Today’s consumer wants more than a product or a price point, and this is true for several reasons. The ghosts of the COVID-19 pandemic still haunt us, with all its anxiety and conflict. At the same time, the pervasive influence of social media means that the brands we wear and engage with reflect who we are — our values and perspectives. Furthermore, particularly when it comes to assisted sales (retail, direct selling), consumers want a feeling of connection. Otherwise, they’d simply shop online and never interface with a person at all.
Indeed, there is evidence that as digitalization proceeds and online experiences replace interpersonal ones, consumers will value human connections even more. PwC research indicates that 75% of consumers say they will want to interact with a real person more as technology improves. As AI technology becomes ever better at simulating human consciousness and conversation, this craving for real interaction will only sharpen. Thus, those companies that become more adept at creating human connections will be more likely to stand out and win repeat clientele.
Yet how to do so in a more technologized world?
Seller Enablement: Creating Meaningful Connections Between a Brand, Seller and Consumer
Clearly there is no way of eliminating technology from the sales equation, so it’s essential to think through how to use technology to make the seller-consumer relationship more human.
Technology is, at its core, useful in business as a form of empowerment and enablement. Companies do not acquire technology simply to create efficiencies. The idea behind a digital strategy should be that the technology rolled out enables a company to accomplish something it could not without that tech, helping it stand out from competitors and driving growth. Furthermore, tech tools should scale with the company — and adapt to future contexts. As the company grows and market conditions shift, tech should still create enough value to offset its costs, seamlessly evolving along with the times.
Human connection looks likely to remain a major key performance indicator (KPI) for sales organizations. Technology is only set to become better at simulating human interaction, and therefore the creation of human connection in sales relationships will become more important in tandem with this change.
It stands to reason, then, that sales organizations should look at how best to optimize and enable these connections, including through the very technology they are using to add value to the organization. What if the AI-enabled tech making human connection more important also made it easier to accomplish?
Sales Performance Enablement and Seller Purpose
This report examines the connection between seller happiness, seller service-skill and seller productivity, finding that the more skilled and enabled sellers feel, the happier they are in the flow of work, and the more productive they become.
That is to say, the better the seller becomes at providing sales service, the happier they become, and in turn the likelier they become to sell, in large part because customers feel more secure — not like they’re simply the object of a transaction. These three elements mutually reinforce each other.
In this manner, think of technology that enables the seller’s service skills in the flow of work. These performance enablement platforms, or PEPs, use AI and real-time context to continually recommend actions the seller can take to perform at their best. This is one example of how seller technology establishes purpose for sellers.
On one level, purpose refers to the connection between the seller’s and the company’s mission — improving people’s lives, creating change in the world, etc. In a more concrete sense, we can think about it as the sense of direction and guidance the seller feels day to day, making them more confident while lifting the burden of operational guesswork. Purpose is the feeling of, “This company supports me and is helping me cut through stress and accomplish my goals.”
Because PEPs suggest productive actions to take based on live data (e.g., behavioral and performance data), as well as past customer behaviors and preferences, tech like this helps sellers feel that sense of connection to the company.
As they feel more connected to the company, they are better able to create connections with the customer. In this respect, creating connection is not only about developing a positive, inspirational brand identity, but about creating a seamless link between the company and the seller, motivating the seller to in turn create a connection with the consumer.
Seller Enablement Strategy and Creating a Culture of Purpose
No seller enablement strategy is complete without a cultural strategy, which is to say, the processes and practices by which a company establishes the kinds of connections it wants to create between its sellers and customers.
This strategy requires companies to create a culture of purpose among the sales force, framing transactions not as “successful sales” but as meaningful points of connection. Thus, for instance, a seller is not “selling shoes” but helping the customer achieve the lifestyle of their dreams at an affordable price point. Or a seller is not “selling watches” but helping the customer create the kind of look that will affirm their identity.
Creating this culture of purpose is not something that happens overnight. Instead, it must be built into each aspect of the seller experience, from onboarding and training to continual sales enablement and team and customer communications.
For instance, a company that provides sales training to its sneaker sellers has two options: It can instruct the seller to upsell the customer in order to drive more revenue, or the company can tell a story about the role that sneakers play in their customers’ lives — helping them recover from injuries, helping them get into shape and feel confident in their bodies.
At each point in the seller enablement journey, companies can choose to emphasize profit or connection. Ironically, it is in emphasizing connection that these companies will generate the most profit: by truly speaking to the consumer of today.
Merging Tech and Culture
Purpose is key in creating connection between the company, the seller and the customer. This works on two levels, digital and cultural strategy. Technology can help the seller move confidently through their day, continually showing them the next action to take to be productive; this helps them feel supported and cared for, which fuels their connection to the company’s mission.
Psychologically speaking, they then become more receptive to the company’s purpose on the cultural level, more willing to engage with it. Yet if you tell the seller a story about the company’s purpose without supporting them operationally, they’ll check out. They’ll think, “Put your money where your mouth is.” You don’t want empty words. You want to tell your sellers truths.
On the cultural level, once the seller feels supported and receptive to the company’s message, companies must establish the meaning behind the transactions they make possible. The seller asks, why am I selling this? And the customer asks, why am I buying this? The answers to these questions should essentially be the same and should be easily identifiable. The company must tell a clear, vivid story that embodies their purpose.
Particularly in a world where seller retention is such a problem, it’s inadvisable to convey to sellers that their purpose is merely to make the company money. In that case, they will move to another company as soon as there is an opening, because one company whose goal is just to drive revenue is as good as another. Rather, companies should give their sellers a meaningful purpose, one which carries emotional weight — making the customers’ lives better in some way.
It’s only when these technological and cultural ways of instilling purpose are combined that sellers can truly be enabled. The seller of the 21st century does not want to sling products, they want to sell purpose. The companies that empower them to do that will stand out, both to sellers and the consuming public, and succeed.
