CareerJournal.com pens an article titled Mobile Workers Tie In With Hand-Held Devices.  I hope most of the information in the article is familiar to you since mobile PDA phones are more than a passing fancy.  The article reads like a state of the industry address with a couple of notable points.

First, the sheer size of this industry (my emphasis):

There are an estimated 50 million “mobile” workers in the U.S., those who have no desk or spend more than 25% of their time outside the office, according to Frost & Sullivan, a business-research and consultancy firm.

Catch that?  No desk – totally mobile.  This new format is more than a trend.  We are working on positions in multiple states and the distributed sales force (salespeople living in the territory) is our clients’ most common approach.  Obviously, this new structure requires sales managers with different skill sets.

Even the U.S. government is getting into the act:

The U.S. government also plans to connect its mobile workers to central databases through hand-held devices. Last year, the Census Bureau spent $600 million to buy 500,000 hand-held devices, equipped with technology provided by Microsoft and Harris Corp. Census employees will use the devices instead of paper forms to record data.

Being a small company, we are highly dependent upon our mobile devices to handle multiple communication channels while we are on the road.  If you do not offer such options to your salespeople, now is the time to offer them these common tools.  Your team’s efficiency will improve dramatically.

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This is from a shady-looking sales employment ad:

Now is the time to get into the fast paced sales industry. We are looking for mativated (sic) well spoken individuals with a loose tongue.

I’m speechless.

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