The Hindu Business Line : How to power your sales

THE editorial in the March issue of Selling Power magazine is about the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) that would impose a hefty fine on businesses who call those who are on the "do not call" registry. It is estimated that 3 million telemarketing salespeople may lose jobs over the next three years if TSR gets enforced.

According to a survey, 60 per cent of telemarketers are women, of which, 25 per cent are single working mothers. Thirtythree per cent are minorities, 26 per cent students, and 5 per cent handicapped.

Loss to telephone companies could be in the region of $1 billion in revenues. More:

Be genuine. Do the things you are supposed to do, and do them well. When you tell people that you will call them back the next day, call them back even if you don't have an answer yet. Then ask yourself, "What one more thing can I do for this customer?"

After the other person stops talking, count to five before you say a word. Doing this accomplishes three things: It gives your brain the opportunity to absorb what was just said; you show the person who was speaking that what she said was worthy of consideration; and you avoid interrupting the other person, who may have paused only to gather her thoughts.

A sales territory is neither fixed nor inflexible. In fact, territories are malleable and adaptable. There are places where the market is a little tight, but that doesn't mean it's saturated. That just means it's time to get creative.

Nobody gives much value to someone who's sloppy or disorganised. It shows if you don't take care of yourself, if you overeat or fail to exercise regularly.

The amount of time you invest in yourself helps determine the respect you get from people you sell to.

Warren Buffett once offered his definition of DNA. He said it stands for "do numbers accurately".

Customers don't judge you by what you say when you are visiting face-to-face; they judge you by what you do when nobody is watching.

Full of `secrets' of sales.

On the net

THE .net Magazine's April issue has a cover feature on Windows Server 2003. And the executive editor, Elise M.Peterson discusses the decision of Microsoft to drop the ".NET" from the new product's name. "After all, Microsoft is infamous for making name changes right up to the final release," she comments. Read on:

The requirements for an enterprise server are quite different from server requirements for a smaller office. Availability is a prime example. If a server isn't available for several hours in a small office, only a few employees are affected. In an enterprise, thousands of users might not be able to get their work done.

If the enterprise provides services to Internet users, a downed server can affect millions of users.

Software management in an enterprise includes inventory lifecycle management, usage metering, and support. Having complete and constant control over software content helps an organisation conform to its software-licensing obligations and facilitates long-term software-inventory management.

The healthcare industry has been using mobile devices for a number of years. Many medical software packages are available for the Palm OS: the Physician's Desk Reference, IV rate calculators, the Pharma-Lexicon's Medical Abbreviations Dictionary, muscle and bone maps, and programs to beam prescriptions directly from a Palm device to an infrared printer.

During the next five years, the emergence of XML document formats and continued evolution of Web services standards will drive new "active" document processing models.

"I'm looking for a way to secure e-mails so the recipient can't copy, forward, or print them. Can Exchange 2000 — or any other mail product do this?" — Reader query. "Your best bet is probably to let the other party know that the document is confidential and not to be shared with other people — and then not to send sensitive material to people you don't trust to respect that request." — Answer.

Catch more action at thedotnetmag.com.

Code call

BUREAUCRATS are not the only ones resisting technology, writes the editor of Dr. Dobb's Journal in the April 2003 issue. Physicians are just as reluctant. "Biologists have to overcome their reluctance for mathematics," he adds, citing the annual Turing Lecture to the British Computer Society. A few picks:

Once you've installed the J2EE 1.4 SDK, look at Sun's Java Adventure Builder. This is a complete sample J2EE 1.4 application that illustrates how to implement Web services. As a Web site travel application that supports online shopping, end users of this application can use a standard Web browser to shop for and customise travel and vacation packages.

With the advent of multithreaded and multicore chips, multiprocessor computers are becoming widespread — and not just for servers. Modern multiprocessors introduce the notion of memory consistency, in which different threads can see updates to memory in different orders.

To manage thousands of servers via PDAs, dozens of requests must be made to find the location, appearance, type, wiring, connectivity, availability, usage, power consumption, and heat dissipation as the display is updated.

Developers routinely encounter a variety of interfaces and protocols when designing and building devices. For instance, manufacturers of embedded devices have historically provided simple command-line interfaces to monitor and control their products, while in the networking world, vendors often resort to SNMP interfaces.

The fundamental Linux design presumes a fairly substantial 32-bit CPU with memory-management hardware, a filesystem of some sort, and the usual human-oriented I/O gear. Although the kernel has been successfully adapted to greater and lesser architectures, the more weird the system, the less it behaves like Linux.

A magazine for the serious programmers.

Fix it, forget it

INTERNET Fixes is the cover feature of the April issue of PC World. "We just unveiled a new PCWorld.com with a fresh look and a home page that puts more features at your fingertips," announces the editor in his page. Catch more stuff:

Managing strong, secure passwords does not have to translate into endless hours of arduous mental callisthenics and memorisation techniques. There are ways to achieve a comfortable balance between efficiency and security in your password-protected online life.

I live in e-mail — often receiving 150 or more messages a day — and I regularly access my archive of roughly 15,000 messages. Outlook's meagre skills at organising and searching incoming e-mail leave me, well, unorganised. (Steve Bass's column)

Portable digital projectors have come of age. Thanks to falling prices and wider availability, the demand for projectors continues to grow steadily. Some units can be had for as little as $1500, and the average price of a business projector is about twice that.

Providing too little voltage to your PC can be as bad as providing too much. A sudden absence of power can trash unsaved data or damage important system files, both of which can be devastating to a business.

The latest viruses spread through everything from your instant messaging client to your file-sharing program.

Annoying new ads hijack your browser without you even clicking them. Spam greeting cards send themselves to everyone in your address book. But you can turn the tide against these pernicious pests.

A world of info.

(Books courtesy: Fountainhead, Chennai. E-mail: fhbooks@satyam.net.in)

Tailpiece

In Baghdad:

"That is a dumb bomb, I say."

"I think this latch didn't release, that's why."

"Are you sure? Let me check."

Booommm...

hindubusinessline@hotmail.com

D. Murali

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Can a company invest in gold?

Cycle-checkers in deadlock detection and more

New tax, new questions

What's what of VAT

Axis of evil springs back to life

How to power your sales