As you know, I’m a salesman. Sometimes, I’m also a businessman, a bill collector, a consultant, but I’m a salesman first, last and always. I got an email today that made me reflect on how my tools have changed over the years.
30-ish years ago I used a pocket calendar. If I lost it, I lost my life. I always had a pen so that I could write in my calendar. I also always had dimes so that I could use a pay phone to make a call. Now I use Google calendar and my cell phone. No dimes. No pen. If I lose my phone, I can access my calendar from any smart phone, tablet or computer with internet access.
30-ish years ago, my car was essential. All selling was face to face. I closed deals, wrote the order, got the signature (not usually with my calendar pen) and got the deposit. I got there in my car. Remember toll receipts? Now, I have an EZ Pass.
How about postage stamps? I always had a book of stamps and #10 and #6 3/4 envelopes and my check book. Dinosaurs! I don’t go to the bank any more, mostly because I don’t take checks. PayPal does it for me.
Gmail, Google Search, Google Reader, LinkedIn, this blog, Twitter, Hootsuite, Hubspot are all right at my fingertips and are used every day.
Last summer, Carole Mahoney wrote a review of Postwire, a great tool for sharing specific content with specific people.
This is the email that prompted this post.
Hi Rick,
Just wanted to say thanks again for the great blog post you wrote about YouCanBook.Me
We’ve linked to it from our own post here: http://youcanbook.me/blog
You’ll see there we’ve decided to offer a free 6 month upgrade to anyone joining us from Tungle. This of course includes you – I’ve just upgraded your account to our Premium level. This gives you some extra features. (Don’t worry if you don’t want to continue at this level when this upgrade expires – your account will fall back gracefully to our free version).
As ever, please do let us know if there’s anything we can do to keep the system working the way you need.
Regards,
Keith Harris
Truth be told, I’ve been using YouCanBook.Me for a month, now and I can’t imagine how they could make it better, but I’ll check out the premium version and let you know (or you could check it our for yourself!)
One last thing. I need someone to write a product review for Grow by Factor Lab. You should
- know SalesForce.com
- work with clients that have salespeople (not just a salesperson)
- be active in social media
Contact me if you’d like an introduction to the founder and/or write the review.
Thanks in advance!
RainMakers & Sales Rock Stars 