In a highly competitive IT channel business, constant learning and time management become very important for partners to sustain in the business. As many partners are seen grappling with shortage of time and can hardly focus on their personal learning, simple productivity hacks can help them save time in routine and operational work and focus on the core business.
Today smartphones and social media apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp has become a core part of the channel business where partners leverage these platforms for business communications. However, many partners are not fully aware of some of the unique features these platforms offer for business growth.
“Many partners use WhatApp for business communication, however, most of them find it bit uncomfortable typing messages over their smartphones. I use synchronized version of WhatApp on my PC for easy chatting. With this I can instantly share documents, media files and other stuff related to business. This is my productivity hack to stay connected with my customers and dealers”, says Nitin Sarang, Owner of Premier Enterprises.
A basic smartphone also offers a number of features and in-built apps for work productivity. Apps such as Text Expander, Wonder list and features like shortcut keys and fingerprint for apps setting can be used to avoid efforts to press multiple keys. It is not always possible to manually feed contact details of people into the smartphones. Here the apps such as camcard can be a great help to partners.
“I use a card scanner app to automatically enter visiting cards into the address book when I meet people. Along with that I also attach a note about date, purpose and venue to later refer to when meet the person next. This makes them feel important as everyone wants to be memorable,” said Kshitij Kotak, Chief Innovator Officer at Fortune Grecells.
Partners can also make an efficient use of both known and less known Google apps to plan their daily schedule. Many partners even use the CRM solutions for managing their personal tasks. Despite of several productivity enhance tools available in the market, many partners believe that early start and delegation of work can resolve 90 percent of issues.
“Many business leaders think that they need to addresses the routine operations and processes but it is not true. Business owners should free themselves from day to day operational activities and more focus on innovation and marketing”, said Anil Thomas, founder of Mustard Seed Training & Assessment Systems.
There are hundreds of free and paid tools and solutions available in the market, which can be beneficial for partners. However, they need to understand their need and requirement and accordingly select the solution to increase their productivity and efficiency.