When you’re finally able to get it, that is. It’ll be a few more weeks until this smartphone will start appearing in North American stores.

A few things will make this smartphone an interesting choice for sales professionals and small business owners.

First off, the Blackberry Bold is the first Blackberry to support the high-speed 3G network which will make accessing the internet from your mobile phone faster than before.

Then, there’s a brand new screen with twice the resolution of current Blackberry devices and identical (resolution, not size) to the iPhone. Screen height is identical to the Blackberry Curve you may own or have seen, but slightly wider. Overall, it’s bright and vibrant - a huge step forward. 

Another feature that could be important for mobile professionals is that the Blackberry Bold supports HTML email. That means that you can finally read newsletters or other correspondence that include images and formatting. The new Blackberry also comes with DocumentsToGo loaded, a tool that lets you edit Microsoft Office files on your smartphone.

Additional features include addition built-in GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, more memory and a new 2 megapixel camera you can also use as a business tool.

The Blackberry Bold offers the well-known keyboard for data-entry and I love it since I’ve never been able to get anywhere close to the Blackberry typing speed and accuracy on an iPhone. If you are a touchscreen fan, however, it might be good to know that Blackberry also announced the Thunder, which comes with that feature and is said to become available later this year.

Blackberry claims the Bold will offer up to 5 hour talk time and 13 days stand-by, but I’d take that with a grain of salt - especially if you plan on making extensive use of web-browsing  and Wi-Fi features. Specifications show that with 4.48″/114mm in lenght and 4.8oz/136g in weight, the device is slightly larger and heavier than the popular Blackberry Curve but pretty much identical to the iPhone.

So far, the phone has only hit the market in Germany, Chili and Canada and is expected to become available in the US by September 15. In the US, the Blackberry Bold will initially become available through AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon following later.

Like the iPhone, it won’t be cheap - but I feel Blackberry is still the best smartphone for business. For a closer look and more features, check out the Blackberry Bold site.

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Each with a personalized letter - mailed from your home office.

If you’re not careful, you’ll spend more time on printing and mailing than you do on selling.

That’s why we were pleasantly surprised by the announcement that SalesNexus, developers of sales contact management software, will partner with fulfillment house Sales Contacts Inc. (SCI) to take printing, envelop stuffing and mailing out of the hands of salespeople.

Here’s how it works.

SalesNexus’ built-in mailmerge system currently lets you combine your sales contacts with template letters and other documents and print them on your local printer. As an extension of that service, you’ll now have the option to shoot the printing activities right over to SCI. They’ll also make sure the package is mailed and sent to your prospect. Documents are printed in full color - so if you include a logo in your files, it’ll look like it came straight from your company’s executive assistant.

This service is called “Mail It For Me” and there’s a video on the SalesNexus Blog that provides more detail.

I suspect it’ll take a while to get it all set up, especially if you’d like SCI to include pre-printed stock (brochures, your business cards etc) with your packages - but the idea is great. I would certainly expect services like these to be offered more often in combination with sales contact management tools.

There’s no subscription fee for this service - SCI will bill you depending on your fulfillment needs.

We’ve seen other great examples of outsourcing for busy sales professionals already done by Landslide (not just printing and mailing, but also data entry) through their included VIP service. If you click the banner on top of this page, you can sign up for a free demo of their service. It’s very powerful stuff.

Full disclosure: I provide consulting to Landslide and Landslide is a sponsor of this blog. 

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PhoneTag provides a simply yet useful service. It takes the voice mails you receive from one or multiple phone lines, transcribes your messages to text and forwards them as an email or as a text message to your smartphone.

If you choose email, the original voicemail is attached as an MP3 file. It’s cool stuff.

Now, I think I know what’s on your mind.

You’re asking “Will it accurately transcribe my messages?”

Am I right?

From what we’ve been able to experience, the answer is a resounding yes. We were very impressed. Messages came through without a hitch - and PhoneTag marks transcribed words of which it is not sure with a question mark. 

PhoneTag does its magic on unanswered messages that are forwarded to the service. A one time setup is all it takes to make sure your incoming and unanswered calls skip your voice mailbox and are forwarded to your personal PhoneTag mailbox instead. Once that’s done, you’re off to the races.

PhoneTag claims integration with 95% of all mobile, work and home voice mail systems. I tested their service with T-Mobile and setup was indeed a snap. 

So, other than the obvious coolness factor - here are 7 reasons why PhoneTag solves a real business problem

You may remember my rant about the problems I had with voice mail earlier this year. And using PhoneTag fixes many of the issues I described in that post.

1. I get transcribed voice mail messages in my inbox. I can read or listen to them in any order I want. I can jump back and forth between messages and I’m no longer stuck to the order they were received.
    
2. I’m getting a copy of the message in audio format as an attachment. If you had any concerns about transcription quality, don’t. The original spoken message is attached for your convenience.
    
3. I no longer have to interrupt my “flow” to check messages - much of my activity during the day day is centered around email. Whether I’m at the office, at home or on the road, it’s often much easier and convenient for me to connect that way. Thanks to PhoneTag, the tedious task of checking multiple mailboxes has now been eliminated.
    
4. I can now search my voice mails. Folks, this is huge for me - no more disconnect between email, voice mail and archive. All messages in one place and if you use Google Mail as your email system, you’ll have world-class search capabilities available for all messages you received.
    
5. I can forward messages - ever tried forwarding a message you received on your cell phone to the office line of a colleague or to your team? Right, that doesn’t work. But now it’s as easy as forwarding an email. 
    
6. I now have everything in writing, including return phone numbers. Man, this is handy. When I’m out and about and get a message from PhoneTag on my Blackberry, I can simple scroll down the message, select the return number and place a call. Without having to jot down a single thing. 
    
7. I can now have visual voice mail on my Blackberry. With an add-on service called SimulSays I can now visualize my mailbox on my handheld just like iPhone users can. I can browse through messages, skip back and forth - and all of this regardless of time the message was received.  Simulsays is free when you’re a PhoneTag user. It’ll cost you $5 a month otherwise. If you’re not sold on the voice to text element, I can see SimulSays by itself being a powerful tool as well.

This is a great service and one that was long, long overdue for busy, mobile professionals.

What’s not to like? Well, there’s only one thing. I think it’s expensive.

Unlimited messages for $30, $10 for 40 messages - and how useful is that 2nd option, really? - and a pay as you play plan for 35 cents a message.

It’s a very strong and tempting offering - at this point, however, I’m balking at yet another $30 on telecom related charges. Don’t let that stop you, though. I do believe that PhoneTag is one of better sales tools that have hit the market lately.

As an alternative, there’s SpinVox that provides a similar service but has less flexibility in choosing a plan. 40 messages for $10 is your only option here. CallWave is the third provider of similar services with plans starting at $15 for 40 messages. There are differences between these services and their feature set varies. If you’re in the market for this kind of stuff, I’d recommend getting starting with a trial.

(Free Trial Link)

 Are these services you could use in your sales business?

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Yet, when you find yourself running around without access to the internet, they’re simply more practical than online file storage.

Whatever your reason for using them, one thing is certain. The days of plain, cheap and plastic looking USB sticks can be over. We found 5 unique and colorful alternatives to that all serious, all business USB tool.

Check these out!

1. Oooms, a Dutch Design Studio, came up with this gem displayed on the left. Made of real wood, handpicked and professionally made into a unique product. They’re not cheap ($129 for a 2GB stick) but man, these things are super nice looking.

You can order them online and this page gives you the names and addresses of a select number of retail locations.

2. Not sure if this cheeseburger USB stick would exude the level of professionalism you seek - but it sure is a fun alternative to everything plain. Pricing is $79 for a 1GB stick.

Oh -  if you prefer hot dogs, pizza or even sushi over a burger, you’re in luck. They have those too!

3. “Nailed” is a memory USB stick with a vengeance. When inserted in the USB slot, it looks like there’s a huge nice inch nail jammed through your desktop or laptop. We’d recommend leaving the hammer at home though. Someone might get an idea, you know?

The 2GB model retails for 25 Euro, somewhere around $35. So far, we’ve only seen it online.

4. If you’re like me and grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, this USB stick should put a smile on your face. The MIXA is a USB memory drive in a classic audio cassette tape shell. The cool thing is that the MIXA website lets you design your own custom label for the tape - you can even upload your own pictures.

The MIXA cost $40 - but comes with worldwide shipping and a few extra goodies. Now, go make a MIXA!

5. Last but not least - this is a pretty functional USB stick as well. I use one of these every now and then and it’s actually pretty handy.

Okay, it’s no Rolex but with your presentation files stuck to your wrist, at least you know your USB stick doesn’t end up being crushed by your laptop in your computer bag. At $50 for 4GB of storage, it’s a steal. We found this particular model here.

Enjoy!
 

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• Don’t Lose Those Presentation Files
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• Presentations redux
• How Is Your Ego?
• How to Be Faster on Your Laptop

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If you happen to have your laptop in the right computer bag, that is.

Here’s how the computer screening process works now:

Currently, TSA requires that all passengers traveling with a laptop computer must remove their laptop from their bag and place it in a bin for screening.

Starting monday, the use of 3 special designs will allow you to leave your laptop inside your bag.

In theory, that is - the announcement contains plenty of disclaimer so don’t count your blessings just yet.

I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.

While Butterfly Style, Trifold Style and Sleeve Style have been approved, backpacks and Accordion Style bags have not. Major bag manufacturers have been working with TSA to develop and test new models in order to benefit from this changed policy.

Here’s a link to the announcement on the TSA website. It also provides more detailed requirements for laptop bags. Let’s hope that this indeed makes traveling a bit easier.
 

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• Don’t Lose Those Presentation Files
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• Save your voicemails
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You should read the full post to get a good appreciation for it, but in essence his system is based on awarding points to good, revenue generating activities and creating your own arbitrary, minimally required number of points for the day.

When you meet or exceed that level, you then know you had a good, productive day’s work.

It’s pretty useful stuff for us in sales. It’s hard enough to not wasting your day putting our fires and administrative tasks that don’t make you a bit more successful. Dave’s system can help you stay focused on the activities that matter most.

It seems that Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign came to a similar conclusion. From Obama’s community blog:

Today, we’re proud to roll out an updated points system called the Activity Tracker. The basic idea is the same: the Activity Tracker helps Obama supporters measure the work they’re doing on behalf of the campaign. Whereas before, the points system tried to measure lots of different activities down to a “point value,” the new Activity Tracker simply displays up front exactly what activity users have been engaged in.

So when you make calls, knock on doors, organize or attend a campaign event or raise money for the campaign, you earn points. It helps reward the tasks that are critical for Obama’s run for the White House.

And then, there’s nothing like a bit of visibility of your results, combined with some peer pressure.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, the source of a given user’s points is now visible to everyone in the My.BarackObama community. Before, all a user could see when looking at another person’s dashboard was a total point value. Now, the full extent of the person’s campaign-related activity is available for other activists to see.

It works for millions of sales people and obviously also for a political campaign.

Here’s our post on Dave’s Goal Tracker again. For more information and resources, here’s Dave’s own site.
 

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• The Critical Skill Few Sales People Have
• Keep the Focus On the Buyer (Part 5 In the Series)
• How to Avoid Cold Calling
• Strength and struggle
• Generating curiosity (part 4 in the series)

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In about a month the Office 2.0 Conference will take place in San Francisco.

It’s a fairly unique gathering of innovators and their customers using innovative technology and services for getting things done at the office, at home, and on the go.

We’ll be paying attention to it and I’m sure we’ll find some pretty cool and new tools to introduce to you.

But that’s not the reason for this post.

 I saw in their invitation that if you register for the event and pay the $1,495 fee, you’ll receive full access to the event plus an HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. As the Office 2.0 Conference says it:

Each year, attendees of the Office 2.0 Conference receive a mobile device that is used to support real-time interactions during the event. The device also enables the event’s 100% paper-less organization, making it as green as a conference can be.

Now, I love the thought of going without paper and if there’s anything I can do to help the environment, I’m all for it - but unfortunately, I still use tons of paper in my business life.

It made me wonder. How paperless is your sales life these days? Are proposals still sent out on paper? Or do you send electronic files around? How about your customer files - do you drag them around in folders or did they get scanned?

Does your business use printed and signed contracts? Or do electronic versions with an electronic signature do? How about note taking during a meeting or appointment - paper, laptop or PDA?

Curious minds want to know!

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Through a partnership with a Aircell, they’ll be the first major US airline to offer Wi-Fi on their entire domestic fleet - over 300 aircraft in total. If you fly American Airlines or Virgin, you may have been able to try out on-board Wi-Fi on certain major routes - but Delta is the first to bite the bullet and do a full scale roll-out.

Estimated completion date for Delta’s fleet Wi-Fi upgrade is said to be mid 2009.

Update: Cost of this service is rumored to be $9.95 for flights with a duration of 3 hours or less and $12.95 for cross-country flights. For mobile devices such as the iPhone and frequent flyers, special rate plans are said to be under development. We’ll keep you posted.

I’m sort of mixed on this. It’ll be great to stay connected - but man, I’ll miss that rare opportunity to escape the avalanche of emails during work hours, even only for a little while. 

What say you? 
 

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Typically, web conference calls are the easiest way to do this - so we log on to a service like WebEx or GotoMeeting and let the presenter walk us through his product or service. 

Last week, I sat through one of those sessions for a product we’ll discuss next week. As I followed along, I noticed a continuous flow of email notifications in the bottom-right part of the presenter’s screen. You know, those little popups that Outlook generates to let you know there’s a new message in your inbox.

But not only does it notify you of a new message, it also displays a small part of the message itself. So during a period of about 30 minutes emails about last month sales results, a note from what seemed to be the presenter’s spouse and a few others were partially displayed before my very eyes.

Trust me, I tried ignoring them - but gee, these notifications are hard to miss.

So, here are two quick tips:

1. Before you start sharing your desktop, please close Instant Messaging and Email applications.
2. If you cannot or are unwilling to shut down Email altogether, please learn how to turn notifications off.

If you’re on Outlook, here’s a convenient link to the Outlook blog for more information.

Got stories of your own? Share them in the comments!

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• Listen to Your Customer. Don’t Pre-Judge.
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Many of us in sales are practiced liars. By lying, I mean we tell someone something  we know not to be true with the intention of misleading them. How many times a day do you indulge in such fibbing? And how do you justify it?

Clinton Korver, CEO and founder of DecisionStreet and author of a book called Ethics for the Real World, wrote a manifesto called Tell the Whole Truth. It’s a great reminder of the importance of truth-telling and how it can turn ordinary relationships into extraordinary ones.

We made it available for download - Tell the Whole Truth. It’s a must read for everyone in sales.
 

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For destinations within a few hours distance, this used to be an easy question to answer. But with gas at over $4 a gallon, taking a closer look at the cost of driving may not be a bad idea either.

Even if flying is no option, calculating the cost of your trip may help you be more critical of the deals you decide to pursue and those you don’t.

Here’s a tool that will help you with that.

Built on top of Google Maps, DrivePricing.com allows you to set your departing and arrival locations, your ZIP code (so it can calculate your local price of gas) as well as your car mileage and the type of fuel it uses. When you’re done, it gives you the cost of your trip and plots your journey on a map. 

What a wonderful tool for road warriors. $180 for a trip from Chicago to St Louis? I think I’ll suggest a conference call instead.

Give DrivePricing.com it a try.
 

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• Do Conference Calls Need an Overhaul?
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We reviewed a few here at SalesTeamTools - for instance Remember the Milk and Jott, Drop.io or IWantSandy.

But I suspect that for some of you, your to-do list is often created simply by sending yourself an email as a reminder. Simple but effective if your requirements are modest.

If that’s you, some of these more extensive web applications may be overkill. Instead, you may like the straight forward, no-frill setup of nowdothis.com. You cut and paste your to-do items onto their site and you’ll see the to-do’s appear on your screen one by one. When you’ve completed your task, you click “done” and the next item appears. 

There are no reminders, no sharing, no integration with email or any of the fancier stuff. Heck, there’s not even a registration required. It’s simple. But it works.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

For similar tools, try WhatShallIDoNow or Next.

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First, there’s a PDF with about 200 pretty good customer service quotes. Some old, some new - most of them pretty good reminders of what’s really important when it comes to giving your clients premium service.

In addition, Kevin released his customer service toolkit - a valuable yet free resource if you work with customers directly or manage or own your business. You’ll find plenty of useful ideas and tools you can use on the job.

And while we’re at it - here’s a little plug for Kevin Stirtz’s latest book as well. Its only $10 on Amazon.com but you can download it for free at Kevin’s own website as well. It offers 21 real world customer service lessons. Easy to read - good to keep on your desk for reference and inspiration.

Enjoy!

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We’ve got specific tasks tied to specific contacts to complete. Often subtasks as well. We’ve got internal reports to complete. We’ve got emails to respond to, phone calls to make and return, proposals to write up, quotes to re-work, thank you notes to scribble,strategies and tactics to brainstorm, conference calls to sit in on, administrative support personnel to delegate to and follow-up with…

Getting stressed out just thinking about it?

How do you stay on top of things?
What habits do you follow?
What resources would you recommend?
What best practices have you learned?
What tools do you use?

Comment here or link back to your own blog with suggestions.

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Do you send out email-based invitations that customers or employees can accept or decline? Do you work through an attendant, rather than simply dial in a passcode?

Is this concept broken?

Seems pretty straightforward to me, but here are three services (among many others) that feel this industry is in need of repair. Rondee, Foonz, and Calliflower are three relatively new services that offer a conference call/online service blend.

Rondee offers 100 participants per call, email invitations and tracking, free call recording, recurring call appointments, outlook integration, and participants can see a display of who’s talking at any given moment. All for free.

Foonz gets a little more clever. With its service, when you sign up, you enter those you anticipate conferencing with at some point. Then when you’re ready to start a conference, you call your Foonz number and the system invites participants by sending them a text message. Those individuals simply call the number in their text message.

Calliflower allows you to manage conference call invites, agendas and call notes. Call reminders can be sent out via text message to participants. A Web component is added to calls, allowing participants to do a number of things, including raising their hand with a question, or chatting with another before, during and after the call. And the call host can visually see who’s on the call and who’s not. All of this for no additional charge beyond the cost of the long distance call.

Calliflower stands out to me as the most intriguing of the bunch. Frankly, though, I’ve just never felt the conference calls I’ve been on or hosted have been lacking technical “features”, so to speak, so I can’t personally picture myself using these.

But if you need a little more oomph out of your calls — either in the planning or adding a dimension of engagement — these tools might be worth a look. Meanwhile, you can also take a look at our notes on conference call etiquette.

Other posts you may enjoy:

• Do You Know What That Sales Call Cost You?
• Bad Conference Call Etiquette
• How Do You Stay Organized?
• Can You and Your Business Do Without Paper Yet?
• New year’s resolutions, #3

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