In the brick and mortar world of business you get to meet
folks and see their body language, facial expressions,
how they dress, how they handle themselves, how they present
themselves in a group or personal environ. Those are
great keys to behavior and trust and sales. Those physical
keys are lacking on the web where physical is mixed with
virtual making the outcome less certain through email
than a smile across the table. Thus in the world of
virtual there are some things which a person ought to
get out in the open early in the process of making business
deals, one of these is, who you are dealing with.
Who you are dealing with, is more than a title, titles
are, in the virtual world, easy to come by, and tend to
be functionally defined. A Vice-President of marketing
may be one of hundreds spread out all over the globe; with
no power, finances or clout to carry out contracts or
negotiations. This differs drastically from the brick
and mortar world where Vice-President's of banks and
other transacting businesses are empowered and have the
ability to affect financing. First aspect of establishing
the "who" process then, might be looked at as, don't pay
attention to the title, instead, test out the title of the
person, can they do, that their title suggests? How
is that to be determined? Can they enact contracts? Make
payments, and transact business? This is easy to determine
from many different sources, almost without fail, if a
person can transact contracts they have the credit line and
use of card to ensure such; so it is easy to verify that
they do. What if they don't have such? Then it becomes a
bit trickier, but still can be determined, if you are looking
at a large business transaction and you want to be sure
as to who you are dealing with, why would it offend them to
ask to see a copy of the articles of incorporation for their
business? Almost every business has such, and I can guaranty
you that a person who is genuine about who and what they
are won't have a problem reflecting such to you.
If we can't depend upon the title to key us as to the
vitality of the person we are dealing with, what can we
use? In some sense the vernacular, the method employed in
their communication can tell you a great deal about a
person. What sort of language do they employ? Do they
seem to be in command of good faculties in terms of projects
and completions? Are they timely- when they tell you
they are going to be getting back with you, do they? Do
you sense in the dynamics of their web presence, which
is their web site, a trustworthy feeling? Do they
give the impression of having the same sets of values
toward the transaction or communication that you do?
There are deeper and more lasting items of a person
that you cannot always access in a virtual way. Where
a person comes from, their upbringing, their education,
their belief system, their way to taking care of things,
these are all items that we like to gather in person which
in a virtual way may not be as easy to obtain, and in
the speed of the virtual transaction, they may not be
necessary. We should also interject a note of caution
here as to the degree of the transaction being considered.
A minor purchase requires little consideration, whereas,
when one is contemplating a major transaction, larger
in scope, having the ability to gather more realistic
data can be important, if not, essential.
Is it possible to separate who a person is from their
gender? We live in an age where gender is diminished as
to it's importance, other than, to indicate only that their
exists a difference between male and female- yet, in an
age where the lines which marked the distinction of gender
are becoming increasingly blurred, in the virtual world,
the distinction must be understood. Non gender specific
names are important to bring on the question "pardon me
for asking but are you male or female?" You may get a
response about any number of things, from, the item
requested, to, "none of your business." At this point
in the transaction, you have to decide, is this a person
that you are comfortable dealing with? Also bear in
mind that because gender confusion is present in the
virtual world, men can be presumed to be female, and
vice-versa; so ti is best where it is possible to try and
determine which gender you are dealing with; especially
if you are handling a gender sensitive issue. It is not
easy to add this to the conversational line, and
frequently forms on the web which are filled out will
include the question as to male or female, when moving
into that process, it makes sense to make sure that
is filled out on your inquiry form, and it makes the
further conversations easier when it comes to this
very important item.
We've looked at the defining characteristics of a person
online from the standpoint of what they do, whether they
are effective in getting back to you, if they appear to
have the ability to complete the transaction, and letting
the nature of the transaction being contemplated determine
the depth of background type information that we would
gather. We've also brought to light the difficulty of
gender in the virtual world and that it is important if
it can be determined but that finding out the gender of
a person is not an easy thing to do- the old saying is
that one should employ the "Porcupine principal" in this
endeavor. That is to say, "how to Porcupines make love?"
Very carefully. In all virtual transactions the nice
elements of the physical are missing for the logic and
sense of the dealing must be heightened accordingly. The
speed and ease of use for communications of email and
blogs and chat sessions must be considered in light of
the topics within this realm of who we are dealing with.
If you have specific questions regarding this please make
use of the comments section following this article.
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