The New Virtual-First Business Model

The name of TMC is Technology Marketing Corporation and since the beginning they have always focused on the marketing of technologies. Today, marketing of your technology is now more important than ever accelerating your efforts to retain and sustain current customers and gain new customers faster. If you are involved in marketing, sales and customer experience you know this was not just one thing before, now it's extending and expanding your business presence virtually to everything your customer is and their customers are doing. Even more important is "seeing through" them to help their customers gain and retain customers takes looking beyond what you are selling them to what experiences they are creating. TMC is totally focused on doing this and through this process we are now providing virtual-first business acceleration programs. To the end, TECHtionary has partnered with TMC to offer our courses from them including Fundamentals, Advanced and Expert virtual sales and presentation programs, these virtual technology marketing programs go even farther with a 14-course Enterprise Business Acceleration program with ongoing sales coaching service. Even further is a seven-phase organizational virtual sales development program. 

You may not be ready for this kind of long-term professional engagement but we are ready when you want to put the "pedal to the virtual metal" and go. This is what we have been doing for more than twenty years. To get this started, we plan weekly updates to this blog to show you our commitment and provide you with steps and pathways to this business development program. I can only recommend you start today before your current competitors beat you in current markets you serve and new companies beat you to new markets and customers before you do. As once said, "if you don't make dust, you eat dust." We can't guarantee there will be no dust but help you be the one making the dust and not eating it. Get started with the program below.

Part 2 - Throughout business history there are clear business models of market dominance, transformation, decline and destruction. Forty years ago, new businesses started with a personal computer rather than a typewriter. The PC could do many things, not just one thing. Typewriters didn't die right away but they are largely found in museums today. A decade later when the laser printer emerged it could print images, graphics and much more, not just text. There are many other examples as when CDs replace vinyl, digital cameras replaced film, even now as electric cars are replacing gasoline vehicles and soon driver-less autonomous vehicles will replace person-drive vehicles. Yes there will be problems but in twenty years driving a car for most but certainly not all activities will be a think of the past. Twenty years ago, or so, the internet was finally accelerating, not just a real innovation but seen by many as a means for replacing FAX machines and mailing expensive printed content. Look at what happened to those who were internet-first in their business model. Today, video meetings invented in 1964 by AT&T used in the iconic 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey are finally changing the way all kinds of business meetings are conducted and much more with hundreds or thousands of participants and viewers The point is that technology always changes the way we do business, some much faster than others and some dependent on a changing customer styles and user behavior such as the business suit has taken a while longer to decline. In other situations, things like working in an office may die much more slowly but will absolutely change dramatically. Why because for many though not all working at home saves so much time that was wasted commuting. We have dozens of other reasons like not working with people you actually didn't ever like. The home is a sanctuary where people can not wear pants, play the music they like, set the temperature that suits them and so much more. Yet, we also see offices of any kind from military, school, industrial, office and government becoming more of a place for inperson events and corporate studios like television broadcast networks with large video and augmented reality demonstration centers. Buildings and offices will have to also evolve with health safety as a priority, we will address in future articles.

Today, companies are always facing the challenges of digital transformation or put more simply, automate anything and everything they can faster than their new or existing competitors. This concept has fueled the growth of many siloes which focus on narrow business functions such as process automation, sales management, team communications and others. The point is that the pandemic will not necessarily accelerate digital transformation, however along with a virtual-first business model alter the trajectory and ultimate outcome. Just redesigning a business for telecommuting or as some say working virtually from anywhere is not just about technology but changing the company culture. Previously when you had a "collective" approach to your culture, your communications processes were designed for face-to-face meetings and inperson business operations based on a "hive" office environment. The pandemic destroyed both of those concepts at the onset and while many forms of "collective hive" will may come back, it will be very different if not completely different than before for existing companies. However, for the new virtual-first businesses that have emerged based on new ways to business and will grow with people hired on a "remote office" basis using technology to "meet up virtually" rather than, in some cases, never meeting the person inperson. There are a dozen other business models that we have identified incorporating a virtual-first business approach that will rise, struggle, succeed and fail like anyone business model. New technologies from 5G, IoT, and artificial intelligence along with its many variations such as robotics, machine learning, expert systems and others will also rise not as just another silo application to solve process automation or logistics but synchronized networks solving many problems not just a few. 

Summary - technology always changes the way we think faster than society can adapt to its impacts and consequences. The pandemic has shown us that we can adapt faster even when we are forced too, though the unintended consequences of all this are only beginning to emerge. In parts 3 and beyond, we will explore the virtual-first business model and see how fast, what new and exciting innovations will emerge into what will be the next billion dollar startup. We do know for sure there is "no going back" as whether this virus or the next has set the global stage for how the world must and will react, then act and be ready for the next one.

The process of collaboration in today’s environment requires the “buy-in” or socialization from more and more people. However, as each day delays any decision the value or ROI-return on investment declines faster and faster. In other words, the longer the delay the lower the return. Giving that people involved in many decisions are not just sitting around waiting for what you need but working on their own work. Indeed, we need better collaboration, but we also need not just faster but better improvements in the collaboration process. If you consider that meeting participants may need time to research, complete a task, visit a customer, work with others you can see that the more complex the decision the more indepth the development to determine validity or potential outcome. In those situations, in which factual information is being exchanged in order to solve a problem, studies show that only about half of the person’s time is actually spent communicating—sending or receiving information. Searching for information, taking notes, and other organizing efforts took up the rest of the time. If the meeting type is one of negotiation or conflict requiring an exchange of opinions and argumentation, the person spends as much as 75% of his or her time actually communicating with verifying each step of a document or process along the way. Nonetheless, other non-communicating activities, such as information retrieval and document reading, still make up 25% of the person’s time. In addition, another overlooked challenge did meeting attendees really understand what the presenter/speaker was trying to convey. That is, did they all agree on what was said, was what was heard and ultimately gets done? If you are boring face-to-face, you will still be boring via video and technology only makes you look worse. The goal of the course is not just to overlay technology to a fundamental problem of poor communication but integrate enhanced technology with better business communications processes.

Before you fail, flub or otherwise lose face or some would say fall on your face yet again in your video sales, lecture, crisis call, news, investor, team, status, leadership or any other meeting or class, get virtual meetings smart today.

To order, please email cross@gocross.com or call 303-594-1694

For scheduling, please email cross@gocross.com or call 303-594-1694 and ask about special offers for 2021.