Will "Face-to-Face" Selling Be Obsolete?

Conventional wisdom defines "B2B selling" as a road warrior calling on customers face-to-face. That notion may be seriously out of date, though. According to a recent survey, corporate hiring of outside sales reps has leveled off at a .5% annual growth, while hiring of inside sales reps is growing at lively 7.5% annual clip. By 2012 nearly 800,000 more companies will host inside sales teams. Does this mean the face-to-face meeting will become a thing of the past?

According to Dr. James Oldroyd a professor associated with MIT Sloan who conducted the study, even outside sales teams don't spend that much time meeting face-to-face. His study indicated that over two fifths of all activities conducted by outside sales pros are now done over the phone.

While Oldroyd didn't address this issue when I spoke with him, I think that one of the reasons for the growth of inside sales is that most of the new lead generation methodologies (e.g. website marketing, email marketing, social networking, etc.) take place online, making it more natural to pursue the relationship either online or on the telephone.

Furthermore, advances in telephone technology and web conferencing make it possible to develop a customer relationship without being physically present. At the same time, the quality of the business travel experience continues to worsen -- particularly on the airlines -- which makes even outside sales reps more reluctant to hit the road to drum up new business.

What do you think? Will B2B firms move almost exclusively to inside sales? Or is face-to-face selling a great eternal of the business world? Here's a poll: