The mass media does not just stop at what we see on TV or on established magazines and newspapers. Mass media mindsets happen continuously with industry verticals. There has to be something to talk about. And hitching on to emerging technologies is concrete enough to have something to talk about.
There have been waves of technologies that have been talked about from every angle. Email marketing, blogs, social media, marketing automation, websites, social signals, and many others become hot topics for pundits. I’m not sure what the psychology is, but something new tends to be interesting and captures our imagination. But it’s hard to say whether these things actually work especially after grandiose claims of how the world will be different.
CRM had a big hey day as well. Goldmine, ACT, Salesforce, Highrise and Nimble are just a few that have been poked and prodded to death by the media. It’s not uncommon to see people flock to some technology, work hard at it, then tire of it or allow it to collect dust in their digital archives.
The tools themselves are extremely powerful. And they can work wonders in your business to bring results – efficiency, revenue, quality, productivity.
But it’s easier to blame a tool than to look at why your business is not working the way hoped.
CRM does work. But you have to have leadership, process design and culture to make it work well. Those are all hard work and rigorous. You have to move people towards a vision. You have to have a vision.
Then you have to work at it and be committed. No exceptions.
This is true for social media, for example, as well. A medium will work if you put in relentless hours participating and understanding it. But then you have to wonder if it’s worth it. Is it worth the time and deep study? It’s easy to tire of something when it requires real work and thinking.
So, yes, these powerful tools produce results. There’s always enough benchmarks to show that. The question is about your commitment to a vision for your own specific reality. If you can’t see far enough or commit enough, then better to leave your broken process alone. The world will pass you by and you will feel the pain. At some point, the contrast may push on you and create enough motivation to get going as a late adopter.
But why be disappointed on a journey without the follow through and resolve to make something work.
Assume the technologies work. But the problem is far bigger than buying a subscription to something.
What are you thinking about implementing in your business?
