Digital is the main reason just over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000.
–Pierre Nanterme, CEO of Accenture
Why is it that companies that fail to adopt technology fade away?
Fundamental Transformation
First, there is a fundamental transformation happening—actually one that’s been happening for a number of years now but which has reached mammoth proportions and only continues. That is the evolution of the digital world.
50 years ago who would have thought that a person could type something on a computer keyboard in Bangkok, and an instant later it would show up in Boston? Who would have imagined that you could instantly find out everything you needed to know about a company that was trying to sell you something, so that you could really evaluate their offer? Who would have thought that you could gather a majority of opinions from the world over regarding a product or service, in minutes?
That’s the way it is today. And every kind of entity, from an individual all the way up through the mega-corporation, is having to make plentiful allowances for the digital world.
A primary focus of the digital world is processes. A process is the optimization of a task or a set of tasks, either for humans or for automation. Tasks which can be automated surely will be, as we’re seeing with the continuous advancement in robotics. Other sets of tasks, such as with sales processes, are meant for human interaction and use. Processes are what make it possible to operate at optimum speed so as to compete in today’s business world.
Another very important focus is the harnessing and use of data trends. For example, medical analysts can watch data trends for certain types of medicine being sold in a certain area, and be able to state with certainty that a flu is going around in that region, and act accordingly. With Google Trends anyone can see what is trending near them or in any place throughout the world as regards searches. Businesses take advantage of this kind of functionality for everything from marketing to product development.
Overwhelming Complexity
But there is another, radical change brought about by the digital world that must be dealt with head-on, as it will overrun anyone who doesn’t.
While the whole world has become interconnected, that means that all the information coming from everywhere is literally available to everyone, practically as soon as it is released. What kind of information overload can that lead to?
One might also ask how easy it is to stay abreast of information just in one’s own area of expertise. Several centuries ago, the major information possessed by the entire world was at the fingertips of the leading minds of the day. This was so true that someone like Leonardo da Vinci could be a leading light in many different fields; he was a painter, an inventor, an architect, an astronomer, a scientist, a writer and a number of others.
Today, though, simply trying to keep current on the latest information in one of these fields would require more time than the average human has in a day—even if they never slept.
There are 2 drivers to this major problem:
- The speed of innovation
- The exponential growth of every area of life
For an example of the mind-boggling complexity that is coming at us every day, let’s return to a discovery made all the way back in 2003. 13 years ago, with the use of the Hubble telescope, calculations took place that demonstrated to us the approximate number of galaxies in the universe.
With the Hubble telescope, the entire visible sky was mapped. Remember, the Hubble telescope is in space, so the “entire visible sky” is the entire sphere of space, visible in every direction. The sky was mapped using Hubble deep field squares. After examination, it was estimated that each of the 65,000 deep field squares contained 10,000 galaxies. Multiplied out, that makes for an estimated 16.5 billion galaxies. That totally boggles the mind! We haven’t discovered a tiny fraction of 1 percent of the universe.
So as you can see, just in our lifetimes things have been discovered that are beyond the ability of us to imagine. There are surely many more to come.
Pipeliner CRM
Along with the rest of the world, sales has become increasingly complex, too. Where once there was simply a couple basic hats—a “salesman” and the manager—today we have field sales, inside sales, SDR sales, vertical sales, horizontal sales, and much more. Because of the digital age, we also have many more times the sales channels we once had.
In addition to applying sound and proven business principles, at Pipeliner we have also been searching for a way to address today’s overwhelming complexity. We weren’t going to go the way of many other applications, and display hundreds of charts and graphs (as, for example, financial market applications do). Interestingly, our legacy CRM competitors have always dealt with sales complexity in this way. In so doing they have made sales next to impossible to truly bring under control.
Not long ago I was on an international flight and found myself seated next to a Boeing 747 cargo pilot (traveling as a passenger). I told him that I was fascinated with the cockpit of an airliner, just because there were well over a hundred instruments there. I then asked him what he did under extreme circumstances—how many instruments would he really be paying attention to? He told me, “Not more than 4 or 5.”
The human mind cannot track hundreds or even dozens of indicators—so in day-to-day management, what is the answer?
For that, Pipeliner CRM turned to cybernetics, the specific science applied in dealing with complexity. Cybernetics pioneer W. Ross Ashby referred to cybernetics as the “science of simplification.” The first application of cybernetics to Pipeliner came with our last release, in which we added our Navigator feature.
With its breakthrough Navigator functionality, Pipeliner CRM moves far beyond the standard concept of a CRM dashboard. We have brought more focused and innovative ways of bringing instant intelligence to all users, no matter their function in the organization—intelligence that cuts out the noise for users, allowing them to easily navigate complexity and focus immediately, and in real-time, on what is most important.
We aim to assist sales managers and salespeople navigate the complexity of today’s sales world. And by doing so, we are greatly helping them to master it and succeed.
Pipeliner CRM is the perfect CRM for competing and succeeding in today’s digital world. Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.
