Effective Tech: An Efficient Employee
Today we’re progressing in our Effective Tech series at This Sales Life, building upon the foundation you’ve created and the background data you’re now collecting on the regular. The good news is, you now know what you need, and, more important than that, you’ll know if it’s working.
Because, like we’ve mentioned before, a huge hiccup professionals often encounter with integrating technical solutions is that they’re updating, changing, adjusting and implementing new systems so often, they actually become less efficient than ever. Which is the opposite of our goal.
We’re approaching the implementation of technological solutions the same way we’d hire a new employee (and in four easy steps):
Figure out what the position requires
Hire a qualified candidate
Train that candidate to excel at their position
Regularly check in with your new hire and evaluate their progress at regular intervals.
1. What do You Need?
Since you’ve done the background work of becoming efficient on your own, staying organized, and disciplined (aka built that strong foundation we discussed), you should have a pretty good idea already of what your technology will help you accomplish.
In case you’re still having trouble putting this into words, ask yourself these questions:
What do I spend an unnecessary amount of my time doing?
A lot of sales professionals spend way too much time organizing contacts, searching for information that’s in archaic organizational systems, or even driving to meetings. When implementing effective tech, you want to purposefully look for technological tools that can help you take back some of your precious time.
Where am I losing money?
When seeking out effective technical solutions, keep in mind the data you’ve tracked and your actual sales percentages and closures. Interpret the data to work to your advantage. Maybe there’s a client who rarely answers your phone calls but responds to 50% of your emails. Here’s somewhere tech could help you automate a regular email and cut out unnecessary call time. Or let you know which emails are actually getting opened so you can analyze your emails for effectiveness and write more of what sells!
2. Research Your Options
Here’s the fun part for us nerdy types -- y’all with me?! -- I love to research. In fact, I can lose whole days to it. Which, I’ll admit, isn't’ the most efficient use of my time. So I’ll recommend here for those of you like me (aka research geeks) to set a time limit for yourself in this stage. This time constraint depends on the size of the tool you’re looking to implement. If you’re looking for a new personal to-do list or calendar app, an afternoon should be plenty of time. If you’re buying a new PC or laptop, you may want to spend a little more time weighing your options. Remember from our last post to go with your gut and don’t overthink it. And don’t forget to scope out what other successful sales professionals are using. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
To clarify, when I speak about research (and this tech series in general), we’re talking about personal tech choices. If you’re an IT specialist or given an assignment from your boss to research new cyber security software options for your entire company, I wouldn’t suggest the “go with your gut and don’t overthink it” approach. -- definitely get deep into the research for an assignment of that nature. But for a new way to organize your personal and professional calendar, or track calls, or open rates and email automations, trust your instincts. And remember, it’s not the end of the world if you decide to change your mind down the line.
3. Train Your Hire
When integrating a new tool into your workflow, there will be a necessary adjustment time and learning curve for you. Don’t expect immediate results. In fact, the best tools in the long run, may take some time for you to merge successfully into your daily habits. I recommend giving new tech tools a 60-90 day trial period before any real evaluation of their efficacy.
Think of this training period as a trial hire.
Ask yourself questions like:
Does this new tech actually work for you?
Are you getting faster at it as time goes on?
Are the features as advertised?
When/If you get stuck is there an easy customer service rep to contact or info email address that answers efficiently?
Try to answer these questions as emotionlessly and truthfully as possible. You’re allowing yourself to form a new habit, which takes time, so be patient with yourself and the technology. Don’t make any final decisions during this training period -- keep an open mind.
4. Employee Evaluation
Eventually, you should make a formal decision about whether this tech will stay or go. And there’s nothing more formal than a good ol’ employee evaluation. You can informally “check in” with the tech during the training phase to make sure it’s going ok, has all the information it needs to succeed, and is playing nice with the other employees (aka integrating naturally into your own workflow). But around the 90 day mark, you’ve got a real decision to make. Integrating technology into your work life should be purposeful and intentional, not accidental. It’s important that you make a shift from “trying it out” to “officially in a relationship”, so to speak. A transition from “contract worker” to “salaried employee” if you will.
Take some time -- an hour will usually be plenty -- to look at and interpret the data you’ve gathered. Ask questions like:
Are more of your emails getting opened?
More links clicked?
Higher commissions this quarter than last quarter?
What has changed since you hired this new employee?
Did you actually get more time back in your schedule?
Check back in with the goals you set for this technology and see how many you’ve accomplished. The more intentional you are, the more successful (and effective!) your tech will be.
After your employee evaluation, you have a few options. If it’s all you expected and more then hooray, you’ve got a new tech buddy for life. Keep that sucker on the payroll. If it’s not working out as expected, you can go one of two ways.
You can either:
A. Start from square 1 and begin your research again.
OR
B. Learn more about the tool you’re using to see if there’s something you’re missing. Could you change the way you’re using it and in the long run, make it more efficient?
Option B will allow you another trial period (perhaps a shorter one this time around since there’s less of a learning curve) and you can evaluate again when appropriate.
The important thing to take away here is that we shouldn’t be bringing a myriad of technological tools into our lives willy nilly without any thought or research. Everything has a purpose and should be done purposefully. If we pick up and drop new tools at the drop of a hat, we essentially let technology control us, instead of the other way around. Stay cognizant. Stay present. That’s how you get truly effective tech.
Our next post will look inward as we evaluate what tech takes off our plate. Spoiler alert -- we should be LESS stressed with good tech, not more. See you then and pop your comments below -- I love hearing your thoughts!
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As we wrap up our series on effective tech, I’d like to pause a moment to look backward on what we’ve discussed and look forward towards what’s next. To a large degree, taking that adjustment time to integrate tech successfully into our workflow is what makes it effective.