Russ Simons’ column on internet insecurity strikes a chord with me. I also read a story in Bloomberg News, several actually, about how impossible it is to lock what’s on the Internet.
Sitting here in a hotel room, I know I can lock the door and turn out the lights and be somewhat protected. But every time I go online, and particularly when I go on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, or when I’m paying bills or checking bank statements, there is that nagging feeling someone I can’t see sees me, knows me, can abscond with my identity.
I think print is more intimate than the Internet, more relationship-based than email in some perverse sort of way, and more secure than anything online. Lots of people are seeing it, sure, but at the moment, it’s just you and me here, talking. Not the whole of the online world.
One of my favorite success stories of the month came from a fellow Hoosier, Scott Dolson, deputy director of athletics at Indiana University, Bloomington, who spoke at a session during PACnet ’16. He knows how important relationships are.
He told this incredible tale of making his first in-person sales call in the business to get a donor to the IU table and how he really was looking for every excuse not to go. He reluctantly visited the rich alumni at his office and was taken into the warehouse where the man had life-size cutouts of IU Basketball Coach Bob Knight and dared him to make his pitch like he was talking to the Coach. He stumbled through it, not having the answers to a lot of the questions and leaving embarrassed at his performance. He was urged to visit the potential donor’s store on his way back to IU so he’d know his customer. Again he had to fight the urge not to, but something tugged at his conscience and he did.
The next day, he called the donor with answers to the questions he’d asked and was invited back to the warehouse. He took his boss and when they arrived, a full marching band greeted them and he walked through the congratulatory maze to accept a check for $100,000 for the IU program from this donor, the biggest gift ever.
That was 26 years ago. He was a newbie in sports and entertainment. The donor saw his potential, his willingness, his dedication. The donor connected with Dolson and vice versa. They haven’t looked back since.
Maybe online is all about communication, sure. Maybe the revenue potential with analytics is beyond anything one-on-one relationships could ever hope to accomplish.
But somehow, the fulfillment, the meaning, the meat of this business is still in the relationships.
God grant you many years to do business face-to-face.