oldphoneWhen it comes to technology, sometimes the oldies are the goodies.

New, fancy technology can be alluring and exciting. But there’s a lot to be said for the “old school” ways of connecting with people.

Take, for example, the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell more than 137 years ago. He applied for his patent on March 7, 1876—forever changing the way people communicate.

We all know how to use the phone, and it doesn’t crash. Yet, we hide behind the curtain of technology and neglect talking to the people who really matter.

Dan Pallotta’s Harvard Business Review blog, “Just Call Someone Already”, is a masterpiece. Read it and remember the days before it seemed like every call was from a telemarketer. If you are too young to remember those days, I’ll bet it’s even harder for you to picture a time when people would regularly stop by friends’ homes unannounced, just because they were in the area and thought it would be nice to visit.

Here’s a snippet to whet your appetite:

And as we strive relentlessly for efficiency, we leave no room for life—for the little things that balance out our day and put our business into a larger perspective of existence. There’s no room for other human beings who have color in their voices and nuanced thoughts that typography cannot convey.

Read the rest of this article.

For more on how to leverage technology AND relationships for sales success, get your copy of Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal—now available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. Or get the digital version for your Kindle or Nook.

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