How Do You Stay Organized?
Written by Brandon Hull on July 9, 2008
Sales professionals are the consummate multitaskers. (That’s not always a good thing, by the way.)
We’ve got specific tasks tied to specific contacts to complete. Often subtasks as well. We’ve got internal reports to complete. We’ve got emails to respond to, phone calls to make and return, proposals to write up, quotes to re-work, thank you notes to scribble,strategies and tactics to brainstorm, conference calls to sit in on, administrative support personnel to delegate to and follow-up with…
Getting stressed out just thinking about it?
How do you stay on top of things?
What habits do you follow?
What resources would you recommend?
What best practices have you learned?
What tools do you use?
Comment here or link back to your own blog with suggestions.
Do Conference Calls Need an Overhaul?
Written by Brandon Hull on July 8, 2008
Does your company conduct prescheduled, companywide conference calls?
Do you send out email-based invitations that customers or employees can accept or decline? Do you work through an attendant, rather than simply dial in a passcode?
Is this concept broken?
Seems pretty straightforward to me, but here are three services (among many others) that feel this industry is in need of repair. Rondee, Foonz, and Calliflower are three relatively new services that offer a conference call/online service blend.
Rondee offers 100 participants per call, email invitations and tracking, free call recording, recurring call appointments, outlook integration, and participants can see a display of who’s talking at any given moment. All for free.
Foonz gets a little more clever. With its service, when you sign up, you enter those you anticipate conferencing with at some point. Then when you’re ready to start a conference, you call your Foonz number and the system invites participants by sending them a text message. Those individuals simply call the number in their text message.
Calliflower allows you to manage conference call invites, agendas and call notes. Call reminders can be sent out via text message to participants. A Web component is added to calls, allowing participants to do a number of things, including raising their hand with a question, or chatting with another before, during and after the call. And the call host can visually see who’s on the call and who’s not. All of this for no additional charge beyond the cost of the long distance call.
Calliflower stands out to me as the most intriguing of the bunch. Frankly, though, I’ve just never felt the conference calls I’ve been on or hosted have been lacking technical “features”, so to speak, so I can’t personally picture myself using these.
But if you need a little more oomph out of your calls — either in the planning or adding a dimension of engagement — these tools might be worth a look. Meanwhile, you can also take a look at our notes on conference call etiquette.
Free wifi airports
Written by Brandon Hull on July 7, 2008
Found a quick user-editable list of free wifi airports around the United States…
Preplanning Your Contact Management
Written by Brandon Hull on July 6, 2008
So you’ve got your sales process down. It’s either been handed to you by your company or you’ve come up with it on your own.
In that process, your first appointment may be a getting-to-know-you along with a needs analysis. Your next one may be a detailed survey of the customer’s facility/current systems/current methods/practices/costs. Your next or final visit may be a presentation with your solution to close the business. In-between you’ve got behind-the-scenes steps you need to complete.
Or whatever you do.
But do you have a series of simple, specific steps that you complete with every contact you make? Do you have a way to gently pull someone from unknown stranger to trusting prospect? Do you preplan the communications you have with a customer — from a variety of angles — to become a trusted advisor?
In the old days, you’d get back to the office after being out in the field and hand write thank you notes. While some sales professionals do this, most don’t follow any kind of follow-up or follow-through process.
Maybe it’s time to think about doing this. More and more of our online contact management friends are including these capabilities to help you preplan your contact management. LeadsOnRails got this idea started amongst our reviewed group; PipelineDeals added todo templates to its system; BatchBlue followed suit with one of its recent updates; and Oprius is announcing similar functionality. And there’s a company called Executive Business Services we’ve not yet introduced you to that’s offering a unique service along these lines.
They’re all adding it because it’s a terrific best practice that Internet marketers have been applying for years already.
Having a well thought-out communication plan is a great way to ensure you don’t get caught winging your way through the sales process, however short or long that process may be.
