Boost Sales Effectiveness with Visual Technologies w/ Evan Nisselson [Episode 627]

Evan Nisselson, General Partner at LDV Capital, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Evan says the single biggest challenge facing sales reps today is finding the right customers that need the services that reps are selling. You need the right ROI on the time you spend to find the customer.
• Long emails are not valuable. Put the ‘ask’ up front. Then, maybe, “if you’re interested, there’s more below.” Put the first word of each topic in bold, to make it easier to skim.
• LDV Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in people building visual technology businesses — any technology that captures, analyzes, monetizes, displays, or distributes visual data. Evan lists some examples.
• In August 2017, LDV Capital Insights predicted there will be 45 billion cameras by 2022. The report defines a ‘camera’ as a lens and a sensor. Smartphones have multiple cameras and will have more.
• ‘The Internet of Eyes’ will be larger than the IOT. Inanimate objects will have cameras. An autonomous vehicle will have 25-30 cameras, outside and inside, not including RADAR/LIDAR. Where will the data be captured?
• About 90% of the data the human brain analyzes is visual. For AI to mimic humans, at least 90% of the data AI analyzes will be visual. LDV looks at where the cameras will be to determine the investment opportunities.
• Historically, pictures were for keeping memories. Going forward, the majority of visual data captured will never be seen by the human eye.
• Will we be surveilled constantly? The value proposition is to balance privacy issues against benefits to society. Cameras may help you with a healthy food or fitness goal.
• All types of robots, in a factory, or an autonomous boat, a drone, and others, will use visual data for operations, never displayed. ‘Display’ will be a minor visual data use. Evan discusses use cases of cameras in the home.
• What are the sales and marketing use cases? Will some cameras be customer-facing, to help them on the buying journey? In airports, can billboards be personalized to the people walking by? Directed marketing helps customers.
• Evan said he took a photo of shoes and a pop-up asked if he wanted to buy those shoes. Computer vision allows you to translate an image into a purchase. Customers’ micro-expressions can also be analyzed.
• The B2B value proposition of image analysis is to get customers sooner to validate whether there is a problem to solve.