The Best of Advisor Technology Reports

These advisor technology reports are possible due to my fortune of having the opportunity to continously speak with and learn from some of the top experts and developers of advisor technology in Canada and in the U.S over the last 10 years.

These conversations and ideas make up Advisor Technology Reports. As time goes on I will add more and more of my research reports right here so keep coming back.

Keeping abreast of today's new technology can be a daunting task. Many advisors wonder how to adapt to the constant changes in financial planning applications. Technology has had a major impact on the financial planning software industry, with efficient data storage, quick and easy computations.

For presentations, this has meant enhanced graphical illustrations along with better reporting. In the past this type of plan report was only available to the high net worth client. Today's software has made financial planning available to the masses.

Experts say that, for an advisor to grow their practice, use of their time efficiently and do a better job explaining concepts, they need to know where software fits into the process. One of the most common mistakes advisors make today, with technology, is not focusing on what their objectives are. What is it you do and how is it you think you can help people? Once you have answered these questions you can then choose the software that meets and fits your particular needs.

Advisors Continue To Struggle with Technology

By David Edey

For the second year in row advisors from around the country have told me that their the biggest technology-related challenge in their business was getting a handle on and making better use of the software programs they already owned.

This and other findings were part of the second annual Advisor and Technology survey conducted by AdvisorTechSolutions.com in conjunction with newspaper Investment Executive.

Over 500 advisors were polled recently from around the country from December 2005 - April 2006. Licenses held by the respondents ranged from mutual fund dealers to investment dealers and insurance agents.

The average years in advisory business was more than 10 years.

The other top issues which are challenges to advisors in their businesses were keeping up with the software programs and tools that affect my business

• Protecting personal computer from viruses and spyware

• Backing up data to avoid loss

• Deciding when to upgrade technology

What does this all mean to the advisor industry?

It clearly shows that advisors still are struggling with technology and not so much new technology which continuously changing.

It is the software on desktops which leaves advisors perplexed as to how to get the best results.

As the architect behind the study and webmaster of AdvisorTechSolutions.com it is clear the growing demand by the advisor community.

You want to want to learn more about how to make technology work better for you only makes this website your main essential place to get the tips, tools and strategies you'll need now and in the future for efficiency and profitability.

Are advisors technologically challenged ?

By Grant McIntyre

Advisors are taking less than full advantage of the technology available to them, and they’re missing out on opportunities to serve their clients better. That’s according to an online survey conducted from May to August 2004 by Investment Executive in partnership with www.advisortechsolutions.com, a Web site operated by financial advisor David Edey.

The survey asked 537 participants — most of them advisors working for mutual fund dealers, insurance MGAs and investment dealers — about the hardware and software they use and how they use it.

“The results indicate that the software that’s being used isn’t being used to its full extent,” says Edey,the survey’s research director. “In many cases, it’s as if they are using the wrong tools for the job.”

The survey explores many areas of technology, such as hardware, financial planning software, contact-management programs, the Internet and training. The results offer an insight into the strengths, weaknesses and apprehensions advisors demonstrate when it comes to using technology in their practices.

To see more of the Advisor and Technology results click here

Building a better Rolodex

By Kate McCaffery

Managing an increasing number of client contacts or making the most of the opportunities that already exist in your book of business depends largely on your ability to access and act upon available information.

The advisor who keeps contact details in one place, contracts in another, KYC documents filed down the hall and e-mails on a laptop simply courts disaster. He or she runs the risk of becoming a slave to the business, wasting energy in the process and missing opportunities.

A contact-management system can reduce this risk significantly, but according to Investment Executive’s Advisor & Technology survey (May to Aug 2004), conducted in partnership with advisortechsolutions.com, scores of advisors are not using such systems. In fact, 43.4% of those surveyed say they use Microsoft Outlook — primarily an e-mail system — for keeping track of clients.

“That’s your Rolodex. That’s where most people start and stop,” says David Stevenson, president of Burlington-based PowerAssist Technologies Inc.

Is Your Team Effective?

The benefits of technology can be nullified if staff roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined

By Kate McCaffery

Building a team to make the most of available technology, time and energy is a challenge facing many advisors today. Technology that is supposed to make your practice more efficient can be underutilized or completely ineffective without clearly defined goals, roles, responsibilities and processes in place for your staff.

Investment Executive’s online Advisors & Technology survey (May to Aug 2004),conducted in partnership with www.advisortechsolutions. com, found that many advisors may not be meeting that challenge.

For instance, the survey found that more than 72% of survey respondents say they input client information themselves, a job that does not make the best of their qualifications.

“It’s a huge hourly rate for data-entry work,” says James McClocklin, chairman and founder of Harrington Lane Inc., a Toronto-based consulting and training company.

“We would do an analysis and say, ‘OK, you’re spending far too much time on data entry. How much more productive would you be if, instead of spending two hours a day on data entry, you spend two hours a day talking to your clients asking for referrals?’”

“Advisors should realize they are the experts. They are the most highly skilled, and they have the relationship with the client,” says Brent St. Pierre, assistant vice-president of content and design in e-business at AIM Funds Management Inc.

“Sit down and do all the complex work with your client, figure out what their portfolio should look like and what their investment plan is, then pass off those notes to your assistant. He or she can print out the documents you need and mail them out. The worst thing you can do is sell your time, because it is limited.”

Amount of IPS detail should reflect client’s affairs

By Grant McIntyre

The investment policy statement is an important tool in solidifying the advisor/client relationship. Yet a significant number of advisors are still not using them, according Investment Executive’s Advisors & Technology survey.

Slightly less than 40% of respondents to the online survey(May to Aug 2004), www.advisortechsolutions.com, said they don’t use the documents when dealing with clients and prospects. Although some respondents may not need them, the number of advisors using IPSes should be higher, says Rick Johnson, director of practice advisory services at Advocis.

“Advisors who are true advisors are using them because that’s how they are defining the advice that they are giving,” he says. “But a lot of licensed reps, registered reps or insurance agents are calling themselves ‘advisors’ and have yet to embrace the role fully because they are still predominantly ‘transactors’.” For more on the investment policy statement and technology click here

Client Management Solutions

One of my favorite advisor tech reports' conversations was with David Stevenson, president of PowerAssist Technologies Ltd. and a consultant in automated portfolio and client-management solutions, says only about 5% of individuals in any given industry aggressively take advantage of technology.

Those 5% are the people who always have the latest and greatest of every product. Most people, however, are reluctant to embrace technology, often because of a fear of the unknown, not being aware of what's available or simply not knowing how easy to use software has become.

David has come to the conclusion that many professionals are not utilizing technology to their advantage. "When the software industry first began, packages were difficult to learn," he says. "Today, good software solutions are designed with the user in mind". This makes implementation and training fast and easy

Click to see more of The Secret To Client Management

Effective Client Contact Strategies

It is very important to get a handle on your client relationships by taking advantage of technology. There are many reasons why a successful advisor needs to have a contact management database to be effective and profitable. At a minimum, it will save you time from having to re-enter client information repeatedly. Basic information such as name, address, phone, email allow for a running history of the contact with the client.

This means you will always have current and accurate information on the client that can easily be tied into other aspects of a client contact solution.

This could be a calendar for booking appointments, completing individual or team tasks, making and recording phone calls.

In a good client management system all of the tasks and activities that you do with the client will automatically log and make a running history of all this information.

As a consultant in automated portfolio and client management solutions to many successful advisors in the U.S. and Canada David Stevenson of PowerAssist Technologies Ltd. says that as an advisor grows it becomes even more imperative to set up processes within the contact management system. Early in your advisor's career you were more than concerned about name, phone, address etc...you are now at the point where you are now managing the business.

There is more to Contact Management strategies right click here

How to Create a Bond with Clients

Advisors spend a lot of time managing the business side of client relationships. However, this may mean that developing the personal connections that are crucial to expanding a business gets short shrift. Advisors all know that establishing a personal bond with a prospect is key to the person opening an account.

But, in many cases, once the new account forms are signed, the honeymoon is over and, generally, only the top 20% of clients continue to receive their advisor's personal attention. But failing to build and maintain personal connections may be fatal to your business.

Frank Grisdale of LongTermClients.com, which specializes in such connections, says clients rely more on their intuitive assessment of an advisor than they do on logical analysis. A strategy that builds strong emotional bonds with clients gives them a strong sense of attachment, he says.

As long as a client has a positive feeling about an advisor, that advisor stands a good chance of keeping the account. But if the client comes to believe the advisor is more interested in the size of his or her portfolio than in the relationship, the advisor has a good chance of being sacked.

Grisdale bases this on the 17 years he worked as an investment advisor. Before retiring in 2003, he was managing director and senior vice president at TD Waterhouse Investment Advice, for which he served 325 clients with more than $100 million in assets. For ten years, he sat on TD Waterhouse's national advisory council, which advises company presidents.

"Personal Relationship Management" is a term Grisdale uses to define the practice of building and maintaining personal bonds with long-term clients. He cites research by Russ Alan Prince, an American authority on affluent investors, that shows clients consider their relationship with advisors to be four times more important than the performance of their investments.

Of affluent clients who fired their advisors, 87% say they did so because of poor relationships with them.

In fact, 96% of clients who fired their advisors based on the quality of the relationship were actually "very happy" with their investments' performance. High investment performance, apparently, is not enough.

Grisdale's strategy started to take shape in 1998, when he began thinking about how to improve his investment newsletter. Each newsletter had five "canned" articles, written by the firm's marketing department and edited by its compliance department.

His concern was that these articles were not being read. That led him to develop personal content, which he placed on the back page of the newsletter. The "Personal Update" section was all about his life, family and hobbies.

Grisdale decided to survey what clients liked or didn't like about the newsletter. The "Personal Update" section came out on top.

But he also knew he would never have enough time to write 300 personal notes on a regular basis. He began thinking about how to create a personal note to all clients.

After retiring from the industry, Grisdale started LongTermClients.com, a service to provide advisors with a strategy and process to strengthen the personal side of their client relationships.

Advisors realize the signature-only card is an insult to clients, and that the Hallmark sentiment pre-printed inside each card doesn't do anything for the relationship, either.

But they default to that option because they just do not have the time to write a 10-line note to each client inside each card.

Grisdale's service enables advisors to use personal notes to stay close to clients. His Web site features a greeting card gallery of more than 250 fine art and nature photographs, which, Grisdale says, transform the greeting card into a gift. There are also writing tips, examples of advisor-to-client personal notes and private assistance on how to compose a note.

The stunning greeting cards are then printed with individually personalized notes to each client, along with laser addressed and even hand-stamped envelopes.

This eliminates ugly mailing labels and postage machine marks. The service delivers across North America within 10 days. All that's left for the advisor to do is to add his or her signature and drop the cards in the mail.

The price is volume-driven; for example, for 325 clients, the cost is $2.75 CDN a card, before postage. That includes the personalized note, addressed envelope, and the hand application of stamps.

Is Your Practice Run Like A Business?

Growing your business in order to stay successful and profitable is getting harder and harder. Today you must deal with such external factors such as increased competition, new technology, and the threat of the banks. On top of that you are expected to build deep lasting relationships with clients who, at the drop of a hat, will leave you.

It is no wonder that many advisors, whom have experienced growths during the last several years, have gone from that of "technical expert" in their field to "business manager."

According to Julie Littlechild, president of Advisor Impact, successful advisors now more than ever are concerned with effective practice management strategies. This means having a structure in place; an ongoing process of building greater value in your business.

To learn more about Business Planning click here

Business Planning And Technology Can It Work?

There are many ingredients to a successful practice: marketing, technology, and staffing just to name a few. These, along with your blood sweat and tears will determine whether, or not you are going to be profitable. Unfortunately, the many issues that you must concern yourself with just to stay in business don't leave you time to plan your business.

Consultant and author Norm Trainor has noticed that 80-90% of the financial advisors he encounters don't have a business plan.

Now, it's not that advisors aren't fully aware of the benefits of a business plan; it's just that they don't get around to actually doing one. Advisors enjoy the tactical aspects of the business.

Sitting down face to face with clients and doing the work that you get paid for gives an immediate benefit. Planning, on the other hand, is strategic in nature, causing you to step back from what you enjoy doing and looking at your business in a different way.

To read more about Business Plans and Technology click here

Get A Handle On Bookkeeping Easily

If anything, the need to treat your practice more like a small business is becoming more and more important. While there are many resources on how to market yourself or how to get referrals, there are very few tools that can help you be a more effective business owner.

For help on getting handle on your business, one package that you should give serious consideration is QuickBooks by Intuit. The package is designed to bring complete financial management capabilities to those individuals who do not want to deal with the hassle of trying to understand accounting jargon.

It doesn't take long to get up and running, probably less than an hour. At the outset you are asked some simple questions to help you tailor the package to you business. It doesn't matter if you are financial planner, insurance agent or stockbroker. All of these financial professionals can use the package: not only for their personal practices but also if they work the small business market.

To learn how to get a control of your Accounting and Bookkeeping issues click here

Paperless Office...Are You Ready?

Face it; the financial industry is about paper and more paper. Think about the amount of marketing material, client statements and forms that you are required to fill to conduct and transact business.

Whether you like it or not, paperwork will continue to mount as regulators require more of it for public protection. The term "paperless office" has been hyped as the direction advisors are headed if they want to be efficient. But is it really for you?

Advisors don't need to consider a paperless office unless they deal with large amounts of paper. You need to be able to produce historical information periodically, or keep documents for legal purposes. You work within a regulatory framework.

More on the Paper Less Office click here

Compliant In a High-Tech World

There are many people who play a role in helping advisors build and maintain their relationships with clients. But despite sharing the same goals, there are two areas that often come into conflict: the compliance department at head office, which aims to help you avoid the wrath of disenchanted clients and regulators, and the product sponsors who want you to sell their wares and keep them in business.

With each having a vested interest in your business, is it any wonder that when it comes to client communication, there is a clash between the two? But, take heart; careful treading can help you create winning client communications and stay on the good side of compliance.

For more of keeping Compliance happy click here

The Technology Efficiency Factor

The concept of a remote office is not a new one. One of the many benefits of technology is the freedom to escape the confines of your office and run your practice from anywhere in the world.

Advisors are demanding a quality of life that allows them to be at home, at the cottage, or on an extended vacation and still have access to their systems.

The idea of a remote office for some people might be radical stuff, as they might need the actual structure of an office not only for meeting clients, but also social interaction.

Putting the social and physical aspects aside, there is a segment of advisors who do like the remote aspect as it has allowed them to focus on tasks without interruptions.

They are not required for face-to-face team meetings, clients do not need to see them at a moments notice and the branch manager measures their productivity by performance not attendance.

David Stephenson, president, PowerAssist Technologies, of Waterdown, Ontario, Canada, calls this "The Technology Efficiency Factor" (TTEF). He says this is the speed of which you can operate your practice within an environment as a percentage compared to your normal work environment. The second component of the TTEF is the practical ability to conduct your business compared to your work environment.

For example, you could get your work phone forwarded to your home. The SPEED at which you conduct business is exactly the same - the Speed TTEF for the 'phone' would be 100%.

However, if you do not have a dedicated line, your practical TTEF would be considerably less - depending on your corporate standards. Your voicemail would be that of your home, and you could also run the risk of other members in your household picking up the line, which would be unprofessional and unacceptable.

Stevenson says more and more advisors are discovering and enjoying the benefits to being "remote". With technology an advisor now has the option to have fast access to their client data -from anywhere.

You can update client relationship manager (CRM) software and process the changes with the team back at the office, even if the data goes across slow telephone lines. "My Remote Office" is part of the AdvisorPower Online Solution developed by PowerAssist Technologies. David Stevenson believes that as margins continue to get smaller, advisors will realize that outsourcing their CRM can increase productivity and be very cost effective.

With this service you have your database hosted, you are provided additional security, and 'real-time' support and disaster recovery all for a low monthly fee.

This is a PC based system that is fast and flexible. PowerAssist uses the power of a local PC and takes advantage of an Internet connection to synchronize any changes you might have to your data.

You are in complete control of your data at all times, but the extra advantage you gain is having off- site secure back ups and online data management services.

Security measures for "My Remote Office" is high level, it starts with the data being stored behind a firewall. Only the end user knows the IP and physical location of the data, it is also encrypted and only the end user has the ability to read the data as it is embedded in the software that only PowerAssist provides.

To go remote is very easy and takes typically about 2 working days to allow for a complete data transfer. Then allow time for some technical set-up and 30 minutes of personal set-up instruction over the phone.

Success Secrets To Leveraging Time

You should look at utilizing software to cover these seven needs-

• (1) Contact management

• (2) Portfolio management software for statements

• (3) Financial planning analysis software

• (4) Market / research management software

• (5) Non managed assets tracking software

• (6) Hand held pc- time and data management technology

• (7) Websites and services

OBJECTIVE- The most successful financial advisors learned early on in their career that time management is vital to success. How many time management courses have you taken? How many software presentations have you sat through.

If you are like me you embrace what technology can do for your business, yet you lack the time to learn about all the technology that can help your business. I have a file of technology to review, yet I never seem to get to that file. When I started in the business in 1989, our office was still using rate books and rate cards for insurance.

Can you imagine how productive you would be if this were the case today?

Making your practice more efficient by leveraging the use of technology. Imagine if you sold your practice today. Do you have systems in place for gathering data such as name and address lists, prospect and centers of influence lists, a 90 day call rotation schedule for your clients, a review process, a financial planning and research process.

Or are you old school and doing it on paper and by memory? Think of your business as a franchise. If I stepped in tomorrow, would I have technology systems in place to carry on and make it a productive and profitable practice? Or would I have to search in each file for information? Look at your existing software and see if you have all five components to make your practice an effective success.

STRATEGY - (1) Contact management-Check out this website for links to some great contact management programs.This is a key area of your business!!

(2)Portfolio Management - Most firms have packaged up software for financial planners, but because we are individual business people, we look for software that we know is useful to our practice. However we don’t want to spend an enormous amount of time and energy learning software, because we know it keeps changing and we can waste valuable time constantly learning new systems.

The strategy is clear. Find the best systems and technology for your practice. This means systems that will leverage time for us, not software that promises to do more than leverage our time. If a software vendor can’t convey this benefit to me in five minutes or less, I simply discard it.

I need cookie cutter systems to run my franchise. Systems that we can learn and use as a team, not some specialty program that will take three weeks to learn and run. Portfolio management software systems which are fully compliant for their representatives.

Make sure that you and your team learn the best way to present information to your clients. So many systems have graphics capabilities, and colour does sell. Colour pie charts is an excellent way to illustrate simple concepts to clients.

(3) Financial planning analysis software. There is nothing worse than having your client ask you after being a client for years ' do I have enough money to retire in two years? '

You then respond by saying yes without having a written financial plan to illustrate to them that they indeed have enough to retire. You may know that they have enough, but it is more important that they understand it and they know.

Depending on the type of practice you have such as specialized estate planning or general financial planning, your needs for this software will vary. The basic requirements of the software should be simulations of real life situations for retirement and estate planning.

You should also have asset allocation software for simple and advanced portfolio analysis that can also design investment policy statements for your clients.

While there are thousands of variations of software to examine and hundreds of client financial planning situations, a good word processor and spreadsheet will also do a great job of a hand crafted financial plan.

(4) Market / research management software. Years ago I had to pay thousands to have tax programs, research programs and data available on a monthly basis. Now a lot of information is over the internet on some excellent websites for free.

I could write another book on the internet and it’s uses for financial planners, but I will summarize that the internet has three main uses, research, client services and marketing communications. See the strategy on email.

Although a majority of information is on the web, there is still a need for professional programs to do additional research. If you sell mutual funds,mutual fund research software can be an invaluable tool for research and creating and simulating portfolios. This software can also help you research insurance, stocks or other investment instruments.

(5) Non managed asset Tracking- Have a way to keep track of your clients other assets that you do not manage. See strategy on managing non-managed assets. How many times have you heard clients mention that they have assets elsewhere that are not working that hard for them and eventually they will bring them to you.

You may forget about them, but the client hasn’t. Also at the back of the book is a demo of this type of software that I have designed for my practice and my clients find as a valuable service to keep track of their assets.

(6) Another piece of the puzzle is a piece of technology that replaces your pager, cell phone, day-timer, calculator, notepad and business card index. The technology that takes minutes to learn is an invaluable tool for time management. The pocket pc cell phone / palm pilot system is by far the best piece of equipment since the cell phone came along.

Have you ever driven to an appointment and forgot the address or telephone number? Have you ever made an appointment and had your assistant make an appointment on the same day at the same time and not communicate effectively? With this system, it can be an extremely effective tool for productivity.

I had a top producer introduce the system to me and in less than three minutes, I was using the system. This is a no-brainer to add to your practice.

( 7) The Internet – Do you use the web on a daily basis? Do your clients ? Do you have a website ? Do you use email on a regular basis? O you have a website strategy? These questions are explored throughout the book in additional strategies, but here are some ideas to help you.

First, see where you are spending money on software and see if you can’t get it for free on the internet.

Second, look at your website? Can it be improved ? Third, if you are looking for a book of business, send out an email to other representatives who have a website in your area.

Finally, check out

www.financialadvisormarketing.com for links to the best marketing ideas and websites for financial advisors.

GRANT’S TIP- Make sure you don’t spend too much time in front of your computer screen examining and learning software programs. Some advisors use the computer screen as a part of call reluctance. After all you can spend countless hours on the internet at home, why not at work. Take computer courses or have a computer trainer.

Put that in your annual planning budget. Consider the time it takes to complete a full financial plan. Consider hiring someone to do your financial plans. Then you would complete the plan and add in your recommendations. I have certified financial planners who can complete the plans for me and save a lot of time.

For your handheld pc device, make sure that with your team or assistants you inject one rule for setting appointments. Synchronize your software twice a day, first thing and at the end of the day and don’t set appointments in the system for the current day.

As always with all software and technology, make sure you have backup procedures in place and system maintenance. Find a technology person and hire them on contract to maintain your systems.

Make sure as part of your business plan, you allocate enough resources to technology, since technology leverages your time and can make you a lot of money or save you a lot of time. Ask the top planners what they use for software and ask to see samples of their financial planning documents.

Action summary

To add to my marketing plans Yes ______ No_______

Additional Information required _______

Copyright 2003 By: Grant W. Hicks, C.I.M.,FCSI Co-author of "Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors", Trafford Publishing 2003. Buy today online at: www.financialadvisormarketing.com

Remember: Always check with your compliance office first, before completing any marketing.

Electronic Etiquette

In 1935, United States citizens were about to be overwhelmed with a nine-digit number -- their Social Security number. For some, it probably seemed very impersonal to be thought of as a "number." Today, technology requires us to use many numbers for telephones, fax machines, cellular phones, and email. Often, these mediums can be very impersonal. However, by applying some "electronic etiquette", we can make our digital communication "warmer".

When I've given presentations on customer service, many businesspeople who live by electronic communication have shared their strategies with me. Here are some of the best:

Keep the message concise and detailed. Speak slowly when giving your name and telephone number. How many times have you replayed a message and became frustrated because you couldn't understand it? As far as the details are concerned, instead of leaving a message such as, "Call me so we can prepare for the presentation," say, "For the presentation this Monday, let's decide on an exact location and time."

Here's a tip that can dramatically improve getting voice mail messages returned. When you leave a message, the last word to leave, after you say goodbye, should be the person's name.

This personalizes the message. It's warmer and friendlier when someone picks up a message and hears, "...thanks, I'll speak to you soon. Bye, Tom" (of course, that's if the person you're calling is named Tom).

While leaving a thorough message helps, your tone of voice could be even more important. People can hear a "smile" on the phone, and they certainly can hear your attitude. When you leave upbeat messages, it invites the recipient to call you back. One way to test this out is to leave yourself a voice mail. Play the messages back and critique yourself.

Also, take into account the length of your messages. When you have to leave a long message, say that up-front. The recipient will appreciate hearing the reason for your extended message. For example say, "I'm going out of the country for 10 days tomorrow, so please excuse this long message about our unfinished business."

It's been said that, "timing is everything." Returning messages promptly can make or break a deal. Work towards returning every message you get within 24 hours. When people ask you to "call them back," it could be that they're considering another vendor, and want to give you a chance to counter the offer. People don't always say why they're leaving a message. It's your job to respond to them promptly and find out.

A Gallup/Pitney Bowes poll revealed that 64 percent of Fortune 500 employees who now have email would still rather get a fax than an email message. The message for us is that we should make sure that we communicate using people's "electronic preferences." And since faxing is still a key part of doing business, here are a few things to remember:

For advisors, a fax can be a great tool to use for following up a phone call. Often, a voice mail or email can be easily erased, a fax is a perfect paper back up to make sure that messages have been received.

Faxes can also be a deal "sealer." After you have completed a negotiation, you might want to get something in the customer's hands that confirms your agreement. It doesn't have to be the final contract. Rather, it could be a note that is hand written which says, "Thanks for the order. In the meantime, call me when you need something else."

Whatever the case, ask your clients if they approve of you sending a fax. Since most fax machines are in common office areas, your clients may not want others to see their messages.

While email provides almost instant electronic communication, it's important that we take the time to use it effectively.

Many times we use email to replace what would have been a note, memo, or letter. In using email, make sure it looks professional. For example, what you send might be printed out and be distributed to other people. Therefore, when it's a memo, make sure it looks like a memo.

Also, carefully check the grammar and spelling. Many word processing programs help us "clean up" our copy. That's not always the case with email. The correct punctuation and salutation should be remembered.

One thing that’s sure to be remembered, is having the "wrong" people see what you sent. We've heard the horror stories, in which confidential messages inadvertently found their way into everyone's email in-box. Therefore, you might need to avoid including sensitive information in an email.

Finally, make sure you add at the end of every message your full name, title, email, phone and fax numbers. Sometimes the only way people know where it's from is by looking at your email address. If it's "09095QWE@aol.com, chances are they may not know it's from you.

Since email usage is only going to increase, now is the time to get in the habit of using email etiquette.

It seems that there was a time when the only people who needed cell phones were doctors and undertakers. Now, cell phones are a requirement for many salespeople, especially those who are often "on the road." Regardless of how you might use yours, there are some basic rules to keep in mind.

Since cell phones can go everywhere, be sensitive to your environment when you call people. For example, be careful not to stand near a noisy place such as a construction site. Also, be considerate of those around you. Recently I was in a library and someone was loudly chatting away on his phone, while people were trying to concentrate.

Another "call to courtesy" is when you meet with a client in a place away from the office. A restaurant, for example, allows you to get away from the distractions of an office. Therefore, unless you're expecting an emergency call, shut the cell phone off. Your clients will appreciate it if you're not taking calls with food in your mouth.

Your clients will also appreciate it if you refrain from talking to them on your phone while you're driving. This is because you're unable to give them your full attention. People can sense when we're not completely listening. Remember, it's better to stop the car and then call clients. The conversation will be focused, and you'll be able to communicate more successfully.

All of our electronic "tools" can never take the place of direct interpersonal communication. Take a look at your client list and think about all the numbers you have to reach them. Remember, there are people behind those digits who want to connect with you. Whatever "tool" you use, make sure it will get the job done with grace and style.

Andrea Nierenberg, "a networking success story" (The Wall Street Journal), is the author of Nonstop Networking: How to Improve Your Life, Luck and Career. Ms. Nierenberg works with leading companies to improve interpersonal communications for management and staff. She offers keynote addresses and custom-designed programs on motivational techniques, networking tactics, and presentation skills.

To contact Andrea Nierenberg, write to The Nierenberg Group, 420 E. 51st Street, Suite 12D, New York, NY 10022. She can be reached by phone at 888-605-5911 or by e-mail at info@mybusinessrelationships.com, web address: Business Realtionships.com

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