Recent research indicates that some of the main issues in sales and communications right now have emerged because people believe you can replace face-to-face (and voice-to-voice) communications with text, e-mail and social networking. These ways of interacting electronically obviously offer huge benefits and are no doubt part of the future, but they lack a personal element that offers a distinctive edge. For example, organizations that respond to Internet leads with a phone call have ten times the closing ratio of those who respond by e-mail (even when the leads come from people under 30 years of age). So if you are wondering why your sales are down and notice that your office is spooky quiet, now you have your answer. Technology is killing your communication!

Also, companies that have regular face-to-face meetings (like technology giants Google and Oracle, for example) are typically more successful than companies that choose to communicate through technology. Something we hear all the time in every industry is “We need to get everybody on the same page.” You’ll have more success doing that if you rely less on composing tweets or e-mails and pressing “Send.” That’s because only 2 percent of the population can write as well as they speak. So if you can’t follow this article so far, it’s not my brain that has the problem; it’s my writing style. Actually, I intentionally write on a seventh-grade level so I can be clear… and also because I lack the skill to write at an eighth-grade level. That’s also probably the reason why my book is selling well.

But let’s not peg all technological media advances as impersonal or ineffective or without the power to influence. Videoconferencing has huge benefits in terms of saving time and travel costs, and it’s crucial for meetings with faraway clients. Be clear, though, that if you were in the room with your audience, you would have much more influence and would take business away from the company that didn’t bother to show up. Think about it: If you texted (is that a word?) somebody 10 times and someone else had a five-minute conversation with that person, who do you think has more influence? Here’s a hint. It’s not you!

Although I have done presentations through videoconferencing, as a professional guest speaker I always have a live audience at the event and then shoot the video out to other locations. The live audience gives the remote attendees the feeling that they are actually present, and it allows me to feel like I’m not some guy alone in a room talking to a flat-screen monitor. My point is that throughout history we have always believed that we could replace human contact with technology. In the 1920s, we thought the telephone would stop people from ever meeting in person and the fax machine would mean that engineers and architects might never leave their offices. (That’s right – the fax machine was invented in 1918!) In the 19th century, we thought the telegraph would replace the mail. Can you believe that we still send paper stuffed in better paper around the world, to be delivered by people wearing shorts and safari helmets?

Technology seems to have limits when it comes to people getting personal. It seems that humans always keep hoping we can find a way to avoid each other and still communicate. The truth is that with all the technology humans have developed to keep us apart, we still just can’t get enough of each other!

Resources

• Business Week: Bye Bye to the Phone Call
• The New York Times: Antisocial Networking

Healthy and Unhealthy Fears – An Action Plan

To change from a victim into a volunteer we have to develop and implement an action plan that clearly educates people about the value of our product or service. One way we can do this is by becoming aware of our fears.

There are two kinds of fear healthy and unhealthy.

Some examples of healthy negotiating fears are:

• “Am I adequately prepared for my meeting?”
• “Do I know the right questions?”
• “Do I know how to clearly explain the value of my product or service?”
• “Is everyone on my team on the same page?”

Some examples of unhealthy negotiating fears are:

• “Will looming changes in the market affect my ability to sell?”
• “Are my negotiating skills hampered the way things have always been done around here?”

Fears that motivate us to prepare for success are good.

Fears that prevent us from coming up with creative solutions, and keep us in victim-hood have to go.

Realizing that we have no control over market changes or our clients’ reaction to it will automatically reduce our fear. To reduce it further we must enter our negotiations with a well-developed value proposition that both educates our clients as to the true value of our product or service and at the same time it relaxes us because we know we are prepared.

We know that it is sometimes the process itself that prevents learning and innovation.

The key is finding you’re the path of least resistance. In our study of the most effective sales managers and sales staff, we found that the best way for someone to do something is by doing it their best way. Defining specific outcomes and helping you to approach them “talent first” is the way you will develop your own style and function at your maximum capacity. You can’t teach excellence; you can only provide the insight by which a person can find his or her own excellence. Choice is the fuel for learning. Developing a system and judging success by how well someone follows that system requires a perfect process that everyone can master.The reality is that the most successful people achieve their success either by not following the system or by being unaware of its existence.

The reason that Professor Langley’s plane did not fly may have a lot to do with the fact that he studied a German aviator (for lack of a better term) from the 1890’s who never got off the ground. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, did not have this knowledge so they were forced to innovate based on their strengths. Building highly stable light hollow metal tubing from their bicycle manufacturing experience and studying things that did fly, like birds provided the insight for success.

Knowledge is not power and processes are not the key to success. Real solutions are much simpler. They are based on doing very little of what you do badly and a lot of what you do well. It’s a lot easier to implement what you are already good at doing.

Are we at the end of the information age? My cell phone came with a novel sized instruction book that gives me so much detail on setting up my voice mail that after reading it for 2 hours, I’ve lost the will to live. How much do I really need to know? Have you ever watched a documentary about chicken processing? Did it help you enjoy your lunch? Have you ever read the back of a pack of hotdogs? Some of that stuff sounds flammable. Have you ever read the back of a can of Spam? There are some things in life we may be better off not knowing. When they give you 40 fabrics to help you make a decision on a couch does it really help sell you the coach?

We all have things we need to learn but in the last few years I have learned so much that sometimes it prevents me from being effective. My new car tells me exactly how many miles I can go on a tank and will give me satellite instructions on how to get there. As a result I tend to drive around on empty without needing to know where I am. I want to make it clear that I believe that without proper information it’s difficult to be effective. I am after all in the information business. However, options should be optional. I don’t need 8 way’s to access my Email and I don’t need 80 Emails a day. I actually had someone send me an Email on how to be concise that was 7 pages long. I rented a car last week that had about six buttons on the remote and one of them actually said panic. No kidding! Dodge vehicles actually have a panic button. At what point did we decide that to panic was a solution to a car problem?

I ‘m afraid in our quest for information that we may have forgotten that knowledge is rarely power. Implementation is power. It is action that creates opportunity. Most answers are simple and the questions that bring out those answers are straightforward. Have you ever noticed that people try to make their simple problems and solutions complicated? There is a reason for that, it either makes them worth more money or it allows them to escape the horrible task of actually doing something. If the answer is simple you are instantly accountable. I think it has become natural for us to develop multiple complex processes that protect us from people who want to hold us accountable.

Have you noticed that the latest software is a little slower and more problematic than the old version? The solution is to buy a faster computer so the new software will work as well as the old software. Is this a technological advancement? I don’t think so; I think it’s the same as the telecom companies that sell your name and number to telemarketing firms and then sell you the anti-telemarketing telephone system.

When we reach the most effective solution it may be complex in it’s parts but the idea and concept seemed to ring true in our mind and hearts. We can talk all we want to about how much more knowledge we have than our competitors, but it’s how well we communicate what little we do know that will ultimately make us great. Innovation is most often fueled by a clear view. The Wright brothers were able to fly because they didn’t know they couldn’t, not because they had the most data. Professor Langley’s Flying machine with a grant from the Smithsonian had a lot of previous aviation experience put into it. Unfortunately, that information literally just didn’t fly. Do we have more to learn? You bet! Knowledge is the first step towards effectiveness. Although some day’s I think I could be more effective by learning less! Well, I guess that’s enough for an article about too much information. After I check my 35 voice mails and 80 emails, I’m taking action.