Reading Time: 2min00s
A few months ago, we started to share with you our vision of Post-Covid Selling. We believe that driven by changes in the way buyers and sellers interact, companies need to change both behaviours and CRM tools to survive and thrive. So how has the rest of the industry responded, and how should your business adapt and change in 2021?
The final quarter of 2020 saw consolidation among software vendors. Some of these deals seek to address the new challenges faced by companies looking to engage with buyers in a post-Covid landscape.
B2C Post-Covid Customer Service
As the first lockdowns took effect, customer service teams based in Call Centres, both on-shore and off-shore, struggled to provide adequate levels of service. Operators were separated from the tools they needed to support customers. This led to consumers experiencing longer wait times and increased dissatisfaction. As a result, customers and prospects abandoned traditional contact routes and turned to social media and mobile “apps.” When these failed, many took their custom elsewhere.
Consequently, major brands are now struggling to manage multiple customer touchpoints and to build an understanding of their customer’s journey. One organisation that saw this issue was Cisco, who will acquire IMImobile plc to offer “Customer Experience as a Service.” A comprehensive toolset that will allow companies to stay constantly connected to their customers through enhanced interactive channels including social, messaging and voice.
Another view of the best way to address the challenges of managing customer communications across multiple channels led to Facebook’s acquisition of Kustomer. The Facebook business model relies on keeping users engaged with content on their platforms. Improving the way companies and brands engage with consumers should keep them coming back for more. The Kustomer platform allows companies to scale customer service through AI. When this is combined with Facebook’s messaging platforms, we think it will herald further AI developments that will change the way consumers expect to be served.
Post-Covid B2B Sales Management
Despite the promise of numerous vaccines, it seems unlikely that Face-to-Face selling will return in any meaningful way in the short term. Selling will increasingly be a Screen-to-Screen activity, where new skills will require new tools.
Salespeople were traditionally based in the field, travelling to meet with clients, and very occasionally returning to their offices for meetings. As such, they were well prepared for the mass “working from home” rules imposed by Coronavirus. After almost a year away from the office some are missing their connection to their company and its purpose.
Many organisations implemented tools to better facilitate internal communications. These ranged from ad-hoc Zoom calls, to fully integrated collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams, which could be used to rebuild a sense of corporate belonging. According to ZDNet, Microsoft Teams was used by over 115 million people in November 2020. (How many were “on mute” was not disclosed.)
The recognition that Post-Covid Selling required new tools accelerated the acquisition of Slack by Salesforce in December 2020. Together these tools may provide an alternative to Microsoft. Time will tell how well they can be integrated.
Key Takeaways
These acquisitions highlight some common threads which we are helping our clients address.
- Unify your applications portfolio into a single platform.
- Use AI to support upscaling.
- Use relevant communication tools to deliver consistent multi-channel communications.
- Socialisation tools drive CRM adoption and improve the actual and perceived value of CRM data
In summary, Post-Covid Selling has been recognised by many of the largest sales and marketing software developers. Just remember where you heard about it first!
