Adding Value or Creating Barriers? Lessons on Personal Engagement

Technology for Technology’s Sake – Where’s the Value?

I have had two experiences recently that reminded me why I do what I do.

I was recently engaged by a client who initially contacted me after reading my book, The 14 Deadly Sins of ERP Implementation. It had spoken to them after they had a poor experience implementing business applications. They told me: “I wish I’d known about you a few years ago.”

They were undertaking the selection of a new CRM system themselves, and they weren’t happy with the progress or the process being used. They felt they were heading in a similar direction to that of their previous effort.

This isn’t to say his people were poor at what they did. I’m still getting to know them, but I am confident they are very good at what they do. But what they do isn’t what I do – and what I do, I do well.

I am seeing a troubling trend of low personal engagement, especially in the sales environment. People and companies are getting harder and harder to contact.

I first experienced this with a young consulting colleague who explained that they wouldn’t take a call from me if I called to speak with them. They indicated they wanted to know the topic to consider their answer and get back to me at a time and in a method that suited them. So, “text me”, was the reply.

This attitude also came to the fore when undertaking a market scan for CRM systems for this client.

I have relationships with many software vendors – including many offering CRM systems – and for those I naturally have contact details. However, there are some I don’t, and so I needed to look those up. However, nowhere – neither on Google nor their websites – could I find a phone number. I was left to use their chatbot contact mechanisms on their website. I also reached out to senior sales executives from these organisations to connect on LinkedIn and discuss the opportunity I was presenting to them.

Well, that was the start of the nightmare in one particular case.

To make a long story short, it took this company over four weeks before I spoke to a human being. Now, remember that I am presenting an enterprise deal to a software supplier and an opportunity that they had never known existed. I believe any sales executive would accept that any day of the week, wouldn’t they? (There is a hint in that sentence.)

In 1982, John Naisbitt wrote Megatrends. In that book, he identified ten megatrends, including the rise of technology and automation. He predicted that the more technology there is, the more a personal touch would be needed. I contend that we are experiencing that right now.

These software companies are automating what is, in my opinion, the most important component of business interactions: the relationship and personal interaction.

Technology has enormous potential to improve business productivity, but I caution everyone to ensure that their use of technology adds value rather than being used simply for technology’s sake. Just because you can does not mean you necessarily should.

Which brings me to my second example.

In almost every conversation I have with prospects and clients at the moment, some version of this question comes up. “What AI capabilities does the software bring?”

There is no doubt that AI has enormous potential and, in some isolated instances, delivers benefits. I have also been madly meeting with software vendors and attending their conferences and webinars, absorbing as much as possible about AI.

However, I am still determining whether I have seen any use cases that justify the significant investment required in some instances. Technology companies and large consulting firms undoubtedly see AI as the next gold rush for revenue streams, especially considering it allows them to combine the recurring revenue from the subscription model with a new billing avenue.

AI is in its infancy. The large language models (LLMs) being used were trained on a version of the internet that is getting old now. It was explained to me that AI is like a 2-year-old, and we expect it to act like someone in their 40s. Significant improvements in AI will be made over a relatively short period, but making any significant investment in AI at the moment is, in my opinion, brave.

© David Ogilvie