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It makes no sense, for any business, to invest in technology based on a comparison of features.  Today, the basic features of CRM are well-defined - any CRM will provide the basics of contact relationship management.

CRM has been around for more than a decade. It was originally designed as a tool to enable businesses to share information between sales and other various departments that dealt with customers. Those features are clear.

The next iterations of CRM were designed to better track, manage and empower the sales force - hence the brand of a CRM by that name. Again, no real "dream" here.

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Through travel, I’ve had the rare opportunity to view businesses, entrepreneurs and work forces from many different industries to watch how things are shaping up and changing. From E-Health in Pharmacies, to RealEstate, Mortgage Banking and Wealth Management -every industry is shifting to become more closely connected. As our world continues to connect, pushing the envelope for change and challenges; there is little question that we continue to push the boundaries of how we become connected. Each of us is driving this change every day when we set up or manage our Linked-In or Facebook pages. Or when we create a membership on the Realestock.com portal or run searches for the tools for the businesses we run, represent, or are thinking of starting.

This begs the questions, How connected are you really? How do you get and stay connected 4 real?

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I met with a good friend of mine who deals in the financial sector in the UK today.  It was great to see Andre - haven't seen him since last August when the markets went to hell!

The last time we met, I was just discovering that our largest health client had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy - it was a distraction during our regular board meeting in Toronto.

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In the last few posts I've been talking about "Smarter Marketing" - which is why we call "Smart Marketing" in The Connected Market Space iQ3. I talk about it here on my Video.

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Do you still pay $3.00, $5.00, $10.00 per minute for international phone calls?  Ever hear of Skype?

Of course if you were a business person who was paying $5.00/ minute for a phone call (if you still use the phone at all with email, SMS and your Blackberry in hand) you'd be working for the Government and have an unlimited budget.  Oh wait, Governments are cutting back and getting smarter too...

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In 1997 (Wow! Thirteen years ago - time flies when you're thinking), while I was a full time Professor at the University of Victoria - I wrote and published a small paper called Technomics: How Access to Information Will Change Global Business.  That was before the term "search engines" was part of common, everyday discourse (and before Google was even a company).

Here we are, way after the turn of the millennium, 2009, and what was my dream in 1997 - The Connected Market Space - has become a reality with our flagship site, Realestock.com.

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Over the last four days, I've talked about the dangers of developers and sales people "knowing too much" and thus not doing the jobs they should be doing. Yesterday, I spoke about what can happen when a Print Media Expert is hired to do an Online Media Expert's job. Today, I'm going to switch gears a bit, though, and wrap up this week with one of the biggest mistakes I see developers making today.

Mistake #5 - Waiting for the Market to "Come Back".  The market is ripe for buyers right now.  The main mistake developers make is they are waiting for the "market to come back" while at this very moment discerning buyers are looking hard at where they will buy.

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Yesterday I discussed the mistake developers often make in presuming that they themselves are Media Experts. In that same vein, I will show you today how hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert is a not only an outdated but also wasteful mistake many developers often make.

Mistake #4 - Hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert.  Print media is not a dinosaur - it's an albatross. The problem with print media marketing agencies is a two-headed one: First and foremost, they are excessively expensive, with no real proven ROI.  At 15% - 30% , why would any well founded print media marketing company mess with the web?  The fact of the matter is that they don't really use online marketing beyond instances when they are forced to. Second, on the rare occasion that they do decide to utilize online marketing strategies, their vacuous knowledge of this very different technique forces them to lean heavily on their print media background, thus costing their developer clients tens of thousands of wasted dollars.

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Just as dangerous as assuming a salesperson has an intimate knowledge of media and marketing - as I touched on yesterday - is a developer who assumes that he or she has that same intimate knowledge.

Mistake #3 - Being a Media Expert.  Would a developer hire a general contractor to do an architects job?  "Hey, here's a piece of property, Joe. Go ahead and build something, we'll get it sold..." I don't think so, either.

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An excerpt from a conversation between Michael Tuff, CEO of Racaria Capital Financial Solutions and Myself

MT:  Why has it been so difficult for the process of buying real estate to make the jump onto the internet?

TV: Because the MLS was designed to make it impossible. To buy a house or a car, you need to see it, right?  So the MLS system evolved to make real estate agents indispensable. We have traditionally paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the key, get in, look around, get the "feel" of the place. However, more and more people are now coming to realize it's not really worth $50,000 to get a key and take a look around.

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