We all know technology comes in waves, that why it’s called surfing the web.
When the next wave comes in, are you ready for it, or are you going to be swept away?

Now let me ask you:

Are you surfing?
OR are you swimming?

Because if you are neither you are SINKING!

The businesses who adapt to technology are surfers, they surf these waves and can easily adapt from one wave to the next. They are the early adopters of technology, they are looking into the future with open eyes ready to use the next technology wave to take them closer to their customers and their goals.

For swimmers it seems like they can only just keep their head above the water, and sometimes get run over by the surfers. Some may not even know there is a new wave on its way till ... it hits.

Once you have lost a wave, there is no way to catch up. Even if you could put all your effort into catching up to that wave, it may be too late, and its competitive edge would have been lost.

Would you rather be surfing or swimming?
(In short, are you looking forward or about to be washed over?)

So how do I prepare for the next wave?

Example1:

The main example that I have is the shift from standard paper marketing to email marketing. People were sceptical at first, but once more and more customers started to sign onto email systems like hotmail (Free email systems), companies that were ready for the shift boomed, and the others were left dead in the water.

Ask yourself:

• Is email still the best system to market to your customer?
• Is there another way that guarantees that your message will be delivered to your prospect, fault free?
• Are my customers currently switching across to accept other methods of contact?

If you have not asked yourself the questions above, you should be.

Example2:

Imagine you were a standard book store, that had a nice shopfront, good customers service and an average amount of walk in traffic.

Ask yourself:

Are your competitors only in Australia, or are you competing with the world for customers?
Are your walk-in customers really going to buy from you?

The people you are competing with are companies that can do the same service, but cheaper, faster and more efficient than you.

You are competing with bookstores run out of warehouses, who only take orders online, and ship books the same day. – They have lower overheads as they don’t need sales people, or an expensive shop front. Ultimately a cheaper price to the customer

Amazon.com (An online US bookstore), people from Australia still buy from this store and have books internationally posted. The question you need to ask is why? (Is it easer?, cheaper? And so on)

How do you limit the ever increasing amount of customers that use your shop front just to browse, read a few pages and then order from someone else online for cheaper?

Ebay is another example; in another 2 years will the local paper still advertise goods that are for sale? – And how do you take advantage of this shift?

If customers shift across to going direct to the manufactures for orders (eg. Dell for computers) what happens to the retailer with the expensive shop front?

My suggestion:

Start thinking today about the new technologies out there,
seek answers from industry leaders on what’s new in the market place,
find out what other competitors are doing , and how technology can better help you connect with your customers,
and allow you to gain the leading edge of the technology wave.

So... Get your wetsuit on and go out to catch that wave and have fun!