Bryan Kramer wants everyone to know that robots and humans can coexist
Bryan Kramer is a highly regarded social media strategist and a thought leader in the art and science of sharing. His 2014 self-published book “There is no B2B and B2C: Human to Human #H2H” promoted a renewed focus on the human side of communication, led to a TED talk and struck a nerve in a technology-crazed business environment.
In his latest book, “Shareology: How Sharing Is Powering the Human Economy,” Kramer continues to reinforce the importance of human connectedness, while embracing today’s technological tools. He recently was interviewed by Chad Sanderson, host of the “The B2B Revenue Executive Experience” podcast, which is produced by Value Prime Solutions. Here are some highlights.
Why H2H is his passion: Every business needs to be as human as possible, yet we try to automate so much — right now, it’s artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality and augmented reality. All of these things are pulling us away from those human moments. I am a huge cheerleader for humans, and I believe humans will win. It’s how we build connections and how we trust companies more.
How to apply H2H in marketing and sales: The only way to do it involves two things: 1. Your message has to resonate with your audience. People don’t humanize their content to talk with their audience. 2. Build a relationship over time, whether it’s storytelling or even connecting as a human.
Maintaining a human connection when B2B buyers increasingly automate the process: The most simple way is to reach out and ask people what they think and actually have a conversation. I know this is a new concept to reach out and call somebody, but I like to pick up the phone and call five customers and ask, “Why are you my customer? What endeared you to my product, message or service?”
The largest challenge to get customers’ H2H lightbulb to come on and stay on: Putting the right plan in place and having the right messaging. If you just do those two things, you’re going to probably shoot past your competitor. The second thing is building out the plan as to where those human touchpoints are going to happen. At what points are you going to give them a way to connect with you.
His top strategic business objective: Teach people that while the robots are coming, humans have a place and we can coexist. As we automate more and more things, we’re going to have to learn new skill sets. If you’re not out there learning new skill sets, then your job is probably in jeopardy. There is a lot that is going to be automated. If we continue to learn skill sets that allow us to stay relevant, the more solid your career is going to be. I feel my job is to teach people how to stay relevant.
The human role of asking the right questions: An important aspect of this is how data is going to be used with AI, and who is making those decisions once we have the information. There’s input and there’s output. You have to ask a machine a question in order for it to produce a result. The questions always come from a human. If you don’t know what question to ask, it won’t do anything. We, as humans, are building the questions and interpreting the data on the other end. That will be our role. If you don’t know how to ask the right questions or interpret the data…those are the skill sets that need to be learned.
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