but a mix of the two, adjusting to customer need remote channels, while not losing the effectiveness at each stage of the sales process. And it seems of in-person meetings and demonstrations. this phenomenon is here to stay: research shows that hybrid has seen the fastest growth of all types The hybrid model also allows traditional in-person of roles over the last few years—making hybrid a sellers to use technology to optimize their sales channel of its own (Exhibit 6). activities, such as applying speech analytics to customers’ verbal cues or analyzing video footage to To succeed, salespeople need to become experts clarify customer questions. Adopting hybrid as the at both remote and in-person selling. There are default model enables a broad set of channels to be a number of ways to achieve this. First, learning used, depending on where the customers are in their how to judge the right form of interaction for buying journeys. different contexts and situations at every stage of the customer journey. Second, learning to read Many companies have significantly improved both physical and virtual settings and understand their sales performance using hybrid models. For what makes buyers tick in each. Third, mastering example, a leading financial-services company hybrid orchestration, where some customers might faced many challenges with its traditional channel be physically in the room while others are spread structure—it lacked focus on cross-selling, had across the world. an inconsistent sales performance-management structure, and placed limited emphasis on Although challenging, the benefits of the hybrid advanced-analytics capabilities. So sales leaders approach are clear: it enables a more consistent chose to increase the number of hybrid sales and customized level of engagement; sellers can professionals, who needed to be able to operate engage with customers more frequently; and they seamlessly between the field and inside, by can easily access information when using digital 50 percent. Exhibit 6 Hybrid and digital are the fastest-growing sales roles. Net change in sales roles, percent of respondents, „S only¹ 70% 64% 43% 33% Hybrid Digital Inside Field 1Q: over the past year, how has the size of your company's sales force in the following areas changed? Source: McKinsey  ompany loal  ulse, ­ov €1, n ‚ ƒ€ McKinsey & Company 16 Future of B2B sales: The big reframe