Tell us a little about yourself. What does your job at Telefónica involve?
Well, after spending more than ten years at Telefónica Educación Digital, I now put all the experience and knowledge I acquired at TED to use at B2B Sales Academy, the online training platform for all Telefónica’s B2B sales representatives.
We listen to their needs and try to support them with training that is closely aligned with our business model, our way of doing things… In short, our excellence as a company.
I believe that the great value we generate at B2B Sales Academy is that we don’t provide training that could be useful to any salesperson. The “Telefónica” brand is our identity and what our users identify with most.
How would you define the B2B business model?
A B2B business relationship seeks to build solid relationships with customers, with high added value and more strategic and prolonged sales processes.
At Telefónica, this means offering technological solutions, such as connectivity, cybersecurity, cloud, IoT, or digital services, tailored to each customer, from SMEs to large corporations.
But our purpose goes beyond sales: we seek to be a strategic partner that accompanies each customer on their journey toward digital transformation.
Why is continuous training in this area important?
Building these strong and lasting relationships with our customers requires salespeople who are highly trained both technically, with a good knowledge of our products and services, and in so-called “soft” or more cross-cutting skills. Active listening, empathy, adapting to change, stress management… These are skills that are learned and trained.
Continuous training is essential, both in terms of technical knowledge and skills. This is where the B2B Sales Academy supports our entire B2B sales area. And all with our “Telefónica seal of approval.”
What role does the development of new technologies play in B2B?
New technologies are now essential in any area, and B2B is no exception. We still remember how we had to help our sales force learn to further digitize their procedures during the pandemic. For example, they no longer interacted with customers in person, but through Teams. It seemed like a simple challenge, but it wasn’t.
And since then, the incorporation of technology into business processes has been exponential, and we are also there to support our sales force.
And AI in particular?
AI is a technology that is revolutionizing everything. But we are still learning, experimenting. Every day we have new use cases that are emerging and improving processes thanks to Artificial Intelligence. For me, it is a luxury to be able to take advantage of this moment in which we are all learning from each other in incorporating this technology into our work.
What impact do these new technologies have on training?
Well, we are also in a period of “trial and error” there. At B2B Sales Academy, we are closely following AI-based solutions applied to corporate training, and we are in a period of explosive growth.
Now, for example, we are working on developing AI training in several languages using avatars. It’s incredible how the results are improving in just a few months…
Who at Telefónica would you nominate for this interview who you consider to be excellent at their job?
Well, I would nominate a great professional who is now putting all her knowledge and effort into supporting the work of Universitas, Jara Sepúlveda. And, of course, my colleague at B2B Sales Academy, Beatriz Martín Ortega. Without her, none of what we do would get where it needs to go.
