Livia Rainsberger - Digital Transformation in Sales: How to Turn a Buzzword into Real Sales Practice – A 21-Step Guide

This book is a translation of the original German edition Digitale Transformation im Vertrieb by Rainsberger, Livia, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH in 2021. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature.

The registered company address is: Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany

Someone has released the genie from the bottle, and he lives up to his reputation. He doesnt follow any rules, has no respect for elders or those of higher rank, messes with everyone, and has enormous fun fulfilling requests to him differently than they are meant. He challenges the brightest minds of mankind, rages in all areas of society and the business world, and has apparently made a hobby of turning upside down structures and business models that have functioned for centuries, and this more or less overnight. And the more he upends, the more he gains power and goes after even bigger market giants once thought unassailable. He seems to have made it his personal mission to prove to the business world that there is no such thing as too big to fail, and plays a cat-and-mouse game with his victims, just the way genies usually do, before they eat them. Whats more, he seems to be having the time of his life and wouldnt dream of returning to his bottle.

This way or something similar is how many companies feel when they feel threatened by the spirit of digitalization, when in reality it means well with us and offers us far more opportunities than threats. With its playful nature, it just wants to make the opportunities not so obvious and challenges us to discover them ourselves.

It has never been so easy as it is today to create attention for ones own offer, to win new customers, and to open up new markets. Because there have never been so many different and at the same time so easily accessible and inexpensive ways for us to generate and build a business. Technology makes it possible.

But at the same time, it has never been so difficult. Because you really have to know how to use these opportunities and how to differentiate yourself from the thousands upon thousands of other providers who are aiming for exactly the same thing. Because at the end of the day, thanks to digitalization and the globalization that comes with it, everyone is fishing in the same pond and fighting for the same customer, and usually with the same means.

Sales have changed more in the last 5 years than in the last 10, and more in the last 2 years than in the last 5. And thanks to the pandemic, more in 2 months than in the entire 2 years before. Traditional sales techniques are losing relevance, proven prospecting methods are becoming a thing of the past, and successful marketing models are being consistently destroyed. Today, sales is no longer primarily about relationship building, negotiation, and closing techniques, but is much more about reaching the modern customer and meeting his needs with a sophisticated combination of business intelligence and technology.

In addition to traditional sales challenges such as price wars, high competition, and prospecting, as well as the pressure to keep up with the relentless drive to increase customer loyalty, deliver solutions faster, and close deals better, many small and medium businesses face now the possibly biggest challenge since their inception: developing a state-of-the-art sales model so as not to lose relevance and continue to reach their modern customers with their needs. Many companies are battling outdated, fragmented technology, disparate data sources, highly competitive markets, ever-increasing customer expectations, social media and multi-channel reach, and most importantly, a lack of understanding of the need for change within their own sales staff.

Even though there seems to be too much literature on digitalization today and that specific topics are covered in depth, I do not want this book to simply take up another place on your bookshelf analog or virtual but to offer you a practical guide to master the digital transformation in sales. This book is designed to help you not only understand how radically the sales world is changing, but how to address those changes and overcome the most common challenges.