How are you connecting with clients?
Now, even though we're now on-line, interconnected, hyperlinked and linkedin 24/7/365, a computer interface can never really replace a human face.
So even in view of innovation, generation and communication trends, we need to remember that effective sales methods in the future will involve a blend of high tech and high touch.
In fact, there is a form of social media that works better than any tweet, and it's called B2B (or belly2belly). It's interesting that even in an age of ubiquitous downloads and digital information we still crave the analogue. Nobody remembers their first download, but vinyl is forever. In 2009, a time of iphones, ipods, and wide-spread piracy, vinyl record sales were up nearly 20%.
The blend of digital and analogue communications (digilogue communications if you wish...) is where real thought leadership resides.
I believe it is companies who can combine old and new media, the digital and the analogue, the high tech and high touch approaches who will stand out as thought leaders over the coming years. It's not about replacing the old ways of doing business and throwing the baby out with the bathwater, rather we need to ensure a successful blend, one that incorporates efficiency, mobile communications, customer care, and innovative communication platforms like social media.
Across industries, we need to stop treating our customers like Luddites - they are more savvy than we sometimes give them credit for.
Whether they are Gen Y, Gen X or Baby Boomers, the GFC and technology has enabled more savvy intelligence gathering and further transparency into the market, and this trend is one that places pressure on every industry to innovate.