Blackberries are the most popular smartphone in the world (so far!) Not bad for a company that started 3 years after the market leader (US Robotics nee Palm) already dominated the market space.

What sets the Blackberry apart from every other smart phone is the Blackberry server.

The Blackberry server offers several key, competitive advantages to a smart business owner:

1. Realtime updates
   1. As soon as a contact or appointment is updated in Outlook, it shows up on the blackberries
   2. Whenever someone updates information on the blackberry handheld, it shows up in Outlook
2. Tight Exchange/Outlook Integration
   1. For all practical purposes, an Enterprise-activated blackberry is exactly like carrying outlook in your hands.
   2. All your contacts, appointments, tasks, memos are in your hand.
3. Information Security
   1. If someone loses their handheld, erase it using remote wipe
   2. Fired your salesperson or employee, remote wipe their berry before they leave the property
   3. You never have to worry about your sales person walking out with client lists, or having access to customer data again.
4. Information Consolidation
   1. As a business owner, or sales manager, you can see all your team’s activities from your outlook.
   2. Overlay calendars
   3. Datamine their contacts
   4. Review their task lists etc.,

Like most software vendors, when Blackberry sales talks about the Blackberry Server, they generally refer to the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).  This is their premier product, and in use by nearly every Fortune 500, US Congress, etc.  BES is a great product, and it’s expensive.  Starting at $ 3,500+ it’s also overkill for most small businesses.

For the smart, cost-conscious business owner who already has an Exchange or Microsoft Small Business Server running, the Blackberry Professional Server (BPS) is a great alternative. 

All the features of BES for $ 100/user, in 1 user increments. Got 10 employees and only 3 with Blackberries?  Just buy 3 BPS licenses for $ 300 or 8% of the BES cost.

• When you combine the real-time capabilities of a BES or BPS server

• with Cardscan Professional or Cardscan Team Edition

• with Business Card Mastery Pro or Business Card Mastery Team Edition

• with a BCM-trained professional assistant,

YOU CREATE A SALES JUGGERNAUT

Recommended Resources:

Need your Exchange or Blackberry Server setup?  Contact Brainlink.

Want to find the perfect Blackberry?  Read about it first on BerryReview.com

Need a professional who can research your contacts?  Find them here.

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Wikipedia defines Data Mining as:

Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data.

It’s what Amazon does with their “Amazon Recommends” and “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” features.

It’s what LinkedIn uses to show you “People you may know”

How do you apply that to your business?

By playing the “Who knows who” game, or “six degrees of separation”.

1. Go through your prospects list, look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc, and see who they and you know in common.

2. Before you meet them, call or email some of these mutual contacts to learn more about your prospect.  Likes, dislikes, buying styles, etc.

3. Use your assistant or virtual assistant to research them, summarize their bio, latest accomplishments, etc. and put that in your database.

1. My admin researches selected contacts, and puts the summary details in my Cardscan Notes field.  This starts a chain reaction.
2. Cardscan syncs with Outlook
3. Outlook updates our Microsoft Exchange Server, which notifies the Blackberry Server.
4. The Blackberry server sends updates to my Blackberry in realtime.
5. From research to my hand, within 5 minutes!

4. When you go meet them, and the conversation becomes stuck or grinds to a halt, name-drop some of your mutual contacts and jump start the discussion.  Countless times, talking about mutual contacts, and mutual organizations (Thanks Gotham!) has led to meetings, introductions and closed business.

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They always say "Never start your article with never".

Sometimes though, it’s the right place to start.

The dirty little secret of EVERY networker I know, is that they have piles of cards on their desks.  Some put them in boxes, others in rolodexes.  Some just shove them into drawers or shopping bags.

 Why?

Because each of those cards cost a lot of money.  Not to the person who printed them, but to YOU!

You paid the dues to join BNI, Gotham (Le Tip, Executives United, CEO’s Circle, etc).

You invested the time in driving/commuting to the event, and commuting back

You had the courage to meet someone new, start a conversation.

And all that effort resulted in you getting their business card.

Did that close the sale?  NO!

Did that help you beat your quarterly sales targets? NO!

All it did was create the start of a new relationship.

And that’s why networkers hold onto the cards they collect.

Unfortunately, just getting the card is NOT enough.

You have to follow up with them – via phone, email, facebook, linked in, twitter, etc.

That’s why you need an organized system for collecting, researching and managing contacts.

Cardscan Executive + Business Card Mastery Pro is that solution.

The hardest part is building the relationship in the first place — and you did it.  You got their card…and started a relationship.

Scan that into your database, update it from their vcard or emails.

Have your virtual assistant research them prior to meetings, sales presentations, etc.

And that leads to increased sales, with less effort.

Buy now…operators are standing by

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