Many companies have begun a digital transformation process. Few have made material progress, especially within the revenue organization (marketing, sales and service).
The Alexander Group’s (AGI) research shows trailblazing companies spend 2.5X more on technology and are 3X more confident in their ability to achieve their long-term revenue growth goals. More importantly, their executive teams are fully committed to digital transformation.
These winning organizations invest in digital not to capture near-term revenue growth or reduce cost. Instead, they make the investment because they fundamentally believe that without the change they will not compete in the near future. In short, they are creating competitive advantage that will propel growth at the expense of laggards.
AGI’s Digital Go-To-Customer Study explores the types of changes companies are making to digitize the revenue organization–specifically, how companies are using data and technology to change the way they engage with customers and enable marketing, sales and service organizations.
The results are in. Trailblazing organizations offer a view of the revenue organization of the future as well as a path for others to follow.
Trailblazers describe their journey as incomplete but offer three pieces of advice:
Test & Learn – Executive commitment and funding will not always come tops down. Enterprising leaders from within are often the source of innovation and forward thinking. Empower team members. Divert funds to support small scale pilots and build the business case for broader investment in change. Have many of these controlled deployments running. Fail and scale rapidly.
Seed New Talent and Invest in Training – Challenge legacy talent paradigms. Seek people who have experience in B2C and similar industries that might be further along on their digital journey. Divert training funds from product and sales skill programs to those that emphasize social and using tools to improve customer experience and productivity.
Be Relentless About Change Adoption – Line management is reported as the top reason why digital initiatives fail. Engage this population and demonstrate why the new operating model is the future. Include influential managers in Test & Learns. Task them with and hold them accountable for change adoption. Do not accept opt out.
Companies furthest along the transformation path offer a vision of the revenue organization of the future NOW. They’ve blazed a trail for others to follow. They are creating competitive advantage that will be hard to replicate.
How will you respond?
Learn more about how AGI partners with companies to digitize the revenue organization. Participate in AGI’s Digital Go-To-Customer Study.