Live Search for Windows Mobile

Wow! I really thought I would find more time to blog. Things have been hectic on the road the past week and one thing that is making my life easier is LiveSearch foe Windows Mobile. It is a free download from Microsoft for Windows Mobile devices. I have it running on both my Samsung I760 and HTC Advantage. It is a great little search program that is voice activated. You can "talk" to it and set your location, find points of interest, map a route, get gas prices etc. I am on the road most of the day driving through towns that I am not familiar with. Live Search allows me to find the nearest Wawa or Home Depot very easily. It also has gotten me to places my GPS couldn't. It integrates with your contacts stored on the phone, it makes it very easy to look up a customer's phone number or address. I also like the traffic feature, it has saved me time running around the Baltimore beltway. There is a good review at http://www.jkontherun.com/. Next topic will be all the great sites I visit to stay up-to-date on emerging technology. jkonthrun.com is one of my favorites.

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my efforts to increase sales through the use of technology. I sell advertising. I am sure consult is a more proper term, but what I get paid to do is sell advertising. I use a consultative approach to ensure my clients needs are met, but it is sales. I travel Monday through Friday for about five months of the year, living in hotels etc. My company is gradually implementing changes that lead me to believe we will be mostly virtual. I want to utilize technology to make myself more productive and responsive to both my client's needs and my company's goals.

My company is a little bit ahead of the tech curve. They have provided me with a pretty sweet Toshiba Tablet PC and a Verizon Wireless AirCard. We also use PocketPC's/Blackberrys for wireless email and scheduling. They have also streamlined a large number of our procedures to allow for a paperless workplace. We do signature captures, copy mark-ups, contracts, proposals etc all on the Toshiba and upload them to be processed. Pretty cool!

My goal is to take that concept a little further and sell more and be more productive by working smarter through the use of technology. The fear/trap is that the time spent re-inventing the wheel will make me less focused and ultimately less productive.

I do not know if anyone will read this. I am doing this to keep myself more aware of what is working and what isn't. I would like to think others may benefit from my trials and also leave comments and tips that work for them.

Let the challenge begin......