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6 Reasons to Embrace Empowered Sales – and Where to Begin

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Wanda Roland


Recent digital transformations have remade the B2C experience, and while B2B has been catching up, it still has room for improvement. To meet the expectations of today’s buyers, both B2B and B2C organizations need to move away from legacy systems that focused on sellers’ needs and adopt an empowered sales approach that’s digital, highly automated, and buyer-centric.

Empowered sales combine the right sales architecture, technology, and customer insights to support a guided selling approach that can meet the buyer’s needs at each step along their journey.

In the wake of widescale digital acceleration since March 2020, is now the right time to embark on a new approach to sales? Yes, because empowered sales can help organizations achieve digital transformation goals and build on those improvements.

Here are six key benefits to adopting an empowered sales approach that can optimize sales and drive revenue.

1. Empower a more efficient sales force

Developing the right architecture and implementing the right technology gives sales teams the resources to meet their customers’ needs, earn their trust, and establish long-term loyalty.

Empowered sales technology also streamlines the customer journey across every channel and at each touchpoint. This allows sales organizations to deliver one-to-one personalized experiences at scale across physical and digital channels.

2. Unify the customer experience

Data unification combined with operational streamlining allows organizations to create one CX platform that spans marketing, sales, commerce, and service for a seamless buyer-seller experience regardless of channel or journey stage.

As Forrester notes in its Predictions 2022 report, customers and employees are demanding more seamless cross-channel experiences and more convenience. A seamless buyer-seller journey will lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.

3. Achieve greater customer understanding

Unified customer data also allows for comprehensive account management and generates buyer insights for more timely, personal, consultative and relevant customer engagements.

This approach can help organizations break away from the digital sameness that makes it difficult for many customers to tell one brand’s online experiences apart from another.

4. Develop actionable customer insights at scale

Much of the recent digital pivot has focused on implementing technology to generate clearer customer insights. Despite that, Forrester predicts that three-quarters of automated B2B personalization efforts will fall short of their ROI goals in 2022 due to gaps in customer insights.

The empowered sales approach enables organizations to drive the creation of usable insights by combining automated data collection and analysis across the buyer-seller journey with artificial intelligence-driven insights.

5. Improve workflows to close more deals

The factor that most influences B2B buying decisions is an organization’s demonstration of competence, per Forrester.

The empowered sales approach includes an end-to-end workflow that gives the sales team the product information and customer insights they need in real-time to answer buyer questions and close more deals.

6. Develop new business models

Subscriptions, pay-as-you-go, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), direct-to-consumer (D2C), and other new business models are easier to launch from the foundation that empowered sales provides. Comprehensive data and insights show where the opportunities are, and unified knowledge bases and workflows allow for faster rollouts and more effective sales enablement.

Planning and implementing empowered sales

The empowered sales transformation is a long-range process that requires support from stakeholders across the company, especially from leadership. Once that buy-in is established, organizations can plan for three key stages: adopting an adaptive sales process, unifying data, and then orchestrating sales, marketing, commerce, and customer support.

Guided Selling Technology Adoption

Guided selling technology adoption and process development give the sales team the tools they need to better know and engage customers in relevant ways at the appropriate times. Properly executed guided selling solutions provide end-to-end support for the sales team and increase pipeline transparency so that sales team members are always ready with the next best step or action or offer for each customer.

Another benefit of guided selling is the easier management of sales relationships with distributors. That can improve the employee experience and give the organization a competitive advantage.

Companies should not forget about Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) to empower their sales teams, in particular, CPQ makes it easy to provide self-service options for B2B buyers that include value-based pricing, customized product suggestions, and highly accurate quotes based on personalization data.

CPQ Conversions

While CPQ drives conversions, upsells and cross-sells, it can also use data to highlight the most in-demand and strategic offers while suppressing offers of less or no value to the customer.

Finally, data-driven insights are necessary for a fully functional empowered selling program.

Because 67% of B2B buyers would rather do their own research before engaging with a vendor, insights about unknown visitors and targets can identify their intentions and help sellers decide on the next best step to engage.

An insights-driven program will focus on generating leads and revenue by collecting in-depth customer and product insights across the organization to suggest the next best steps for sales follow-ups.

Conclusion

The combination of data-driven insights with a guided selling approach and CPQ enables organizations to empower their sales teams to better understand their customers, time and calibrate offers more precisely, and provide self-service that meets customer needs and frees sales team members to work on more complex or challenging interactions.

The result is a team that’s empowered to make the most of their sales resources to demonstrate competence, understanding, and value to customers.

Image Credit: Pexels; Thank you!

Wanda Roland

Wanda Roland brings over 17 years of consulting experience to Capgemini’s DCX practice where she advises clients on strategy, leading large-scale implementations, agile transformation, architectural design review and digital design. She is highly skilled in transforming marketing, sales and customer service to improve customer experience and customer lifetime value. Wanda lives in San Francisco.

Politics

Fintech Kennek raises $12.5M seed round to digitize lending

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Google eyed for $2 billion Anthropic deal after major Amazon play


London-based fintech startup Kennek has raised $12.5 million in seed funding to expand its lending operating system.

According to an Oct. 10 tech.eu report, the round was led by HV Capital and included participation from Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One. Kennek offers software-as-a-service tools to help non-bank lenders streamline their operations using open banking, open finance, and payments.

The platform aims to automate time-consuming manual tasks and consolidate fragmented data to simplify lending. Xavier De Pauw, founder of Kennek said:

“Until kennek, lenders had to devote countless hours to menial operational tasks and deal with jumbled and hard-coded data – which makes every other part of lending a headache. As former lenders ourselves, we lived and breathed these frustrations, and built kennek to make them a thing of the past.”

The company said the latest funding round was oversubscribed and closed quickly despite the challenging fundraising environment. The new capital will be used to expand Kennek’s engineering team and strengthen its market position in the UK while exploring expansion into other European markets. Barbod Namini, Partner at lead investor HV Capital, commented on the investment:

“Kennek has developed an ambitious and genuinely unique proposition which we think can be the foundation of the entire alternative lending space. […] It is a complicated market and a solution that brings together all information and stakeholders onto a single platform is highly compelling for both lenders & the ecosystem as a whole.”

The fintech lending space has grown rapidly in recent years, but many lenders still rely on legacy systems and manual processes that limit efficiency and scalability. Kennek aims to leverage open banking and data integration to provide lenders with a more streamlined, automated lending experience.

The seed funding will allow the London-based startup to continue developing its platform and expanding its team to meet demand from non-bank lenders looking to digitize operations. Kennek’s focus on the UK and Europe also comes amid rising adoption of open banking and open finance in the regions.

Featured Image Credit: Photo from Kennek.io; Thank you!

Radek Zielinski

Radek Zielinski is an experienced technology and financial journalist with a passion for cybersecurity and futurology.

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Politics

Fortune 500’s race for generative AI breakthroughs

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Deanna Ritchie


As excitement around generative AI grows, Fortune 500 companies, including Goldman Sachs, are carefully examining the possible applications of this technology. A recent survey of U.S. executives indicated that 60% believe generative AI will substantially impact their businesses in the long term. However, they anticipate a one to two-year timeframe before implementing their initial solutions. This optimism stems from the potential of generative AI to revolutionize various aspects of businesses, from enhancing customer experiences to optimizing internal processes. In the short term, companies will likely focus on pilot projects and experimentation, gradually integrating generative AI into their operations as they witness its positive influence on efficiency and profitability.

Goldman Sachs’ Cautious Approach to Implementing Generative AI

In a recent interview, Goldman Sachs CIO Marco Argenti revealed that the firm has not yet implemented any generative AI use cases. Instead, the company focuses on experimentation and setting high standards before adopting the technology. Argenti recognized the desire for outcomes in areas like developer and operational efficiency but emphasized ensuring precision before putting experimental AI use cases into production.

According to Argenti, striking the right balance between driving innovation and maintaining accuracy is crucial for successfully integrating generative AI within the firm. Goldman Sachs intends to continue exploring this emerging technology’s potential benefits and applications while diligently assessing risks to ensure it meets the company’s stringent quality standards.

One possible application for Goldman Sachs is in software development, where the company has observed a 20-40% productivity increase during its trials. The goal is for 1,000 developers to utilize generative AI tools by year’s end. However, Argenti emphasized that a well-defined expectation of return on investment is necessary before fully integrating generative AI into production.

To achieve this, the company plans to implement a systematic and strategic approach to adopting generative AI, ensuring that it complements and enhances the skills of its developers. Additionally, Goldman Sachs intends to evaluate the long-term impact of generative AI on their software development processes and the overall quality of the applications being developed.

Goldman Sachs’ approach to AI implementation goes beyond merely executing models. The firm has created a platform encompassing technical, legal, and compliance assessments to filter out improper content and keep track of all interactions. This comprehensive system ensures seamless integration of artificial intelligence in operations while adhering to regulatory standards and maintaining client confidentiality. Moreover, the platform continuously improves and adapts its algorithms, allowing Goldman Sachs to stay at the forefront of technology and offer its clients the most efficient and secure services.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Google DeepMind; Pexels; Thank you!

Deanna Ritchie

Managing Editor at ReadWrite

Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.

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UK seizes web3 opportunity simplifying crypto regulations

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Deanna Ritchie


As Web3 companies increasingly consider leaving the United States due to regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom must simplify its cryptocurrency regulations to attract these businesses. The conservative think tank Policy Exchange recently released a report detailing ten suggestions for improving Web3 regulation in the country. Among the recommendations are reducing liability for token holders in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and encouraging the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to adopt alternative Know Your Customer (KYC) methodologies, such as digital identities and blockchain analytics tools. These suggestions aim to position the UK as a hub for Web3 innovation and attract blockchain-based businesses looking for a more conducive regulatory environment.

Streamlining Cryptocurrency Regulations for Innovation

To make it easier for emerging Web3 companies to navigate existing legal frameworks and contribute to the UK’s digital economy growth, the government must streamline cryptocurrency regulations and adopt forward-looking approaches. By making the regulatory landscape clear and straightforward, the UK can create an environment that fosters innovation, growth, and competitiveness in the global fintech industry.

The Policy Exchange report also recommends not weakening self-hosted wallets or treating proof-of-stake (PoS) services as financial services. This approach aims to protect the fundamental principles of decentralization and user autonomy while strongly emphasizing security and regulatory compliance. By doing so, the UK can nurture an environment that encourages innovation and the continued growth of blockchain technology.

Despite recent strict measures by UK authorities, such as His Majesty’s Treasury and the FCA, toward the digital assets sector, the proposed changes in the Policy Exchange report strive to make the UK a more attractive location for Web3 enterprises. By adopting these suggestions, the UK can demonstrate its commitment to fostering innovation in the rapidly evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency industries while ensuring a robust and transparent regulatory environment.

The ongoing uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrency regulations in various countries has prompted Web3 companies to explore alternative jurisdictions with more precise legal frameworks. As the United States grapples with regulatory ambiguity, the United Kingdom can position itself as a hub for Web3 innovation by simplifying and streamlining its cryptocurrency regulations.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Jonathan Borba; Pexels; Thank you!

Deanna Ritchie

Managing Editor at ReadWrite

Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.

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