Why Solving Unconscious Bias in Sales Teams Boosts Diversity and Inclusion in Tech
At the beginning of last week, we at Joonko had the honor of starting a new chapter in our journey when we officially became part of Salesforce Incubator’s Cohort #2. When we first applied, one of the questions we were asked was, ‘Why do you want to be a part of Salesforce Incubator?’ We mustered the courage to answer:
Jokes aside, we didn’t know how right we were. Two weeks into the program and we’re just now starting to realize how significant this step is for us and for diversity and inclusion in tech.
As we’ve previously written, despite the extensive discourse on the subject, D&I and ROI are not inextricably linked. There’s no clear or direct path between them. And when you think about it, that’s hardly surprising.
In most cases, we try to create this link through HR or R&D. Both of these fields, on their own, are not directly linked with ROI. We try to measure (and sometimes even succeed) their influence and return, but this is an equation that includes many steps and parameters that aren’t money, in order to measure money. Now go ahead and attempt to add the D&I parameter into the equation and… Well, you get the idea.
We’re trying to compares apples and oranges, using bananas no less! And in this comparison, under the current interpretation, it’s difficult to find and justify the connection. This is also why, despite studies finding a correlation between diversity and the bottom line, we are still met with doubt or skepticism.
While these studies examine 100s or even 1000s of companies, it is still very difficult, on a single company level, or at the level of the CEO or VPs, to find this connection.
So where can we form a close link between D&I and ROI? In sales.
Calculating sales ROI is pretty simple. There’s no need to interpret variables into parameters of money. How much money goes out versus how much money comes in. The equation is very short and simple, without many steps along the way.
We know that this is quite a simplified perspective of sales, but this is our way of explaining why we believe this is where doubt can be overcome and where a clear path between D&I and ROI can be created.
Here’s one example…
Imagine an inside sales team where the manager hands out sales opportunities to representatives. The manager unconsciously assigns what he or she believes are the most significant and important opportunities to members of the team that most resemble him or her. This is inevitable, since when dealing with critical or strategic opportunities the human brain tries to minimize risk and acts on what is known or safe (this is why you can’t prevent unconscious bias from happening). Other people on the team (most often those from underrepresented groups) will be left to take on opportunities of “lower” quality. Naturally, as things progress, the members of the team who received the best opportunities will claim most of the credit and be seen as the talents, meaning they will go on to make more money from commissions and will probably be promoted to managerial positions.
But maybe, just maybe, if the opportunities are assigned on a basis that promotes equal opportunity, one where everyone on the team will be able to prove their abilities — the sales manager will come to discover that one of them performs better than those who were assigned most of the opportunities until now. The bottom line is that doing so results in more money for the organization, and this would guarantee true change for diversity and inclusion in tech. And this is just one scenario. Any other scenario you can think of will lead to a situation where D&I efforts will show a clearer path to ROI.
…And How Does the Salesforce Incubator Contribute to Achieving This Goal?
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been exposed to the program’s potential and how significant it will be for us, and this subject. We don’t know what the future holds, but we couldn’t ask for a better partner on this journey.
Having access to the broadest network of the best mentors and advisors from sales and technology backgrounds will help us to investigate, learn and cover all of the patterns of unconscious bias in sales teams that we can.
And the more behavioral patterns like this we can find and solve, the more we will be able to upgrade Joonko’s capabilities and provide an even better product to customers and Salesforce users. We feel that the here lies the key to the equation; D&I = ROI.
Joonko is on a mission to push real diversity in companies to the next level. They aim to solve diversity and inclusion challenges using Artificial Intelligence, in real-time, while delivering measurable results that can move the needle for customers. They call it #AI4DnI. Learn more at www.joonko.co.
