In Wireless, Inc. which I wrote last year, I advised readers to keep in mind that wireless does not have to mean wirelessly connected all the time. Listening to the frequently asked question “When will wireless finally take off?” I wonder if I should have suggested that people de-emphasize “wireless” from most of their vocabulary, and focus on “mobility.”

The word “wireless” comes with a lot of baggage that is making wireless data a difficult sell to executives, rank & file employees and even IT people. Not that there aren’t other problems holding up sales, but you have to start somewhere. Do this little informal survey and you’ll see what I mean about baggage.

Ask 10 random people who don’t work in the wireless industry what comes to mind when they hear ‘wireless’ and ‘service.’ Maybe it’s “oxymoron” (or just plain “morons”) if they’re really polite. It’s likely you’ll hear “sucks” - often with expletive attached, “cell hell,” “can’t wait to switch” and a bunch of other less-than-sterling endorsements.  

If wireless service is competing with HMOs and telemarketers as things some folks love to hate, do you really want to this to be the main pillar upon which you try to build a convincing message about the value and virtues of an un-wired workforce? I’d give strong consideration to leading every discussion with keywords “mobile” and “mobility.”

Lead off a meeting with “wireless” and the executive subconscious dredges up images of confusing rate plans, dropped calls, lousy in-building coverage, and other negatives that won’t help your case. News reports about millions of people lining up to switch carriers on November 24^th aren’t exactly giving boardrooms that warm ‘n fuzzy feeling about wireless as the savior of profitability. 

On the other hand, senior executives, watchers of budgets and keepers of purse strings understand mobile workers. Road warriors and inter-facility roamers are the mainstay of a lot of organizations. Start a meeting presenting a strong case for mobile apps that reduce costs and improve these employees’ productivity, and execs will listen.

Why do I make a big deal about this? Because a whole lotta money is being spent trying to convince organizations to buy a technology that many key decision makers feel is flawed. And regardless of reality – wireless does indeed offer great value to many organizations - negative perceptions kill (or at least significantly stall) sales.

Whether you’re a vendor or the person in an organization who must convince management to buy into mobile apps, dodge the negative imagery inherited from the legacy of wireless voice, and push the positive perceptions of improved mobile data exchange. There are vendors selling mobile apps to lots of customers while barely mentioning the W-word even though wireless access is central to implementing their technology. 

Will changing one word in presentations to cost-adverse execs suddenly open the flood gates to the corporate coffers? Well, no. What has to change is the perception of what we’re selling to upper management. Wording is key to changing perceptions, of course. But here’s what else is important.

Think, plan and act mobile. When building the business case for mobile apps, one of your tasks is to determine the value of having employees use mobile devices to eliminate paper forms, brochures, manuals and the other printed materials typical of their jobs. Another is to quantify the value of people’s ability to do computing tasks from wherever they happen to be mobile.

Many of the benefits derived from what this industry sells come as a result of these two approaches to improving how mobile people work. These benefits are what management will or should buy into. Whether and when you use wide area wireless (cellular), WiFi, Bluetooth or desktop syncing is a secondary (though important) discussion. Much of the baggage of wireless voice that freaks out execs and IT folks can be overcome with some combination of wireless (in its many variations) and desktop syncing options.

So, while I’m throwing out what some might consider a radical idea (even my book’s publisher will balk at changing Wireless, Inc. to Mobility, Inc.), here’s another one. Why don’t you end user types and vendors of mobile apps beat on the carriers to convince them to get out of the wireless business? At least when selling to businesses.

Say what?!?

Yep, get out of the wireless business, the same way IBM got out of the hardware business. IBM, in case you haven’t seen any of their ad campaigns in the past few years, is a services company. They sell services to help customers do e-business. The hardware comes along for the ride.

Wireless carriers should forget about selling those Gordian Knots otherwise known as service plans. Put together software apps, hardware and professional services teams to go out and sell specific soup-to-nuts m-business packages that address specific business needs. Wireless access comes along for the ride. Hmm, now there’s a novel thought.

Of course, there’d still have to be a lot of work done to obliterate the marketing gobbledygook and geekspeak that goes a long way to saying nothing about what value prospects might receive. But mobile workers, those that employ them and the industry overall might benefit greatly from the m-business services sell. Nextel seems to be going down this path and T-Mobile is catching up, and Nextel customers don’t churn as much as other carriers.

Just another radical idea, I guess. Must be the result of that Berkeley education.