The world was moving online before the pandemic, but it was a slow, gradual process, with many businesses still relying on in-person services to generate the bulk of their revenues.
Before the pandemic, virtual processes, such as making appointments or accepting credit or debit card payments, supported real-world business processes like meeting customers or clients and providing services or goods.
During the pandemic, the relationship between real-world and virtual processes flipped; the focus changed to making real-world processes secondary and virtual processes primary.
How Businesses Adapted to the Pandemic
Since the pandemic made it dangerous for people to meet in person because of the high rate of contagion, businesses and organizations changed to adapt.
For example:
- Offline businesses met on Zoom or other VoIP technological platforms.
- Online businesses ran marketing campaigns digitally, drop-shipped products on doorsteps, and accepted online payments.
- Doctors and therapists relied on telehealth to see patients when a physical examination was unnecessary.
- Fundraisers used teleconferences to raise money.
- Teachers taught students through interactive educational websites.
3 Emerging Business Trends
These changes in business operations are only a preview of the future. Other changes will include marketing and sales processes, commercial transactions, and the nature of the work itself.
1. Sales
Every business requires sales to stay in business. Although the sales professionals in a business will still continue to sell the old-fashioned way—over the phone and talking directly to customers—this will not be the only way of doing business. Companies that add virtual selling will develop a competitive edge over companies that only rely on traditional sales methods.
Forward-looking companies will put their sales team through virtual sales training to learn new skill sets and master best practices when selling online. These sales teams will know how to apply the same level of persuasion and professionalism to virtual customer engagement as they did when working the phones, face-to-face conversations, and delivering presentations at in-person meetings.
2. Marketing
The rapid evolution of digital marketing is familiar to almost everyone in business, and it’s likely to become increasingly faster, easier, and less expensive as A.I. does most of the heavy lifting on our behalf. This trend to automate marketing will gradually replace traditional marketing techniques. Trade shows, print advertising, radio spots, and television commercials will come to be seen as too expensive and difficult to measure ROI.
3. Financial transactions
Although many customers buy things from businesses with credit or debit cards, we still refer to this money going into their business bank accounts as “cash flow.” This use of language suggests that something tangible has occurred, denying what is actually happening: numbers are automatically changing in a virtual bank account.
It’s entirely possible that cash itself will disappear. Financial transactions will be conducted entirely without banknotes or coins changing hands. The concept of cash may become obsolete once central banks launch digital currencies.
In fact, there may come a time in the not-too-distant future when the U.S. Department of Treasury will consider it unnecessary to spend $1,000 million for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing to print banknotes and for the U.S. Mint to refine, melt, and cast coins.
When banknotes and coins become obsolete, hand-held devices will replace wallets and purses for in-person business transactions.
Expect a New Normal
Although the world will return to normal this year or by early next year after vaccines have made it safe for us to take off our masks, our reliance on virtual processes will probably continue to speed up—because they work so much better than real-world interactions.
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