Instant messaging to follow up and build sales
July 26th, 2007 | by Brook Durant |
- Interactive
- It is a “back and forth” method of communication between all parties involved.
- Cost-effective
- Depending on if used via the internet or a wireless phone carrier (and your plan with the carrier) this may or may not be included with the cost of your current service plan.
- Interactive participlation
- Because the communication is nearly instantaneous between all parties involved it is allows for a real-time exchange of information. You don’t need to wait hours (sometimes days) for someone to answer your emails. There are only two faster forms of communications in the modern world. Face to face and over the phone.
- Available 24/7
- If you can get online (or you have a signal on your wireless phone/device) you can communicate with your prospects and they can communicate with you anytime of day, anywhere in the world. This means you need to be prepared and on your “A” game at all times when it comes to communicating and following up with your clients.
- MOST modern wireless phone carriers support it
- You’ll have to contact you own carrier regarding if this method of communication is available and the costs associated with it. Most of the time costs are minimal if they exist at all. For your convience I’ve listed a few of the United States carriers with links to their policies. It is your responsibility to contact your carrier directly and get the information first hand. I’ve tested many different instant messaging clients over the past few years. Some were better than others, but all have lacked in functionality to one extent or another. One of the biggest problems I had was the fact that my friends, family, and clients were all using different instant messangers and often times multiple screen names on multiple protocols depending on the purpose of that client. The same was true of myself and depending on how the IM was coded I wouldn’t be able to use more than one screen name at a time.
Introducing Trillian
Trillian known as, The Swiss Army Knife of Instant Messaging was released on July 1 2000 by Cerulean Studios has proven itself to be one of the most robust, stable, and reliable instant messaging clients I have ever come across. The one feature that makes it more enticing than the rest is that it can be used across multiple protocols. Do some of your contacts use MSN, some use Yahoo, some use ICQ, some use AIM…? If so Trillian can handle that. Do you, like me have multiple screen names for multiple messengers? Trillian can handle that too.
The really nice thing is that I only need one Trillian client open to do all of that! As of this writing I have 5 IM handles active (3 Yahoo, and 2 MSN) and “chatting” with 8 different people. I could easily log into more and start chatting with more “friends” if I wanted to. I’m not going to get into the details of how to use Trillian, but everyone who has an internet connection should consider using it as your instant messaging client of choice for both customer follow up, and general communications.
Download Trillian
To download your FREE version of Trillian click on the banner below. It should be noted that Trillian also has paid version known as Trillian Pro, but for most people the free version is more than adequate. Finally I’m sad to say that at this point Trillian is not available to mobile phone users, BUT there is something called IM Everywhere which will apparently allow you to use it on your phone. I’ve never tested it so I don’t know the first thing about IM Everywhere, but if you decide you like Trillian it might be worth a look.
Trillian Support
Once you have Trillian you’ll want to know how to use it. As I said before it is beyond the intent of this article to teach you how to use the client, but here are a few resources that will get you started.
And finally that list of the larger national US phone carriers with links to their Instant Messaging policies and rates. As I mentioned earlier you need to be responsible and contact them directly to discuss it with them. I strongly urge a phone call and not an email to their support. It is imperative that you are completely clear on all charges as this can potentially save you thousands of dollars.
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Tags: instant messaging, trillian
By Jack on Apr 18, 2008
Thx for the post, but what about ICQ?
Jack’s last blog post..Tag Heuer Meridiist - True Vertu Alternative
By A Blog about Nothing on Apr 18, 2008
Jack - What about it? You’d use it the same way with the same principals.