Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Phoenix Technology Briefing

Thanks to everyone who attended our Sales Technology Briefing in Phoenix (held in conjunction with our Becoming a Top Producer seminar.) Here is a list of the products, services and websites that we reviewed during our event:

Results Seminars
www.closemoresales.com
This is our official site that tells you where we are going with our events and what's happening in our group. Check it out!

Selling Power Magazine
www.sellingpower.com
Selling Power is THE magazine for sales professionals. If you don't subscribe to this magazine then you are missing out on a major tool of the selling industry.

Bankrate.com
www.bankrate.com
Everyone who deals in financing should bookmark this site! What is happening on a daily basis in interest rates is kept up to date for you by Bankrate.com.

Send Out Cards
www.sendoutcards.com
This is a cool site dedicated to helping you stay in touch with your clients. Pick the cards that you want to send and this group lets you customize the greeting and even sends it for you. This is a truly automated BUT personal process. You have to see it to believe it.

Stuffbak.com
www.stuffbak.com
This was our other featured site. Stuffbak makes a label product that you can attach to all of your personal effects (keys, mobile phones, PDAs etc.) This is a no brainer. Buy these and put them on everything before you lose it and some nice person keeps it because they don't know who the heck you are!

Super Hero Cards (Bonus Site)
www.superherocards.com
This is the site that takes a picture of you and turns it into a Super Hero "playing card." This is definitely for the "fun" type of sales person who is looking to distinguish themselves from their competition.

Google
www.google.com
Have you heard of this company? Duh. Of course you have... but are you using: Google Alerts?Google Desktop? Google News? Google Gmail? Google Earth? Google Calendar? Remember, it's all FREE and all capable of assisting you be more efficient.

Anchor Free
www.anchorfree.com
This is the website that lists different locations in the Phoenix area (and around the country) that offer FREE access to Wi-Fi.

Broadband Access:
Verizon
www.verizonwireless.com
Sprint/Nextel
www.sprint.com
TMobile
www.t-mobile.com

Business Card Scanning Product
www.cardscan.com
This is the cool business card scanning product that can scan cards directly into your Outlook or other contact management software. You can type in 100 calls in 4 hours or scan them in 10 minutes. You pick! Check eBay for the best price on this product.

Start Your Own Blog (Bonus Site)
www.blogger.com
Good for staying in touch with clients and getting your presence on the Internet. Remember - this one is FREE.

Remember... 5 things in 72 hours... just pick one and DO IT!

TK

Monday, October 16, 2006

New Treo 680 - Finally Loses the Antenna!

Palm is about to roll out a new Treo (the 4th new model this year), The Treo 680, that finally loses that annoying stub of an antenna! Check this photo out... it's not cut off at the top - the stub is gone and from an esthetics perspective, I think this phone just elevated to an entirely different level!

Supposedly the 680 will sell for a mere $199... so something must be missing, besides the antenna. You don't cut the price of your new phone by close to 50% unless you cut something else too - at minimum your margin! Maybe the 680 is tasked with creating so much volume that the retail price cut won't make a difference? That's exactly the plan... Palm is cutting costs in its operations to make up for the diminished revenue. Palm plans to use two Chinese manufacturing companies to produce Treo models hoping to negotiate better deals on production costs.

Creating a Treo that targets the consumer market rather than the business market is a smart move too, considering the fact that the business market for smart phones is only 25% of the total non-business market. Palm is relying on the "we'll make it up in volume" strategy.

Lose the stubby antenna and make the body of the phone some cool colors and show teenagers how they can get their email on their phone... WINNING COMBINATION.

Palm needs the boost too since their stock is down more than 30% since April and since it won't take long for Palms original market, hand-held organizers will be totally dead. I don't know of one forward thinking individual who is buying a PDA and a mobile phone. It just doesn't make sense.

I think this phone is a winner and it might be my next purchase - lookout BlackBerry.

TK

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Salt Lake Technology Briefing

Thanks to everyone who attended our Sales Technology Briefing in Salt Lake City (held in conjunction with our Becoming a Top Producer seminar.) Here is a list of the products, services and websites that we reviewed during our event:

Results Seminars
www.closemoresales.com
This is our official site that tells you where we are going with our events and what's happening in our group. Check it out!

Selling Power Magazine
www.sellingpower.com
Selling Power is THE magazine for sales professionals. If you don't subscribe to this magazine then you are missing out on a major tool of the selling industry.

Bankrate.com
www.bankrate.com
Everyone who deals in financing should bookmark this site! What is happening on a daily basis in interest rates is kept up to date for you by Bankrate.com.

Send Out Cards
www.sendoutcards.com
This is a cool site dedicated to helping you stay in touch with your clients. Pick the cards that you want to send and this group lets you customize the greeting and even sends it for you. This is a truly automated BUT personal process. You have to see it to believe it.

Stuffbak.com
www.stuffbak.com
This was our other featured site. Stuffbak makes a label product that you can attach to all of your personal effects (keys, mobile phones, PDAs etc.) This is a no brainer. Buy these and put them on everything before you lose it and some nice person keeps it because they don't know who the heck you are!

Super Hero Cards (Bonus Site)
www.superherocards.com
This is the site that takes a picture of you and turns it into a Super Hero "playing card." This is definitely for the "fun" type of sales person who is looking to distinguish themselves from their competition.

Google
www.google.com
Have you heard of this company? Duh. Of course you have... but are you using: Google Alerts?Google Desktop? Google News? Google Gmail? Google Earth? Google Calendar? Remember, it's all FREE and all capable of assisting you be more efficient.

Anchor Free
www.anchorfree.com
This is the website that lists different locations in Salt Lake and beyond (and around the country) that offer FREE access to Wi-Fi.

Broadband Access:
Verizon www.verizonwireless.com
Sprint/Nextel www.sprint.com
TMobile www.tmobile.com

Business Card Scanning Product
www.cardscan.com
This is the cool business card scanning product that can scan cards directly into your Outlook or other contact management software. You can type in 100 calls in 4 hours or scan them in 10 minutes. You pick! Check eBay for the best price on this product.

Start Your Own Blog (Bonus Site)
www.blogger.com
Good for staying in touch with clients and getting your presence on the Internet. Remember - this one is FREE.

Remember... 5 things in 72 hours... just pick one and DO IT!

TK

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Mobile Phone Maniacs

When is the last time you saw and heard someone talking on their mobile phone that was being rude? Yesterday? Today? A minute ago?

Rudeness is on the the rise according to a survey by the Pew Research Center... 86% of respondents have said that they are occasionally irritated by other people conducting "loud and annoying" mobile phone conversations. This survey, and a 2004 survey done by Sprint, imply that those saying they see and hear rude mobile phone talkers don't believe they themselves are rude when they use their own mobile phones.

Hmmm. Doesn't seem to make sense. Obviously we mobile phone users think we're courteous when we're talking on the phone and most everyone else is rude and disruptive.

Where's the truth?

The truth is we all have a little bit of a mobile phone maniac in us. To purge the maniac in you, stop doing these three things immediately.

1. Stop making calls, and only take important calls, on your mobile phone when you are in a restaurant, using public transportation or in a non-private office setting.

Too many times when we're waiting for someone to join us for lunch or dinner we grab our phone and call someone, anyone. Just give us something to do instead of making us wait, alone, in a restaurant, alone. Try this instead of making a phone call - look at the menu. Ask for crayons if you have to but give the phone and everyone around you a break.

2. Stop having private phone calls in public settings. No one cares about your personal business, but that doesn't imply they want to hear it. Walking through the mall talking about inappropriate topics isn't okay just because no one knows who you are in the mall.

3. Stop using "I'm multi-tasking" as an excuse for being rude when interacting with a human being and technology at the same time. Here's a simple rule of thumb - the human comes first! Multi-tasking when you are working alone may be a good thing... but the topic is debatable. There is no debate when you are talking with someone face to face and you suddenly just grab your phone and start talking to the person one the other end of the phone. That's called being rude.

Try these three things. The noise level in the universe will decline greatly and you can purge yourself of some poor behavior at the same time!

TK