Has the Phone Died?

Last week, I was asked whether the phone and email were now redundant as communication channels to drive deals. This prompted a conversation around what effective sales outreach may look like in the next 5 - 10 years.

Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849. That means, we have had the ability to communicate using the power of our voices for the last 170 years and it’s hard to see that changing. 

As a channel, the telephone enables us to vocalise emotion, empathy and tonality, something that is far more difficult to replicate on messaging mediums.

Ray Tomlinson is credited with inventing email in 1972. It is estimated that we send almost 294 billion emails, every single day. Email hasn’t simply become a communication channel but instead, a native part of the way we interact on a daily basis.

In summary, I don’t see channels such as phone and email going away anytime soon. Both channels have been around for decades and continue to experience evolutions in the way people can leverage their technology.

For example, we’re seeing a surge in real time sentiment analysis which allows organisations to recognise the tone and nature of a phone call, in real time, to enable proactive decision making.

Looking ahead, this begs the question of what the future holds when it comes to prospecting, outreach and general communication. The breadth of means from which people can communicate today has expanded in an unprecedented manner.

Channels such as WhatsApp in Europe, WeChat in Asia and Facebook Messenger in the United States are beginning to gain noticeable traction with consumers.

With the equal growth of platforms such as Linkedin, people and companies are connecting and sharing information in a new ways. Consumer demands are also on the rise, we’re in an era where we expect to be able to contact companies via our preferred channel at any given time. As a result, organisations are offering the likes of SMS and live chat options to give customers the ability to collaborate on-demand.

Operating through a sales lens, we need to be cognisant of the way consumers are interacting and look to think forward as to how this may impact preferred methods of outreach. 

It’s an overstatement to say phone and email won’t be around in the coming years. If anything, I anticipate greater use of both channels but in far more innovative ways. Further, I expect to see a wider breadth of channels being leveraged as a means of outreach to keep pace with growing customer demands.

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Disclaimer: All views expressed on this article are my own and do not represent the opinions or views of my current employer or any entity whatsoever with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. This post is for informational purposes only and any advice should be followed at the reader's own discretion.

?2019 by Alex Alleyne