My Take on Digital Tools, Data, and Sales

Our world runs on code now. It feels like almost everything we do especially at work is connected to some kind of technology. This got me thinking about what it really means to work and build a career in this environment. I wanted to use this space to get my thoughts down on the tools we use , our responsibilities as digital citizens, and how to find out footing in a world that’s always changing.

How Digital Tools Have Changed B2B Sales

In B2B, my job has completely changed over the years. The old way of working was built on phone calls and a rolodex. Nowadays, we use data to connect with people in a much more effective way. When I hear people talk about the “Big Data”, I think about how it gives us precision. We don’t have to rely on cold calls anymore.We can look at information to find the right customers, figure out what they might be ready to buy and make our outreach feel more personal.

It all comes down to making better decisions with good information. I use tools like Salesforce and HubSpot every day. When you add in data from places like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you get a clear picture of what’s happening. These tools gives helpful dashboards that turn a lot of noise into real sales opportunities. It has made my work in finding new clients and managing my sales pipeline much more effective.

Looking ahead, I see this trend continuing. The future of work as a sales professional seems to be about working with alongside technology. I can imagine a future where an AI tools helps me figure out which leads are most promising, ,drafts some of my emails, or even gives me tips during a sales call by looking at how the conversation is going.My calendar and CRM are already connected, which is a great first step. The next phase is having these systems actively help me decide on the best next more to close a deal.

However this future isn’t without its complexities. There is a real risk of becoming over-reliant on these tools. If an AI tells you who to call and what to say, what happens to the salesperson’s intuition; that gut feeling you get about a promising but unconventional lead? It could lead to a de-skilling of the salesforce, where we lose the ability to think critically and creatively. Furthermore, AI-driven lead scoring could introduce new form of bias. The algorithm might be trained on past successes, causing it to repeatedly favor certain types of companies and overlook innovative start-ups or clients in emerging sectors that don’t fit the established patterns. Acknowledging these potential downsides is key to using technology as a tool not a crutch.

The Other Side of the Coin : Risks in a Digital World

Having access to so much information and so many prospects is great but it also comes with real risks. Cybercrime is a constant threat. For someone in sales, a data breach is more than a technical problem. It is a huge loss of trust with your clients . The risks aren’t only about getting hacked. There are also tricky ethical questions about how we collect and use data, and a company’s reputation can be damaged if client information is handled poorly.

For me the biggest concern is how we balance personalization with a person’s right to privacy. This is where good regulations are important.

The General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) was a major step in addressing this. In my personal life, I noticed it with all the “accept cookies” pop-ups and clearer privacy settings.

Professionally, GDPR’s effect has been even bigger. While it ultimately encourages better habits, calling the initial transition a headache is an understatement. The negative impacts were concrete and immediate. Our company had to invest significant resources in mandatory trainings for the entire sales teams and purchase new compliance software to audit out CRM. Prospecting lists that took years to build were suddenly questionable and we had to discard thousands of contacts who hadn’t explicitly opted in under new rules, This noticeably shrank our immediate lead pool. Every outreach campaign even to a single person has now an added layer of legal complexity. You have to be certain you can prove “legitimate interest” which slows down the initial outreach process. It forced a necessary, but at times painful. shift from a volume based approached to a much. more deliberate quality-focused one.

My Experiment with AI

I was curious about what modern AI could actually do for a salesperson so I decided to test ChatGPT. I gave it 3 sales related tasks:

1- A simple question : What are the key stages of a B2B enterprise software sales cycle?

2- An analytical question : Analyze the impact of an account-based marketing strategy on sales cycle length and deal size.

3- A creative task : Draft 3 mail-outreach sequence to a chief information security officer for a new AI-powered security platform

The results were interesting. For the first two questions, it gave perfect, textbook answers .Its analysis was good though it missed the human challenges in terms of aligning teams. But the creative task is where limitations really showed. The AI wrote a logical email sequence but the writing was generic and lacked a personal touch. For instance the opening line was :

This is technically correct but it’s cold and sounds like a press release. A busy executive would probably delete it immediately. The human touch is about making a connection. A person might rewrite that to be more empathetic and insightful like this:

Subject : A thought on the CISO’s dilemma

Hi (John )

I can only imagine how challenging it is to defend against threats that are constantly evolving. I saw you recently spoke on a panel about zero-day exploits, and it made me think about …..”

This simple change shows you’ve done your research and are thinking about their specific problems, not just your product.
My conclusion is that AI is a fantastic tool to support a salesperson. It can handle research, write first drafts, and organize information. But it can’t replace human empathy, build relationships or navigate tricky office politics. AI can help get a conversation started, but a person is still needed to build the trust that ultimately makes a sale.

What I’ve learnt

Going through this assignment has taught me a lot. The biggest takeaway is that we need to be in the driver’s seat with technology. We should be the ones deciding how these tools fit into our work, not the other way around.

I’ve learnt that Big Data helps us find and talk to the right customers at the right time. I have a much better handle on the cybersecurity risks we all face and how important it is to protect our clients’ data. My view on DGPR has also changed. I see it now as a guide for building stronger, more ethical relationships with clients. And my experiment with ChatGPT showed me that AI is not something to be afraid of. It’s a powerful assistant, but it needs human strategy and emotional intelligence to be truly effective.

Moving forward, I want to be more specific in my learning. I plan to explore modern sales technology, particularly conversation intelligence platforms like Gong which analyzes sales call, and AI-powered lead scoring tools such as Lusha.

On the regulatory side, I’m going to keep an eye on developments like the EU’s upcoming ePrivacy Regulation, as it will directly affect digital marketing and outreach strategies. Being a salesperson today means you have to keep learning, and I’m ready to stay curious and engaged.

I dropped comments on the below :
https://blogi.savonia.fi/jennihautala/digi-society/?unapproved=16&moderation-hash=5486c51cff1f9e86eff8b54ce9fba2aa#comment-16

https://blogi.savonia.fi/edris/digi-society/