Digitalisation & the Business of Change

“I like what I know & I know what I like”?(Genesis, I Know What I Like, 1973)

World famous for their astute lyrical insights, the lyrics to this famous song by Genesis still reverberate today. In it, the stories protagonist subtly offers a rebuke to modern society in favour of a more simpler life. Fast forward 50 years & the words from this Phil Collins melody are as relevant as ever, especially in today’s rapidly changing world.

To put this theme into wider context; if you were 20 years old in 1903, you could have been lucky enough to witness the Wright Brothers achieve the world’s first powered, sustained, & controlled airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, South Carolina. This feat, which was considered a miracle of engineering at the time, saw the plane cover an incredible 36 meters through the air in just 12 seconds.

Fast forward six decades to 1969 & that same person, who is now aged a modest 86, has just turned on their privately owned Television, to witness via satellite communication from outer space, a certain Mr. Neil Armstrong literally walk on the moon…live!

Pause. Think. Imagine.

Whatever our world will look like 60 years from now, it will be unquestionably beyond human comprehension.

So what does this mean in practical terms for modern forward- thinking businesses?

Anticipating future market trends is essential for companies to maintain a competitive edge & it is now past debate that the next frontier for business is digitalisation. E-business now dominates the commercial B2C landscape & the adoption of B2B is already increasing significantly.

So what does this mean for the future of B2B sales organisations?

Digitalisation of the traditional sales process (e.g. order processing, quotations, delivery updates etc.) will free up sales engineers to spend less time on data entry, thus allowing them more time to spend on more important activities such as business development & customer engagement. The key difference being now that digitalisation will allow the sales function to become more proactive rather than reactive. It is therefore essential for organisations to automate as many processes as possible in order to maintain future competitiveness.

There are naturally certain risks that could be associated with digitalisation; for instance, will customer contact diminish? Will automation be a threat to our jobs? etc. It is an inherent characteristic of human nature that we are wary of what is perceived as the “new”, which is why the topic of Organisational “Change Management” is as pertinent as ever.

For this reason; the onus is on business leaders to communicate the vision of digitalisation & how automation in fact presents an opportunity for sales engineers to develop their skills & in turn, enhance their market value. It is essential that we understand the journey we are all on, the destination that we are all heading & the array of new skills that we will all need to meet these future challenges. In doing so; the necessary training, development & support can be implemented throughout an organisation to ensure that everyone is equipped to take their businesses to the next level up & become market leaders in the digital era.