I’ve got to admit that as someone who’s still in his 30s, I’m fairly late to the electronic communications game. I didn’t even have an e-mail address until late in high school.
Steve Crognale, CPMR, won the iPad drawing for participants in MANA’s recent e-mail survey of reps and manufacturers. “You made my day,” said Steve when MANA CEO Charles Cohon called with the news.
And as an agency, we’re not much different from fellow independent manufacturers’ reps when it comes to the technological tools we use to run our business. We use everything from Smart Phone and Blackberries to laptops and even the old standbys of the fax machine and scanner. We’re working on our website and we’re fairly new to the iPad and deciding how that fits into our business model.
But considering all that’s available to us, the fact we’ll always keep in mind is that any and all of these technological tools are here to enhance the relationships we’ve created with customers and principals. The importance of those relationships is something you can never lose track of. Just as it’s important for the doctor in a hospital to constantly be in personal touch with his patients, so too is it important to be a regular presence in front of our business associates — and technology helps with that.
As an example, we’ve got one principal that is fairly new to the United States and their people have to cover a huge area — from Maine to Florida. To do that they’ve made use of webinars that allow them to work closely with us and our customers. It’s not unusual that we’ll make a customer call and be able to log in to a webinar conducted by a product specialist who possesses knowledge that we don’t necessarily have. That meets the customer’s and our immediate needs and goes a long way to enhance the relationship.
Two other important tools to keep in mind are a company website and the use of social media. With the former, as I explained, we’re in the process of getting up and running with ours. I’m a believer in an agency having a website as a means of establishing and keeping our brand in front of our customers and principals. The site is the ideal place to provide us with that solid web presence we’re looking for. When it comes to social media, it’s important to distinguish between those tools that are truly business oriented (e.g., LinkedIn and Twitter) vs. those that are purely personal and social (Facebook). The benefit of the social media is that it keeps your name constantly in front of prospects and customers.
If I have any advice to others as they consider their use of technology for their agencies it’s that it’s critical that they accept and embrace technology. Equally important is that they make themselves aware of what’s happening both in terms of new products and how those products are used. We’ve had success with the latter by staying in touch with experts in the field including having a great relationship with an IT individual. But more than anything else, it’s critical to embrace the change. As I explained, I didn’t have an e-mail address until late in high school, but I’ve done a lot to pick up some speed in the past couple of years.
