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SALES APPLICATIONS
Applications for the mobile sales force
By Mel Yarbrough
Sales success is based on your team's skills and drive. The team needs to be productive to be able to close the big deals you're counting on. As the vice president of enterprise sales for a leading handheld software publisher, I consult with companies looking for the best professional advantages available via handheld technology. There are an infinite number of solutions, but only a handful that provide the best advantages. The key is to find the best applications and accessories that will fit best with your company's experience and expectations.
Identifying the needs
There are plenty of ways to customize a Palm handheld with individual applications, but across the board there are three basic needs for the sales person in the field or on the phone: contact management, remote inventory query, and presentation.
What follows are the best of breed applications, according to the research done by my company, in the categories of software most valued by sales professionals.
Contact management
The priority for anyone in sales is to know whom you are talking to, will be talking to, or should be talking to. It's crucial for sales. Having all your client information downloaded on your device makes you look prepared, gives you more opportunity to customize your message, and enhances your flexibility and responsiveness.
Intellisync
Right now, I think the best application for contact management is Intellisync by Puma Technology at http://www.intellisync.com. In one easy step, Intellisync automatically synchronizes your calendar, email, contacts, and tasks with the personal information management, contact management, and groupware applications. With its patented DSX (Data Synchronization Extensions) Technology engine, Intellisync lets you simultaneously synchronize handheld organizer data with multiple PC applications like Microsoft Outlook and Schedule+, Lotus Notes and Organizer, Novell GroupWise, ACT!, GoldMine (probably the most popular and flexible client information database program), and many more. Intellisync is extremely comprehensive and there's a lot of value-added.
Sales Warrior
If Intellisync is too high-end for your needs, you should look into Sales Warrior at http://www.iambic.com/pilot/saleswarrior/. This great application lets you dramatically leverage your device to track your sales opportunities, leads, referral sources, actual sales, sale item costs, products and their part numbers, and commissions. It lets you stay on top of the most crucial information you need to get the job done. It's pictured in Figure A.
FIGURE A
Sales Warrior has easy-to-use views where you can record your sales data.
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