The Most Important Tool In My Business

Throughout my sales career there have been many things that have made my business simpler and easier to do.  If anyone had asked me about a month ago what is The Most Important Tool In My Business that has come along since I started in sales back in 1975, I would have given them an answer different than the one I will give today.  That is because a couple of weeks ago I had something happen that made me realize just how valuable, and how dependent my business has become on it.  Before I reveal what equipment or tool that is, I want to take a little trip down memory lane.

Back in 1975 when I first started in sales I did not have a computer, fax, scanner, or cell phone.  Everything back then was done on a typewriter or hand written, and sent by postal mail or hand delivered. Customers could not get a hold of you 24/7, and your office was not where your laptop, and cell phone are.  Your office was actually an office and you had to be there for your customers to reach you.  If you were not in your physical office, you needed to call your answering machine a number of times during the day to make sure that you were getting back to your customers quickly.  Every quote you did was from scratch, there was no let's just pull up the last quote we did on the computer and modify it.  Even a simple price or quantity change required typing up a whole new quote.  As cumbersome as that may sound, business got down, and I made a very good living.

Then along came my first computer and printer, and life was good.  I could stream line what I did, and save lots of time on paper work.  Then the fax machine made it possible to get quotes and other documents to my customers instantly.  E-mail was still not very wildly used, and the internet took all day to just load a page.  You could actually see each letter pop up on the screen as the text would be loading in.

Customers getting a hold of you was still a problem because even though car phones were starting to become popular, they were expensive, and the per minute charge was outrageous.  Coverage was very spotty, and it was a phone and nothing else.

Advances in all these things happened quickly, and they soon went from being a luxury to you will be out of business if you don't have them.  The age of instant contact and information was born and a part of just about every business.  So let's fast forward to the present.

If you had asked me about a month ago what do I consider to be the most important tool or piece of equipment to be the most important in my business, I would have said without hesitation my laptop.  My laptop is my office, where it is so is my office.  But two weeks ago something happened that has made me rethink that.

Two weeks ago I was out with my wife running some errands, and after we were through, she had a couple of things she need to do on her own as did I.  So we split up into each of our cars and went on our merry way.  Up till then we had been using her car, and she was driving because I need to make a couple of calls to my Borrowers.

After we each got into our own cars and took off on our separate ways, I realized that I still need to make one more call.  When I reached for my cell phone it was not there, and panic set in.  I could not call my wife to find out if the phone had dropped in her car because I did not have a phone, but there was also a number of places that we had stopped at together that it could have dropped.  I decided since I could not call her, to back track to see if it had dropped in any of the other places that we had been at.

As I was driving it became very apparent that my cell phone had become the life blood of my business.  My cell phone number is the mumbler that all my Borrowers have.   They could be calling and think that I was just not responding to their calls.  They could e-mail me, but it would be like the old days, If I am not in the office in front of the computer, or a a location that I can use the laptop, I cannot retrive the e-mail.

My cell phone is an iPhone4s, so I have not only phone coverage, I have e-mail and internet.  Almost everything I need is on the phone.  I can scan documents with it, and then print them or e-mail them from my phone.  I can print documents sent to me from my phone.  And since I scan all of my loans, I have access to all my files through my cell phone.  My phone is also a camera, so and takes excellent pictures as well as videos.  My iPhone4s is really an office on its own.  To be without it for even the length of time that it would take to replace it, could cost me a number of loans, and Borrowers and Realtor Partners that need answers quickly without the means to reach me, unless again, I am in the office.

It became very apparent that if my laptop went down, I have my desktop as a backup.  If my printer goes down, I have another as a backup.  If my scanner goes down I can still fax of just save the document and send it attached to an e-mail.  I have a backup for everything except the one thing that I now feel is The Most Important Tool In My Business my cell phone.

I found my phone, and you may have quessed it, it was in my wife's car.  But that scare even though it was only for a short time, it felt like a life time, and convinced me of just how dependent I am on it.

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  Info about the author:

 George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com