Voyager Mobile

I live in a town where mining is impacting the hills by the freeway. However, I am sure that most people drive by everyday and never notice how the hillside is changing. It is the same for many of us who drive around our sales territory and don’t notice how the business landscape is changing. We can take valuable lessons from mining companies who invest in mineral recovery. These companies will test the soils and sample areas that match the best locations for mineral recovery. If an area doesn’t test well enough, they won’t dig in that area. The profitable companies use science and technology to determine the best places to produce the best return on their investment. Perhaps these companies take their time because of the massive investment it takes to mine. Once miners are in an area, they want to maximize the best return on the investment.

The old days of Selling Wastes Time and Energy

In my early days of selling, I can remember when my sales manager sent me out to canvas an area for new business. My sales manager didn’t invest time with research or testing. I believe all that he did was look at a street map and tell me where to go. Looking back at this, I can only think that he didn’t value me as a resource. Maybe, I was an expendable resource. If my sales manager had placed me and my time at a higher value, he wouldn’t have sent me out to the places he did. I say this because the results of my efforts were sometimes less than expected. It was a pure numbers game and I didn’t know any better.

I hope you aren’t using a map to pinpoint where you are going to canvas for new business. Today, there are new ways of finding and testing the best areas to develop good customers and prospects. The massive amount of business data and social networking is making researching businesses much easier. I wish this information was around when I was selling, it would have made selling much easier. Unfortunately, unless you are aware of how to use technology tools, find and use online business information power selling tools, you might overlook how you can improve your results with a little data and research.

Use Trigger Events to Know What and Who You are Looking For

Every business has events that create change and opportunity. In many cases these trigger events indicate opportunity. An example of a trigger event is change, change in a business. These events are often posted and announced online. Fortunately, there are many tools you can use to identify these trigger events and the businesses involved with them. Here are a few ideas that could be trigger events for your business.

o Business expansion, closing and changes in structure or competition.
o Celebrations, anniversaries and retirement.
o Promotions, layoffs and employment searches.

There are many other ways that will impact or trigger opportunity. One of my favorite tools for finding new prospects is Zoom info. If you have tried Zoom info, you know it is a web searching tool that allows you to search for contacts and companies. What I like about the service is how it delivers great information on potential prospects and customers. From this information, you can get a clearer picture of the contact because the information is often from them and about them. When the web search information results are recent, it may indicate a trigger event that identifies a new prospect. The secret to success is to know what to search for.

The first thing to do is determine what you are looking for and what your trigger events are. For example, if you are selling a telephone service, any company that is moving or expanding is a prospect. However, if you don’t know what you are looking for, it won’t matter what or where you search. I know this might seem elementary. However, I know of many businesses and salespeople that don’t start with a clear idea of the business profile they want to find and the responsibilities of that person.

The key to successful mining for business is to know the trigger events of your business prospects and know how to mine for them using technology and data. Zoom info is one of the tools you can use to help you in this effort.

By: Steve Martinez

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With the recent upsurge of technology, many companies are employing these technologies in many of their operations including sales, record keeping and as far as customer service. Advertising and publicity are now done more effectively than ever, reaching more customers. Another big area that has also evolved with technology is customer service.

Organizations are now employing sophisticated methods to get feedback from customers and give the appropriate response. Some organizations have however gone too far in their bid to employ these sophistications in delivering customer service to their clients. Customer service is now run entirely by automated systems instead of human beings.

Google has reportedly been running most of its services by automated systems. Automated systems provide help to customers; disseminate information to customers and almost everything. Google Health is being run by an automated system, but offers no live help for the system. It means that sick people using this facility only get to interact with a piece of software and not a human.

The fundamental flaw here is that, software is designed to accept a predictable input and produce a predictable output. Human behavior is however unpredictable. If for instance, the health system is designed to prescribe malaria drugs for a patient reporting with a headache and fever. What happens if a patient walks in with a headache but no fever? Provisions could be made for such cases, but there will always be an element of unpredictability at play. A customer service system that suggests solutions may be ineffective when the user encounters a new problem that was not factored in the design of the system.

In any information system that will be used by people, it is very crucial to offer human help to customers, though it may come at a higher cost. Google must be able to offer human help for its facilities as humans are in a better position to handle unpredictable situations than software and hardware.

By: Andy Fitzpatrick

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