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Two of the biggest technology challenges facing MANA members are:

• Where do I draw the line, stop studying technology, and get back to selling?
• When are tools that are “free and good enough” a better choice than tools that are “costly and excellent?”

One rep reported that he found himself obsessing so much about the latest, greatest, and hottest gizmo, app, and software that he had crossed the line from productively researching new tools to increase his selling time to spending so much time reading about technology that he was neglecting his sales calls. Spending prime selling time poring over technology instead of making sales calls took its toll on his sales, but he fortunately recognized the problem in time to take corrective action before any permanent damage was done. He now confines his studies of technology for technology’s sake to evenings and weekends.

One of the purposes of this issue of Agency Sales magazine is to provide MANA members with a curated list of technology best practices so they can avoid cannibalizing sales time to keep up with technology and leave the full-time study of technology to professionals like frequent Agency Sales magazine contributor Steve Turner of TurnerTime Management (www.getturnertime.com).

The other technology line MANA members are frequently called upon to draw is the line between technology that is “free and good enough” and technology that is “costly and excellent.” Let me share a recent example:

A MANA member called to ask MANA’s help in securing a better deal on online Business-to-Business databases. He wanted to search for sales leads in the online database of the industry leader in business data, but the $2,000 annual subscription cost was out of his price range. He hoped that MANA could negotiate a bulk purchase for MANA members. We spoke to the vendor and discovered that a bulk program could cut 80 percent of the cost. When we reported our findings to MANA Chairman Tom Hayward, he asked, “Have you looked at ReferenceUSA.com?”

ReferenceUSA.com is a service to which many local libraries subscribe. If your local library is a subscriber, a valid library card is the only thing you need to freely search a massive online business database. So the price went from $2,000 to $400 to free.

We hope that this issue of Agency Sales magazine will help you increase your productivity, and encourage you to share your technology best practices with other MANA members by writing to me at [email protected].