Great Return Concept Creep

How does the fact that WFH as a mandated activity is ending, eventually lead to demise of video calls from the office?

The snap above was widely shared this past week.

Taken by a government minister appalled at the total absence of civil servants in this public sector office space. Not only because of the expensive waste of rent that could be resource deployed elsewhere, but also the perceived detrimental knock-on with service delivery.

It is the latest in a long line of attacks on the recently enabled WFH, zoom-sped culture of doing business.

Such shelling covers further vast flanks such as lack of new ideas due to brainstorming impediment, training and mentor collapse, comradeship and staff wellbeing. Note too the easily extrapolated tone of the (often brilliant) cartoonist below, allowing for lazy yet fatal conflation within Sales departments.

There's a reason why New Normal was recently found to be the most annoying of business buzzword.

In any trade, you learn quick to use the right tool for the right task.

We are, it seems, failing to heed this simple rule when it comes to using videolinks.

Concept creep here is likely fundamentally anti-Sales.

Using as definition the free speech framing of Andrew Doyle, this is where generally known terms have their concept gradually expanded. He recently cited the example of a new type of fascism taking over cancel culture.

In our terms, it is where we fall into the trap of thinking selling can only be in-person.

Completely ignoring the fact that for aeons before 2020, we had not only face-to-face, but phone and mail as our mediums too.

True selling stars cannot afford to let The Great Return become captured and co-opted by those falsely preaching that video selling must end.

There are settings where the use of video meetings will absolutely enhance what we do. Make us distinct from our competition. Be more enjoyable for our prospects, who then choose us more often.

I recall a study of 2020 Q1 ad impressions on Facebook (remember them?). The number one spender, at over $200m, was apparently Disney.

By way of thought experiment, how many physical meetings do you think Facebook held with them in those last pre-lockdown 90 days?

What's your plan to stay ahead and build on what you've done these past two years with video calls?