Whenever I meet people in the industry at conferences or tradeshows, one of the most common questions asked is can technology really improve my business? The answer obviously is yes, but what most people don't realize is that technology is not the golden secret or unbreakable rule of thumb. Instead technology serves as a key aid in effectively deploying your sales and marketing strategy. In today's post we'll talk about 3 common myths regarding technology and how you can avoid falling in the anti technology trap like many other builders before you.
Technology is simply too expensive.
Although it's true that multimillion dollar companies spend millions of dollars on technology, it doesn't mean that it is an absolute across the industry. Spending on technology is directly related to companies needs. Sometimes these needs can be addressed by technology for a cost far less than the equivalent traditional method costs today. A true measure of the value technology can bring you is not in the cost to implement, but in the value of savings the technology will bring to your company over the course of its lifetime. Technology creates efficiency, smoothes operational processes and reduces time spent on administrative tasks. The time and effort saved by technology can amount to significant cost savings. Always make sure you do the math before purchasing a technology based solution, you may find that the cost upfront is significantly less than the savings produced over the long run.
Technology Complicates Simple processes.
Over the course of time, builders have become set in their ways of how to operate their business. At the time these processes were efficient and kept the business running smoothly. However, as the building industry grows and more and more homes are built traditional administrative and sales and marketing methods have begun to fall by the wayside. These simple processes while efficient on a small scale have become vastly complicated and time consuming as more and more sales occur. Technology enables us to perform these simple processes on a large scale level, eliminating the headaches and time constraints encountered using traditional business practices.
Implement and let Technology do the work for you.
Technology can be a great tool to aid your business in its performance. However, by no means will technology be the savior of your company. At the end of the day if your company has a poor sales and marketing strategy or your employees refuse to buy into technology then the venture will fail. Technology should be incorporated within your strategy to ensure the company's overall success, here are a few rules that you should follow.
Before implementing any new technology based system, solicit feedback from your employees; ensure their comfort by eliminating any concerns that they might have.
Your new solution should cater to your existing sales and marketing strategy, not vice versa.
Any system you purchase should be adaptable and grow with you and your company as market conditions change. By having an adaptable system changes in strategy can be made on the fly while maintaining uninterrupted service to both your employees and clients.
About the Author:
Frank Guido, President and CEO of
Aareas Interactive, has been at the forefront of merging technology and sales strategies in such as
Real Estate CRM &
Virtual Design Centers for more than 15 years.
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341
Date Published :
May 31 2007