Wireless I.Q. Weblog

5 Tips to Help You Become More Efficient and Productive

As originally posted on ActiveRain:

There is a reason real estate agents are among our largest demographic of clients. You will hardly ever find a real estate agent in one place all of the time. The best in the industry are always on the go, doing what they can to get more listings and to close more sales. These are the agents that are making the money, not settling for average. Most of these agents are well versed in using tools and techniques to help them stay on top of their game by having a high level of efficiency and productivity. At Wireless I.Q., we coach current and aspiring top producers and develop an “action plan” to use technology to achieve goals.

I have compiled a list of 5 tips to increase your efficiency and productivity in 2009:

1. Adopt a new technology and openly look for ways to utilize it to your advantage.

I give a free presentation at real estate company sales team meetings. At the beginning of the presentation, I ask for a show of hands from smartphone users. During one presentation, I was shocked to see that out of over thirty agents there were only three or four hands raised . The week after the presentation, I received calls from a dozen of those agents looking to make the jump to a smart phone. Try to overcome whatever is holding you back from adopting a new technology and approach it with an open mind.

2. Better Manage Client Relationships

What makes a good salesperson? I have always thought of myself as a successful salesperson because I understand who my client is, exactly what they are looking for, and use techniques to help me position my services to their individual needs. If you are asking the right questions, or “power questions” as they are sometimes referred to, you are quickly gathering all of the necessary information needed to help you find the right listings to show your clients. A long sales process can be very stressful for both parties, especially if your client seems to be unhappy with any listing you show them. Maybe they are being difficult. Maybe a better relationship needs to be built.

When I meet a new client, I always add them into my phone’s address book. In my BlackBerry, there are many different fields of information that can be entered. I fill in as many fields as possible, especially the birthday field. Then in the notes section, I write as much as I can about our conversation when I asked them “power questions.” I now have all the information I need to position our services to fit their individual needs.

A few good books to read if you want to improve in this area:

• Spin Selling
• Getting Past No
• Sales for Dummies

3. Showcase Your Property Listings

Find a new way to communicate new listings and changes in listings to potential buyers. If you are reading this on ActiveRain, you have already taken the first step. Social Networking has become a very effective way to market products and services. In the United States alone, there are over 36 million Facebook users. As time progresses, many of the people on Facebook will become first time home buyers. You can setup a Facebook page to help scoop up some of these people and make them your clients. Businesses can now setup their own page with loads of information for Facebook users to view. A few other sites worth checking out are MySpace and LinkedIn.

Another great way to communicate to your clients is to setup a blog or an email distribution list. You can tell your new and existing clients that they can check out your blog for new listings or price drops. If you start an email list, you can send out a weekly newsletter that showcases one particular property. Use your cell phone to take pictures or video of a property and post it on your blog or email it to your clients. If you choose the email newsletter, make sure to tell your clients that you will not share their email address and use the bcc option to hide their email from others.

4. Remain Focused on Your Goals

It is hard to juggle all of the aspects of your job. This is especially true when your family or personal life come into the mix. I use a few techniques to keep up with everything that needs to be done.

First I use my calendar to store every event in my life. I enter deadlines, business trips, meetings, and other events into my BlackBerry or into Microsoft Outlook and set reminders to give me enough time to remember everything I need to do for that particular event. You can change the length of time your reminder goes off in relation to the event. If I have a meeting, I will set it to give myself enough time to get to the meeting. If it is a deadline, I give myself enough time to complete the project, and so on. I even put entries into my calendar when bills are due.

In conjunction with my calendar, I use a task list to mark my progress on my to do list. By using the tasks on my phone, I can set priority and the status of the task on hand. I also use a whiteboard in my home office to give me a visual reminder of tasks that need to be taken care of, calls to be made, and if I am waiting on anything needed to complete my task.

5. Save Time Where You Can

This is usually the most complicated step for our clients. We sit down and brainstorm on ways to save time on daily tasks. One of the most frequent dilemmas is answering an entire day of emails after work. Even with a mobile email device, I see many clients that spend an hour or more responding to emails on their computer at the end of the night because they only read the emails coming in throughout the day. Try to answer an email when waiting in line for coffee, while on a smoke break, or as you scarf down lunch. If you can respond to a few at a time throughout the day, you will have more free time to work on other things at the end of the day.

Another popular solution is setting up wireless synchronization for your smartphone. Many BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Windows Mobile, and iPhone users get home, power up their computer, and plug in their phone to sync with their computer. We help setup a lot of real estate agents for wireless sync. Now when you enter an appointment into your phone, it automatically goes into your computer without having to do anything. The same works vice-versa and for contacts as well. This could save you 15 minutes per day. It can also help if you have someone that helps schedule appointments. When you enter something into your phone, they would immediately be able to see that change and could reduce scheduling conflicts.

You may already be doing some of these tricks. If you are, you are one step ahead of the game. I am always looking for different solutions to help in these areas. If you have any tips or tricks that work for you, leave a comment below.

For more information on how you can improve your efficiency and productivity, feel free to email me or call the number listed in my profile.

AT&T’s Systems Are Running Slow…On Their Busiest Day of the Year

You think they would be a little better prepared for this.

From my live blog:

9:29: Just saw a copy of an email about the system issues stating:

“Current Issues and Workarounds

These are the issues that are currently being worked. We do not have solutions for some of the systematic issues just yet. As many workarounds as are available are provided below.

Issues upgrading a FT line (CARE only):

Work around to get customer out the door: split line off of the FT, make individual and then put back on the FT account.

Tethering for Unbrick is slow or erroring (telegence and care)

Send customer home to tether. Reps will still be comped.

Cannot add a line to an existing FT account (CARE only):

New line Port-in Failures:

The vast majority of our port failures have been because the rep is not asking for the Pin/Password. This field MUST be populated if the customer has a pin/passcode on their account.

Cannot sell out the 16GB white device (69115)- not available for sale (care and telegence) on both new line (port) and upgrade:

Not showing as a 3G device.

The CSS for upgrades in CARE markets is not printing the Upgrade Fee for ANY phone sales. iPhone and non-iPhone.

Rep must be sure to cover the fee with the customer. Fix is not until Tuesday.

Feature Conflict with Existing FT Messaging”

I didn’t get the second page, so if anybody wants to fill that in, email me.

Picture after the jump.

Continue reading AT&T’s Systems Are Running Slow…On Their Busiest Day of the Year…

My Journey For an iPhone Begins…

It’s 5:30 and my journey begins for an iPhone. Although I am not as hardcore as these people, I am pretty excited to get my wife and her sister an iPhone when it releases today. Having a four year old daughter, I am not able to wait in line overnight to get my hands on one. Daycare does not open until 6:30, so this is as early as I could get started. Our daughter is not going to be happy when I wake her up this early. Heck, I am not happy to wake up this early. I will keep you updated as I arrive to the AT&T store (which I actually worked at for three years). I can’t wait to see the look on all the Apple fanboys when I show up blogging on my PC…

7:00: Daycare was a few minutes late opening but traffic was not too bad. I am number 59 in line. It just so happens that my spot has a bench to sit on. They won’t tell us how many are in stock. I got a free bottle of water. I wonder what happens if I have to go to the bathroom. I’ll take it easy on the water. Pictures below.

I just saw a person that was waiting in line last year for the iPhone and the Ms. Debbie Heroman, the lady that did our flowers.

7:22: The guy in the number 61 spot bought a first-gen iPhone two weeks ago and now has to wait in line to exchange it for the 3G version. What rock was he hiding under?

8:00: The doors are finally open. I ran to Starbucks to use the bathroom while someone held my spot in line. I talked to the first people in line and they said they got here about 11:30 last night. I also got a glimpse of the new phone. Pretty nice looking. The line is moving fast.

8:30: Pretty much at a standstill. I’m sure activating in store this year is going to make the wait a little longer. I’ve made a few business contacts while waiting in line.

8:40: Someone just came outside and said there was a “small glitch” in the system. Great.

8:44: I’m starting to hear a lot of cell phone conversations saying “I’m gonna be a little late for work.”

8:49: Some guy just shouted “Does anybody want to buy a BlackBerry Curve?!” My battery is about to die on my laptop. I’ll be back when I plug it back in.

9:29: Just saw a copy of an email about the system issues stating:

Continue reading My Journey For an iPhone Begins……

Tips For Traveling Internationally With AT&T

Whether you travel to foreign countries for business purposes or just plan on vacationing, there are steps you can take to ensure you do not return to the country with an enormous cell phone bill.
Here is a handy guide if you are an AT&T mobility subscriber and plan to travel to international destinations. There are many things to consider before leaving the United States with your AT&T phone:

Contact us if you have any questions regarding international traveling or anything else pertaining to wireless.

Ben
ben@wirelessiqllc.com
www.wirelessiqllc.com

Continue reading Tips For Traveling Internationally With AT&T…

WWDC 2008: Steve Jobs announces… 3G iPhone

It is finally official, Apple CEO Steve Jobs just announced a 3G version of the iPhone.

3G, Built-in GPS, 5 hours of talk time on 3G, 8GB for $199, 16GB for $299

Launching July 11th. Read more for other announcements from Apple.

You can watch the entire keynote here.

Thanks Engadget.

Contact us if you want to know how these announcements can help your business.

Ben

ben@wirelessiqllc.com
www.wirelessiqllc.com

Other things announced today:

Continue reading WWDC 2008: Steve Jobs announces… 3G iPhone…

iPhone 2.0 software update coming soon

[Update 6/9/2008 - iPhone software update pushed back to "early July," probably to coincide with the 3G iPhone release]

[Update 6/11/2008 – (via Engadget) The software update may come earlier than expected.  Apple’s Australian website is showing that the App Store will be available on June 27th)

Back in March, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced a software update that will help the iPhone evolve and better position itself in the business segment and against other smart phones. With rumors circulating about a 3G iPhone release, early adopters of Apple’s wireless device can get the software upgrade for free and take advantage of true business applications, without having to upgrade their device. These applications include access to Microsoft Exchange’s wireless sync capabilities, increased control by IT administrators, and third party application support. Jobs anticipates that this software update will be released before the end of June, probably around the one year anniversary of the iPhone launch date. We will have a video review when the update is released. Read on for more details about the update.

Continue reading iPhone 2.0 software update coming soon…