By Stan Rosenzweg

Mike Collado walked down the hall from his office a few weeks ago and popped in on me just as I was finishing a phone conversation.

Mike's a marketing guy who totes around one of those new digital still cameras that record snippets of video, with sound, and he was aiming the lens straight at me. I never understood why anyone would want to buy, much less use, a still camera to make super-short movies. This day, I would learn.

"I want to make a short movie to put on your website," Mike said, "so say something like 'Welcome to my website and take a look around.' You have thirteen seconds from when I say 'go'."

Thirteen seconds? What can you watch in thirteen seconds? See your week-old, state-of-the-art computer become heart-breakingly obsolete? See how fast your lawyer earns $500 for telling you your case has no merit?

I positioned the desk clock before me, so I could judge how much time I had left as I spoke. As soon Mike said "go", I felt like a candidate in a Presidential debate, with the warning lights cycling from green, to yellow, to red. When I was done, I asked Mike to give me a chance to write a script for a retake, but he would have none of it.

"Let's do the same thing again from a different angle", he said. "Ready, go". Then he took my two ad-libbed "takes" and went to play with some new software that lets him edit, merge and add background music. This stuff is pretty easy to learn and the results are quite professional looking. We put the movie on our website where my one inch square head shot used to be.

Since posting the movie, I've been getting more calls from people who visit my site. I have always found that photos make people feel more comfortable about talking to you for the first time. But now, they're not only comfortable, they're downright chatty.

Nothing advances a sale more than good, old fashioned face time? It's not easy to get someone to pencil in an appointment for you when you're a total stranger. But, by using this latest wrinkle in amateur photography, you now have your opportunity to get prospects to meet you without getting them to agree to an appointment.

Once that happens, they feel that they know you. If you have what they need, and you're pleasant enough on video, the "second" appointment is in the bag.

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Stan Rosenzweig, president of Office Technology Consulting Inc., Stamford, CT, can be reached through www.phoneguru.com, or at (203)323-6070, ext. 82409.