Authored by Chad Quinn, CEO & Co-Founder, Ecosystems
Eric “Astro” Teller is a scientist, an entrepreneur, and the captain of moonshots at Google X. He can see the future, and here’s his take on artificial intelligence (AI):
“AI does not keep me up at night. What does? The idea that we might not use AI to its fullest, to help us collaborate and understand each other better.”
In other words, AI can make us more human. It’s common knowledge that AI streamlines the mundane tasks that clutter our days. Less understood, and little used, is AI’s superpower to bridge the differences in perspective that cloud human interactions and impede sales.
At Ecosystems, we have a big and bold vision where AI will help the seller unlock their natural empathy and in turn, deliver better business outcomes to their customers.
We are emboldened by this vision based on our own empirical research, which shows that sellers who collaborate with customers in the Ecosystems platform using AI-enabled empathy-inducing tactics experience a 3.4X increase in win rates.
Empathy: A Science, an Art, and a Boost for Business
Our brains are equipped with mirror neurons, a relatively new discovery dating to the 1990s. These neurons activate when we see someone express emotions or perform a motor act. It’s why we cringe when someone bruises a shin, or why we shed a tear over another person’s loss.
Mirror neurons form the basis of empathy, but if they were constantly switched on, we would “be in permanent emotional turmoil,” in the words of Kindacom’s Silvia Castrogiovanni and Elena Pattini. The brain is both hard-wired for empathy, and for tapping the empathy brakes.
Therefore, because our brains apply a governor to our mirror neurons, empathy is an attribute that must be carefully prompted.
From the customer’s perspective, according to Castrogiovanni and Pattini’s 2020 World Economic Forum article, Why empathy is good for business—and how to prove it, “the voluntary activation of empathic behaviors can transform exploitative and opportunistic relationships into more positive relationships in which people feel more valued and appreciated.”
From the seller’s perspective, according to a study from the Center for Effective Organizations, when empathy is embedded into the customer’s digital experience, it was found to be the most crucial communication process to an organization’s success.
If we know that empathy is important for both customers and sellers, how can we help them organize and prompt empathetic interactions around a common framework?
Introducing ViViEN
ViViEN, the first Virtual Value Engineer embedded in Ecosystems’ collaborative software platform, is a new GenAI/ML capability with one clear charter: Automate the mundane to elevate the humane between seller and customer.
In elevating the humane, ViVIEN is a powerful partner that prompts the seller to empathetically collaborate with their customer at specific decision points in their buying journey. Based on ViViEN’s empirical research of 2,960 opportunities in the CRM, there are five (5) decision elements where the seller and the customer must come together.
These 5 elements are encompassed in what we call the Value Validation Framework™:
Let’s look at a tangible example of how ViViEN serves up an empathy-inducing prompt for the seller and directs them to in-app coaching.
Note that, above, the seller has access to the Value Validation Framework™ within Ecosystems’ software. As they prepare for a Discovery session, ViViEN, on the right-hand side, prompts the seller to think from the customer’s perspective. Specifically, how challenging it is for the customer to align internally around common objectives and tactics.
Next, ViViEN offers an in-app coaching resource. Brent Adamson, co-author of the groundbreaking book, The Challenger Sale, helps the seller with short and succinct coaching advice on how to conduct their Discovery session with the customer.
Once ViViEN offers her initial empathy prompt, she operates as invisible AI.
She works in the background, serving up content and coaching based on her continuous fine-tuning of an optimized best practice workflow for seller win rate and customer decision confidence.
Everything from the simplicity of the interface to the length of the content is built in service of ViViEN behind the scenes. ViViEN is the invisible hand designing a magical collaboration experience between seller and customer.
Let’s compare this approach to the traditional way sales skill enhancement occurs. Sellers are asked to devote separate time, outside of their day-to-day customer conversations, to go through training sessions on skills and competencies.
However, research from Xerox reveals that 87% of sales training content is forgotten within one month of the training.
It’s not surprising, as the sessions can feel vapid and devoid of meaning without the relevancy and urgency of a pending customer conversation.
Conversely, in the above scenario, Ecosystems’ software provides dynamic coaching precisely when the seller is engaged with the customer, using the exact platform in which they are collaborating.
This creates a powerful twofer:
1. The seller has higher retention based on coaching relevancy and immediacy.
2. The quality of the customer experience increases with the seller taking on the role of empathetic decision coach.
This is the new world of commercial empathy at scale: Sellers are intelligently guided with empathetic prompts to help their customers coalesce with confidence on smart decisions.
The seller’s success and their customer’s success become one.
Commercial Empathy = Commercial Success.
Our value made clear.
