Why A Mobile Sales Team Beats The Competiton
Written by: Stephanie Dart
Today’s sales teams work in a hyper-fast and competitive environment—salespeople and other field-based workers require instant access to information and insights from wherever they are and from whatever device they choose. To stay relevant and ahead of the competition, sales reps cannot afford to wait until they are in the office to be productive and capitalize on new opportunities. Five minutes before going into an appointment, sales reps need real-time information about what’s happening with prospects. They need to know what conversations are going on about those prospects and they need additional market data and news feeds. Did the prospect recently go through an acquisition? Is there an existing service issue with this customer that they might not know about?
Some companies think that the solution is to provide the same applications on all devices—whether it is a desktop computer in the office through a touch-enabled mobile device, like a tablet. To me, that doesn’t go far enough. An experience that is specific to the device and the role of the person using it is more ideal. Imagine applications for process-oriented roles, to make sure people get what they need, when they need it. Mobile applications should move beyond static data—lists and forms. Wouldn’t it be better for the sales person to be guided by the software and to have the experience tailored to his or her particular role?
The people at Sealord have been extremely impressed with the capabilities offered around mobility by leveraging both Microsoft Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Windows 8. The combination has allowed them to develop a unique end user experience at low cost that simplifies how they interact with the business process system. Neville Richardson, CIO at Sealord, tells us that the feedback from the company’s teams in the field has been excellent, including this latest message: “The Mobile App that Datacom developed for us is going to make Out of Stock issues and Account wide ranging so much easier to track and correct, and being able to see live trade spend data rather than waiting for the end of month accounts is going to allow us to control our costs and budgets more proactively.”
I think there’s an opportunity for the best sales organizations—like those at Sealord—to use new trends, like BYOD and better mobile apps, for competitive advantage. Sales executives, managers, and professionals all need to be equipped with the right tools to win. The tools must provide organizations with efficiencies for internal processes and help advance initial relationships into profitable customer accounts and strategic partnerships.
All of this helps sales teams to outsmart and outpace the competition, to learn to win as a team, to create compelling and differentiated customer interactions, and ultimately to close more deals faster—to become a truly Dynamic Sales Team.
Post originally written for Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/microsoftdynamics/2013/05/03/building-a-dynamic-mobile-sales-team/
