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08.16.06
Sales And Technology - The Vital Connection
 By
Frank Furness
What are you doing today that is better and different to your competitors? How do you find and attract new clients?
If you are not doing anything that differentiates you from the competition, you could be losing out on a huge amount of potential business.
One of the easiest methods to differentiate your practice/organisation is to embrace technology. It is easy and can save you time, money and headaches. Let's take a look at the latest technology and what it can do for you:
Digital Recorders - are now tiny and can store up to 44 hours of professional recording. Once you have completed a meeting with a client, dictate the notes into the recorder connect it to your computer and download the sound file. This can then be used as a dictating machine and the information typed or prior to your next meeting with this client, just take a listen to the recording on your computer. I have also used the digital recorder to record client testimonials and put these on my website, record interviews with business leaders on leadership and entrepreneurship and shared these with my existing clients and recorded my new book for transcription.
Voice Recognition - I first used voice recognition software 5 years ago and with my accent, I would dictate in English and it would transcribe in gobbledygook. Now with the latest recognition (Dragon 8 Professional) I can put on my headset, speak at a fast pace and it will type automatically into Microsoft word at about 95% accuracy. The biggest secret with voice recognition is that you need to take some tome to train the software to your accent and jargon. You can even use it to answer your email.
Best of all, you can link your digital recorder with the voice recognition. Imagine dictating into your digital recorder, linking to your computer and then just sitting back watching as the recorder downloads the sound files. This automatically links with the voice recognition, opens it and transcribes into word. How much time and money could you save (don't let your secretary read this)? You now have the time for that extra game of golf (called marketing).
Card scanners - We all need to be constantly attending networking meetings to meet new potential clients. We normally return with a mountain of business cards that we hope to input into the database but never get around to doing. The latest Cardscanners are tiny and can scan with 100% accuracy and then export to outlook or whatever database you use. The secret with networking is to get in touch with these new contacts as soon as possible. Take a look at http://www.businesscardscanner.co.uk/
Ezines - Develop a 10 touch plan for all your existing clients (making contact at least 10 times a year). You can email, phone them, meet face to face or the easiest way is to have a newsletter. Whether it is a hard copy or online newsletter, this is a great way to keep in touch. I use www.constantcontact.com to produce my online newsletter. It comes with templates and is simple enough for anyone to use. It also gives me exact statistics on who opens the mail, unsubscribes (no more free lunches for them) the click through rate to my website and plenty more.
Marketing with Articles - The easiest and most inexpensive method to get, expose and build your brand is by marketing with articles. We're living in the information age and everyone is looking for free information on the internet. How much free information are you putting on your website to attract potential clients (you must encourage them to sign up for your Ezine when they download the information). You can also submit these articles to article directories (Contact me at frank@frankfurness.com for information on software programmes that can automate this for you). When people download them and put these onto their sites, this now creates links back to your website which in turn ranks higher on the search engines.
About the Author:
Frank Furness CSP CFP is an International Speaker and Trainer specialising in Sales & Technology. To book Frank for your next conference or training, find out more about his sales and technology seminars or to sign up for his free newsletter, please email frank@frankfurness.com
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