Christian Wilson has more than 20 years’ experience in the sales world, the last seven of which have been in digital advertising sales.
Customer relations management tools have changed greatly with technology in the last 20 years, he noted. When Wilson first started making sales calls, he used the telephone, pressing numbers dialed off lead cards that were nothing more than cards printed out with people’s name, address and phone number on them. Then he moved into a professional company that paid for a service called Tele-Magic that would allow the computer to know whom he dialed. It then let him collect all the client’s information in a database and, with one click of the mouse back in 1995, allowed him to create a piece that would be mailed out to the client.
Flash forward 18 years and Wilson is working with many different CRM tools. For the past five years some of these have been Act, Salesforce, Sugar CRM, Cam Card Business Card Reader software and Goldmine. Not much of a fan of Apple over the years, Wilson’s first computer was an Apple II Plus, but since then, he has been a PC guy all the way. He still has an Android phone. Then Wilson purchased his wife an iPad for Christmas.
He thought it would be nothing more than a glorified toy. Then he started using it for work one night just to see if there was any CRM technology on it. He chose one app that was simple to use and simple to get started on for the next day. He found it unbelievably simple, able to put into practice all the things he had learned. All the CRM tools he had used in the last 20 years were on this device. He has used an iPad every day since.
Wilson has also used a number of accounting software tools since starting his business four years ago. QuickBooks, Quicken, Excel spreadsheets and now the digital world accept payments. He keeps track of personal finances with Mint and banks with Chase online. The coolest software Wilson says he has found for tracking business expenses and invoicing has got to be Xero.
Wilson has found that it is very simple to reach out to these companies whose technology he is using. He reaches out to them on Facebook and via phone. He does this not to just thank them for being great companies, but to see if he can “sharpen my business sword” through them.
By asking each of the companies to allow software components to work together or to get components to work in certain ways, Wilson has found it could make his life easier.
He said that every company is not going to be willing to do this. He said to reach out once per week to companies providing your sales-related technology and asking them to sharpen your sword for you is a logical step. This idea 10 years ago would simply not have been done because it would have gotten you nowhere, Wilson said. No company took “customer complaints,” or more appropriately “customer suggestions,” very seriously, he noted.
But today, in an ever-changing marketplace, more companies are growing out of efficiency. Great ideas are making our world fantastically simple, Wilson said.
With everyone walking around with a mobile computer in their pocket, Wilson said it is worth considering on a monthly, if not weekly, basis for each and every salesperson, no matter what their status in any organization, to reach out to technology companies. Wilson said by going to these firms with questions and suggestions it can help sharpen the individual’s business sword.
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