I’ve been wondering whether selling has changed in a deeper way than we usually admit.
Years ago, I knew of a salesman named Vinny who retired back in the 1970s. As I was told, some of his customers would phone in and order full container loads of material from overseas without even asking the price.
Their attitude was simply:
“Vinny will do the right thing by us.”
Then, in the late 1980s, I spent some time with another salesman, Kevin. He was mentoring me in a new product range and market. On several occasions I saw buyers hand him their order book, tell him to look through their warehouse, talk to production, work out what they needed, fill in the order — and they would sign it.
I think that is a level of trust most salespeople today would find hard to imagine.
I never reached those heights myself when B2b selling in the 1990s and 2000s.
But I did experience something that now seems more unusual than it did at the time.
Customers, and even prospects, would sometimes phone me when they were trying to source a raw material and had no idea where to find it.
Often, I would simply point them in the right direction. "It sounds like the sort of product R.B would import, give em a call and talk to Jim Smith"
There was rarely a sale for me. Presumably, those buyers saw me as a resource. Helping them out forstered that belief and it built trust.
And that has made me wonder…
Has selling changed?
Buyers now have more information than ever. They can search online, compare suppliers, read reviews, ask AI, watch videos and check competitors before they ever speak to a salesperson.
But more information does not always create more clarity.
Maybe the deeper change is this:
Buyers don’t trust as easily, and they don’t decide as easily.
Buyers have more information, more competing claims, more internal voices, and more reasons to worry about making the wrong decision.
So maybe the problem is not that buyers need a stronger pitch.
Maybe they need more trust, more clarity, and more confidence before they can move forward.
That’s what I’m trying to understand more clearly.
So I’ve put together a short quiz/survey called:
Why Are Your Sales Conversations Stalling?
It’s designed to help identify what may be causing interested buyers to hesitate, delay, or disappear.