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In Sales, Staying Connected Means a Competitive Edge | |
By Cynthia L. Webb Steve Perna has connections. Lots of them. He carries a RIM BlackBerry wireless device everywhere he goes to receive and send e-mail. It's clipped to his belt, next to a Sprint cell phone that can connect to the Internet. He also totes a Handspring Visor palm-size computer with all of his addresses and appointments, plus a laptop. Perna, 43, who heads the Internet department for car dealership Safford Lincoln-Mercury in Silver Spring, uses these tools to help him stay in touch with the office and customers almost round-the-clock. | Steve Perna hooked up with Blackberry e-mail pager and cell phone in his showroom. Perna runs the Internet department at Safford Lincoln-Mercury in Silver Spring. Lois Raimondo |
Perna is so connected that he has been able to make sales while on vacation or get customer queries while on the set during a part-time acting role playing a police officer on television's "Homicide: Life on the Street" (the RIM BlackBerry was on his police belt). With the help of his gadgets, he maintains the company's Web site and responds to online sales leads. His favorite tool? The BlackBerry, made by Ontario-based Research in Motion Ltd. It beeps when he receives e-mail, and the cigarette pack-size handheld has a tiny keyboard to type replies. The BlackBerry clearly has been catching on, helping make sales forces as accessible as emergency room doctors. About 164,000 subscribers and 7,800 North American companies currently use BlackBerrys, according to RIM. "I call it my lifeline, because when I'm not in front of my computer or away . . . it's my way of staying in touch with customers," Perna said of his $100-a-month service. When he's driving, he can press a few keys and have a preset e-mail sent instantly to customers to say he will get in touch as soon as possible. Perna is far from the only sales or support person who lives the wired life away from the office. International Business Machines Corp., for example, started a wireless pilot program earlier this year with about 1,100 salespeople and customer-support workers, said Christopher Bernard, senior program manager for wireless services. The users have wireless access to their calendar and e-mail and can send instant messages through IBM's handheld WorkPad and other devices. The team soon will have the ability to use the devices to check the status of a customer's order. IBM is also arming its field-support representatives with about 6,500 BlackBerrys this year. Aether Systems Inc. of Owings Mills, Md., which sells wireless software and services, not only resells the BlackBerry service, its workers also use the devices. About 25 percent of its workers are wired with BlackBerrys, including its approximately 120-person sales team, said Tom McDonough, senior vice president of worldwide sales. He said it gives Aether a competitive edge. "My salespeople can respond immediately to any type of request the client calls in," he said. "If a sales force is not equipped with a wireless data device today, they are at a distinct disadvantage." Similarly, a sales team at Annapolis-based USinternetworking Inc., a seller of software applications and services, in March beefed up its ability to stay in touch with one another and customers by giving its 30 salespeople BlackBerrys. "I can't stop the e-mails from coming," said sales engineer Steve Ripley, adding that he can respond immediately and take advantage of time when he is on the Metro or waiting for a meeting to start. At a recent meeting, he recalled, a prospective client asked how many people were using a certain technology he was trying to sell. He was able to type a quick message on his BlackBerry and get a response a few minutes later from a colleague at the office. Dan Waz, a managing consultant for USinternetworking, provides support services to clients. He relies on a cell phone that has Web access and a Palm Pilot attached to field calls. He also stores an entire phone roster of all company employees in the device to track people quickly. "It allows me to be more productive in an efficient manner," Waz said, holding the gadget during a recent afternoon sales meeting. Productivity is the driving force behind adding all these devices. Patrick Morris, regional vice president of sales, said USi's program has "helped with productivity in a sales cycle because it speeds up communication." He's seen the change firsthand. Morris was recently pitching a prospective client in Pennsylvania. After his team left the meeting without a deal, Morris got an e-mail on his BlackBerry in the car and was able to get key data from headquarters. They got back in touch with the client and were told to return. They made plans for a deal that night at 8:30, something that wouldn't have happened if Morris had not able to communicate from the car. The manager said he now has higher expectations of his team's responsiveness to clients. In the digital age, people expect things instantly. Perhaps nobody knows that better than Perna of Safford Lincoln-Mercury. His BlackBerry and other devices have become essential to his workday, even when he is officially off duty. Perna, who started his fully wired life in October 1999, after working for about 13 years in direct sales, said the Internet service has likely boosted sales for the dealership and has attracted car buyers who might not otherwise come to the lot. Earlier this month, for example, a couple drove from Salisbury, Md., to buy a used car after scanning the Web site. Perna sold them a red 1997 Lincoln Town Car on the spot. He gets about 75 leads a month by e-mail, he said, with about 15 percent to 20 percent of the dealership's overall car sales now coming from the Internet service. Since being uber-connected, Perna has been able to do work while he is on the road or at home (he worked at home for six months last year). He stayed in touch with his office near the end of his tenure on "Homicide." He played Officer Fusco, a bit role, for seven years until the show was canceled in 1999. Last summer he even sold three cars while vacationing in North Carolina's Outer Banks. He was vacationing there again last week and was forwarding sales leads back to the office. Perna said his wife is a good sport and knows that being accessible is part of the sales business, even during vacation. But she has told him to put the device down when he has tried to use his BlackBerry while driving, he said. He now shuts the device off at bedtime, usually about 11 p.m. It's on again at 7 a.m. But the bonus of always being connected also has created some concerns. "I think in the last couple of years you could refer to them as productivity tools, but the digital evolution in some regards is getting a little out of hand as far as individual salespeople are concerned," said Michael Reagan, president and chief executive of the National Association of Sales Professionals. His biggest complaint? "There's a physical issue of being gadget laden," he said. There's also a potential to lengthen a workday and create unrealistic expectations if sales teams aren't careful, he added. "You have to turn it off once in a while," Reagan said, to separate work from private time. Even connectivity has its limits, he said. But that doesn't stop Perna, who seems exhilarated, not bogged down, by the tools. "The key to this whole Internet business is getting back to the client as soon as possible," said Perna, adding that there is a "fine balance" between staying connected and his personal life. "At the same time, I've got an understanding wife, and everybody pretty much knows that this is what I do, and I enjoy it because it's still very pioneering," Perna said. © 2001 The Washington Post Company | |