Why I am Going to VoiceCon

Alexa can you buy me some floss and buy me the new battle pack in Fortnite?” A bunch of you may laugh at how this post is starting out, however this is the world that we are heading to. More and more people are becoming busier and realizing that time is an asset that they are not willing to waste. With that being said, more people will start purchasing smart speakers to give them information about their day, consume quick nuggets in the morning, listen to podcasts while they do things around their house and order groceries via smart speaker instead of going to the store. The accessibility of information that a smart speaker has is immense, which is why more households will start to have them.

13% of all households in the United States owned a smart speaker in 2017, per  OC&C Strategy Consultants. That number is predicted to rise to 55% by 2022

This is one of the main reasons that I will be attending VoiceCon that is hosted by VaynerMedia and Gary Vaynerchuk. I created an Alexa Skill, Morgan J’s SDR Chronicles, for the purpose of being innovative with my content and also to claim real estate within the voice industry. One of the 2018 trends that John Barrows and I are paying attention to is the rise of voice and how it will play out in the marketplace. We believe that people will talk to their Alexa before they get on a qualification call, cold call or send out an email to a Tier 1 account. For example, you will say “Alexa give me insights on x company”, and she will tell you what the triggers are for each contact within the account and what recent news that the account has.

This is incredible for sales development reps (SDRs), sales reps and sales leaders who are looking to tap into those accounts that they are having a hard time to penetrate. Furthermore, it makes other tools become obsolete because you no longer have to do extensive research because Alexa is doing it for you. I do not know about you, but that sounds like a game changer to me.

As of January 2018, there were an estimated one billion voice searches per month, per  Alpine.AI.

This statistic alone makes me excited for the future of where voice is going. More people will start to gravitate towards it because of the society that we live in. If you are in the sales space, you should especially be paying attention because it will have an impact on your career in the long run. Most of you today listen to some sort of podcast as you commuting into work, leaving work, working out or winding down over the weekend. The same applies here with smart speakers and voice applications. I would not even be surprised if Salesforce and other tools start adding in voice capabilities to search your accounts while you are at your office or home to do a quick search. Voice will become a part of our work life and integrated into our lifestyles just as podcasts has been a heavy influence in the audio space.

When it comes to voice really pay attention to the opportunity that it has for the future of your current industry and how it will play a factor. I am super excited to go to VoiceCon and get some takeaways on how I can improve my Alexa skill and where other top leaders think the voice market is going as well.

If you have any questions that you want me to find out while I am there or you want me to ask Gary Vaynerchuk a question let me know. #KeepDialing and see you all after the conference.