If you're anything like me, you're crazy busy, juggling way too much, and find yourself downloading your brain onto your technology. (If you're not, how are you doing all this juggling? I'd really like to know!) If you haven't invested in the iPhone 4s yet, here's a huge reason why you might consider it.
Siri.
Yes, I know I'm a Johnny-come-lately with my review. Yes, I also know that sometimes Siri's responses are ridiculous if not maddening. But hear me out.
Because of Siri, voice-to-text functionality is woven into many standard and third-party apps on the newest iPhone. And it can make your life so much easier.
I missed the era of having a secretary to take or transcribe dictation. Fortunately when I came of professional age, women had way more options, and thanks to Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, I've almost always had a computer at my desk or on my lap. This also means I've always done my own typing, and I'm pretty fast. But not as fast as I can speak.
Enter Siri. In Notes, Reminders, iMessage, and other apps, tap the microphone on the keyboard, speak what you need to have typed, and off Siri goes. Instant document.
Using Evernote, synced automatically in the cloud to my desktop and iPad, I have created rough drafts of documents that ordinarily take hours to craft in less than 30 minutes. If you do any writing in your career or life, you know that the first draft is usually the killer. Once you have something down on paper/screen, editing and revising and molding the final draft is much easier.
Here are a few ways how the iPhone 4s can support your sponsorship sales effort:
- Relationship-building. When you leave a meeting with a client or prospect, sit in your car or on a nearby park bench and take 5 minutes to dictate your notes into Evernote, Simple Note, Notes, or whatever app you prefer. Impress your client and build your relationship with thoughtful follow-up that emerges from each discussion – because you have a record of it.
- Responsiveness. Have Siri schedule Reminders so that you're timely, responsive, and client-focused with your next steps.
- Proactive. Schedule your next appointment with iCal and have Siri send a confirmation email with an agenda to get your sponsor or prospect focused. You gain from conducting business professionally and buld trust by taking care of these details, guiding the relationship along.
- Ideas. When you leave your client meeting, you're going to have more ideas. Siri can keep track of them for you, so that you don't forget them or have an accident trying to write them down or type them.
- First draft. When it's time to write the proposal, dictate the first draft into Evernote or Notes. Create short sections at a time and always save. Also, make sure you're hitting the microphone and not the button to capitalize words, which I did a couple times, losing my brilliant sentence into the air. You'll save time and have your rough draft in minutes.
What about you? Have you found great apps and/or uses for Siri that you can share?
