Does your sales team need a mobile app?

Mobile apps have changed the way we perceive time. Gone are the days where we used to send an email and wait for hours for a response. This is the age of Instagram DMs and Whatsapp — anything more than a few minutes delay in response is too long.

It is only natural that mobile apps having shaped our everyday lives have also changed the way business is done. The way businesses interact with customers is fast changing, customers now expect quick responses and immediate information in this uber-connected world.

Talking about business, sales is one of the most integral parts of a business. Often, your sales reps are the first point of human contact for your customers. They are the ones constantly interacting and connecting with them. If your sales reps want to truly connect and deliver amazing experiences, they have to be lightning quick in their interactions — this is where a mobile app can come in handy.

Meet Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill are two sales representatives. They aren’t always at their desks and go up the hill frequently. When they get back to the office, Jack is flooded and overwhelmed with leads she has to contact and when she actually gets around to contacting them they are no longer interested or have moved on to a competitor. Jill, on the other hand, is chill. Jill has contacted potential customers and closed deals before she even hits her desk at the office. She immediately connects with customers and delivers ‘wow’ experiences with her quick responses no matter where she is.

Jill is equipped with a mobile sales app — a phone app that also lets her push information into her CRM software or access it on the move. She can take or make calls from her business number from anywhere in the world with only an internet connection. If she gets a call while she’s away from her desk, she doesn’t have to hustle and bustle to get back to her desk to update her CRM. With a mobile sales app, she is able to deliver great customer experiences and generate more sales.

Why a mobile sales app is better than a business mobile phone

Most companies these days provide its employees with a business mobile phone. What is the need for an app in such a scenario? A mobile sales app provides numerous benefits over a business phone —

  • You don’t need to handle multiple devices, with an app or two on your one mobile phone is enough to function as both your personal and business phone.
  • What happens when you travel internationally? You may end up spending more on international call charges, but if you have a mobile app, you can purchase international numbers and call at local rates, or enjoy the rates that are typically associated with internet telephony.
  • Without a mobile sales app, you miss out on features like conferencing, converting calls to leads and including call notes to maintain context.

Three reasons why your sales team needs mobile apps

The key is to be quick

When it comes to sales it is about immediacy, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review, your chances of qualifying an online lead decreases drastically after the first 5 minutes, about 7 times to be precise. Basically, leads are getting cold quicker than your cup of coffee. The sales teams of today need new tools to get them to speed and close deals quickly.

You probably spend a lot of money on marketing and ads, getting leads isn’t easy, so why leave them to chance? If responding to your leads real quick gives you an edge, why throw it away?  When you have a mobile sales app, you can respond immediately to customers because buyers need information within a day or less to make a decision, and 24% needed it within an hour or less, according to a report by Aberdeen.

The age of instant gratification

We have an app for almost everything now, you can get groceries, order food or book tickets immediately. People need things fast, they are used to getting it easily and if customers are looking to buy they expect things to move fast. The path to buying for a customer has to be as easy and quick as possible. Buyers have hundreds of options in front of them and if you don’t move fast be assured someone out there will.

The end of the desk-worker

Desk workers will soon be extinct, okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but what is not is that almost 70% of workers work remotely at least one day a week and 53% work remotely for half the week according to the International Workplace Group. Companies are fast moving away from the traditional 9-5 work culture, the workers of today are not attached to their desks. The best part about this is that you can hire the best talent from across the globe.

According to a study by insidesales.com, remote selling saw a jump of 89% from 2013 to 2017 and will only increase as technology enables sales reps to work and connect with customers from anywhere.

Bottomline

No one likes late replies, your leads and customers are no exception. You get to them quickly or you are out of the race. In this hyper-competitive business world, you need to equip your sales team with the necessary tools and a mobile sales app tops that list. They need to be able to get back to customers quickly and should not be constrained to their desks.