Creating Personal Connections

SAP Hybris (now SAP Cloud for Customer) was a mobile-first solution that helped businesses sell more by enabling them to act faster on sales leads, become more relevant and grow their market presence. By providing a single view of the customer and intelligent deal recommendations, SAP Hybris helped sales teams win more sales by engaging better with their customers.

With omnichannel adoption on the rise, SAP Hybris was perfectly positioned to helping companies make the transition. Yet there was fear, uncertainty and doubt — few customers understood what omnichannel meant and why they needed it to evolve. Many did not know how they could implement such a change within their organisation.

To educate its target customers, SAP had equipped Hybris’ sales force with demo videos and detailed walkthroughs that clearly explained the solution’s features and benefits. But these videos failed to make any headway with customers. That’s when Johann turned to us — Could PaperplaneCo help make its customers care?

THE KEY TO MAKING CUSTOMERS TAKE ACTION

We analysed SAP’s sales process and spoke with its business leaders. It became clear to us that while SAP Hybris was a best-in-class solution, its complexity and sophisticated technical features meant that its benefits were getting lost in the noise.

SAP Hybris had everything it needed in its arsenal to initiate a conversation about omnichannel: market-leading technology, a committed salesforce and powerful demos. Only one critical element was missing, the catalyst that could compel customers to take action — emotion. Here’s what the latest research tells us about the power of emotion:

• functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions rather than information.
• 70% of users who feel a connection to a brand spend twice as much as those who don’t. 

VIDEO: VISUAL STORYTELLING AT ITS BEST

A video helps us tell a story, one that can be told again and again. This was what the sales teams needed – a way to commence a meeting that would open the hearts and minds of their audience, and shift the conversation to Hybris’ human impact instead of how it worked.

We knew that through insights from its intelligent sales backend, Hybris helped sales representatives elevate a transaction into a unique, one-on-one relationship. It was what omnichannel strategy was ultimately about: understanding each customer as an individual to provide personalised experiences. It also became the theme around which our video would revolve.

THE MOST POWERFUL CONNECTIONS ARE PERSONAL CONNECTIONS

We wanted the video to have an instinctive, human appeal. An ode to rewarding personal relationships in line with Hybris’ core mission of helping businesses win customers for life.

With this video in the sales teams’ field kit, sales representatives were able to provide consistent and effective storytelling leading to engagement, connection and peak brand awareness. As a result, SAP Hybris was able to build a sustainable, emotional relationship with customers and achieve tangible results.

Five years later, this video is still being used by Hybris’ sales teams to open sales.

A good story stands the test of time.