Thursday 8 March 2012

Ipad, tablets and all that Jazz

As a tech-lover, I must admit that my curiosity for new, sparkling gadgets has pushed me more than once to consider buying a tablet, or let's admit it, even an Ipad.
Now, I'm not really a Mac fan, in fact I've been a Windows lover and user since the 80s! Yes, I was one of those kids who played with DOS games and stuff in my early years.
When the Ipad first entered the market I wasn't particularly impressed. Looking at it from a student point of view (at the time) I couldn't see a market, or even a use for it.
You want something small? Use your smartphone; you need something bigger? Then use your laptop.
Why would you use a screen with no keyboard? I know I wouldn't!
So that was my point of view, and it has been for a while.
Now that I work in publishing, and more precisely in marketing and sales, I've realized why a tablet could be indeed very useful.
I'm not a sales agent myself - although I really hope to give it a go sooner than later - but I work closely with them and I have to prepare their sales material so they can do their job properly and sell lots and lots of books around the world.
I've seen them running around with bags full of print-outs, covers, mock-ups, blads, AIs and whatnot. 
It's easily understandable why many customers won't allow a sales agent to spend hours with them in order to purchase books. They see many of them (both agents and books) every month, therefore they need to be impressed, and quickly!
So I've recently started to create power point presentations. HA! Isn't it innovative? No? I know.
Usually (at least that's what I would do if I was a publisher) a presentation should be provided by the  publisher, but in my case that doesn't seem to happen very often. So here I am spending hours creating a ppt presentation for each single publisher (both for Spring and Fall, of course)!
It might seem like a waste of time, but trust me, it seems like many customers around the world have been very impressed! Most worth of note is taht the amount of material the agents have to carry around with them now is a quarter of what it used to be last year! It's great to travel light, you know! (Anyhow, I still think this is quite a waste of time and that publishers should provide them to their sales team).
So as a professional I think the tablet are a good invention, you see?
If I was a sales agent I would use one of those fancy apps like Keynote and easily prepare lots of different presentations (by month, by topic, customised for particular zones), and look efficient, modern and prepared. Customers would be impressed both at the fancy presentation - which could mask any bad products -, at the tailored series of products I'd show them - sign that you know who you're dealing with, and at the efficient ratio between number of products and time of the presentation. 
There would be no need to take out a laptop, connect it to a projector and so on. Everything would be right under your nose, ready to be shared with apps like Mighty Meeting, or to send the order to your inbox without having to use pen and paper.
Now I get what these lovely shiny gadgets are all about: they're about business!


I definitely want one!


Now...who wants to hire me? ;)

2 comments:

  1. In terms of first impressions it's surely much more effective to stroll in with an iPad under your arm rather than struggling through the door with a bag full of books and posters etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I totally agree. I also think is more functional.
    It would be interesting to see how more effective in terms of sales it would actually be though!

    ReplyDelete