In this Expert Insight Interview, Ashley Ann discusses relationship building and its importance for sales and business. Ashley Ann is a professional speaker, social media strategy/business builder, award-winning event designer, and educational technologist.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- The importance of human connection in sales and business
- How people have come to underestimate human contact
- How automation can help improve your business relationships
Human Contact and Technology
Over the last while, primarily through the pandemic, we have seen that people are craving human contact. We want to connect with others on a human level through personal and business relationships. While technology can be a great enabler of that, it can also be used to remove the human element from many aspects of life.
We’ve all had the frustrating experience of trying to talk to a company only to be sent from one bot to the next, never getting a chance to interact with a human being. Ironically, these companies often market themselves as “customer-centric”, but the experience with them is so different.
Value of Interaction
As entrepreneurs and business owners, we’re all really busy, but there’s a certain spark that comes from human connection, and it has been undervalued for a very long time. People have become so focused on sales that they forget that sales are driven by service and how someone feels about your company.
Most customers leave businesses because they don’t like how the interaction with the company made them feel, not because the business wasn’t the most inventive or didn’t have the latest and greatest product.
Automation as a Tool for Improving Relationships
The beauty of automation is that it frees up time for relationships. Instead of taking away from the relationships you have with your customers, it should enhance them because of the additional time it gives you to nurture those relationships.
For example, automation opens the door to segmenting your clients, so whenever you reach out to a client, you’re giving them highly valuable information. The pendulum is swinging towards more human engagement, so if you’re hoping to succeed in sales without engaging with anyone, you’re probably not in the right business.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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