B2B buyers want B2C experiences but your comp plan still rewards enterprise friction
ANZ companies are pouring money into e-commerce platforms and loyalty programs while enterprise AEs are still getting paid to add complexity to deals.
Every B2B company in ANZ is suddenly obsessed with "customer experience" and "digital transformation." They want frictionless buying. Self-service portals. B2C-style checkout flows.
Which is great, except your entire comp structure is built around the opposite.
Enterprise AEs get paid on deal size and contract length. The bigger and longer, the better. You're incentivised to add seats, extend terms, negotiate custom pricing, build in switching costs. All the things that make buying harder, not easier.
Meanwhile, your marketing team is building a self-service portal that lets customers buy in 10 clicks. Your product team is simplifying packaging. Your CEO is talking about "removing friction from the buying journey."
You're the friction.
Here's what this means for your career: the high-touch enterprise motion you've spent years perfecting is getting squeezed from both ends. Small deals are moving to product-led growth. Mid-market is going self-serve with light-touch AE support. That leaves you fighting for fewer, larger enterprise logos while your territory shrinks and your quota stays flat.
The companies winning in ANZ right now aren't hiring more AEs. They're hiring sales engineers, customer success managers, and implementation specialists. Roles that scale revenue without adding sales cycles.
Look at the job boards. "Enterprise AE" postings are down. "Growth Lead" and "Revenue Operations" roles are up. That's not a coincidence.
The reality: traditional enterprise sales isn't dying, but it's becoming a smaller percentage of how B2B revenue gets generated. If your entire skill set is "land six-figure deals with 90-day cycles," you need to expand your toolkit fast.
Learn product-led sales motions. Understand how to support self-serve buyers who only need you at expansion. Get comfortable with lower ACVs and higher velocity.
Because the companies building "frictionless B2B experiences" are absolutely willing to make your role the friction they remove.
Your move.