4 Ways to Use Mobile to Skyrocket Sales There are powerful mobile tools for sales reps, yet only a minority of reps are taking advantage of what is, literally, at hand.
By Ran Avrahamy Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It natural that salespeople would implement mobile practices into their sales strategy, yet only 40 percent of salespeople are currently taking advantage of mobile solutions. The benefits are substantial, ranging from efficiency to avoiding errors and promoting brand experience. Here are four ways you can implement mobile into your sales force to skyrocket sales.
1. Walk the walk and talk the talk.
Salespeople have to show off this waft of confidence to persuade people to take their advice and believe in their product. The salesperson must give an impression that they're an expert in the field to prove they're worth the customer's time.
The biggest influencer in your sales pitch is your confidence. Confidence is highly correlated with knowing your facts. In the past, having the latest information about your customer required carrying around bundles of paper and shuffling through different piles to get to the relevant information.
With mobile solutions, the salesperson can check previous records on the customer, compare their items with others and automatically update the system with the click of one button. Mobile expedite this process and gives the customer a feeling that you know what you're doing because you're doing it with confidence.
Case Study: High-end Spanish fashion brand, Escorpion employed iPad and mobile solutions for their whole sales team in 2013. Using the Pepperi solution for sales teams they were able to transform their overall brand image. They found that customers automatically thought more highly of the sales reps because of their shiny new devices and high quality photos available on the device. Not only were the customers happier, but the sales reps also reported being more satisfied, as well as gaining an increased sense of confidence and a new toy to play with.
Related: Sales on Mobile Are Booming, So It's Time to Think Small Screen First
2. Stay connected with your customers.
Many sales teams are switching to CRM mobile platforms to keep up with the fast paced and mobile lives of their sales team. The same way that your sales force is flexible and easily adaptable to last minute changes, your CRM system should be as well.
Salespeople are constantly on the go and traveling to new places. To keep them in the know and in constant contact with customers, it's essential for them to be able to access this information and quickly chat with customers on the go.
A mobile CRM will provide the salespeople with all of the up-to-date information immediately, such as pricing, account history and recently purchased products to prepare to efficiently close the sale. Essentially, with the adaption of CRM mobile platforms such as the Salesforce1 app people have learned to run their business by their phone.
Case Study: The Chief Digital Officer at TOM's said, "Salesforce gives us a view of every facet of our customer interactions. It's key to continuing to grow and nurture all of our relationships and deliver on our movement and mission."
Mobile CRM allows companies to increase sales by giving the salespeople all the relevant information at their fingertips and weeding out the unnecessary. It also provides them with an instant flashback to their most recent conversation, or colleague's most recent conversation with the customer. This allows for more meaningful conversation right off the bat and enabling them to cut to the chase of your CTA to increase sales significantly.
3. Socializing in the social world.
Salespeople are moving their profession and their customer base into the social kingdom. The most astounding statistic perhaps is that 78.6 percent of salespeople using social media are outperforming their peers who haven't yet joined the fad. We're all inseparable with our phones, but when we dive deeper into these habits, we find that the majority of time spent on mobile devices is spent using social networks.
It's no wonder salespeople who are taking advantage of these platforms are outselling their peers; this is where everyone is hanging out. Everyone you see looking at their phone while waiting in line at Starbucks is inevitably checking out their social news feeds, so the best and most natural place to influence your customers is right there where the action is. This type of social behavior and interaction is not only building your brand's reputation, but it's also helping to bridge the gap between sales and customer service.
There's multiple different ways to utilize the social world to help your sales force. It may be difficult for many salespeople to take the backseat, but just listening and monitoring what's going on with your customers and prospective customers via social media channels can be a very valuable tool.
Keying in to what keywords are trending, can lead you to potential customers, and help you satisfy and maintain your current customers. Tools like SocialMention make it very easy to scan the social outlets your customer's are using to hone in on relevant leads.
Case Study: Whole Foods has one of the largest Twitter followings of any retailer, now surpassing 1.75 million. The biggest reason they've gained such a huge following is by using their twitter feed as a customer service tool. Most of their feed -- 90 percent -- is responding directly to people who have questions. They have people constantly responding to the feed on their mobile devices so customers receive the timely responses they love so much.
Related: Square Lands Its Next Big Deal: Whole Foods
4. Analytics and measurements.
By viewing each unique customers specific behaviors we can change our sales plans to be more appropriate for them in the future. Predictive analytics can help us to generate statistics about quality leads. Some leads may be ready to buy right away, while others take some more convincing. Using analytics helps you to prioritize your leads for the most efficiency and directs clients to specific salespeople to help with their specific needs.
Analytical and tracking services allow us to track mobile users and see the effectiveness of certain sales calls, which sales tactics are most effective, and other overall trends and patterns in the data. This data allows us to focus more efforts in the right places to acquire more sales.
Case Study: A leading US pharmaceutical company began employing a mobile analytics and sales reporting solution to decrease decision-making time with sales data. By partnering with a mobile analytic solution they were able to cut down days in turnaround time for data requests as well as integrate their sales data with key operational data.
There are good reasons why 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are turning toward mobile and tablet solutions for their business. These are four simple ways you can incorporate mobile solutions into your sales team's daily work routine and close the sale. Salespeople, like many of us today, are using their phones all of the time anyway so streamlining the sales process onto the mobile as well is just another way to be more efficient and see your sales skyrocket.
Related: 5 Dashboards for the Data Every Business Needs to Track
