What Hot Wireless Gizmos Put an Oomph in Your Sales Force?

Gwynne Young
Managing Editor, CustomerThink
Member

Posted 08-Mar-2005 09:22 AM
I know a ton of folks who love their BlackBerrys. As CRMGuru.com concentrates on sales effectiveness, I'm curious about some of the new innovations that are getting your sales agents going. Are you attached to your PDA? Does your star sales rep swear by a particular doodad? If you had to choose one to help your entire force of road warriors, which would it be and why?

Doug LeFever
Member

Posted 08-Mar-2005 07:10 PM
My company rolled out Verizon wireless cards to our sales organization within the past couple of months. I'm a gizmo guy, but I have NEVER experienced a better device. Connectivity is fast and reliable and enables me to connect anytime, anyplace, anywhere. When I need quick info from our HQ before a sales call and I don't have the required info in my SFA, the wireless card, or air card, enables me to instantly connect and get the required info. I can sync my e-mail or SFA during down time. I don't know if my company is measuring efficiency impact on our sales organization, but I can personally say that I have improved my daily efficicncies by 10%. The big question remains, however, if the device enables me to close for more business. I cannot answer to that point...yet.

Jim Sterne
Guru
Member
Picture of Jim Sterne

Posted 11-Mar-2005 05:34 PM
I have an old (three years) T-Series notbook from Sony. I only field a handful of phone calls a day and the rest of my life is email. This 3 pound computer is my only machine. I take it everywhere. Good speed, good service and wireless bult in. I'm a happy camper.

Jim Sterne
Target Marketing www.targeting.com

Emetrics Summit
Web Analytics Conference
www.emetrics.org

Graham Hill
Guru
Member

Posted 14-Mar-2005 12:32 AM
Gwynne

Not quite 100% 'on-discussion' however... take a look at the 11th March edition of The Economist. It has a number of articles on how mobile telephones are being used to enable market transactions, particularly in less well-developed countries.

It shows how widely available (but not widely affordable) technology is being cleverly adapted to make market transactions more efficient and effective.

There is so much more that we can do better by understanding the dynamics of how we transact, by simplifying how we do it and by using the leanest technology available to enable it. So many gadgets are just an alternative to being simply better at what we do. The articles are an interesting antidote to 'gadget-fever'.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant

Mike Smoot
Member

Posted 15-Mar-2005 10:23 AM
Graham Hill makes a valid point... the latest gee-whiz electronic gizmo might not be the best way to add oomph to your salesforce... Especially if one describes sales "oomph" as closing sales revenue.

In fact, using something as "dull" as a 2-year old cell phone or an old, monochrome Palm device... in new ways... might be a much more cost effective way to get new, improved sales results.

Does a salesperson really need to be "connected" all the time to be effective? Or is it possible that, like the "Soldier of Tomorrow" who is hung with the latest technology, he/she is so busy trying to use the latest user interface or gadget that they fail to see the enemy about to shoot them (or their deal) between the eyes?

What about a simple but effective world where a salesperson could spend less than 2 minutes recording the most important and salient details about a sales call... using a simple cell phone... and then be off to the next sales call. Meanwhile, management could be instantly appraised of what's really going on (that'd be new for many managers) and they could chew up much less of the salespersons' time in "update meetings".... And, interesting, it could provide new objective, timely, accurate data to really understand the sales processes in use.... both the good and the bad ones... As the basis for building a model based on the good processes.

Simple can be better... It isn't what you have so much as what you do with it.

Mike Smoot
msmoot@pocketrack.com

Mike Smoot
PockeTrack Systems
469-361-1269