Friday, April 14, 2006

Face-to-face interaction

I just read a blog entry by Kathy Sierra(Creating Passionate Users) on face-to-face interaction.

This confirms a lot of the experiences that I've had in the software world. I've been a trainer on and off for the last 20 years. Lots of times managers concerned with cost would ask me to come up with some kind of computer based training. None of the attempts ever worked a fraction as well as the live training sessions.

I've also spent time in both sales and pre-sales technical support (FAE). Again, the in-person sales calls and presentations were a ton more effective than any kind of webinar. Telephone sales calls (even ones where we tried to also walk folks through some PowerPoint or PDF slides never worked.

Of course, YMMV. And for buying/selling simple, low cost items, I don't think this applies. The same is true for highly motivated folks. Those folks can learn lots of things from books, internet tutorials etc.

Bottom line for today: go out there and see someone face-to-face.