Technology cannot disrupt the emotions in Sales

I am one among the modern sales person to believe someday technology would hijack the entire sales process. I belong to a generation where I saw e-commerce changed every organization’s sales model. E-commerce slowly emerged as a mandatory sales model for all types of business. From small scale businesses to enterprises, online store fronts has become an important source of lead generation and this shows the power of technology

Two weeks back, I was invited to attend one of the successful business’s 20 year celebration. During the celebration, their long standing customers and partners were invited. The company is one of the best and highly advanced technology company which breathes only technology. So, I was curiously waiting to see someone speak how technology has changed the way they sell and how it helped them to improve sales but in contrast, all their customers were discussing only about their experiences with staffs in the organization. In fact, I see them recalling the names of their ex-colleagues and memorizing the moments, how they helped solved the problems.

This made me realize there is no technology or digital revolution that can substitute emotions. It is emotions that identifies problems, It is emotions that pushes one to look for solutions, It is emotions that converts the solution into needs and it is emotions that play a crucial role in decision making. If I summarize, I see four stages here which is problem, solution, need and decision making and if you compare it with sales process, it is pre-suspect, suspect, prospect and customer. They align perfectly to each other. So, the technology should remain only as a platform to connect human emotions.

It is 100% evident that technology creates value and emotions creates satisfaction. You just cannot sell only value without creating an experience that leads to customer satisfaction. They both should work hand-in-hand. Technology can save a human lives but it is emotions that drives him to live and not live. Please share your thoughts