2007-2008 Global Sales Perceptions Report
Sales: Strategic Partnership or Necessary Evil?

By Bradford Thomas, Simon Mitchell, and Jeff Del Rossa

DDI surveyed people responsible for corporate buying decisions to understand how they feel about their interactions with salespeople.

What we really wanted to know was how they viewed their buyer-seller relationships:

Highlights of the study include:

"Snake oil" stereotype persists. 46 percent of buyers would not be proud to call themselves a salesperson.
Increasingly high expectations—and they are not being met. 40 percent say they have higher expectations, but one in five feel that sales expertise has gotten worse.
Trusted business advisor or just order-taker? Just 54 percent of buyers said they view their sales contacts as business partners. Only 31 percent said that "Relationship Building" is a top quality they value in salespeople.
Who gets the customer during a divorce? 43 percent of buyers feel more loyal to the salesperson than the company.

Survey respondents included 2,705 corporate buyers across six countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and U.S.