In the last 10 years, there’s been a huge acceleration in the rate technology is being developed and delivered to companies and individuals. With new code libraries, standardized frameworks and inexpensive infrastructures, technology has become almost too easy to build. Applications that used to take years to develop can often now be set up in minutes.
The end result? As business development leaders, we’re faced with a glut of technology tools that can seemingly solve any business problem, especially every sales and customer engagement challenge. In fact, my company recently conducted a study of over 600 sales professionals and asked them about the most important trends in business to business (B2B) sales right now. The most popular response was “supporting reps with sales automation,” (21.5%), and another 15.6% named adopting artificial intelligence (AI). Gartner also predicts that "by 2020, 30% of all B2B companies will employ some kind of AI to augment at least one of their primary sales processes." With the almost ubiquitous availability of technology, the problem is no longer access to the tools — it’s knowing what to do with them. As the CEO of an AI sales platform, I know we now often rely on the technology to do the thinking for us instead of actively thinking as we use it.
What do I mean by this?
There's Too Much Tech And Not Enough Intelligence
Today, as business leaders, we have technology that assists with everything. We’re handing over our business strategy, communications and relationships to technology. We’ve even adopted machine-based personalization to help streamline our customer outreach. These technologies often come with workflow templates, email templates, and even one-size-fits-all CRM and ERP systems that may force companies to all think about customers the same way as other organizations. We all personalize the same way, which can make our customer engagement impersonal in new ways.
Before buying the next quick fix to solve our newest business problem, we need to take a step back and think about how the intelligence got into our technology. We assume there are industry experts and geniuses behind the tools we use. However, a 2016 report by McKinsey projected a U.S. data scientist shortfall of about 250,000 (by 2024, according to Info World); and in another McKinsey survey, approximately half of executives across industries reported greater difficulty recruiting analytical talent relative to other kinds of talent. These are the very jobs providing technology’s intelligence.
Companies may leverage less experienced product and engineering talent to create the software, and the solution “template engine” it automates into a business process. In the case of sales and marketing technologies, it’s fair to assume the people building these technologies don’t often have expertise in selling or specific industry verticals. So, if you’re selling to banks or healthcare companies, the software solution is likely not catered to your buyer and buying cycle specifically. It’s unrealistic to expect the person who built the software would know all the intricacies of selling a heart monitor.
The end results are software workflows and templates that may lack the critical intelligence differentiators that can make or break a sale, be relevant to your industry, or even be meaningful to your customers and prospects.
Automation Creating A Sea Of Sameness In Customer Engagement
I've noticed a greater number of organizations adopting sales software applications. According to a 2018 report, the “Customer Engagement Solutions Market” was valued at $12.56 billion in 2017, and it’s expected to reach $21.95 billion by 2023.
While these technologies do deliver meaningful efficiencies, there’s another less desirable and even ugly possible outcome: Businesses end up leveraging the same templates, workflows and engagement strategies that a handful of vendors create for the market. One common example is when the customer is sent an offer email, then a follow-up note and, lastly, a thank-you email. The entire process can feel sterile. The worst-case scenario is that a company sounds exactly the same as others. The outcome? Our inboxes are littered with sales and marketing emails that look nearly identical.
We can use these technologies to move into the modern age, but we must infuse thinking about how we want to interact with our customers and prospects as people.
Combining Human And Artificial Intelligence
The tech glut will continue — and businesses absolutely should build technology into their workflows and processes based on their specific needs. There’s so much benefit to it. As technology continues to improve and we build a talent base of industry-focused and experienced product and engineering professionals, I believe AI-enhanced human engagement will bring us to another level of efficiency and personalization.
However, how much human intelligence we infuse into that technology is our choice. Blindly and fully trusting your biggest sales and most important customer relationships to a technology can be very dangerous.
Sure, prospects and customers may be impressed by an incredibly proactive cadence of communications that automation tools drive, but only if the messaging is truly personalized, the timing is right and it’s actually relevant to them.
Many sales organizations can see amazing success by blending digital sales with field sales; for example, they can look at customer data to determine when a customer is okay with self-service education versus when they need to talk to a seller. Another big one is picking up the phone rather than sending another follow-up email once the buyer is engaged. Lastly, listen. While technology can help with outbound communications, only a human can truly listen to a prospect and understand their challenge. Building relationships with customers in-person and making every attempt to know them seems like a lost art, but this is crucial to successful selling.
No matter how much technology may help make the sales process more efficient, at the end of the day I believe people want to buy from people who know the product. Technology alone will never replace the critical thinking skills humans possess. Technology can be a great enabler, but you need to be careful what you do with it so you don’t lose the human touch your customers came to you for in the first place.
