Since the coronavirus pandemic, people’s lifestyles have changed, and their work styles have also changed dramatically. We are facing a major paradigm shift on a global scale, with sales methods and values that were commonplace no longer applicable today. Meanwhile, “Sales Enablement” has been attracting attention recently.
This time, we will introduce Daiki Sugiyama, CEO of Babel Co., Ltd., which provides “ailead”, which has been ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction for seven consecutive years in the sales enablement category of the
review
site “ITreview”. We will have Mr. We asked them to talk about how the company’s products will change traditional sales and
marketing
work, how they will spread throughout the world, and how young businesspeople should tackle business issues.
Ailead, a business negotiation analysis cloud that has been ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction in ITreview’s Sales Enablement category for seven consecutive years.
–First of all, please tell us about what kind of company Babel is and its main business.
Sugiyama
Our company is a company whose main business is solutions centered around
a product
called “ailead.”
After the coronavirus pandemic,
telework
and hybrid work have rapidly become popular in the business world, and communication points with customers have become increasingly digital and dispersed. Our aim is to take a comprehensive approach to the issues that arise in this process, and contribute to the success of our customers’ businesses while creating benefits such as sales enablement (improving sales productivity). , SaaS-type business negotiation analysis cloud service “ailead”.
In modern sales activities, various communication tools are often used depending on the situation. This is a service that uses AI to accumulate, analyze, and visualize all of the communication data generated in these activities, and uses this information to improve operational efficiency and training management.
“Ailead” is currently being used by hundreds of customers, and has received over 100 reviews on ITreview, Japan’s largest SaaS review site. In addition, the site’s sales enablement department has received favorable reviews, including being rated No. 1 in customer satisfaction for seven consecutive years.
Our customers are not only ventures, start-ups, and mega-ventures, but also some of Japan’s leading enterprise companies have introduced our system, and it has proven to be effective in solving problems in their respective workplaces. While it has been installed by a large number of rapidly growing mega-venture customers, it is also used by listed companies and major companies that play a key role in Japan.
The types of companies that have introduced the service are diverse, including HR companies, major chemical manufacturers, advertising agencies, OA and electrical equipment manufacturers, house builders, optical equipment manufacturers, web services, consulting, cosmetics, and news media. Ailead’s strength is that it can achieve sales enablement for all types of sales activities, regardless of industry.
Founded Babel with the desire to create a business that will make an impact on the world and grow significantly.
— Was Babel Co., Ltd. a company that started with the concept of “ailead”?
Sugiyama
Yes. Originally, I worked at a venture capital firm called East Ventures while I was in university, and I witnessed the process of many seed-stage startups growing, going public, and changing the world. My desire to take on such a big challenge was the basis for starting my own business.
East Ventures is a venture capital firm that initializes and invests in startup companies in their early stages that do not have a product, and has invested in companies such as Mercari and BASE.
Later, by chance, I ended up working as a product manager for a new business at a subsidiary of Mercari, where a team that started with just a few people scaled up to an organization of over 100 people in less than two years. I experienced the process. At the same time, I have experienced the process of creating a product from scratch and developing it to the level of millions of users.
Through this experience, I realized that I wanted to create a business that would make an impact on the world and grow significantly.
–Did you jump into starting your own business from there?
Mr. Sugiyama
At the time, Mr. Matsumoto, the president of Mercari, who was in charge of managing a subsidiary of Mercari, and Mr. Matsuyama, a partner at East Ventures, gave me the final push to start the company. was established.
Automation through AI will transform sales
–Please tell us about Babel’s business theme.
As a
Sugiyama
company, our theme is “Automation through AI.”
The world is now entering an age of AI, and with the benefits of AI, work automation is progressing in various fields. Babel’s role is to link this to “improved productivity.”
Improving productivity is a difficult topic with many hidden challenges. For example, various tools are commonly used to implement collaborative processes between marketing,
inside sales
, sales, and
customer success
. We use Zoom for meetings with customers, Teams for internal meetings, IP phone calls and emails for inquiries from customers, and Slack and Chatwork for personal meetings. In many cases, the means of communication are fragmented, and the resulting data is also disparate.
There is a strong need for companies today to integrate and automate the management of these things using AI, improve work productivity, and innovate. In Japanese society, the working population is decreasing due to the declining birthrate and aging population, and there is no end to the decline in production. In order to develop business in this era, it is extremely important to utilize AI and promote automation to improve productivity. People must focus on what humans are good at, and AI must focus on what AI is good at.
At Babel, we started this series of initiatives in the genre of “sales.”
ーーSo “ailead” means solving the mounting social issues.
Sugiyama:
That’s right. In today’s business operations, the following methods are common:
- Schedule management with schedule adjustment tools and calendar tools
- Email for external communications, and chat tools such as Slack and Chatwork for internal communications
- Online business negotiations with clients via Zoom, Meet, etc.
- Manage customer information and streamline sales processes by linking with SFA tools such as Salesforce
- Create estimates using cloud accounting software such as freee and share them with your accounting team and project members.
In this way, a sales flow that assumes the use of multiple services has become commonplace.
“Ailead” uses AI to automatically collect, analyze, and visualize business negotiation data by linking with these services. Furthermore, recording and sharing tasks such as creating minutes and handing over can be automated, greatly streamlining sales processes and improving productivity. Another great strength is that it can be linked with various web conferencing tools, business chat, IP telephony, and SFA tools, so you can start using it right away without changing your existing business flow.
It also has a powerful effect on the early development of sales personnel.
–What kind of feedback have you received from clients who have introduced “Ailead”?
Sugiyama
: I feel that we often receive words of gratitude for two main points: “early development of the sales team” and “improvement of efficiency in information sharing.”
It also has the effect of significantly reducing indirect operations such as clerical work in the sales flow, and although the degree varies depending on the customer, it can reduce labor related to indirect operations by approximately 50 to 70%. This allows employees to focus on the core business of sales, which is business negotiations, and at the same time has the effect of shortening the training period for new employees.
After automatically collecting and visualizing past business negotiation data, AI can clarify the “key points of business negotiations” and pick up only business negotiation data with a high success rate, so you can review your sales based on that. By doing this and using it as a teaching material for newcomers, the training period can be shortened from one-third to one-half.
There are many cases where this system is introduced for the purpose of early development of sales teams.
–What specific features do you use to shorten the training period?
Sugiyama
:For example, there is a function that allows you to visualize who is talking, when, and for how long during a business meeting. You can see at a glance the talking points of top salespeople and other members, as well as the percentage of conversations with customers, making it easier to narrow down points for sales improvement.
AI automatically organizes this business negotiation data in a way similar to a YouTube playlist. For example, data can be accumulated and managed by industry and product, and new members can self-study while looking at such data, allowing them to understand the sales points associated with products and services. Masu. As a result, the time required for supervisors in charge of training to follow up can be significantly reduced, resulting in greater efficiency for the sales team as a whole.
Can be used for HR, management meetings, and user interviews
ーーDo you have a track record of implementing “ailead” outside of the sales field?
SugiyamaIn
addition to sales, an increasing number of customers are also implementing the system in the HR (recruitment/organizational) field. A few percent of all implementations are customers with HR-related issues.
In addition, some customers use it for board meetings, management team meetings, and other situations that lead to determining the direction of the company as a whole.
In addition, it is used in a surprising variety of ways, including by the account management team of a major advertising agency and in user interviews related to products and services.
–Did you have that business model in mind from the beginning?
Sugiyama
: The starting point was a change in work styles due to the coronavirus pandemic. As people’s lifestyles have changed significantly due to the coronavirus pandemic, the proportion of remote work and hybrid work has increased.
Even in sales, communication points with customers have suddenly become digital, and the world has changed completely, with key people communicating at various times using multiple tools, rather than in one place. We felt that there was value in bringing together these different points of communication, so we started thinking about the development of “ailead” and its business model.
Salespeople from Generation Z and above are more likely to leave their jobs if they have a long time to earn a salary.
–What do you think is the biggest challenge in sales, Mr. Sugiyama?
Sugiyama
Sales is a job that has a high turnover rate due to the large number of people involved. This is a profession where there are many cases in which new employees are hired one after another and then leave the company one after another without producing results. There are many challenges, including the high turnover rate. Particularly, generation Z and above have a strong tendency to leave a company if they spend too much time on their careers, and the old idea that “if you get a job at a company, you should work hard there for 10 years” no longer applies.
Therefore, our mission is to complete the training as early as possible, reduce the labor of indirect work and administrative work, and enable them to focus on the core sales activities of facing customers. I believe that this will help employees enjoy their work, which in turn will lead to lower turnover rates and higher employee retention rates.
My gratitude and respect to my mentor, Taiga Matsuyama, who taught me the winning patterns of entrepreneurs.
–Who do you think has had the most influence on Sugiyama in your approach to your work?
Sugiyama
: Mr. Taiga Matsuyama, a venture capitalist at East Ventures, who appeared in the story earlier. My image is of someone who respects entrepreneurs and people who are trying to create a business, believes in them completely and goes along with them, and guides them to success.
When I met Mr. Taiga, I was a student who didn’t know what was right from the left, but he welcomed me warmly. I was still a teenager at the time, so normally I would have been treated like a “chick”, but Mr. Taiga made me a business card as soon as I joined the company and entrusted me with the work as a single person. He often took me to events and business meetings.
I was able to talk with managers and investors that I would not normally have contact with, and Mr. Taiga actively talked to various people and heard many valuable stories. . He broadened his horizons, including winning patterns for successful entrepreneurs and areas and services he should focus on in the future, and provided him with a number of pieces of advice that led him to start his own business today. I believe that the experience I had at that time formed and strengthened my own foundation.
Mr. Taiga has been investing in Shintaro Yamada, the current president and founder of Mercari, since he was in his 20s, and has continued to support his investments for over 10 years, including the time when he founded Unou before Mercari. Also a person. I was deeply influenced by the way he believed in entrepreneurs and continued to support them over a long period of time. I want to sit down and create a long-term project that will have a real social impact.
The values, passion, and knowledge of the new generation will change the times.
–Please tell us about your future prospects.
Sugiyama
: Our first priority is to increase as many cases as possible where people can experience the value of sales enablement through ailead. To achieve this, it is important to take seriously the voices of our customers, such as “I want this kind of function” and “If it were like this, it would be easier to use,” and based on that, we should evolve the product to be even easier to use. That’s what I think.
In the current version of “Ailead”, emphasis is placed on improving productivity and streamlining training management, but I would like to develop the product for other phases such as marketing and after-sales follow-up. , allowing you to offer more advanced sales enablement to your customers.
When looking at sales on a time axis, it includes preliminary preparations such as creating materials for business negotiations and creating a customer list, development of inside sales and ABM (account-based marketing), and even handover to other departments and customer success after business negotiations. There are various duties other than business negotiations, such as providing support for. We are working hard to automate all of these processes and provide even more advanced sales enablement.
–Please give a message to the younger generation who will benefit from new systems like “Ailead”.
Sugiyama
: As is already the case in the world, the use of AI and DX will become commonplace in future business scenes. Therefore, it is expected that people will optimize themselves for the new business models and work styles of the new era. In other words, the more opportunities you have to come into contact with new technologies, ways of thinking, values, technologies, tools, and services, the more skills you will acquire to survive in the future.
In the business world, there are many environments where old customs from a previous era remain deeply rooted. Even in companies with a progressive image, there are many people with conservative ideas. However, conservative companies will be left behind and their business will decline over time. If you encounter an old-fashioned situation, please use the values, passion, and knowledge unique to the new generation to make an effort to change it yourself.
The business world continues to change. We should use methods and tools that are compatible with these changes, and it is also important to optimize ourselves for the new era. By approaching work with a positive attitude and looking toward the future, your career possibilities will greatly expand.
