Making — and keeping — contact with your customers and prospects is one of the most critical tasks in your job description. Without current and replacement customers, your employer won't need your services any longer.

Fortunately, there are numerous tools that can help you do your job. They include personal information management, customer management, and contact-management software.

Personal Information Managers

Computers have revolutionized recordkeeping and made it portable. A seller in Biloxi can instantaneously update a sales file in Boulder about a customer in Bangor. The tools used can be a desktop, laptop, or hand-held computer (sometimes called a personal digital assistant or PDA). In each case, the application software may be a personal information manager. A PIM is a program that functions as a personal organizer. It arranges data or information about specific people and companies.

Salespeople use PIMs and similar portable systems to replace index cards and even business cards when recording information about customers, prospects, suppliers, and even competitors. If their PIM is on a secure network, they can share the information with employers and other salespeople as needed. PIMs typically offer a security system for ensuring that valuable data is not stolen.

In addition to basic PIM features, those for professional salespeople also can record contact information and results, such as:

Most professional PIMs also have daily calendars for appointments and reminders. In addition, some offer Internet access, e-mail, text messaging, and other communication services. PIMs can be your desk away from the office; many can be synchronized to ensure that the data is the same on your PDA and your office computer.

Customer Management

A customer management system is one that records vital information about customers and prospects. It can be as simple as index cards with customer information on them. They are portable, easy to update, and easy to back up (copy). However, they aren't as easy to search and share. Professional salespeople, instead, use software that records this information. Some are simply database programs, such as Microsoft Access or OpenOffice Base. They can be customized to include a variety of data fields, each with specific types of information: first name, last name, company, location(s), and so on.

The primary advantage of database programs is that they are searchable. Need to remember Mr. Luedemann's first name? What's the phone number of the Acme Widget Co.? A quick search gives you the answer. The fact that these programs also are customizable can be a solution as well as a problem. Because they can be easily customized, they can fit a wide variety of sales applications and be modified, as needed to make them better. However, once they are modified the data may not be easily coordinated with other versions of the database. If, for example, one version has an address field of twenty-four characters and another is of eighteen characters, a long address may be truncated during the transfer. Of course, the field can be locked to disallow changes, but that defeats the purpose of customization.

There are software programs available that have been built specifically for salespeople and include proven data formats for customer management and related tasks. In addition, they can be customized for specific salespeople within the overall design the employer requires.

Customer management software can be used on desktop, laptop, and hand-held computers and synchronized with programs at your office or sales headquarters. For most professional sales jobs, your employer will suggest or provide preferred or required customer management systems to make your job more efficient.

Contact Management

Customer records are important. You need to know your buyers and prospects. You also need to know the history of your contacts with them. When did you last visit Acme Widget Co.? What were the results? Did you give them a quote? When will you hear back from them? Contact-management systems can help you answer these questions.

Just a few decades ago, salespeople recorded contact information on index cards and in contact log books. However, finding information on contacts with a specific customer required lengthy searches through written records.

Today's technology offers computerized contact-management records that are easier to search. In addition, most are synchronized to or integrated with customer management systems. Search for “Acme” and you find the phone number, buyer's name and hobbies, and information about the last time you spoke. If your system is integrated with other departments in your company, you may be able to read about all other contacts with the company: service reports, customer service inquiries, invoices billed, and other valuable data.

Integrated Sales Management

Technology has developed additional tools that integrate numerous functions and instantaneously update information for management. In addition to customer and contact data, these systems electronically deliver sales orders to your employer, help you manage your sales e-mail promotions, and provide sales tracking features.

In addition, these systems often integrate product/service information so you have an up-to-date electronic catalog wherever you go. As appropriate, a separate price book may be included as well as electronic order forms so you can take or check on orders from any location. Because these systems are resident on a central computer, all information is automatically synchronized in real time. If your buyer calls customer service with a question, you can be automatically notified. In addition, these systems can be accessed with laptop computers, wireless e-mail devices (such as the Black-Berry), and wireless PDAs.

Of course, such integrated sales systems are expensive to purchase, learn, and maintain. However, professional salespeople who represent expensive business and industrial products and services can work more efficiently — and more profitably — with these systems than with customer and contact software.