How do you prepare your sales team for the impact of digital transformation? Can technology enable your salespeople to spend more time personally interacting with clients, and less on administrative tasks? How can digital tools help you better understand your clients and 'hyperpersonalise' products and services?
These were just some of the issues raised during our Sales Roadshow in Birmingham. If you’re serious about empowering and developing your company’s sales capability, these insights are well worth a few moments of your time.
These were just some of the issues raised during our Sales Roadshow in Birmingham. If you’re serious about empowering and developing your company’s sales capability, these insights are well worth a few moments of your time.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Kurt Jacobs. I'm the editor of Midlands Business Insider, and welcome to
00:13Ladywood in Birmingham, where we just held the latest of our sales summits debate. It's
00:19been a fascinating discussion where we've looked at the impact of technology on businesses,
00:24how they can improve their sales performance, find out more about the customer, issues such
00:28as hyper-personalisation, how you restructure in preparation for AI. Let's see what some
00:34of our panellists had to say. I'm Cassandra Brankovic, and I'm the founder
00:39of AIQ Nexus in the Midlands, and I'm the technology lead for NetMonkeys.
00:45So let me ask you a question, which I know you're going to say you know, but increased
00:51data, AI, and so forth. That's going to lead to sales becoming more in personal process,
00:59isn't it? You know, sort of machine will do it all.
01:02Absolutely not, no. So if you look at the true role of a salesperson, they're not there
01:05to copy notes from meetings, they're not there to set up meetings, things like that. They're
01:09actually there to build a relationship with the client, and actually understand the client
01:13on a human level. So being able to collect those data points around what the client's
01:16interested in, what they're actually trying to do with their business, you can actually
01:19have a much better conversation with them and focus on that, rather than the tapping
01:24on your keyboard, the writing down notes, all stuff like that. So it's going to pick
01:26up those unnecessary evils that we've come to accept over the last kind of 50 years with
01:32computers. But the other thing, let me ask you a question,
01:36does also this mean a more modernised product and service coming out? Or, you know, what
01:42people are selling will be sort of one? Not at all, no. I think it's very much in
01:47the hands of the company as well. You can diversify your products a lot more, because
01:50your sales guys and everyone in your company is actually focusing on the job they're actually
01:54meant to be doing. So that capacity you build, you can bring out new products, you can bring
01:58out new services, you can approach customers in a different way and spend that time, because
02:02you now have time, which always before was a luxury for us. So we're building that back
02:06into people's jobs, which is brilliant. My name's Spencer, I'm from Soho.
02:12Let me ask you a question. I know you don't believe, but AI, not AI, just tech generally,
02:20that's going to lead to the sales process becoming more anonymous and fewer people.
02:26I actually probably disagree with that. And I disagree with it for a number of reasons.
02:30I think sales is something, particularly when you've got a valuable product, something that's
02:34going to bring high returns to a business, is all about a human sale. It's about doing
02:40business with another person. So where does the technology come in? The technology comes
02:45in and enhances that process, potentially for both sides of the conversation. Technology
02:51gives customers the opportunity to do some deep learning about your product, but it also
02:57gives you the opportunity as the salesperson to learn about your customer, to profile the
03:03business that they work for and understand their needs. So if you've got that knowledge
03:06when you go into the conversation, basically already knowing something about somebody gives
03:11the confidence to them that you've taken the time to learn about their business. So that
03:15actually enhances rather than takes away from the process.
03:18So I'm Kat Brown. I'm a director for Perth Temps Network Group.
03:22Okay. So tell me about that sort of step-by-step, gentle approach, as it were, rather than sort
03:30of glomming an entire tech system into a business. Because I remember you saying that you structure
03:36the business before bringing in tech.
03:39Yes. So it's really, really important that your teams are prepared, that you've got purpose,
03:44that you've got focus, and that you've got your outcomes and your end goal in mind. So
03:49you get your outcome and you work backwards. And you've got to then make sure that you've
03:53got the foundations in place before you bring in tech. And there isn't one tech solution
04:00that's an end-to-end for everything. There isn't a product out there that is a sales
04:05director's dream that will deliver everything that they need. And there is so much out there
04:11that it is important to make it outcome-based. What do we need to achieve? What products
04:16and tools can help us along the way? And I think a lot of people are talking about AI
04:21and generative AI, and they confuse AI with automation. But what you want to be doing
04:26is stripping out the admin tasks, stripping out the mundane, routine things that people
04:32do that take a lot of time. If you can automate those, you're freeing up people's time in
04:38that person-to-person interaction piece. And that's the piece that's really important for me.
04:44So I'm Steve Holyoake. I'm Group Director of Customer Experience at McCann World Group.
04:49Been at the agency for over 13 years, helping clients negotiate how they build greater connections
04:56with customers through experience and how technology and digitisation can support them.
05:01So here's a question to provoke a response. How important will people be with increasing
05:10move towards data and AI? Is it sort of, we can take them out of the equation?
05:15Absolutely not, categorically. We shouldn't take people away from the equation. People
05:21are what people have a relationship with. Technology is there to support and to sift.
05:28It's to take away the heavy lifting processes that, frankly, used to take time and actually
05:32take energy away from where the real importance matters, which is that human connection. And
05:37that's how brands really should differentiate, whether it's in a sales process, whether it's
05:41in relationship building. It's utilising the technology to assist, but making sure that
05:46you're making as much time and opportunity for that human connection to surface.
05:58Microsoft Mechanics
05:59www.microsoft.com
06:00www.microsoft.com