My family has a lot of March birthdays. It’s hard to get everyone in the same state, much less the same house, so we try every March to have a big birthday gather to celebrate all of them. This year it was at my parent’s house.
My grandfather is in his 80’s. His memory isn’t very good and he knows it so he doesn’t get involved in very many conversations anymore. But I still try.
I was showing off my iPhone to him, just to see his reactions. Going through the different functions like the GPS on the satellite map with the tack dropping right on top of my parent’s house. The ipod, the weather button, the stocks button, the iLevel application, the camera… “and look, it’s a phone too!”
“That’s just not anything that I would have ever even conceived,” he said.
Then I showed him YouTube and he said, with sincere interest, “Can you get burlesque shows on this thing?”
I imagine that you probably can Pops…
Technology Can Do Just About Anything
It’s true, there’s almost nothing that you can imagine today that can’t happen now or won’t be able to happen in the near future. But does that mean it’s all useful?
I love having the ability to access the Internet from anywhere, having my iPod with me at all times, and being able to check my e-mail, stocks, and the weather whenever I want, but when it comes down to it, what kind of value has it added to my life?
I know exactly how much money I’ve lost in the stock market at all times during of the day, and I can tell you all about the weather in Chicago next Monday, but what has it done for me?
I’m now more addicted to e-mail than ever and that means whenever my phone “dings” I have to check to see who wrote me.
I work online. My phone “dings” all day. It’s really cool and really distracting.
In most cases, the technology that I think is really cool, is adding no value to my business.
Does Your Website Rely on Cool Technology?
Technology is a tool for your business to use- it’s not a replacement for salesmanship. No amount of expert programming and amazing widgets will replace the hard work you actually have to do to sell your product.
The Internet is an amazing tool that can expand your business in ways that weren’t possible 20 years ago. But don’t get caught in the trap of replacing your copy with technology. I talked before about relying too heavily on online video. Yes, it can be a great tool but only if you use it right. When it becomes a distraction from your message, it has to go.
The same is true for half of the technology available today. That minute long flash intro on your website is impressive, but what does it add to your sales message? You can make a picture in Photoshop that will catch anyone’s eye but what is it adding to your sales message?
This is the same problem that advertisers have had since the early 1900’s. They could suddenly run color photos in their ads and so many of them did. Suddenly their ads looked really cool?
But they sold worse than the ads that just ran plain text.
Why? Because the plain text ads were 100% relevant to the sales message. Some pictures can add to a message, but most just distract from it.
So when it comes down to the numbers in a bad economy, do you want to have the coolest looking website or the best selling?
If you answered with the first, then you might need to get your ego in check. If you answered the second, then drop the fancy stuff and get back to the basics…
Good old-fashioned salesmanship will always make money… technology is a gamble.
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