The commercial consultancy AttitudePro recently presented the results of the III Study of Digital Health of Companies under the Sales Innovation Forum 2023 by AttitudeProwhich this year celebrates its third edition.
The event included the participation of Mª Eugènia Gay, former Government delegate in Catalonia; Birgit Zondler, managing director at GEZE Iberia SRLU; Alberto López, commercial director at Porsche Ibérica, and David Giménez, executive director at PIMEC, as well as Fede Martrat, managing partner of ActitudPro, who presented the results of the report, and José Martrat, partner of ActitudPro and moderator.
Of the total commercial departments surveyed, only 15% have implemented some AI tool to increase and optimize sales. 35% of companies do admit to using AI systems in some of their processes, but not to sell more: 12% respond that they use AI to generate content; 21%, as a tool to increase productivity, and 2%, for other activities, while the remaining 50% of the commercial departments surveyed say they do not use AI in any case.
Figures that are in line with those presented in the report “Use of artificial intelligence and big data in Spanish companies 2022” of the National Observatory of Technology and Society (ONTSI) -dependent on the Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence-, which warns that in companies with 10 or more people employed, AI serves as a tool, mainly, for the automation of workflows and aid in decision-making, and that currently 4 out of 10 large companies use some type of AI (41.2%), while in medium-sized companies the percentage is 20% and among small companies, 9.4%.
The digital skills of business professionals
According to him III Digital Health Study of AttitudPro Companies, which analyzes the degree of digitization of companies and its evolution in the last two years, most commercial managers feel prepared to use digital tools in their commercial work. 98% of the business managers surveyed state that they feel prepared to deal with the digitization of the business process (59% totally, and 39% do believe they are prepared, but need to improve).
However, and if we use the NPS (Net Promoter Score) methodology –one of the main tools for measuring the degree of satisfaction of the respondent–, 54% of commercial directors detect a deficit in the digital skills of their sales teams and Suspends your digitization level.
Companies continue to invest efforts to digitize increasingly its business process and, by 2023, the 42% of companies have a fully digitized service contracting process (in 2020, it was 18%), compared to the 31% that he does not have it and he 27%which has it only partially.
On the other hand, according to the study, the digital training is consolidated as a recurring tool to keep sales teams trained and the 47% of the companies surveyed have a digital platform of elearning to train your sales team.
In the opinion of Fede Martrat, founding partner and CEO of the company, “The data tells us that companies that have begun to use AI in their commercial departments have not focused on optimizing and improving sales. It is undoubtedly an opportunity to explore that can help us improve and optimize our day-to-day business. In sectors such as retail, according to various statistics, thanks to the implementation of AI systems, the workload has been reduced by up to 30%. The seller still has splendid days on the horizon, but as long as he knows how to connect with the digital environment that surrounds us all”says Fede Martrat.
