The State of Robot Sales......people.

It takes a particular person to be in Robot Sales; the issue is not to become a robot while doing it.

Aaron’s Thoughts On The Week

“Before I do anything, I ask myself, ‘Would an idiot do that?’ And, if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing.”

Dwight Schrute, The Office

I’ve been dealing with salespeople for a long time. It is a career that requires a particular type of person to do the job. Rejection is a common outcome, and it can become frustrating very quickly. The business cycle can be brutal, and when downturns happen, the salespeople (at least the poor-performing ones) are usually the first to be shown the door. However, the reward of big paychecks keeps people taking on the job repeatedly.

With the recent downturn in robot purchases, I have seen many salespeople in my LinkedIn network report that they have been laid off and are looking for a new opportunity or have already moved on to a new firm. I know I will play the “Who Is In A New Booth This Year?” at upcoming tradeshows as I run back into salespeople who have moved to new firms.

Some salespeople have been in the robotics industry for a long time. Some of them work at the same firm and will try to continue that, but the majority have spread their sales careers across numerous firms. Mostly, these veteran salespeople understand the industry, know who the key people and organizations are, and what customers for robots are looking for. They know who may want their product and services, who may need some convincing, and who is not a fit for their products. Then there are the newbies who appear to have gone to the Leeroy Jenkins School of Sales.

Are You Even Listening!?!?

As the robotics industry has grown, we have seen more new salespeople enter the industry and, in an attempt to hit the ground running, charge in to pitch their products….blindly. By channeling their internal Leeroy Jenkins, they charge in not thinking and causing havoc for everyone.

In the past few months, I have been pitched on every type of technology, whether robots or something else. My email is filled with offers of services and products that I never need or want. This is nothing new, but when there is plenty of information on who I am and what my company does, one has to think, “WHY ARE YOU EVEN CALLING ME?!?!”

Part of me keeps wondering if salespeople have outsourced their cold calling and emailing to a AI bots - a not very smart bots at that.

Here is one of my recent conversations with either a bot or a completely lost salesperson:

Salesperson: I was looking at Google Maps and realized that your headquarters' roof could be perfect for installing solar panels. When should we schedule a time to discuss this?

Me: First, it is creepy that you are looking at Google Maps and the roofs of various businesses. However, where in my title as ‘Director of Robotics and Autonomous Systems Programs’ do you think I am the one who would determine if we would install solar panels on our headquarters' roof?

Salesperson: You could cut your headquarters' electrical use and hit your sustainability goals.

Me: Again, why do you think I am the person who makes this type of decision?

Salesperson: It appears you are busy right now; how about we schedule a call for next week?

Me: ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ

Long Term Damage

A few years ago, several CEOs in the robotics industry encouraged me to write an Op-Ed titled “Your Salespeople Are Destroying Your Company,” which, unfortunately, I never published because I felt it might be taken the wrong way. However, this current op-ed may be the start of a much more robust response to the growing issues with salespeople that will make it difficult for other salespeople in the future and may put some young robot firms in positions that threaten their viability.

First, I am starting to block salespeople in email and social media. I don’t need to fill my inbox and DMs with time-wasting pitches. Don’t think for a second that this is not starting to alter the numerous algorithms that push other types of marketing and information to me. Since doing that, I have seen significant changes in my feeds.

These actions may take opportunities away from me, and I accept that. However, I see it as a risk worth taking, and if a product or service does bubble up, I have other trusted venues to get that information and who to contact. The real risk is that the salesperson’s company may lose a direct path to me in the long term.

So, my question for CEOs and other executives is, do you know how your salespeople approach potential customers and how they represent your product or service? What is their methodology? Are they researching the person to see if they are a match? Is there a scoring system to rate which potential clients are more likely to want or need your product or service?

Here is a simple exercise. Would someone with an email ending in .org or .gov be a good candidate for your product or service? If not, then remove them from your database. Or what about an email ending in .co.uk? Do you have the ability to do business in the UK? If not, then why are you wasting time bugging them?

While salespeople say that you should at least try because you may find a hidden gem, I would say, are you willing to piss off 100 people to see that one hidden client? Because that is what is starting to happen. After I blocked that one salesperson, the whole company was pushed to JUNK email status. That is what that one salesperson caused in a single exchange. What will he do to numerous companies regarding long-term prospects for your company?

The robotics industry is not that big, and burning contacts with misdirected sales pitches will damage your business in the long term. With all the data available now, we can make smarter decisions on who to pitch and who not to, with the growing emphasis on who NOT to pitch it to. When people don’t respond back, take the hint. Because if you do not, they will use the new tools available to them and ensure there will never be a response back to you or your company.

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Robot News Of The Week

Robotics companies raised $578M in January

Investments in robotics amounted to $578M in January 2024 through 46 funding rounds, which was in line with January 2023's figure of $523M.

Glacier receives $7.7M to expand its AI and robotics in the recycling sector

San Francisco-based AI and robotics company Glacier secured $7.7 million in funding from NEA, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, and others. The partnership with Amazon aims to enhance recycling traceability. Glacier plans to use the funding to bolster recycling capabilities, expand its team, and develop AI-enabled robots for sorting recyclables. Amazon's investment is part of its Female Founder Initiative, supporting female-led climate tech companies. Glacier's technology can identify over 30 materials and sorts items efficiently. Their robot, designed for easy deployment, promises a quick ROI for recycling facilities, addressing existing industry challenges.

Robotics startup Figure raises staggering $675M and partners with OpenAI

When the March investment numbers drop, this deal is going to drive it all.

Figure, a startup from Sunnyvale, California, has raised $675 million from tech giants, including Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions, to create humanoid robots for heavy labor industries. The investment makes Figure worth $2.6 billion, more than double its previous valuation.

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Robot Research In The News

Researchers develop rapid safety check method that ensures a robot will avoid collisions

MIT researchers have developed a safety check technique that can prove with 100% accuracy that a robot's trajectory will remain collision-free. They accomplished this using a special algorithmic technique called sum-of-squares programming, which provides proof in only a few seconds. This technique is well-suited for situations where robot collisions could cause injuries, like home health robots that care for frail patients.

Researchers develop interface for quadriplegics to control robots

Carnegie Mellon University students Akhil Padmanabha and Janavi Gupta developed the Head-Worn Assistive Teleoperation (HAT), an experimental interface to control a mobile robot, that requires fewer fine motor skills than other interfaces to help people with some form of paralysis or similar motor impairments. During a weeklong home trial, a person with quadriplegia, Henry, directed a robot using HAT to perform tasks such as scratching an itch, feeding himself and operating the blinds. Henry enjoyed using HAT and gave valuable feedback, and the researchers found the Driver Assistance software particularly successful in helping align the robot’s gripper.

Virtual Reality and Robotics May Improve Mobility of Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a common physical disability in childhood that affects approximately 10,000 babies each year. Physical therapy exercises can help children perform everyday movements. However, some children find it boring or have limited access to PT services. To solve this, a group of researchers is evaluating whether virtual reality (VR) gaming and a roving robot can improve the mobility of children with cerebral palsy and keep them engaged. The study involves children playing three therapeutic games in three different conditions: VR games, VR games with haptic vibration, and robotic games. The movements in the games align with PT exercises they do in clinical settings. The study aims to test whether the technologies help to motivate children to keep moving and improve their movements.

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Robot Workforce Stories Of The Week

One middle school works to get more girls into robotics

Bixby hosted the first girls' robotic tournament in Oklahoma, where every team had to be at least 50 percent female. The Tulsa Society of Women Engineers sent some engineers to talk to the girls, showing them that women can be successful in engineering. Bixby is leading the way in robotics and teaching students important skills such as stress and time management, project management, and effective communication.

California teacher of the year teaches robotics in Concord

Joseph Alvarico, a teacher at Ygnacio Valley High School in California, was named California Teacher of the Year. He teaches engineering, oversees the robotics program and runs the school's college and career access pathway. Alvarico has 38 robotics students and the program runs on a $60,000 to $70,000 annual budget.

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Robot Video Of The Week

A mobile robot with an arm that unloads trailers is a common solution in the industry. Anyware Robotics claims that its Pixmo design has the right combination of safety, capability, and cost. It integrates a heavy-payload collaborative arm from Fanuc that is ISO-certified and safe to work directly with people.

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Upcoming Robot Events

Mar. 11-14 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (Boulder, CO)

Mar. 11-14 MODEX (Atlanta, GA)

Mar. 17-21 NVIDIA GTC (San Jose, CA)

Mar. 19-21 Logimat (Stuttgart, Germany)

Mar. 25-27 International Conference on Industrial Technology (Bristol, UK)

Apr. 7-10 Haptics Symposium (Los Angeles, CA)

Apr. 14-17 International Conference on Soft Robotics (San Diego, CA)

May 1-2 The Robotics Summit & Expo (Boston, MA)

May 13-17 IEEE-ICRA (Yokohama, Japan)

June 24-27 International Conference on Space Robotics (Luxemborg)

July 2-4 International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control (Poznan, Poland)

July 8-12 American Control Conference (Toronto, Canada)

Oct. 16-17 RoboBusiness (Santa Clara, CA)

Oct. 21-23 ROSCon (Odense, Denmark)

Oct. 28-Nov. 1 ASTM Intl. Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (Atlanta, GA)

Nov. 22-24 Humanoids 2024 (Nancy, France)

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