This is a device that you can carry with you easily. It could be something like a Palm® Pilot, Pocket PC device or other handheld device. Usually these devices enable you to keep a list of customers, maintain your calendar, send e-mail (on some units) and do other functions that would previously have only been available on a laptop computer.

I’m using a Palm Tungsten/T ™ at this time. This little device gives me the ability to keep thousands of people along with their contact information in a small, under 4 oz. tool that I can carry with me anywhere I go. I can synchronize my ACT! database of names with this through the touch of a button.

I also use a great tool called Audacity™ available through Amtel Technologies (www.amteltech.com). With a quick press of a button on the side of my Palm I get an audio recording that is stored on the removable storage device that comes with the Palm. This provides an unlimited amount of audio that can be stored (only dependent on the size of your storage card and the number of cards you have).

This enhances relationships as I can find out important phone numbers, fax numbers and important information for important people wherever I need it.

In addition to the ability to contact specific people, I also use the Calendar feature to schedule appointments and To Dos with them. This gives me the ability to not just have another To Do but rather lock in a specific time to get that task completed. This moves the task from the “Gee, I ought to do that someday,” category to the “It will be completed at this time” more-productive category. The fact that the Calendar has an alarm on it helps to remind me of what needs to be done.

The Calendar also has notes attached to each To Do that you would put into the appointment. This way you can plug in what you need to know about your meeting, what they said, etc.

I have a system set up on my Palm so that dates on the calendar synchronize with my calendar on Yahoo, the online calendar, e-mail and much more service available at www.yahoo.com. I can put important meetings into my Yahoo calendar and then synch them to my Palm with the touch of a button.

Another advantage of this is that I can enter important calendar events from any Internet-accessible device anywhere on the planet. That makes it very easy when I’m traveling. I know that the information is available for me or anyone to whom I choose to give my password. I also know it is available in a safe, secure place just in case I ever misplaced my Palm. It would be terrible to lose my Tungsten/T Palm but rather than being devastated at its loss, I can recover by getting access to the Net.

Remember the way it was done in the old days? You had to have a paper calendar to write down things. It had no alarm so you could neglect an important scheduled meeting unless you paid careful attention.

Also, if you lost your calendar, you’d be in serious trouble. This is a terrible experience that no one should have to endure and you don’t have to with a PDA.

I found several other relationship-enhancing benefits from the PDA. Many of them now provide the ability to check, receive and send e-mail. You can stay in touch with important people easier by having a small, light-weight device which can check e-mail and specific websites. Staying in touch is the key to building relationships.

There is more you can do with a PDA, when properly deployed and used. Find a good one that works for you and use it. You will find a wealth of information and powerful relationship-building capabilities with PDA.

Terry Brock is an internationally recognized professional speaker, consultant and author in the fields of business productivity, technology and marketing. His is a syndicated columnist for Biz Journals across America and can be reached at 407-363-0505 or by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com.