I’m losing touch quickly… By Steve
Waterhouse
A recent study* showed that IMing or Instant
Messaging is now five times more popular with young
people than E-Mail! Man am I out of it. I was one of the
first to use E-mail back when it was a secret military
communications tool. Now I risk being out of touch with
my own kids.
My son won’t contact his friends unless they are
‘online’ so he can IM them. He wouldn’t think of calling
them or E-mailing them like us ‘old farts’ do. I used to
think he was just a hi-tech geek but now I know that he
is part of a real trend.
What does that mean to those of us in sales? Change!
Do you remember when everyone had to get a fax
machine and a separate fax number? Just like faxes
replaced letters and email replaced faxes, IM is likely
to continue to gain in popularity. If you want to
connect with the most powerful group of consumers on the
planet, it’s time to get an IM account.
Communicate like the client.
Those of you who have been through my Total Customer
Selling™ program know that I talk a lot about
communicating with your client in their style, not
yours. IM is just one more variable in that mix. If our
customers want to communicate with us through IM, we
should make it easy for them.
It’s time to put my actions where my mouth is. As of
today, my IM (AIM:teamselling) is now posted on my
“Contacts” page at www.waterhousegroup.com. I guess I’ll
have to put it on my business cards next. I think I can
use it to replace that fax number that never gets used!
Now it’s your turn. Set up your IM and tell your
clients. Then let me know how it works for you. If you
let me, I’ll share the results on my web site.
Good luck and keep selling,
Steve Waterhouse
*Pew Internet & American Live Project
Steve Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse
Group (www.waterhousegroup.com), a sales consulting and
training company that helps companies dramatically
increase their sales. He can be reached at
1-800-57-LEARN or
info@waterhousegroup.com.
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