The Digital Marketing Institute’s Industry Advisory Council was convened on April 4, 2017, by the world’s top digital influencers, including IBM, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft.
Hugh O’Byrne is the IBM Digital Business Group’s Global Sales Center Excellence VP. The Council discussed the challenges that digital transformation poses to the workforce. This blog provides insight into their observations.
What digital changes have occurred
The experts at the IAC were unafraid to acknowledge the impact of digital but said that finding the right people and knowing how to drive the technology is the key to success.
Since Enron, customers have also become more skeptical when making purchases. Their trust in the government and large brands has declined. People are concerned about data, what to do with it, and where it’s stored. O’Byrne said that the flip side of this is increased confidence in communities and people.
This trust in individuals and peer recommendations can be invaluable for businesses. It is also a significant driver of brand awareness. Digital transformation is a chance to disrupt, and it’s all about how well you engage with your customers. It is about knowing your customers and remembering they have incredible knowledge platforms and are constantly scoping. “Being authentic and influential is important,” said Olivia Kearney, CMO of Microsoft.
People in front of the brand
By recognizing the opportunity to use digital in their favor and to build trust with their clients and customers due to the shift in consumer behavior, IBM set out to make their brand synonymous with trust. IBM put its people at the forefront of its brand and invested in a digital-mastery program that would help sellers to use digital tools and strategy to build and nurture meaningful relationships.
IBM developed a strategy to help sellers fill their social media channels with relevant and meaningful content. This was a significant change for marketing as they had to create content that would be social network friendly.
“We first forced our employees to go online and told them to drink that. We then worked on another aspect of the business but were disappointed when it failed. We needed to make sure that our salespeople enjoyed it.”
Specialist vs. Generalist
Many companies know digital is moving fast, and employee skills must catch up.
Ciaran O’Muirthile is the Head of New Customer onboarding EMEA for Google. He believes that transformation has reached a higher threshold and, therefore, deep specializations in specific fields are required. “The problem is that there is a fragmented customer approach, so a generalist role is required to orchestrate this.”
How do you make this specialization stand out? Every day, the world is becoming more complex. New fields are emerging every few months.
The Council considers agility to be crucial for today’s workforce. It was deemed necessary that employees were willing to upgrade their skills and learn new ones constantly. This would allow them to meet business demands and learn new skills. It’s all about hiring and keeping the right people in the organization.
How did IBM achieve digital transformation within its workforce?
The key to certification is education
IBM’s digital sales program needed to create a certification that would be externally recognized and give people the skills they needed to advance their careers. The company created a Certificate in Professional Digital Sales, a program tailored to meet the needs of its sellers and their business. This was done with the help of the Digital Marketing Institute.
O’Byrne said that “certification is key for engaging staff, as it improves their skills and gives them a recognizable certificate. It also makes them more comfortable with the digital world.” It was uncommon for other companies to create a similar program, which is still rare. “What changed things for us was that our sellers wanted to be first and best in digital and social sales.”
In addition to certification, a tangible result is essential for learning and improving digital skills. Employees are interested in how the skills and credentials they acquire will affect their role daily and their long-term careers.
The funny thing about digital marketing is that people focus more on the obligation than the opportunity. Instead of talking about how social media benefits business, it is important to show how it impacts personally,” said Jamie White, founder & director of Leading Social. If you show people how to use it personally, they can do it for business.
IBM reaps the rewards
IBM’s sales reps were evaluated on the benefits they received from the Certified Digital Selling Professional training. After learning, IBM discovered that sellers’ confidence in digitally working increased by 50%.
Personal branding and the ability to communicate, engage, and curate online content were all taught through this program. These skills are vital for future business development.
The business impact is the best way to measure the effectiveness of a program.
A 15-month ROI study of 7,200 business opportunities developed by our Business Development team resulted in a 37% decrease in the days it took to close and a 7% improvement in the win rate.
The Future
It is hard to measure the impact of AI and machine learning as they become powerful digital technologies. These new technologies are a great way to improve the customer experience, which is a priority for executives.
Members of the IAC spoke about the benefits of AI for the customer and the potential impact on jobs. They stressed the importance of professionals continuing to learn to stay relevant.
Hugh O’Byrne believes that IBM’s digital future will continue to push the boundaries. “I have had many field sales teams come in, and they ask how to best use digital to do their jobs when we explain how we work. We know that they must be familiar with digital but don’t know how much. We are working with different areas of the field to determine what they need to learn and how we can assist them.
The Key Takeaways
It is hard to define digital transformation, but its impact continues to be huge, and businesses must respond.
Credibility and authenticity are key to an organization because customer trust is shifting from organizations to individuals and communities.
In a world of fast-paced, competitive online business, the agility of your workforce is essential.
As part of the digital transformation, employees need to be able to see tangible benefits. Certification
AI and other technologies offer huge potential for improving customer experience.