1. Digital transformation discussion guide for customers in RETAIL
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HOW TO USE: This guide was created to provide a foundation for your digital transformation sales calls. The first two columns can help frame your customer conversations and should be tailored to your company’s offerings. The third column explains how Microsoft IoT solutions help meet the needs of the industry. The fourth column should be completed by you with examples of your unique solutions and services and how they deliver on the IoT promise. Examples are provided to get you started.
VALUE PROP: The Internet of Things (IoT) builds on the technology investments you have already made and brings your data together in new ways that engage your customers, empower your employees, optimize your operations, and transform your products to drive tangible, real-time business results. (Your name) delivers this value by integrating devices, systems, and people to enable the digital transformation.
(This is the value you provide to your customers. Modify to fit your unique value-add.)
SELLING OPPORTUNITY: About 5.5 million new devices are connected to the Internet every day1, representing a $1.7 trillion market opportunity by Taking advantage of this opportunity will require system integrators that can securely integrate these devices to new systems and software as well as legacy infrastructure to help businesses reduce costs and inefficiencies, increase revenues, and create new business models and opportunities.
1 Gartner press release, Nov. 10, IDC press release, Jun 2, 2015
WHO ARE WE SELLING TO? Owner | Managers: store, ops, inventory, supply chain, IT | CEO, CFO
PAIN POINTS | CONCERNS
High-level challenges and objectives of businesses in the industry
PROBING QUESTIONS
Probing questions uncover the prospect’s unique challenges and objectives. (Add questions related to your offering.)
HOW CAN MICROSOFT HELP?
Microsoft digital transformation messaging
HOW CAN YOUR SOLUTION HELP?
(Tie the benefits of your solution back to pain points and Microsoft key messages.)
ENGAGE CUSTOMERS
Delight customers and deliver innovative, personalized customer experiences across all channels
Stay ahead of the competition
Connect more effectively with customers
Secure customer data
Make data collection engaging, not intrusive
Are you delivering a customized and differentiated (from your competitors) customer experience across all of your sales and marketing channels? How?
Do you have a omni-channel sales and marketing strategy today?
How do you use devices and data to create a superior shopping experience?
How are you securing customer data?
Do you have a 360-degree view of your customer today, or are there gaps in visibility?
How do you track customer behaviors?
Build better, stronger engagements by harnessing data representing a complete view of your customer.
Draw actionable intelligence, predictive insights that can deliver personalization experiences at scale.
Measure promotion and in-store activities and deliver differentiated shopping experiences that delight customers.
(Highlight ways your solution can help retailers leverage IoT to engage customers and create a rich, omni-channel experience.)
Examples:
Provide a single, secure platform that protects personal information whether the data is gathered in the cloud or in the store.
Use beacons throughout the store to send customized and contextual alerts to a shoppers’ smartphones.
Create rich, mobile experiences that ingrate customer purchasing and browsing history, market trends, popular and related items, etc.
EMPOWER EMPLOYEES
Help employees work smarter and use their own devices
Give employees access to inventory and product info when and where they need it
Connect data across channels, giving employees a 360-degree view of customers and the business
Do your employees have real-time access to inventory and product info?
Are you connected to your supply chain end-to-end?
Are your employees using their own phones, tablets, other devices? How secure are these devices?
Do your employees use data to deliver differentiated customer experiences? How? What types of data could help them take the customer experience to the next level?
Use security-enhanced, on-premises, and cloud-based productivity and BYOD assets that provide mobility, operational control, and sales enablement when and where customers are.
Provide a single, security-enhanced platform that puts customer, inventory, and pricing information at their fingertips.
Deliver personal, seamless, and differentiated customer experiences by empowering people, enabling digital transformation, and capturing insights to drive growth.
(Highlight ways your solution can help retailers empower their employees with data and insights gathered from the IoT to create a superior shopping experience.)
Securely integrate personal devices with your IoT applications and legacy systems to provide a 360-degree view of the customer.
Enable sales associates with devices that are securely and fully integrated to the data they need to provide a superior customer experience.
OPTIMIZE OPERATIONS
Maximize the return on investment (ROI) of current technology investments while integrating IoT technologies into existing systems.
Improve inventory control, contain costs, and reduce loss.
Ensure data, identity, and infrastructure security online and across the enterprise.
Prevent point-of-sale (POS) intrusions, equipment or product theft, or misuse.
Connect channels to create an integrated shopping experience.
Do you use digital signage, smart POS, or mobile devices?
How are you collecting data (transactional, customer, vendors, partners, product), and where are you storing it?
How secure is your data across your enterprise? What controls do you have in place to prevent unauthorized access?
How are you analyzing your data? Are you using it to improve
What are your biggest operational challenges?
What KPIs do you use to measure performance?
Connect assets, supply chain, and customers to gain omni-channel visibility, improve efficiencies that impact bottom-line performance.
Create edge-to-enterprise security with security features built in, like hardware-based cryptographic services that protect your data even if the operating system is compromised.
Use technologies like click-stream data and streaming analytics to deliver quantifiable increases in traffic, conversions, basket size, promotional effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
(Highlight ways your solution can help retailers optimize operations by securely use data and the IoT to optimize their operations.)
Embed intelligence into “smart shelves” to monitor inventory movement and decrease stock-outs.
Create role-centric dashboards that collect data from IoT devices, such as smart shelves, to help employees make better business decisions faster.
TRANSFORM PRODUCTS
Be fast/first to market with offerings that use the latest technologies
Anticipate customer needs
Create a sustainable competitive advantage
Identify industry trends and capture new opportunities.
How often do you introduce new products?
How often do you introduce changes designed to improve customer experience?
How do you gather customer, employee, and partner input (for example, through surveys, analytics) for experience feedback and new ideas? How frequently? How do you use this information?
Are you actively looking for opportunities to use data to create a sustainable competitive advantage? Are you challenged to grow the lifetime value of current customers?
Harness crowd sourcing, social data, and intelligent systems to drive innovation.
Harness omni-channels including brick-and-mortar, online/e-commerce, catalog sales and call-center, mobile Internet devices, social, as well as television, radio, direct mail to create “unified commerce.”
Use diverse channels to sell directly to consumers, such as B2C commerce sites, kiosks, vending machines, and smart home devices.
(Highlight ways your solution uses IoT to help retailers uncover new insights and transform the shopping experience.)
Integrate and synthesize customer and market intelligence from multiple sources to surface ideas for product innovation.
Monitor in-store traffic-flow patterns to identify the best placement for sale items, products that garner interest but aren't moving, and displays that are ineffective.