Transcript No Slide Title

The Paperless Rep Firm
Jim Conway
[email protected]
Finn & Conway/Glatte
www.Finnandconwayglatte.com
January, 2000
Objective
To improve the efficiency, productivity, sales,
and profit of your firm by:
• Electronically tying everyone in your firm together
real-time all the time by use of e-mail, voice mail,
networking, file sharing, and Internet video links.
• Substituting electronic messages, scanned documents
and file transferring for almost everything previously
done with paper.
• Communicating with customers, principals, and others
by e-mail and providing information for them through
your website.
Wrong Reasons to “Go Paperless”
• It is “High Technology”
• Others are doing it; I should too
• Have extra time and money to spend
• Reduced paper expense
Right Reasons To “Go Paperless”
• Quicker and more accurate communications
• Brings order to the “chaos”
• Copy the exact message to others as needed
• Electronic records (quick to recall)
• Reduced clerical activities
• Frees up more time to sell
• More profit, less hassle, and lower expenses
“Paperless” Tools
• E-mail (both internal and external)
• Computer network system
• Networked CM software* (i.e. Market Force)
• Voice mail system, cellular phones and pagers
• Scanners and digital cameras
• Networked accounting software* (i.e. Macola)
• Networked sales history software
• Company website
*real-time
Steps To “Go Paperless”
• Make a list of ALL the paper coming into, traveling
within and going out of your office plus that used in the
field. Note reason for, frequency, quantity, and source
of each.
• Ask each member of your staff to take several days to
study this and then give you a list of what papers they
spend time on and if they have suggestions on how to
reduce or eliminate any of them. Elimination of an
unnecessary action is the best “paperless” step of all!
Don’t
• Don’t waste time and hard drive space scanning and
archiving papers that are historical and will probably be
looked at only once. Use file cabinets for invoices and
acknowledgements and other such papers.
• Don’t make “paperless” optional. When you add internal
e-mail, various company-wide software, voice mail,
scanners, and the like, insist that they be used. Fear of
something new and the comfort of something old can stop
your “paperless” progress cold. Push it just like you did
when you brought the first PC or fax machine into the office.
Do
• Use voice mail to take phone messages, but have a real
person answer the phone. The system should have the
ability to transfer, record, and broadcast from any phone
and from a remote location.
• Use real-time networked CM software for customer
records and sales activities on a single database. It should
be accessible and real-time via modem.
• Scan incoming papers such as marketing memos, new
product announcements, etc., saving them as a pdf file.
Then send them all at once to your staff each day or as
appropriate. Should a hard copy be needed, they can
print it out.
Do
• Scan, then e-mail time-critical papers to salespeople in
the field. When they return to the office, their in-baskets
should be almost empty since they have already seen and
had the chance to work on everything important while in
the field.
• Use scanning/e-mail to send papers to your other offices,
unless the number of pages is too great (then maybe use
USPS or Fed-Ex?). E-mailing is just as fast as faxing and
there are no phone charges, plus the recipients can delete,
save, or print documents as they so choose.
Do
• Use real-time accounting software (i.e. Macola)
• Use real-time sales history software
• Have an up-to-date, complete, and professional website
• Encourage your principals to send copies of marketing
memos, new product memos, and the like in an electronic
format. Explain what you are doing and the benefit that
all your staff, including those in the field, will immediately
see the information on each of their PCs. But the habit of
multiple copies is hard to break!
Do
• Use Excel or Lotus for forecasting. Encourage your
principals to e-mail you spreadsheet forecasts that you
can update and return via e-mail.
• Tie your sales history software to your forecasts.
Encourage your principals to accept your forecasts in
this form.
• Use PowerPoint or an equivalent and an overhead
LCD projector for customer, principal, and distributor
presentations.
Do
• Encourage your principals to communicate with you via
e-mail. Respond to their faxes via e-mail and most will
switch over, at least for your company. Use the fax only
when letterhead is needed or documents must be attached.
• Be online with all your principals that offer it.
• Respond to your customers via e-mail and include links
to your principal’s website and your website.
• Use digital cameras to take pictures of potential product
applications to e-mail to your principals.
Summary
• There will always be a need and a place for some
paper. If it is cheaper, faster, and more
convenient to use paper for a task, use it!
• However, “going paperless” makes sense for
many tasks and functions in a rep firm.
• “Going paperless” can add profit, reduce hassle,
improve efficiency, and allow you to be of greater
service to your principals and customers.
Addendum
Finn & Conway/Glatte
Hardware and Software
• Network: Novell 4.0 Ethernet.
• CM Software: MarketForce version 4.1
• E-mail Software: Netscape & Eurodora
• Accounting Software: Macola Progression 7.1
• Sales History Software: MS Access (custom)
For updates to this
presentation and additional
information on this subject,
please visit
www.Finnandconwayglatte.com
If you have questions as you “go paperless” in
your firm, please feel free to drop me an e-mail.
I’ll be happy to help if I can. I’d also be very
interested in learning of other things you’ve
done or do in the future that improved the
efficiency and productivity of your company.
Thanks for listening!
Jim Conway
[email protected]