My is mum is 82, over time we have enabled her to stop her reliance on email.  She like me, have moved to Messenger for all our personal communications.  Facebook Messenger or Linkedin Messenger.

She complains about the "old people" that insist on using email.  Are email marketers all old?  A blog for another day maybe?

We got her an Alexa for Christmas 2018 and we got her an iPad back in 2017.

She is a busy person, very social and volunteers at a local theatre, that is all on hold because of the Covid19 situation.

She has a wine group, where a group of 12 people descend on her house.  They take it in turns to buy the wine and present about the wine.

Why don't you move the group onto Zoom we suggested?  She has suggested this to the group and it was rejected.  The person who is a retired computer studies teacher wrote a three page email on why this wasn't a good idea.

This highlights that it isn't just about giving people access to Zoom or Teams or RingCentral this is also about empowering them.  After all, "a fool with a tool, is still a fool".

Getting them to understand that using Zoom is OK.  The Digital divide still exists in our companies as well in the wider area of society. 

We know that analogue processes don't cut it anymore.  We know we have to be digital, being able to replace face-to-face meetings with products like zoom.

The same is the case in sales.  We have to replace all the old legacy sales methods with social selling methods.  After all, social selling is more efficient and effective. 

To quote Marcus Cauchi

"I believe that true sales professionals will already be adapting to the new reality. They are filling their sales funnel, building relationships, establishing their value in their prospects' and clients' minds, helping them prepare for the future. 

The need to be digitally savvy can no longer be put off and those who fail to adapt or take too long will be left behind.

I suspect the sales profession will go through an uncomfortable and extensive cull. Whilst things return to the new normal, managers will have to raise their game. Those who can't, will have a very limited future.

I suspect sales enablement will be under massive pressure to produce and the weak among them will be badly exposed.

Leadership needs to reappraise their perception of sales and start valuing sales as a profession instead of treating sales as a commodity or a utility to be exploited. Focus on effective, predictive recruitment to raise the game with hiring, onboarding, training, coaching and mentoring.

Greater alignment and better coordination across the business is also required which needs greater levels of understanding, better communication and collaboration. More transparency and much more constructive conflict are in order too."