A Faint Voice from the Way Back Machine
Day 4, Bill Ruesch recession recovery diary
Dear Reader,
The name for a watch without hands--broken.
I remember when the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons were first aired. I remember when pagers were the hottest thing. Why, someone could reach you even if not standing near the telephone. Yup, telephone answering machines, faxes, cell phones, digital watches,and personal computers have all be introduced during my lifetime. I tell you this to remind us all that this world is very different from the past–even the recent past.
The very first American web page went up in December, 1991. 1991, that’s only twenty years ago! Twenty years–I have sweat shirts older than that. Before that, everything was routed on a very limited basis through Switzerland.
How long has it been since you’ve seen a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman? What about a vacuum cleaner salesman? The world changed and selling has changed. Old fashioned selling methods don’t work as well as they used to–if at all. The trick is to keep the things that do work and toss those that don’t.
What still works? Human contact works. Through all the levels of wires, glass, and ceramics, the effective salesperson has to find a way to connect eye-to-eye with the customer. For repeat business there is nothing that can replace the personal touch. Without it, the customer is buffeted by every other company willing to buy their business with discounts and premiums.
In an Internet world how can you create a sincere personal touch? I’m going to have to mull this over. Do you Dear Reader have any thoughts on this?
Tags: American, answering machines, cell phones, ceramics, digital watches, discounts, Door-to-Door, encyclopedia sales, faxes, glass, human contact, Internet, pagers, personal computers, Premiums, Rocky & Bullwinkle, salesperson, selling, telephone, vacuum cleaner, web page, wires
