No two ways about it: if you’re in business these days, mobile devices are a part of your life You likely utilize a smartphone or iPad to access your email, social media accounts, instant messages and critical business documents. You just can’t afford to be out of touch if you’re traveling or even attending to personal errands.
If you’ve got that mobile device, you also need cloud-based applications. Perhaps the category of businesspeople that need this mobility the most are salespeople. Cloud-based sales force automation programs and customer relationship management (CRM) apps allow a sales rep to stay in touch, and to accomplish more, when they are out in the field.
To increase sales, customers must focus on building relationships with the customer. Much of this relationship building occurs face-to-face. This means that reps need to physically visit customers in some cases to close deals. When appointments are made with clients, they may be canceled, rescheduled, or reworked in some way while the sales person is in route to the location. Likely, there is also downtime during appointments. Salespeople in the field can to utilize this time to accomplish related tasks.
Cloud-based applications allow sales people to remain connected with the office while out in the field. Salespeople simply log into the system, on their BlackBerry, iPhone, or other mobile device and each of the applications is at his or her disposal. This allows them to review the customer’s account, do a competitor analysis, identify other opportunities in the area, update vital sales data, check quota data, check email or collaborate on a document using an online tool. No longer do salespeople need to sit idle or chase opportunities that may yield little or no revenue, simply because they are in the area. Cloud-based applications allow salespeople to adopt better time management skills and become more productive.
Clearly, increased productivity yields greater revenue. Take this example: a sales rep is in the field on a sales call waiting for his or her next appointment, and spots another opportunity that he or she thinks is worth exploring. Before walking into the business unprepared, the rep can simply log into the cloud-based CRM-applications and view the information on the company. Once the salesperson identifies the company’s vitals and a key contact, he or she may walk through the door with confidence that they might either meet the person or gain an appointment.
Cloud-based applications allow businesses to track sales and generate automatic reports of the sales pipeline, which can be viewed by anyone in the sales department. They can also be sent to other departments, such as marketing or management. Sales managers can route leads automatically, or use the data they receive to send their best salespeople to critical accounts, in order to close the deal and increase sales.
Cloud-based applications may also be integrated with social networking tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, to increase sales. Companies that develop a following on Facebook or Twitter may have an automatic audience whenever they release a new product or service. This group, if satisfied, can communicate to their network of friends and increase sales substantially, simply through word of mouth. Contests and promotions also facilitate sales and growth via social networking tools.
Practical Application
Maritz Travel employed cloud-based applications in order to compile all data in one location. The company’s challenge was digitizing files, data and invoices for easy access and sales conversion. Often they get sales orders that involve scheduling, say, 1,000 or more employees on a trip to Hawaii. Most of these requests are made by companies who offer the trips as sales incentives. The salesperson enters the data into an application to retrieve information concerning hotels, flights, transportation and other pertinent information. With this information, the salesperson prepares a proposal. When the deal is closed, Maritz Travel uses the cloud based CRM tool to allow each of the company’s employees to sign up through the web-based application. The information is entered directly into the system. The billing is completed and invoices are issued electronically. Because the information was entered, there was no redundancy of data entry by the company. This process saves time and money. Therefore, the business runs more efficiently.
This is just one of the many examples of how sales teams are leveraging sales potential, maximizing leads and growing their business using applications that run in the cloud and are accessible from mobile devices.
No two ways about it: if you’re in business these days, you need to have mobile devices—a smartphone or iPad—to access your email, social media accounts, instant messages and critical business documents. You just can’t afford to be out of touch if you’re traveling or even attending to personal errands. If you’ve got that mobile device, you also need cloud-based applications. Perhaps the category of businesspeople that need this mobility the most are salespeople. Cloud-based sales force automation programs and customer relationship management (CRM) apps allow a sales rep to stay in touch, and to accomplish more, when they are out in the field.
To increase sales, customers must focus on building relationships with the customer. Much of relationship building occurs face-to-face. This means that reps need to physically visit customers in some cases to close deals. When customers make appointments with clients, they may be canceled, rescheduled while the sales person is in route to the location, or there may be downtime during appointments. Salespeople in the field need to utilize this time to accomplish related tasks. Cloud-based applications allow sales people to remain connected with the office while out in the field. Salespeople simply log into the system, on their BlackBerry or iPhone, and each of the applications is at his or her disposal. This allows them to review the customer’s account, do a competitor analysis, identify other opportunities in the area, update vital sales data, check quota data, check email or collaborate on a document using an online tool. No longer do salespeople need to sit idle or chase opportunities that may yield little or no revenue, simply because they are in the area. Cloud-based applications allow salespeople to adopt better time management skills and become more productive.
Increased productivity yields greater revenue. For example, a sales rep is in the field on a sales call waiting for his or her next appointment and spots another opportunity that he or she thinks is worth exploring. Before walking into the business unprepared, the rep can simply log into the cloud-based CRM-applications and view the information on the company. Once the salesperson identifies the company’s vitals and a key contact, he or she may walk through the door with confidence that they might either meet the person or gain an appointment.
Cloud-based applications allow businesses to track sales and generate automatic reports of the sales pipeline, which can be viewed by anyone in the sales department. They can also be sent to other departments, such as marketing. Sales managers can route leads automatically, or use the data they receive to send their best salespeople to critical accounts, in order to close the deal and increase sales.
Cloud-based applications may also be integrated with social networking tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, to increase sales. Companies that develop a following on Facebook or Twitter may have an automatic audience whenever they release a new product or service. This group, if satisfied, can communicate to their network of friends and increase sales substantially, simply through word of mouth. Contests and promotions also facilitate sales and growth via social networking tools.
Maritz Travel employed cloud-based applications in order to compile all data in one location. The company’s challenge was digitizing files, data and invoices for easy access and sales conversion. Often they get sales orders that involve scheduling, say, 1,000 or more employees on a trip to Hawaii. Most of these requests are made by companies who offer the trips as sales incentives. The salesperson enters the data into an application to retrieve information concerning hotels, flights, transportation and other pertinent information. With this information, the salesperson prepares a proposal. When the deal is closed, Maritz Travel uses the cloud based CRM tool to allow each of the company’s employees to sign up through the web-based application. The information is entered directly into the system. The billing is completed and invoices are issued electronically. Because the information was entered, there was no redundancy of data entry by the company. This process saves time and money. Therefore, the business runs more efficiently.
This is just one of the many examples of how sales teams are leveraging sales potential, maximizing leads and growing their business using applications that run in the cloud and are accessible from mobile devices.
