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Slovenia’s Digital Gap: When Symbolic Stability Becomes a Risk
Why I Keep Coming Back to This Question
While preparing for this year’s 30th NT Conference, I found myself circling back to a question that has been gnawing at me for months:
Why do so many of our companies stand still, defend the status quo, and even feel good about it — when the data shows we are falling behind?
I have to admit, it frustrates me. Because I see talented people, good ideas, and strong traditions of relationship-based selling — but I also see too much comfort with “how things have always been.” That comfort, I believe, is costing us competitiveness.
A Reflection from Last Year
At last year’s conference, I gave a keynote called “Behind Every Successful Digital Project Are Two Distinct Sales.” I used social exchange theory to challenge the negative connotations of “selling” in IT. From reciprocity in prehistoric tribes to complex markets today, exchange is what holds societies together.
IT leaders may not like the word “sales,” but in reality, they sell all the time:
After my keynote, we had a roundtable with CIOs and CDOs. They admitted that preparing business justifications had become essential — in some companies even mandatory. The message was clear: you may not have been trained to sell, but without selling, no digital project survives.
The Legacy Mindset I Keep Seeing
But here is where my frustration really begins. Too many people — not just employees, sometimes even leaders — still carry what I call a legacy mindset.
It is the belief that “I am entitled to a salary regardless of my company’s sales results or the customer experience we deliver.”
That mindset made sense in an earlier time, when job security came from loyalty and continuity. But in today’s economy, it creates an accountability gap. Value is created only when customers buy, adopt, and stay loyal. If pay and recognition are disconnected from results, the urgency to change disappears.
And so we end up with organisations where symbolic stability — “we are steady, we don’t change too fast” — is celebrated. But in practice, that stability is an illusion. OECD data shows Slovenia lagging in every advanced digital category: CRM, ERP, cloud, and data analytics. Productivity growth remains weak. Marketing spend is a fraction of EU norms.
The Paradox of Digital Slovenia
Here’s the paradox that troubles me most:
So as individuals, we are curious and forward-looking. But as organisations, we are hesitant, defensive, and slow.
Why This Matters
This hesitation has consequences: slower sales cycles, missed growth opportunities, and declining competitiveness abroad. Slovenia cannot rely on exports while ignoring the tools and skills that make exports possible.
My worry — and my motivation — is that we are not yet in survival mode, but the warning lights are flashing. We feel safe because we perform stability symbolically. But standing still today is not safety. It is slow decline.
From Frustration to Action: Deep Selling
That is why I argue for what I call Deep Selling. It is not about turning Slovenia into something it isn’t. Our DNA is relationship-based selling, and that is a strength. Deep Selling is about scaling those relationships digitally — with CRM, AI, automation, and stronger marketing — so trust can travel across borders, at speed, and with accountability.
For me, this is not just a professional framework. It is a personal mission born of frustration. I don’t want to see good people, good companies, and good ideas held back by an outdated belief that stability is enough. It is not.
Conclusion
The time has come to move from entitlement to accountability, from symbolic stability to real growth. Deep Selling is one way to make that shift: keeping the human connection at the heart of Slovenian business, while finally matching it with the tools and urgency the digital age demands.
Because in the end, selling is not just about transactions. It is about survival, growth, and the value we create together.
Written by Petra Wagner
