Sales leaders are painfully aware of the fact that buying behavior has changed more in the past ten years than it did in the previous thirty. Today’s customers have access to a vast array of information – from suppliers, purchasing consultants, and social networks – that promote independent decision-making. It’s not unusual for a customer to complete more than 75% of their purchase journey before they ever engage a sales person. Additionally, as technology enables suppliers to offer more complex, expensive and risky solutions, customers have become far more risk averse, bringing more and more stakeholders to the table to weigh in on the purchase decision. This is leading to a drawn-out consensus-building process that often results in no decision for the seller. Quotas are being missed, confidence is waning, and discretionary effort is slipping, creating a self-propagating downward spiral of sales productivity.