If there's a simple fact about technologies it is this one: Whenever a new one comes to the scene, it is always ballyhooed as replacing all previous ones, but it never does.

Radio and TV didn't kill movie going, nor did cable and satellite TV for that matter. Or even VCRs and DVDs.

People still like going out on a Saturday night, and teenagers need a fun place to meet and to congregate.

Transistors were the death knell to vacuum tubes, right? Apparently not, according to guitarists and rock bands that prefer to use tubes in their amplifiers for a "warm" sound, and stalwart company, Fender, still builds them into its products.

The Internet hasn't and won't replace telephone selling, either. For all of its strengths, the Web isn't as easy, as universally used, or as effective in many ways as telephone communication.

The phone is still the cheapest and most direct way to open a business relationship or to close a deal. It is truly interactive, and it is especially intimate.

You can hang on a person's every word and even interpret their breathing as feedback as to how your message is faring with them. Whispering or speaking normally in someone's ear goes directly to their brains and it isn't mediated by symbols as is the case with reading text or interpreting pictures.

Tonality romances and massages people, directly. If you're one of the folks that can master vocal nuances in your phone work, you can write your own paycheck.

The web is limited, despite streaming audio and video, because it is based on READING, on text, and as Western civilization advances, reading is being left behind. Simply put, it's too much work.

If you want to sell something, do two things: (1) Make something attractive to buy; and (2) Make it EASY to buy.

The Web homogenizes, while the phone individuates. If you want to be perceived as unique, TALK to someone for a few minutes, and your strengths will become apparent.

There will be a renaissance in the fields of telephone selling, telephone marketing, customer service, and telephone etiquette, largely because the medium is too strong and too effective to ignore.

The phone is this "doctor's" prescription for your sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction challenges!