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Driving into a voice-activated data-driven commerce world

Sam Ganga,, principal, KPMG

It’s a common business strategy: Design and produce products as efficiently as possible, and sell them at a competitive price.

But it’s so 20th century.

The 21st century will be different, with sellers learning to engage with their customers in ways that provides them whatever they need—even access to the competition’s products. That was the message from Sam Ganga, principal, management consulting, at global consulting firm KPMG Wednesday during the kick-off session presentation at the B2B Next conference in Chicago.

This is the future you’ll be living with.

The effective seller going forward, he said, will say to customers: “Not only do I want to send you something I provide, but I’m able to connect you with the rest of our world [and] connect you to other devices to use my products more efficiently.”

Sam Ganga

That can mean providing links from a seller’s commerce website to a competitor’s related products, he said. The seller then goes on to “own the customer” and understand not only how she works with its products but also with a competitor’s products.

The level of customer engagement is one of four ways that enterprises should develop for succeeding in an increasingly digital world, Ganga said.

The other three:

Ganga gave as an example of what could soon be a common way of operating a business in a more internet-connected future. An executive would start her day getting a computer voice message noting that her current monthly revenue forecast will be lower than expected. “Which SKU is off?” the executive would reply.

The AI-driven virtual assistant promises to get back in 40 minutes. As the executive heads to work, the virtual assistant informs her that production of a particular product is off because of downtime in a factory in Mexico, causing supply to fall from current demand. But the assistant adds that increased production is expected to make up for the revenue shortage for the entire quarter.

The virtual assistant further informs the executive, however, that the troubled factory has had two production downturns recently, so the assistant has already set up a meeting for the executive to discuss the matter with the factory manager.

“This is the future you’ll be living with,” Ganga told his audience.

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