I've recently been involved in a number of projects involving the use of computers in sales environments. Every software vendors insists that their product is "easy to use," "makes sales productive" and "creates a competitive advantage." It's a little like Garrison Keillor's description of Lake Wobegon, where "every kid is above average."

I'm curious about how much of that hype is actually real, so I'm going to ask the experts - meaning you guys - to give me the real skinny. Here's what I'd like you to do:

Copy the following list of technologies, paste them into a comment, and arrange them according to usefulness, the most useful first, the least useful last.

Customer Relationship Management

Electronic Mail

Cellular Telephone

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

I've presented them in alphabetical order above to remove any accidental favoritism.

Needless to say, if you've got something more detailed to say about any of these technologies, please add it to your comment.