You’ve got to love technology for what it has facilitated for each of us who would otherwise never have had access to various things beyond our wildest imagination. Put simply, today’s mobile user can employ the power of their smartphones and tablets toward developing not only more, but more effective relationships. Meaningful business comes from meaningful relationships, and they should be a central focus not only as to how but also why you should add relationship management in your arsenal of mobile device applications. After all, aren’t your relationships the lifeblood of your business? Up to now relatively few have been able to benefit from technologies that enabled them to focus on the customer, but mobile devices, and your choice to use it more productively, has finally offered all of us a means by which nothing can slip through the cracks when it comes to having a better network in a person-to-person sense.

In business one thing is certain, there is competition, and whether large or small they want you to be a casualty. They are employing technologies to help them win business at a faster and more effective means of doing so then ever before, and they are able to because they are utilizing better means to know, and reach, the customer. So how can today’s mobile devices be used more productively but also more effectively to help you to compete more successfully? One of those ways is to use them for relationship management, and with mobile devices there no longer is an excuse for you not to do so since the strength of your business efforts is not just the product or service that you provide, but perhaps more importantly it is the attention that you deliver in managing the depth and strength of the relationships that you have, want to have, and will need to have to grow your business – and in the process not only get but maintain a competitive edge.

Beginning back in the mid-80’s the laptop computer enabled people for the first time to employ mobile technology to capitalize on not just having access to their spreadsheets and word documents with them at all times but also their contact information, both business and personal.  It is not coincidental that what most found most useful to them from all of the applications that they carried with them on their laptops was the breadth and depth of everyone that they knew, and everything that they knew about each of those contacts. They were, in one sense, the first business “athletes” to recognize that with mobile technology business was more than ever before a contact sport, and in the process became even more professional than their competitors. To them, they discovered that there was no traffic jam on the extra mile when it came to obtaining that competitive edge because compared to others who did not use mobile devices at all, or not as purposefully regarding relationship management, they were more in control and command relationally speaking. Compared to today’s ubiquitous mobile device user, however, only a few enjoyed its benefits.  But those days are gone, and today with millions carrying their mobile devices with them nearly everywhere they go, there is not better time, or way, to manage your relationships, calendars, and communications to win more business.

Imagine if you could have not only everything else you use your mobile device for, but now adding to it the ability to have instant recall, on-demand, photographic-memory-like detail access regarding your relationships and everything that you know about them. Not in a social media way, so to speak, where your competitors have the same publicly available same information, but instead going beyond that with more private and personal relationship information. Since most people don’t have, could never afford, or simply don’t have the kind of job that facilitates being assisted by someone else, your mobile device can now become that assistant for you. 

In today’s world, whether you work for yourself, a small company, or even a large one, everyone must understand that they are their own business and that their “employment” is dependent on their productivity and results, and most of those can’t occur without a stronger base of relationships and networks. Further, everyone must realize that whether they like it or not they are in sales. That’s right, whether you do accounting, law, architecture, consulting, coaching, counseling, what you are is a salesperson. Why? Well, who isn’t relationship-centric is what they do their work for? And if you are relationship-centric, then one of the elements ever before you in business is developing and maintaining a differentiation from your competitors.

Every relationship that you have has innumerable other ones behind it that depending on how you manage your direct relationships with each individual will determine whether or not you obtain access to them. But nobody is going to risk their reputation by recommending someone that not only they don’t know very well, but also with people who know them as well and have earned the right for being recommended. Your mobile device coupled with a mobile relationship manager can be one of the most strategic items you can now have to win more business.

We are all made of the same stuff, we just don’t all use our stuff the same. Use your mobile device to help you have the “right stuff” when it comes to the quality, and quantity, of your relationships.

About Mike Muhney

Mike Muhney is the Co-Inventor of ACT!, and is a recognized expert in the domain of Relationships and Reputations having pioneered the entire Relationship Management and CRM global industry. Today Mike is a Keynote Professional Speaker sharing principle-based insights and inspiration helping people and businesses to achieve greater and stronger relevant relationships from which all livelihoods and success depends. Using his S.T.A.R. program he helps people and businesses understand how to achieve not only excellent but elite relationship connections and elevate their reputations that drive referrals and sustained customer loyalty.  Visit www.MikeMuhney.com for further information. Mike can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..