Sheila Power, Chief Sales Officer at Antavo: “I’m genuinely challenged and rewarded every day, and I’d recommend sales to anyone!”

Chances are that you’ve signed up to multiple companies’ loyalty schemes. They may even have made you feel a closer allegiance to the brand, along with saving you money. Although you wouldn’t know it, Antavo may well have been behind providing the technology behind the scenes, so we were delighted to catch up with Sheila Power, Antavo’s Chief Sales Officer, as part of our Pipeline series.

So how does technology help Sheila in her day job? “My goal is always to work alongside marketing to make sure that our objectives are aligned and that customers have a seamless experience at every step of the way,” she said. “Tools such as CRM systems, marketing automation platforms and data analytics make it easy to work collaboratively, providing a unified view of customer data to ensure that all departments are singing from the same hymn sheet!”

With decades-long experience working with loyalty consultancies, and being a fan of loyalty programmes herself, Sheila’s enthusiasm for what Antavo does is infectious. And if you read her final answer you might just find yourself thinking about following her with a career in sales!

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Can you give an example of a complex problem in sales that you – or your company – have been involved in tackling with technology?

We’re in the business of customer loyalty, so we’re involved in sales on both sides of the fence: we sell our global loyalty platform to customers worldwide, but we also support them with their own sales thanks to the loyalty platform we provide. 

Loyalty programmes are advantageous to both buyers and businesses. When a consumer makes repeat purchases, it boosts a business’s bottom line. In exchange for this customer loyalty, a brand rewards consumers with exclusive benefits, free items or early access to products, for example. 

In the current climate, when purse strings are tighter than ever, and sales teams face an uphill battle to encourage conversion, loyalty programmes are proving invaluable. Even smaller purchases are becoming considered, but shoppers are savvy – they’re hunting out the best offers that are often exclusive to loyalty programmes. Our clients tell us that their loyalty programmes have played a major part in helping them navigate the cost-of-living crisis. 

Our sales team is relatively small because our contracts tend to be fewer in number but of a considerable size, so we’re not overly reliant on technology to support sales. That said, it’s powerful, and our homegrown technology supports our customers’ sales objectives by making their customer loyalty programmes more intelligent, more personalised, more engaging and better performing. 

How has technology helped marketing and sales work better together? Or, if you feel differently about it, has it increased the gap between those two departments?

There are so many examples of tech being used to help marketing and sales work together, and in my experience, the results are always much better when the two departments work hand in glove. My goal is always to work alongside marketing to make sure that our objectives are aligned and that customers have a seamless experience at every step of the way.

Tools such as CRM systems, marketing automation platforms and data analytics make it easy to work collaboratively, providing a unified view of customer data to ensure that all departments are singing from the same hymn sheet! 

We use Hubspot CRM system to allow our marketing team to capture leads and share them with sales in real-time while tracking every interaction the customer has had with the company. Marketing automation tools like Hubspot help Antavo’s marketers nurture leads through personalised content and targeted campaigns, ensuring that by the time they’re passed onto our sales team, prospects are already well-informed on how our technology could support their sales goals. Data analytics tools allow both teams to measure the performance of their efforts, helping identify gaps, opportunities and areas for improvement.

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Can you name a startup in the sales tech space that has caught your attention (and why)?

Klippa is doing really exciting things with AI document automation, and we’ve recently partnered with them to offer our clients receipt scanning within their loyalty programmes – which is delivering big wins when it comes to sales. 

Brands today fail to capture between 70-80% of their overall sales, even if they have a loyalty programme. This is because most brands sell both through retailers and directly to consumers. However, when they launch a loyalty programme, this is through their channels, meaning they fail to capture data on any sales made through third-party retailers. For example, if you buy a pair of trainers directly from a brand’s website, you can sign up for their loyalty programme and be rewarded. However, if you were to purchase the same pair from a department store, you’d miss out on the loyalty rewards from the brand itself. 

Receipt scanning overcomes this challenge by allowing consumers to scan their receipts to prove they’ve purchased from a brand. This data integrates with their loyalty programme and delivers relevant rewards – not only beneficial to shoppers but also to sales and marketing teams, as the technology identifies customers that would otherwise have slipped through the net. 

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In your view, what role can technology play in providing a unified view of offline and online sales? How can it improve both worlds? What challenges can it tackle?

Tech has so much potential when it comes to unifying offline and online activity. It’s an area where brands can struggle; linking up customer activity in-person with activity online. Loyalty programme technology with a digital wallet solution (digital loyalty card) can help overcome this quite easily, making the sales experience the same for the customer however they shop. 

This enhancement of the customer experience is one of the most important ways that technology can help unify sales activity, but it can also play an important and active role in integrating data, improving analytics activity and optimising operations. 

There are often issues with data silos, customer data privacy and real-time data processing that can be eased with the help of technology – for example, unifying sales activity that’s stored separately. 

What advice do you have for those wanting to start a career in sales?

I have not been in sales my entire career. I started off as a data analyst, analysing loyalty card data to help retailers make their marketing, pricing and promotional activity customer-centric. I gradually moved into roles with ever-increasing commercial focus ending up in Sales and I’ve never looked back – I’m genuinely challenged and rewarded every day, and I’d recommend sales to anyone!

What’s really exciting now is the advent and rampant adoption of new technology and how this is changing the world of sales, so my main advice for anyone keen to launch a career in this space is just that: immerse yourself in new technology and understand how it will impact your future career.