Always find these articles “interesting” if a little “off putting”. Is it just me that finds them a little “ivory tower”?

I know the people who write this stuff at Deloitte are clever people, but do people read this and think, “this is my digital blueprint for my future business?”

Take Sales for example, the engine room of a business. If you threw this article at them and said “increase incremental revenue by 30% or you are fired” I wonder what would happen?

Talking too many a sales team, nothing.

Why? Because they are too busy implementing the sales plan from 20 years ago. Before the internet, social media and mobile existed.

In fact if you read most of the output from most consultancies it is all about efficiency savings, and there is nothing ever about increases in sales.

These reports tend to focus on technology, rather than the real drivers of any business transformation, the people and the process.

Now efficiency savings are good, digital transformation is all about using people and process better. Stripping out the analogue cost of doing business.

Let’s take cold calling a classic analogue way of doing business. You throw mud at the wall and hope it sticks. You cannot get more inefficient than cold calling. You literally call people up and hope to have a conversation with them, where you pitch.

But think about the response you get:-

1. We purchased one of these 3 months ago.
2. Don’t ever call me again.
3. Call me back in 6 months.
4. Excellent, can I buy now!

Item 1. Is a classic sign of inefficiency, not being able to spot these purchases that go to your competition.

Where as with social selling, you are able to focus in on those that are ready to buy. And of course you will have scooped up those list deals in 1. Starving your competition.

Social isn’t just for Sales, in fact it’s for all departments. Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, Customer Service, Procurement, Finance etc. Social selling, while being more efficient and effective than analogue methods is a random act of social.

Companies need to look at transformation across the whole of their business. Sales is a great place to start as it will create incremental revenue to invest back in the business to transform the whole corporation.

This report does state that Companies plan to increase this spending significantly in 2019 on digital transformation, with an average increase among our survey respondents of 25 percent over the prior year.