THE BUSINESS AND CAREER MAGAZINE 1 / 2017 New Year's Resolutions … aim to keep or toss to trash? JOBS INSIDE Automation – Why Sales Can’t Be Replaced By Machines My City: Singapore Career: The SELLBYTEL Group Application Coach – How to find the perfect job EDITOR'S WORD Are you feeling inspired to take on the new year? We took a leap ourselves with our first edition of the brand new magazine THE HUB! We have put together a mix of very interesting topics from exciting news about our upcoming projects to facts about the outsourcing industry. Maybe you are looking for a professional change for the new year – look no further. With many international career opportunities, you can look forward to an exciting change. We have also included topics that interest all of our readers WANT THE SECRET TO equally, like the use (or uselessness) of New Year's resolutions. If you are looking for smart little hacks to make life easier in PEACHY LOOKING SKIN? 2017, we also got you covered. From fitness tips to stay healthy at the office to life hacks by our own expert, we are here for “We are not the HUB of the world you. But we are also inspired to hear what is important to you but we want to be the HUB for our and invite you to drop us a line at [email protected] with employees and clients.” your ideas. Let us know what career changes you are trying to make or what inspires you about your industry or line of work. HUMANS UNDERSTANDING Are you ready to take on the new year? BUSINESS Then join us! Dr. Henning Krahn Head of Human Resources, SELLBYTEL Group We don't have that, but we do have your next career move! Drop us a line and apply at [email protected] #sellbytel_group Find more vacancies at sellbytel.com 3 CONTENT 6 Short News 16 New Year's Resolutions Do you really need to make those changes to your life every year or are you happy just with the way things are? We try to shed a bit of light 8 People vs. Machines on the topic. PAGE 21 The impact of automation and why sales can't be replaced by LIFE-HACKS machines. The importance and the future of sales and WITH HARALD SONTOWSKI customer service in an increasingly digitalized environment. YOUR GUIDE TO BETTER COMMUNICATION 22 City Profile: Singapore Our tips if you want to visit "The Lion City". 24 Office Fitlife 11 Sales Secrets Stay fit at the office this year with smart little tips on how Get the latest tips on successful sales from our experts. to sneak in some fitness. 12 Success Story Column Fleming 26 Meet The Management Interview with Column Fleming and his exciting career with Five questions for Maria Labrusco, SELLBYTEL in Barcelona, Spain. Program Director in Lisbon, Portugal. 27 Job Ads 14 Application Coach Our professional advice on how to find and apply for the perfect job. 36 Sneak Peek Into Our Next Edition 15 Job Ads 4 5 SELLBYTEL MEETS UNIVERSITY SHORT NEWS SELLBYTEL APAC recently began to partner Information from all around the (SELLBYTEL) world with Nottingham University (Malaysia branch) in delivering their Global Business Services According to a research in 1 module. SELLBYTEL fosters and attracts talent London, 34 % of companies by sharing knowledge and experience with World Expo will open in Astana, Kazakhstan university students! stated more than half of their with the theme “Future Energy” in order to find more sustainable access to energy. workforce would be working INFO remotely by 2020. 2 Global Account Development On Aug 21st the first total solar eclipse will take place that is visible in the contiguous U.S. in OUTSOURCING COMPETENCIES The SELLBYTEL Group has long been known four decades. OF THE SELLBYTEL GROUP for its permanent strive to strengthen existing partnerships and uncover new potentials. 3 • Sales • Service This is demonstrated once more with the • Support creation of a new sales organization, our Yes, it is true, the DeLorean will be sold again • Human Resources “Global Account Development” (GAD). in a very limited edition of one car per month. • Training & Coaching • Health Market Solutions Stefan Schmidt, Global Sales Director, will be • Back Office in charge of supervising the new set-up and Telecommuting jobs have been up 4 making sure it runs smoothly. since 2005 103% The Nintendo switch will hit the stores. You can play it as a mobile device or slide it into a docking station. SELLBYTEL Group's new HQ in Nuremberg (Fall 2017) Integration of both company sites (Nuremberg and Fuerth) // Approx. 800 workspaces spread over six floors 5 It’s the year of International Sustainable Tourism for Development (United Nations). 8,000 Employees INTERESTING Check out our 63 FACTS 2017 latest vacancies Sites worldwide 6 unrelated thinking patterns. the sales process. Ultimately sales is not about PEOPLE VS. MACHINES Automation in non-complex sales jobs has led to selling, sales is about creating a solution that is yet Automation – Why Sales Can’t Be Replaced By Machines numerous industries moving the human factor unknown to the prospect. increasingly into the background. This mostly Plus, customers’ purchase decision-making applies to industries like banking, pharmacies, process takes much longer today than a few lawyers or store clerks, cashiers or accountants. years ago. That’s because of the greater selection Transport and logistics (such as taxi and and transparency on the market. What’s the delivery drivers) as well as office support (such consequence? The customer has way more as receptionists and security guards) are also knowledge, which again means the sales or service more and more substituted by computers. That is specialist has to deliver maximum transparency and because ATM machines reduce the need for bank knowledge as for products and services. tellers, virtual assistants can answer the phone 24 That’s something a computer is simply not capable of. hours a day, and self- service machines are So what do customers reducing the need for It is expected really want? checkout clerks. What humans want Yet overall technology that automation more than anything else has been creating is human interaction, more jobs than it will create 13.6 especially with highly destroyed – especially personal, intimate in sales. Accordingly matters. No one wants it is expected that million new jobs to discuss their child’s automation will create problems in math 13.6 million new jobs in the next or chemistry with a in the next decade. That machine. Nor do they There is no doubt that robots have been questions turn out to be particularly critical in the is because of the way decade. want to discuss the transforming human work. Even more so, traditionally people-dominated sales field. automation works in future plans for their numerous media and academic experts practice. Automating neighborhood or city expect that robots will steal many of our Now what exactly is the impact of a particular task – so that it can be done more with a computer. jobs. automation on sales? quickly or cheaply – in fact drives the need for Humans are exceptionally good at leadership, First of all, automation only makes sense human workers to concentrate on and optimize the social collaboration, goal setting, teaching, This concern stems from an array of emerging when it comes to low risk, simple, transaction- other unautomated tasks around it. coaching, encouraging and selling. These innate, technologies automating physical (robotics), oriented tasks that don’t require a lot of personal Hence the impact of automation on complex sales human skills could possibly be replaced by intellectual (cognitive computing) and all kinds of interaction. Clearly the advantages of automation is more positive than anything, adding further automation, but that’s not desirable. Here is an customer service tasks (everything from self-help are the facts that simple straight-forward value to tasks rather than exploiting them. example: a robot can teach math. It may even sense kiosks to grocery store scanners). These kinds of production flows can be implemented faster, more the emotions of the children, but it’s not what developments are certainly real and important flexible, with high precision and almost free of But what about the human factor? society wants. We’ll always want and value these – and the question is whether some jobs might human errors. What automated services certainly don’t entail soft skills! even disappear because of them. However, is the This is not so much the case with complex sales is the human aspect. Speaking to someone future of jobs really as bleak as often assumed? solutions, such as financial, purchasing or medical personally clearly enhances proximity and creates What do salespeople need to bring? Or will automation in fact accelerate the growth consulting. This requires a great deal of trust a rapport from the start. Connected to this is the Especially in B2B selling, the foundation for a of many new jobs, and come up with some whereby the human factor is absolutely mandatory. important factor of relationship building that is successful relationship with the client is: building entirely new categories? Might there be a true Plus, machines cannot substitute jobs which becoming more and more crucial in a competitive trust, delivering ideas, using knowledge to create transformation, i.e. will humans increasingly find are strategic or creative. Why? Machines and sales environment, where knowledge, diligence, new solutions and convincing with out-of-the-box themselves working side by side with robots? These computers just cannot connect abstract thinking or abstract thinking and creativity are key throughout thinking.