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Turn networking into results with a mobile business card.
Forming a personal connection with a prospect is the first step toward closing a deal. That’s because people prefer to buy from someone they know, like and trust. As a sales professional, you need to make it easy for people to get to know you.
It’s great if you have an “in” with a prospect through a mutual friend or trusted referral. But today, the process of making a personal connection often begins online. How many times have you Googled a prospect? How many times have you given your name over the phone and heard a prospect typing in the background to Google you? It happens all the time.
That’s why it’s critical to control your online identity and make it simple for prospects to get the right information about you at the right time. So wouldn’t it be great if your printed business cards had a way to share your complete professional web presence? Imagine being able to instantly share your background and qualifications, customer testimonials, product demonstration videos, even schedule a follow-up meeting. Suddenly one of the most passive tools used by every successful sales pro comes to life, engages and starts working for you long after you’ve left the meeting.
Mobile technologies like QR codes are a great way to share the right information and position yourself as tech-savvy when meeting prospects on the go. QR codes are the small square barcodes you see everywhere. And now they’re being used for people. Think about QR codes as digital bridges for your printed business card to your mobile business card, allowing you to wirelessly exchange information with prospects via their smartphone. Prospects and clients can instantly access your contact information, hand-picked bios, links, portfolios, videos, testimonials or other information that builds credibility and trust. And with metrics and tracking you’ll even know when they’re doing it.
There are many solution providers which can help you take control of your online identity, including social media platforms and mobile technologies like QR codes. When reviewing your choices for managing your mobile identity, make sure the tools you select are designed to support multiple users and that accounts have tracking capabilities built in so you can measure effectiveness. Some other benefits and features to consider include:
- Easy setup for sales organizations of all sizes so you don’t have to distract the sales force to roll it out.
- Discovering common connections or mutual interests on LinkedIn and Facebook is a great way to forge the personal link you need to power up your sales pitch.
- vCard download is the best way to get into someone’s address book accurately.
- Appointment scheduling to help shorten the time between initial contact and the first meeting.
- Metrics with geo tracking to help find out who is viewing your mobile business card, including details such as organization name, type and location.
- Real-time alerts when business cards are scanned so you know when people are engaged. Alerts can also including time, date, location and more.
- Custom branding to make sure your brand carries through from your offline identity to your online identity.
- Powerful administrative tools to help your organization manage and monitor all of your mobile business cards and metrics in one central location.
- Integration with printers so you can get your new business cards quickly with the QR code printed properly.
Even if a prospect doesn’t have your printed business card, since more than half of all online searches now originate on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet, it’s more important than ever to have a mobile business card that could appear in your search results. Once you build and start managing your online identity for you and your team, prospects will gain a clear vision of who you are and what your organization can offer, and you’ll be well on your way to creating the trust and respect you need to close more deals.
If you’d like to speak with us about how you or your sales team can get started with your mobile business cards, feel free to call us at 1-866-380-3400 x110. Of course you can just scan the QR code on my business card:
About the Author
James Alexander is founder and CEO of Vizibility Inc., the world’s first mobile business card platform for small, medium and large organizations. A serial technology entrepreneur, James was involved in two other successful startups and served as a product management executive at Adobe Systems prior to founding Vizibility. Google James at viz.me/james. Learn more about the company and its online identity management solutions at www.vizibility.com.
