Posted on 10/17/2005 2:02:11 PM PDT by 2Jim_Brown
Ten years ago Mark J. Grossman's office was alive with the sound of ringing phones and chatter from account executives placing sales calls. "The prevailing sound today is 'click, click, click,'" said Grossman, who heads Grossman Strategies in Bohemia, N.Y. By Gene Koprowski
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
I wonder if AIM will come next? It's quicker than email... and we are a culture of instant gratification.
Not sure. Email is traceable, documented, time-stamped and backed up to tape from servers it is stored on. Businesses like that. It can be secured and digitally signed. They like that too.
The fact is that in my business, women under 30 don't answer the phone and won't call back within the day.
If you want to communicate, it's email.
I play guitar and sing as a regular side business, and I do 80-90% of my sales work by email. I try to close the deal without even using the phone. usually, for weddings, at some point I'll speak to them, just to give them the warm fuzzies, but they've already booked me at that point. At first I was amazed how many deals I could do without even talking to the person on the phone. I think I probably am attracting clients who are comfortable with that by doing all my advertising online. Works great for me, because i can handle the selling side of it while i am at work on my day job.
That dovetails nicely with my experience, given that my wedding customers are that same demographic.
Most of the time, I use email to communicate with family and friends, mainly because it avoids the telephone-tag dilemma and imparts just as much (if not more) info than trying to leave a detailed message on an anwering machine. And an email can be printed out to keep details handy.
Nothing, however, can take the place of actually hearing a loved one's voice, so while perfectly suitable for business applications, email will not replace the telephone entirely.
People also find more courage in email than they do via phone or (heaven help us) in person.
I worked at two major law firms and a combative, agressive email (while not common) was not unusual. Whenever I would get one, I would call the person (no answer).
Then I'd stop by their office (secy says they are busy).
"That's ok, I'll wait."
Funny how much more agreeable people can be in person. :-)
Businesses don't always like the fact that what they have done can't easily be erased or shreaded. Over the last couple of years I have won and lost law suits in complicated commercial cased based in part upon emails that contradicted the witness' testimony.
I see your point but they can also be used to support testimony, especially in "he said/she said" scenarios. A former employee of mine used a female's email as a successful defense in a harassment case.
That's why someone who won't communicate via email is suspect. I've ran into those types, they'll tak a whole lot, but nothing ever gets put in a form that can be used as confirmation of intent.
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