In the fractured landscape of enterprise sales and marketing, companies struggle to manage inquiries across multiple channels efficiently. Pete Gillett, creator of Zuant, has developed a solution that integrates these disparate systems into a cohesive whole, helping businesses respond more effectively to customer inquiries while streamlining internal processes. By consolidating data from websites, tradeshows, and digital environments, Zuant is changing how businesses handle customer interactions.
Unifying the Digital Experience
Digital sales and marketing have brought increasing complexity to business operations. Most enterprises collect data separately within each channel, creating information silos that slow response times and frustrate potential customers.“Digital sales and marketing has brought a whole new complexity even to business-to-business marketing,” Pete explains. “There are just so many things to think about. It’s very easy, particularly at the enterprise level, to have lots of channels where people can respond, whether it’s a website, from email, at tradeshows, or your call center. Most companies tend to collect data separately within each of those channels so you end up with a number of unsynchronised data silos, which in turn is really unwieldy.”
Zuant addresses this problem by creating what Pete calls “an outer skin that goes over all sales and marketing activities.” This approach ensures there’s one pool of data with consistent qualifying questions, even when translated into different languages. The result is a unified customer experience regardless of how someone engages with a company.
Creating a Centralized System: The Zuant Cloud
The key to Zuant’s functionality is its cloud-based engine that processes inputs from various sources.“Everything goes through to what we call the Zuant cloud,” Pete notes. “That’s everything, the web forms on your website, sales leads from tradeshows where you’re scanning badges, QR codes that you might use for in-store promotions.”This centralization extends to newer technologies as well. “Now you can go in and see a digital twin of your exhibition stand or car showroom. Your information gets captured by Zuant through the Zuant Cloud; it records what you looked at and spent the most time focusing on certain products. It will automatically send you a thank you email with links to content relating to that visit.”
The benefits of this integrated approach are twofold. First, customers receive immediate acknowledgment and relevant information.
“Happier inquirers or customers because they’re getting an instant response,” Pete says. “The system acknowledges and says ‘thank you for your inquiry, we’re on it, here’s some information to help you in the meantime.’ Wow, this company’s switched on.”
Second, sales teams receive complete information automatically. “Whoever’s following up those requests has all the information they need in their system automatically. There’s no data entry. They can get on their phone, they can email, it’s speed,” Pete explains.This speed creates competitive advantage and helps build lasting customer relationships, particularly with the majority who aren’t ready to buy immediately.“A general rule of thumb is that if 5% of people inquiring buy immediately because they’ve just got an instant need, it’s another 20–25% that are serious. But the only thing missing is they’re not ready to buy yet. Most companies don’t have a system in place to nurture the 20–25% which will develop into far more business into the future.”
From Response Management to Digital Integration
Zuant’s development grew naturally from Pete’s background in database marketing.“It all stems from the good old days of response management. In those days there were very few channels, you could either phone a company or fax them maybe!”
As technology evolved, so did Pete’s approach. “We used to have a warehouse full of lift trucks collecting up particular brochures to send in envelopes with personalized letters. That was the fulfillment process before the web. We were already handling those three or four channels. It’s just logically grown from there as the web developed.”
The Future Is Now: AI and Enterprise Sales
Looking ahead, Pete, of course, sees AI playing a crucial role in enterprise sales technology.“AI can enhance data. Someone completes a web form or is scanned at a trade how; you can press an AI button and say ‘enhance information, tell me everything you know about this person or company.’ Within seconds, you’ve got a whole A4 sheet’s worth of data.”AI also excels at handling inquiries.“An AI engine can provide the answer to anything that a customer could ever think of asking. At the press of a button, you can have it in French, German, Spanish, Chinese. It’s amazing how it’s reducing costs and providing much better service.”
Pete emphasizes that this technology is available now. “The only lag is people realizing that they can do this. It’s only an educational thing that’s holding people back at this moment.”
Follow Pete Gillett on LinkedIn to learn more about digital transformation in enterprise sales.
