Most of you will have recently seen the news of "cat man"

 This video shows a person struggling to use Zoom in a court in the US.

A fool with a tool is still a fool

I remember when I first got into social media I head the saying 

"a fool with a tool, is still a fool" if you look at wikipedia, the quote is attributed to two people, either way it's a great metaphor for our time.

We have all struggled with tech at some point in our lives, we have all been on mute when we shouldn't be.  It certainly seems to be the way life is going to work for the foreseeable future.

But what does "cat man" have to do with digital transformation?  If you have seen this article "the 7 best tools to digitally transform your company" which is great but, will a tool really transform your company? I don't think so.

A tool does not sort your digital problem

It's clear from "cat man" that if your people are not trained to be digital then your business isn't going to be digital.

There are no shortcuts whatever the tool salespeople say

Who's going to train your people to be digital?  Yes I know I'm biased but, can your current analogue team train your employees?

Here at DLA Ignite, we have been digital for nearly five years, we are not some startup started during lock down, people that have crafted a methodology over time.  We have tried it and tested it in client after client.  We know the pitfalls, we know the risks, we know what works, better still, we know what does not work.  

So rather than limping into digital, you can accelerate into digital.

But if I buy a tool don't I get a quicker response? 

If you think about marketing automation.  This is supposed to save you as a seller time.  As a buyer, the converse of marketing automation means you cannot be bothered to spend time with me.  And personas are just targets of people you want to sell to, this has nothing to do with trust, relationships and conversations.

Why is trust, relationships and conversations important?  Because trust, relationships and conversations create sales.  Emails, brochures, webinars and whitepapers don't create conversations, so they don't create sales.

The other problem with marketing automation is that to reach and to try and appeal to more and more people, marketing have to try and create a message that is blander and blander.  To the point, where it appeals to nobody. 

Rather than a tool, how about a way to create relationships, trust and conversations at scale?

What is our solution to the problem, of how can a company create relationships, trust and conversations at scale?  Creating sales, of course.  Let's unpack our social selling and influence course.

We would expect that each salesperson could get an additional meeting per week through this method.  Let's assume that 4 meetings gets one proposal, conservative I know, and 3 proposals, create one sale.

This means that with social selling, each salesperson would get 4 additional sales each year.  With an average deal size of $100K, that means each salesperson is creating an additional $400K per year.  Obviously, depends on your win rates, the ability of your salespeople, but I guess the figures could be higher.

When this is rolled out across your organization, think of the revenue benefit and you as a leader become a hero and have created an amazing legacy.  Don't forget, this isn't a once off, once the salespeople are empowered, they will do this every year, forever.

And finally ... 

Late last year McKinsey and Co reported that its corporate clients experienced on average 7 years of digital transformation in the first six months of 2020 as they hustled to adjust to the global economic COVID disruption. 

Another way to think of that statistic is that if you didn't start transforming your business in those months you are now 7 years behind your competitors!

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just give me, or one of the DLA Ignite team and hour of your time and we can walk you through what we are doing in the form of case studies, what we are doing for other businesses to transform them to digital.  No hard sell, just practical examples.

DLA Ignite is a global business and we understand that a "cookie cutter" approach to digital does not work, we have to take into account local language and cultural sensitivities.  Which is why we have built teams across the globe, that can support you by country and industry sector. 

For more information contact me here, visit our website, or visit our Linkedin company page and contact one of the DLA Ignite team members.