The Increased Velocity of Digital Technology Adoption

In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic caused our lives to slow down. There were no more social engagements, no practices to drive the kids to, and all but the most critical appointments were cancelled. While our cars and our calendars got a break, however, certain business sectors were seeing an acceleration like never before. Digital technology, for example, has experienced an enormous increase in adoption.

HOW FAST ARE WE GOING?

The pandemic is estimated to have sped digital technology adoption by three or four years at least. Implementation of these changes happened 20 to 25 percent faster than anyone would have estimated before the pandemic. The shift to remote working happened forty times faster than people thought possible.

The hesitant status quo was understandable; there is always a degree of risk with any change. What’s more, those pushing for digital adoption often found it challenging to provide solid metrics on the return on investment from such tools. Suddenly, in March of 2020, the scale was tipped, and the risk of doing nothing became much greater than the risk of adopting new technologies.

WHO’S IN THE CAR WITH US?

Companies that had been deploying new technology before the pandemic have been the most likely to do so since the pandemic. However, even sectors that were behind in digital adoption have suddenly embraced it.

American banks are an example of an industry known to have been lagging behind other sectors in their adoption of digital technology. Almost overnight, digital banking became a necessity for everyone. Customers are now banking online more than ever before—including segments of the population that were most resistant to these changes. Online shopping has seen a similar shift. By the end of March 2020, VISA saw a 150 percent increase in contactless payments from the previous year.

Organizations within state governments have historically been another sector resistant to digital adoption. Faced with a crisis, they have turned to cloud and SaaS solutions out of necessity, and these solutions have proved their usefulness, versatility, and scalability.

THERE’S NO TURNING BACK

Crucially, these newly adopted solutions are no longer being looked at as stop-gap measures simply to get us through the pandemic. For the organizations currently using cloud services, 70 percent plan on increasing cloud spending beyond the pandemic.

According to Gartner, even though IT spending as a whole is expected to dip by eight percent in the wake of the pandemic, cloud spending is expected to go up by 19 percent. This sudden embrace of digital technology has not just changed where we’re working and how we communicate—it has transformed entire businesses and how we approach our work.

More than a third of executives report that they see the pandemic as a chance to digitally transform their business. Of the people who are now using digital channels for the first time, 75 percent of them say they will continue to do so.

In the past, digital transformation often centered around new software or devices. Then the question was, “How can we use this application (Salesforce, Intuit, etc.) to increase sales (or whatever your goal might be)?” There are now so many SaaS solutions that companies can take a more outcome-focused approach and simply ask, “How can we increase sales?”

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SALES?

If you are a SaaS provider, you may have been watching all of this unfold firsthand. Or you might be one of the businesses that had to quickly pivot and obtain some new digital capabilities. Either way, there are some important outcomes to keep in mind.

EXPECTATIONS HAVE CHANGED

Next month we will cover the “E” of DRIVE—Expectations—but we need to mention in now as well because consumers’ expectations have changed. Target made some quick changes to their mobile app when the pandemic started in order to enable same-day, curbside pickup. That’s how they posted a record-breaking revenue in Q2 of 2020. They had a 273 percent increase in same-day pickups.

While the risks of coronavirus will drop off, people’s love for same-day, curbside pickup is likely not going to. Some of those boomers who have embraced online banking will go back to the teller, but many will not. Just as there was a sudden shift in the need for digital technology, there was a sudden shift in customer expectations. Now that we can work from home, many of us have discovered how many of our meetings truly could have been emails. If you are a provider of cloud-based technology, people need you more than ever, but they also expect more of you than ever before.

CUSTOMER PROFILES HAVE CHANGED

Pre-pandemic, you might have been selling solutions to early adopters of digital solutions. Some sectors of the economy have always been much faster at changing with the times. Now you’ll be selling to a wider swath of the population.

Keep in mind that you might have individuals and sectors purchasing from you who are relatively new to relying on cloud-based technology for their business. While they are being forced to make changes, that doesn’t mean their pre-pandemic concerns have gone away. You might need to spend more time on the onboarding process or explaining the security features of your product.

HOW YOU SELL HAS CHANGED

Obviously, SaaS providers have been impacted by COVID-19 in the same ways as their customers. The days of in-person pitches are gone, at least for now. Your charming personality now needs to make it through a screen. From knowing how to look good on Zoom to being able to empathize through a mask, there are some new skills you’ll need to master in order to stay on top of your sales game.

Technology researchers have gone so far as to call the cloud-computing environment the “unsung hero in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.” I think we can at least all agree that, while the pandemic has been awful, it has had a few silver linings—24/7 yoga pants, increased respect for teachers and healthcare workers, and increased adoption of digital technology among them.

Much of the new technology being adopted at the beginning of the pandemic wasn’t necessarily aimed at helping people work smarter and faster—it was a matter of enabling people to do their job at all. It’s given organizations the opportunity, however, to see how useful these tools can be. Businesses see how geographic barriers might not have been true barriers, and that tasks can be assigned based on skill rather than proximity. The pandemic sped up digital adoption which has in turn increased the speed and efficiency at which many are working, likely for good.

Do you need more tools for increasing sales in a rapidly-changing environment? Get in touch at mastery@maestrogroup.co to learn about the workshops we offer.