We are being surrounded by technology today, so much so that people have almost forgotten how to make face-to-face contact with customers, prospects, suppliers and their own offices. Who would have thought twenty-five years ago that salespeople couldn’t get along without their Blackberry, laptop or PC in the office? In 1980, the height of technology was a pager.  That device was replaced over the years by greater technology in the form of cell phones, Blackberries, palm-sized computers and a host of other electronic marvels. These gadgets are great, but they should be used to assist not replace sales technology. In the “olden days” of salesmanship, it required a face-to-face contact to initiate the sales call, make the presentation, offer the close and follow-up on either the sale or the next step in the sales process. Nowadays, it is the technology that performs many of these tasks.

 

Old-timey salesmen might have a problem adjusting to the present day use of technology, but they could always fall back upon their time-proven techniques and make sales. Would the modern techno-salesman be able to lose their Blackberry, laptop and PC and still function? It would probably be a tougher adjustment, I’m sure.

 

Those people engaged in sales, customer relations, customer service and other aspects of business that involve people contact, seem to have forgotten that each of these duties is about relationships, not technology. It is the development of a relationship between a salesman and his client that fosters the business they do; the client making a purchase from the salesman. It is only through personal contact that the passion for business, products and service is engaged and shared between salesperson and client. Clients also make referrals based upon their relationship with the sales rep, not how technologically astute he is.

 

Technology also has a whole different language to describe what used to be called “making a sale.” Phrases like “strategic alliances” are used instead, inferring a higher plane on which business is conducted, but when it hits the bottom line, it is still a sale. Telephones, cell phones, personal electronic devices, computers of all sorts-shapes-sizes are all tools to assist the salesperson. They should not be used to supplant any of the relationship developing contacts with prospects and clients, reducing them to an impersonal basis.

 

Many a great athletic coach (think Vince Lombardi) has taken their team back to the basics to produce good results. It is the basic acquired skills that make great athletes and great salesmen. Maybe it is time to review your basics and improve your volume and bottom line.