By CCO Lasse Garby Virtual customer meetings were something that large US-based IT companies used in their Inside sales organizations just a few years ago. Especially companies like Microsoft and Cisco that had their own video desktop solutions were some of the front runners. It was often a challenge to have customers download and connect and the first versions did not always give the best user experience. I have worked in some of the US IT giants and have seen how it has worked and not worked. In my previous job, we never used the video capability but only the audio which makes sense if you have larger meetings with 25+ participants, but even the key speaker did not use the video. That was a bit of a strange experience. When I was at Cisco we sold collaboration and video conference systems to many companies but still, a lot of companies did not really believe in not meeting face to face even though they could save a lot of time and money not traveling and reducing CO2 outlet not flying or driving. But since March 2020 when Covid-19 broke out everything changed completely more or less overnight. Suddenly almost all companies started to use virtual meeting platforms and video capabilities as well. Even small companies with 10-15 people would meet virtually as they could not meet in the office. Since I joined Stinto almost 1½ month ago 8 out of 10 customer meetings has been virtual meetings. As I had done it on a much smaller scale in my previous jobs, this was not completely new to me, but still different especially if you have not met the customer or prospect in person before. I had some concern about this in the beginning, but I must admit after having had a lot of virtual customer meetings with persons that I have not met before, I actually don’t think of it any longer, and the customer, as well as my self, uses the video function. Often it has been the customer asking for a virtual meeting and not myself. I have proposed it if the customer has used Covid-19 as an excuse for not having a meeting and often this has been well accepted. Having virtual meetings is also very effective as you can have many meetings per day versus physical meetings gives a natural limitation as you have to travel, find a place to park, wait in the reception, getting a cup of coffee, finding a free meeting room, getting your presentation up and running, not being able to connect to the wi-fi and projector, and then out again, pay for the parking, go to the gas station and fill up the car on the way back to the office where there are no free parking lots, etc. What I have learned from virtual customers meeting is that you should try to avoid using too many slides as it is much better to have eye contact with the customer (even though you use a small laptop). With a 25-page slide deck, you cannot see the reaction from the customer and you tend to lose their attention. Having a slide deck as a “backup” is the most so you can jump in and out to explain things in more depth but try to have a discussion. Another great thing is to have or to be a wingman during a virtual customer meeting. This gives the opportunity to have a more interactive meeting where your wingman can do a demo, or prepare something to share as part of the demo as we often do at Stinto. When my wingman does the introduction or vise versa I can prepare a demo of the Stinto App and our web interface and while presenting this my wingman sends a digital business card to the customer and have him download it. Seeing is believing. So if you have not already started using virtual customer meetings start now as customers are ready and have been used to have virtual meetings every day during the COVID-19. BUT virtual meetings can not replace all meetings. You need to meet the customer once in a while, to see their company and what happens at their office but keeping the appropriate 1-meter COVID-19 distance.
FN Global Compact-partner: Kravene til underleverandører stiger
Konklusionen på den årlige FN Global Compact-konference lyder, at verdens største virksomheder skal sætte turbo på deres bæredygtighedsplaner. Det betyder blandt andet skrappere krav til underleverandører. Mere end 11.000 af klodens største virksomheder har officielt forpligtet sig til at opfylde FN’s 17 verdensmål inden 2030. Men konklusionerne fra den netop afsluttede Global Compact-konference var, at den bæredygtige omstilling går for langsomt ude i virksomhederne. For eksempel mener kun 39 procent af deltagervirksomhederne, at de har mål, der er ambitiøse nok til at nå verdensmålene inden 2030, og under en tredjedel synes, at deres branche som helhed bevæger sig hurtigt nok. – Det er jo fantastisk, at så mange virksomheder har forpligtet sig til at nå FN’s Verdensmål, men nu skal toplederne altså ned i selve forretningen og tage de nødvendige beslutninger. Præcis som forbrugere skal ændre deres vaner, skal virksomheder ændre arbejdsgange, supply chains og de it-systemer, der skal underbygge omstillingen, siger Ann Rosenberg, der er Senior Vice President for UN Partnerships i teknologigiganten SAP. Udover at være blandt verdens førende eksperter i FN’s Global Compact, har hun sammen med Lise Kingo, der netop er blevet afløst som direktør for FN’s Global Compact, udviklet FN’s nye verdensmåls-værktøj med ti hjælpemidler, der gør det nemmere at indarbejde bæredygtighed i kernen er forretningen. Lavthængende frugter Ifølge Ann Rosenberg har corona midlertidigt fjernet fokus fra den bæredygtige omstilling, men efter covid-19 går vi ind i en verden, hvor der bliver stillet endnu større krav til underleverandører og samarbejdspartnere. Hun påpeger, at der er mange lavthængende frugter i rejsen mod verdensmålene. Et eksempel på en virksomhed, der har ambitioner om at ride på den bølge af leverandørudskiftning, som de skrappere krav fra Global Compact udløser, er danske Stinto. Virksomheden vil være det digitale alternativ til fysiske visitkort, som alle i erhvervslivet flittigt deler ud, men som ofte ender i skraldespanden. Netværkstankegangen er overført fra sociale medier til et enkelt og sikkert system, hvor kun kontakt- og jobinfo optræder. – Stinto har gjort stort indtryk på mig som et fint eksempel på, at det godt kan være enkelt at blive mere bæredygtig. Når man har et digitalt alternativt til noget, som i virkeligheden resulterer i papirspild, så burde alle gå med ombord. Ligesom vi som privatpersoner reflekterer over at sige nej tak til plastikposer, skal vi på samme vis i arbejdsøjemed sige nej tak til trykte visitkort. Det er et lille men tydeligt signal at sende, fordi alt tæller i det bæredygtige regnestykke. siger Ann Rosenberg og tilføjer, at hun håber på, at brugen af visitkort bliver en socialt uacceptabel ting, ligesom brugen af plastikposer og sugerør er ved at blive det. Efterlyser bedre ledere Bæredygtig omstilling starter ved ledelsen, mener Ann Rosenberg, der savner et øget ledelsesfokus på området. – En FN Global Compact-rapport, Leadership for the Decade of Action, konkluderer, at kun fire procent af virksomhederne, som var med i undersøgelsen, stiller krav til bæredygtige tankegange og strategiplaner, når de ansætter nye ledere og bestyrelsesmedlemmer. Virksomhederne er meget gode til at beskrive sig som bæredygtige, men skal fokusere mere på at ansætte de rigtige mennesker, der reelt kan føre virksomheden hen mod en mere bæredygtig drift, siger Ann Rosenberg.
