You want to explore how to elevate your sales strategy from your current one and are thinking of implementing a mobile sales CRM. Your hotel is probably already operating on a CRM to manage your client relationships (but if you aren’t, please consider getting one), but you think “is an app really necessary”?. Do the costs outweigh the perceived benefits? And is this just something that our sales people have been bugging us to have because it looks ‘snazzy’? You’ve come to the right place - we’ll get into the nitty gritty details on the benefits of a mobile sales CRM for your employees and staff and how it affects your sales performance.
What is a CRM
CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management. CRM software is used by all kinds of companies, regardless of industry, and allows you to store all your data relating to tracking, managing, growing relationships with clients from the first point of contact throughout their entire client lifecycle. CRM software allows different team members of an organization to be able to access that information at any given touch point and analyze that data without ever having to personally be involved in each step of the process.
A CRM software’s core capabilities include client history, tracking deal size, product interests, and enabling the user to understand that particular client’s wants and needs to be able to deliver high quality service and effectively close deals. The data and reports generated allow stakeholders to be able to analyze sales opportunities, upgrade service issues and manage marketing campaigns.
Have you ever booked accommodation and received a mobile notification like a “welcome” text? That was automated from a CRM! There is a massive surge for automation and personalization with CRMs making the software even more essential to a successful sales strategy than ever.
Why a mobile sales CRM is important
A mobile sales CRM is a CRM tool specifically designed for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Have you ever tried to visit a website on your mobile phone, and had the hardest time using it and navigating through? That’s because it wasn’t designed to fit your six inch mobile screen.
By elevating your current CRM to be able to support mobile devices, your sales team can access customer data through an app, or a web based-browser. This means they can access real-time information while out in the field, like attending meetings with potential prospects.
The mass migration of users from desktop to mobile created this need of accessibility to information in real-time. In 2009, global internet traffic from mobile devices was 0.7%, which has grown to 53% in 2017, and is still growing. In 2008, Forrester research found that 50% of Enterprises and upwards of 40% of small and mid-sized businesses were piloting, working on or currently using smartphone applications for sales force automation. The numbers don’t lie here.
Benefits of a mobile sales CRM
The perception of your typical office day has changed dramatically in recent years. No longer are staff “tied” to desks, and that is especially true for sales professionals. When sales people are out in the field, they need access to the CRM to be able to do their jobs.
Forbes found that 50% of sales agents spend 50% of their work day selling remotely. Sales reps that have access to real-time data are able to make better, quicker decisions and find new sales opportunities - all at the touch of their fingertips. The following features of a mobile sales CRM are what sales reps can have handy for their prospecting:
- 1. Schedules using calendar integration
- 2. Dial into remote meetings
- 3. Track their sales progress by updating leads contacts and opportunities
- 4. Open and share files through the cloud
- 5. Access dashboards on the go
- 6. Track, manage, and respond to client communications
- 7. Access to up-to-date data at all times, no matter where it is being updated
Communication between the organization also increases productivity in this aspect. Global organizations with many remote workers and satellite offices. With clients all over the world, and coworkers across the nation in different departments, departments across the entire company need to get access to the same information and need to be able to quickly update information.
A mobile sales CRM doesn’t only benefit sales people. Marketing teams can utilize the mobile sales CRM to communicate with clients in an entirely new way, creating personalized experiences. They will be able to track social media activity and create quick responses, easily. Customer success and support can manage their incoming tickets and manage cases more quickly and efficiently by being able to track them across channels.
Research has found that companies actually gain 240 hours of work a year from staff using a mobile device for work-related purposes. A sales person’s job isn’t completed from 9-5 and their tools should reflect that. A mobile sales CRM allows users the freedom and ability to do work wherever and whenever suits them best. Increased productivity is a win-win for all: employers get more value and results, sales people make more by closing more, and customers get quicker, and higher response times, increasing the customer service.
It almost seems like a no-brainer to have a mobilized sales CRM. When shopping for a CRM, the question of “does it have a mobile app” is one of the leading requirements for prospects. The world has gone mobile, and so should your sales CRM. It’s not considered an innovation at this point, but rather, a means to stay competitive.
