Salespeople are dead; long live Salespeople! Part 3
The human touch is the key element to providing a good Customer Experience.
Now let's discuss technology. Technology is changing many things around us, including how we work and, most importantly, how customers buy. One reason is information.
Information is no longer asymmetric. For a long time, salespeople were a source, if not the main, of information about a product or a service. Those days are over. Customers have many ways to get informed. Organizations are trying to keep up by providing different channels to serve, inform and interact with them. Welcome to the era of Omnichannel, for which many have to go through a Digital transformation plan. And it is only the beginning. With AI (Artificial Intelligence), which is promising and already delivering, customers will be more knowledgeable and independent in their purchase journey. So, what would be left to salespeople? Are their days counted? Spoiler alert: of course not.
We are left with a Customer starting to be more and more independent in his/her purchase journey. So, the billion-dollar question is, "how can a company influence, to its own benefit, this journey"? Answer: via the Customer experience (CX).
CX is "the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship." And nowadays, thanks to Omnichannel, the Customer has many options to interact with or to reach an organization. A good CX is achieved when the Customer derives value from his experience. Technology can help the organization better serve the customer (see HBR article How AI is changing Sales).
But there is one domain that remains a human prerogative: empathy. The genuine empathy that the Customer wants to and should feel at every interaction. Today, in most cases, with all the available options, it is a deliberate choice from the Customer to interact with a human (or "something" identified as such). When he/she does, the Customer wants to interact immediately with a well-trained, competent, and empowered company representative who has the authority to make decisions and resolve issues.
Recently I reached out by email to the Contact Center of an international company in search of a specific light bulb. 48h later, I received a reply from a Contact Center Care Agent: "May I request you to contact the following email, and they will guide you accordingly: blablabla@xyz.com." My request has been taken care of. But did I get any support? What about forwarding my request to the given email while copying me? I bought my bulb somewhere else.
Question: Have you ever found someone working in an Apple store with a "Sales Manager" badge? Probably not. But guess what. Apple has the highest sales per square meter of the entire retail industry, with a ratio of $5,546/m2. Incongruous, isn’t it? The highest sales ratio per square meter but no salespeople... However, you will find an army of people called "Geniuses."
Don't be fooled by the name because, based on Apple's Genius training book, "Everyone in the Apple Store is in the Business of selling" (1). To leave nothing to chance, Apple has developed its own practice called … APPLE for (A)pproach, (P)robe, (P)resent, (L)isten, (E)nd. Apple is using them, the Geniuses, the people facing the Customers, to implement the paradigm shift “Start with the why" described by Simon Sinek. And one central element of this shift is empathy. Empathy is key. Empathy will make you feel at ease with the act of spending a crazy amount of money on the phone. And unless we reach the state of Technological singularity, empathy will remain the expertise of humans.
Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, has repeatedly stated, "We don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions." This is why several companies have already rebranded their Salespeople and come up with interesting titles: "Geek Squad Agents," "Educators," and "Advisors." Once you start wondering why you should rebrand your salespeople into something more customer-focused, you are ready to review your entire customer experience strategy. You are ready to "Start with the Why." you are then ready to keep an empty seat at your table for your most important guest.
Species that survive are neither the smartest nor the strongest…
…but the ones most responsive to changes” (Charles Darwin). Yes, the function of interacting with the Customer to fulfill his needs and to help him decide is evolving. Technology plays a large role in this evolution. But for the years to come, empathy, a key element in the act of purchasing, will be held by humans. Call them salespeople if you want to: not everyone is able to respond to change—the ones who do have already rebranded their names.
As per the question, "should salespeople be ashamed of what they do?" the response is clearly "no." On the contrary. First, because we all have something to sell because selling is human. But most importantly, because by fulfilling Customer's needs, salespeople provide the fuel of any business: revenues. And as humorously stated in A FEW GOOD EXPENSES, a parody of the movie A FEW GOOD MEN, "we live in a world that requires revenue. And this revenue has to be brought by people with elite skills". Salespeople will adapt, evolve to cope with changes, and they will be rebranded to focus on what is really important: the Customer.