How well can one develop a relationship with a prospect and sell their product or service without meeting or speaking on the telephone?
As many Seth Godin readers do, I often read the posts from which other bloggers trackback their responses to Godin's pearls of wisdom. After reading Mr. Godin's post, I read trainer and blogger, Jason Womack's thanks for inspiration in which he mentioned he was presenting to a roomful in nearby capitol, Washington DC. Then somewhere during my blog trekking to find examples of Internet radio business interview websites, I stumbled across, guess who, again in the same day. I must have liked what he had to say because minutes later I found myself on the phone leaving Jason a message inviting him to lunch or dinner if he could squeeze it in on short notice. Genuine as he is, Jason politely called me back to thank me for reaching out and even though he was understandably booked this trip, we agreed to talk within the next few weeks. We may turn out to be strategic referral partners or clients of one another and most likely new friends.
Friend and Buzzter, Geoff Livingston, sourced other bloggers to understand how to transcend the limits of the digital Web 2.0 (there, I said it) approach to developing personal relationships. He sites Ms. Toby Bloomberg's question, "when was the last time you talked, listened, laughed and learned with" your clients and Aaron Brazell's friendship with Shashib which started from Twitter tweets. It seems you can only get so deep through public correspondence alone.
How does one use Social Networking to enhance Sales?
Journalist, Elaine Appleton Grant, reports on how to use Facebook and Linkedin to enlarge one's network. Wallstreet Journal staff reporter, Shelly Banjo, shares on how to get the blogosphere to comment about your product. I'm still trying to figure out how to automatically set appointments to discuss a prospects needs through social networking sites without picking up the phone or showing up. Please post your comments on how this is done.
What does this have to do with the post title referencing Analog VS Digital?
Check out the picture posted above. Which side appears to be more interesting? Which side is more real? I see "Digital" to be like social networking limited to blogging, tweeting and video logging for all the world to see. "Analog" is personal, face-to-face interaction, telephone conversation, email and IM exchange.
What do you say Geoff, Toby and Aaron?
I've worked quite a bit 'virtually' over the last 10 years; however, although relationships may have begun in the digital world, I don't recall any that were not solidified with at least a real time voice conversation. Perhaps that's because my biz is a service that is highly personalized to the product/service and people involved.
Appreciate the shout out.
Posted by: Toby | April 08, 2008 at 05:00 PM