Statistics as a professional occupation for the first time, putting it on a par with doctors and teachers, in recognition of the high level of skills and training required. Yet the B2B sector is routinely lumped in with retail sales in official statistics, although their needs are very different. As a result, opportunities are missed to put in place policies that could meet the growing demand of business for professional salespeople, and facilitate the UK’s B2B trade at home and abroad.
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The recruitment squeeze is hardest on SMEs. Many larger corporate companies have coped with the huge adjustments required by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen for the first time the value of deals struck via digital selling outstrip the deals done face to face.[3] By comparison, however, although SMEs have made enormous efforts to take on digital skills since the first UK lockdown began, with 62% adopting at least one new technology, [4] a majority continue to struggle because they lack the same resources and skills in B2B selling, sales management and digital technology.
SMEs are the backbone of the economy.[5] With 75-80% of large corporates now saying they actively prefer transacting business via virtual meetings, [6] SMEs will have to learn how to use technology in order to remain competitive. Action now will make British businesses more digitally and commercially adept, equipping the UK to do business across the world as an independent trading nation. It will ensure that the skill of Britain’s B2B salespeople enhances the UK’s reputation abroad as a trading partner.
In its inquiry report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Professional Sales is calling on the government to:
1. Recognise the importance to the economy of B2B selling by SMEs, and its value as a career
2. Encourage more entrants into the B2B sales profession at SMEs through work-based training
3. Inspire more advanced skills in existing B2B salespeople and their managers at SMEs, and promote the uptake of digital sales technology.
As the government’s priorities shift away from job retention and towards retraining people for the skilled jobs of the future, professional B2B selling must be one of the UK’s top priorities. In its recommendations, the APPG calls for Level 3 courses in B2B selling and sales management to be made available free under the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee; and for young people made redundant from low-paid, customer-facing roles in hospitality and leisure to be encouraged to retrain for a secure and skilled career in B2B selling, where the median salary is more than £46,000 a year.
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