For years, salespeople have seen their day-to-day work transform. Not because of customers, but because of the tools they use. CRM systems, reports, dashboards, forecasts, meeting minutes, pipeline reviews… all these administrative layers have been added to the sales process.
“I’d sometimes find myself in the office at one in the morning, entering all the information into the CRM ahead of a meeting the next day. The meeting itself lasted an hour, but the preparation could take five or six hours,” says Rai Chadee, co-founder of Datachi. After 25 years working for IT giants (Oracle, Fujitsu, Temenos and Broadcom), he eventually asked himself a simple question: why do salespeople spend more time documenting their work than actually selling?
This is a concern shared by Isabelle Delin, who is also a co-founder. After spending the early part of her career in customer service, followed by sales and management roles in regulated sectors, she observed the same phenomenon.
The time spent explaining what we do sometimes ends up taking longer than the time spent actually doing it.
“How many times have I heard managers criticise their teams for not spending enough time with their clients… whilst at the same time demanding ever more reports from them?” she points out, with a knowing smile that says it all. “The time spent explaining what we do sometimes ends up exceeding the time spent actually doing it,” adds Rai Chadee.
A practical solution for the property sector
Whilst Datachi caters to a number of sectors, the property sector is one of its most obvious use cases.
Let’s take a typical scenario: a potential buyer calls an estate agent to arrange a viewing. The agent is on a building site, in a meeting or driving. The result: a missed call, a voicemail, a follow-up call later… and sometimes a lost opportunity.
With Datachi, the chatbot takes over, gathers the prospect’s requirements, checks the sales representative’s calendar for availability, and suggests a visit slot straight away.
“The aim is for estate agents to stay out in the field, visiting properties or negotiating, rather than sitting in the office calling prospective clients back,” says Rai Chadee.
The potential doesn’t stop there. Managing rental requests, tracking technical work orders, coordinating with maintenance teams: these are all processes that can be automated.
Has a tenant reported a boiler breakdown? The IA agent assesses the urgency, identifies an available technician and arranges an appointment straight away. No need for endless email exchanges or phone calls.
Sales staff should be with their customers, not sitting in front of a computer filling in forms.
“We have no intention of getting rid of sales staff. We want to make them more effective… and undoubtedly less stressed,” insists Rai Chadee. “According to our calculations, sales staff spend up to three and a half days a week on administrative tasks.” This is particularly true in the property sector, where added value lies in relationships, viewings, negotiations and trust. “Sales staff should be with their clients, not sitting in front of a computer filling in forms,” sums up Isabelle Delin.
“We give companies the level of autonomy they wish to grant the system,” explains Isabelle Delin. “At first, every email or action can be approved before being sent. Then, as trust builds, the level of autonomy can be increased.” This approach is designed, in particular, to avoid the blunders that a fully autonomous AI might make. Sending a sales reminder to a company that has just announced redundancies or contacting a customer at an inappropriate time can quickly become a reputational issue. “Autonomy without governance doesn’t work,” sums up Isabelle Delin.
Compliance as a key differentiator
Another key point highlighted by Datachi is technological sovereignty. Unlike many solutions that rely on US infrastructure, the start-up claims to have designed its architecture around European technologies and hosting services.
“For us, compliance isn’t an option. It’s the foundation of our architecture,” says Rai Chadee. This is an argument likely to appeal to those in the property sector, who are particularly mindful of customer data privacy and regulatory requirements.
People never dreamed of becoming estate agents just to fill in CRM forms.
To explain her vision, Isabelle Delin uses a telling analogy: “GPS hasn’t replaced the driver. It has simply freed them from the burden of having to read a road map, allowing them to concentrate on driving.” According to the young woman, AI must play exactly the same role for salespeople. In short, putting people back where they add the most value. And in a sector where trust remains the primary driver of sales, that’s probably not a bad idea. As Rai Chadee sums it up with a smile: “People never dreamed of becoming estate agents just to fill out CRM forms.”
