Four Rules for Using Technology to Sell

Sales today is a high tech job, involving a wide variety of hardware, software and services, all technology that's intended to help you sell. However, sales technology can become a real productivity drain, taking more effort than it's worth, unless you follow these four key rules:

• Rule #1: Only learn technology that helps you sell. Today's business world is drowning in information and gadgetry. Much of it is distracting and useless, and makes you less productive. It takes mental energy and time to learn a new technology, so if it's not going to help you sell, don't make it part of your working life. Be especially suspicious of any technology that came from the world of entertainment. Most of that stuff (including social networking) can be a huge waste of time.
• Rule #2: Learn the technology customers want you to have. While you might think a certain technology will make you more productive, your customers might have a very different idea of what would make it easier for you to sell them. For instance, do they want VOIP or IM to reduce the cost of customer support calls? Do they want you to use email or often? Or would they prefer to have you call and leave voice-mails? In other words, it's all about the customer, not about you.
• Rule #3: Don't put your eggs into one basket. Some reps use only a CRM system while others only keep contact information on a cell phone. They're both being stupid. If you depend upon your employer's CRM system, you lose you contacts if you lose your job. And if you depend upon your smartphone, you might you lose your contacts if you lose your phone. Make sure that you keep duplicate contact information at your firm and somewhere that you control, like your personal phone.
• Rule #4: Never bite off more than you can chew. If you try to learn a bunch of new tools at once, it will take more time than if you space it out. If you get new technology or new gadgetry, figure out what's likely to be most useful and learn that feature first. Set up a gradual schedule where you learn about other elements, if you think they'll actually be useful. And if you really DO have to learn a lot of new tech at once, schedule some quality time you'll need to learn it well.

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