Why the Shift Is Happening
The traditional image of the quota-driven, pitch-first sales rep is rapidly becoming obsolete.
B2B buyers now have access to an almost unlimited amount of information, reviews, and benchmarks
before they ever talk to a salesperson. As a result, they no longer want a “product pusher” —
they want a trusted advisor who helps them navigate complexity and risk.
Recent research from Gartner found that 61% of B2B buyers prefer an entirely
rep-free buying experience, and many actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.
Source:Gartner Sales Survey (2025).
At the same time, McKinsey’s B2B Pulse data shows a continued surge in comfort with remote and
self-service channels, including large, complex deals being closed without traditional in-person
sales cycles.
Source:McKinsey – Five Fundamental Truths: How B2B Winners Keep Growing.
In this environment, the salespeople who stand out are the ones who can curate information,
make sense of risk, and guide decisions. That’s the essence of being a trusted advisor.
What Is a “Trusted Advisor” in Modern Sales?
A trusted advisor is a seller who is perceived less as a vendor and more as a strategic partner:
someone who understands the customer’s business, challenges, and goals deeply enough to
co-create solutions, not just close deals.
Consultative and advisory selling models emphasize:
- Discovery first, pitch second: deeply exploring business issues before recommending solutions.
- Insight over information: bringing new perspectives, benchmarks, and ideas buyers have not already seen online.
- Long-term value: optimizing for customer outcomes and lifetime value, not just this quarter’s quota.
As Simon-Kucher notes, consultative selling “positions sales professionals as trusted advisors,
creating value for clients that extends far beyond mere transactions.”
Source:Simon-Kucher – Consultative Selling.
How B2B Buyers Buy Today
Modern B2B buyers do most of their work before they ever speak with sales.
Multiple independent studies show that buyers are often 60–70% of the way
through their journey before engaging a vendor:
- Demand Gen Report cites research indicating that buyers are nearly 70% through their purchasing
process before engaging sellers — and in 80% of cases, they initiate the first contact.
Source:Demand Gen Report – 80% of B2B Buyers Initiate First Contact. - Recent overviews of B2B buyer behavior show buyers completing up to 70% of the journey using
content, peer reviews, and internal collaboration before talking to sales.
Source:Martal Group – What Is a B2B Buyer?.
Generational shifts amplify this. Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report
(referenced in a 2025 analysis by Digital Commerce 360) found that 68% of millennial B2B buyers
prefer self-service research tools over speaking to a sales rep. Many complete the majority
of the buying process online before ever engaging a supplier.
Source:Digital Commerce 360 – Why Millennials Continue to Reshape B2B Ecommerce.
Gartner goes further: their research indicates that up to 75% of the buyer journey
can be “rep-free”, but fully self-service purchases are more likely to lead to
“purchase regret.” This creates a massive opportunity for sales teams who can step in as
trusted guides at the right moments in the journey rather than trying to control it end to end.
Source:Gartner – B2B Buying Journey.
From Sales Rep to Trusted Advisor: Key Mindset Shifts
Moving from “rep” to “advisor” is less about adopting a new script and more about
changing how you think about your role in the buyer’s process.
1. From “pitching” to “problem framing”
Traditional reps rush to present features. Trusted advisors start by helping the customer
define and prioritize the problem. They ask:
- “What’s the cost of not changing?”
- “Which stakeholders are most impacted?”
- “What would success look like in 12–24 months?”
2. From “owning the message” to “orchestrating consensus”
Complex B2B deals involve multiple decision-makers. Research on modern buying groups
shows that salespeople who can help stakeholders align internally have
a much higher win rate. The advisor role is to provide clarity, tools, and frameworks
that help customers build their own business case and consensus.
3. From “closing deals” to “reducing decision risk”
Buyers are less worried about which vendor has the longest feature list and more worried
about making a bad decision. Gartner’s work on the buying experience shows
that the biggest driver of purchase success is not price, brand, or product — it’s the
quality of the buying experience itself.
Source:Gartner – The Buying Experience: The Most Important Thing in Sales.
Trusted advisors reduce that risk by providing transparent comparisons, customer stories,
proof-of-concept paths, and realistic implementation plans.
Skills & Behaviors Trusted Advisors Need
Becoming a trusted advisor isn’t about a job title; it’s about consistently demonstrating
certain skills and behaviors in every interaction.
1. Business acumen
Trusted advisors understand the customer’s industry, value chain, and financial drivers.
They can connect their solution to metrics like revenue, churn, margin, and cost of goods sold —
not just feature checklists.
2. Insight-led conversations
Modern advisory selling is built on insights buyers can’t get from a web search:
benchmarks, anonymized best practices, and pattern recognition across companies and markets.
The best advisors come prepared with a point of view and are willing to challenge assumptions.
3. Active listening & discovery
Multiple consultative-selling guides stress that listening is the foundation of trust.
For example, The Sales Connection describes consultative selling as a strategy that positions
sales professionals as trusted advisors by deeply understanding client needs and creating
value beyond the transaction.
Source:The Sales Connection – Consultative Sales.
4. Reliability & follow-through
Trust is built on consistency. Advisors do what they say they will do:
follow up, bring resources, loop in experts, and proactively update customers on risks and next steps.
5. Low “self-orientation”
A core component of trust is low self-orientation: customers feel that you are genuinely
focused on their outcomes, not your own commission. Recent commentary on the “trusted advisor
with AI” model emphasizes credibility, reliability, intimacy, and low self-orientation as the four
levers of trust — with AI helping scale the first two when used responsibly.
Source:SalesGenetics – From Sales Rep to Strategic Partner.
The Role of AI and Digital Tools
AI and digital platforms are not replacing trusted advisors; they are changing how advisors create value.
Buyers are already using AI tools to research vendors, compare options, and summarize complex documentation.
That means sales teams must raise their game.
How AI supports the trusted advisor model
- Research acceleration: AI can summarize annual reports, case studies, and technical docs so reps
can prepare more deeply for each conversation. - Personalized outreach: Insights from intent data and customer behavior can help advisors reach out
with highly relevant points of view, not generic sequences. This matters, given that 73% of B2B buyers
say they actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach.
Source:Demand Gen Report – 3 of 5 B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Experience. - Decision support: Advisors can use AI to model scenarios, forecast outcomes, and present clear,
visual trade-offs to buying groups.
The key is that AI should augment the advisor’s ability to bring better insight, not more noise.
Tools that simply increase outbound volume without increasing relevance push you back toward the “pushy rep”
stereotype buyers are trying to avoid.
Operationalizing the Trusted Advisor Model
For most organizations, the shift from sales reps to trusted advisors requires intentional changes
in process, enablement, and incentives.
1. Redefine the sales process around buyer jobs
Replace linear, seller-centric stages (“qualify, demo, proposal, close”) with buyer-centric milestones
tied to the work customers must do: problem definition, option evaluation, internal alignment, and risk management.
2. Align marketing & sales around insights
High-performing organizations use marketing not just for lead generation but to create insight assets
(benchmarks, frameworks, ROI tools) that advisors can deploy in live conversations.
3. Update KPIs and incentives
If your metrics only reward short-term volume and activity, reps will behave like traditional sellers.
To encourage advisory behavior, include:
- Customer health and retention metrics.
- Multi-threaded relationship depth within accounts.
- Win rates and deal quality, not just number of opportunities.
4. Invest in training and coaching
Advisory selling skills (business acumen, discovery, negotiation, executive conversations) can be learned and coached.
Modern sales-enablement programs blend on-demand content, live role plays, and deal-level coaching to help reps
practice trusted advisor behaviors until they become default.
Sources
- Gartner – “Gartner Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience” (2025)
https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-06-25-gartner-sales-survey-finds-61-percent-of-b2b-buyers-prefer-a-rep-free-buying-experience
- Gartner – “Create a B2B Buying Journey That Drives More Profitable Purchase Decisions”
https://www.gartner.com/en/sales/insights/b2b-buying-journey
- Gartner – “The Buying Experience: The Most Important Thing in Sales and Marketing”
https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/the-buying-experience-the-most-important-thing-in-sales-and-mark
- McKinsey – “Five Fundamental Truths: How B2B Winners Keep Growing” (2024)
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/five-fundamental-truths-how-b2b-winners-keep-growing
- Demand Gen Report – “3 Out of 5 B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience: Gartner” (2025)
3 of 5 B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience: Gartner
- Demand Gen Report – “80% of B2B Buyers Initiate First Contact Once They’re 70% Through Their Buying Journey”
80% Of B2B Buyers Initiate First Contact, Once They’re 70% Through Their Buying Journey
- Digital Commerce 360 – “Why Millennials Continue to Reshape B2B Ecommerce” (2025)
- Martal Group – “2025 Guide: What Is a B2B Buyer and How They Make Purchase Decisions”
https://martal.ca/what-is-a-b2b-buyer-lb/
- Simon-Kucher – “Consultative Selling: Building Trust and Driving Success” (2024)
https://www.simon-kucher.com/en/insights/consultative-selling-building-trust-and-driving-success
- The Sales Connection – “Positioning Yourself as a Trusted Advisor to Clients”
https://thesalesconnection.com/blog/consultative-sales
- SalesGenetics – “From Sales Rep to Strategic Partner: How to Become a Trusted Advisor with a Little Help from AI”
https://www.sales-genetics.com/from-sales-rep-to-strategic-partner-how-to-become-a-trusted-advisor-with-a-little-help-from-ai/
- GoConsensus – “Sales as Trusted Advisors: Caring as a Competitive Advantage in B2B”
https://goconsensus.com/blog/sales-as-trusted-advisors-caring-as-a-competitive-advantage-in-b2b
