5 Big Benefits of Mobile CRM for Salespeople

According to the Pew Research Center, 77% of all American adults own a smartphone as of 2018, up from 35% in 2011. That number jumps to over 90% when we look at Americans under the age of 50. Meanwhile, tablet ownership has jumped from 10% to 53% over that span.

And those Americans are using their devices an awful lot. According to a March 2018 study, 89% of Americans who use smartphones or tablets go online daily, and 31% of them report they are connected almost constantly. In comparison, only 54% of Americans who do not use smartphones or tablets go online daily, and a mere 5% of them report constant connection.

Americans, especially Americans under 50, have gone mobile. And business has gone with them.

The ubiquity of mobile technology has changed our expectations for the availability and immediacy of information. Today, your customers and prospects expect up-to-date information immediately—and odds are, so do you.

Plus, thanks to the wealth of online resources (like this one!), the information gaps of yesteryear have mostly closed, which puts the customer in the driver’s seat much of the time. Your customers are coming to you much later in the buyer’s journey, and with more information.

That means you get later (and often fewer!) touch points with less leverage. You need to make every interaction count.

And that is why we are such proponents of mobile CRM for salespeople. Mobile CRM offers many ways to ensure your CRM helps you sell, but here are the five most fundamental benefits:

1.) You’re always connected

The days when a salesperson could afford to go to work, boot up a computer, log into CRM, and only then have access to customer records are long gone.

For better or worse, these days your customers and prospects (and bosses!) expect they can reach you pretty much any time. You can’t afford to be under an information blackout when you’re not at your desk.

Most salespeople need to travel. You visit accounts to demo products and services to prospects and check in on existing customers. You go to conferences to stay up on the latest tech, tactics, and trends.

You may even go on a working vacation from time to time, or work remotely on the regular. And even inside salespeople go home and go to lunch.

Mobile CRM keeps you connected whether you’re halfway across town or halfway across the world. That means whether you need to get information out of the system or plug information into it, all you need is your smartphone and a signal.

It also keeps you connected with the rest of your team, and with other departments who might be working with your accounts.

Mobile CRM for salespeople is especially important if you work remotely or mostly on the road, as it dramatically improves your sales visibility.

2.) You’re always prepared

You’ve been working on an important account for a while when one of your contacts there calls you while you’re on the road. They just have a couple last questions and details to hammer out, but only have a few minutes free to do so. Do you have enough information on hand to close the sale, or will you need to reschedule, adding time and risk?

You’re in an important meeting, and you’ve been asked a question you don’t know the answer to. Can you look up the answer without disrupting the meeting, or will you have to get the information later and hope to follow up?

Your meeting went great and you closed the deal. Can you enter the sale yourself right away, or do you have to call it in or wait until you’re back at your desk to do so?

You’re about to meet a prospective partner between conference sessions, and you can’t remember whether he prefers “Dan” or “Daniel.” You know it probably isn’t the end of the world, but you’ve got a couple minutes and you want to make a good impression. Can you find personal information and notes while you wait for your contact to arrive, or are you out of luck?

With mobile CRM, you always have the information and capabilities you need in the palm of your hand. It’s one of the primary benefits of mobile CRM for salespeople when they’re on the road or on-site.

And if you’re using a cloud-based CRM system, all that information is updated in real time.

3.) You’re always productive

Mobile CRM helps you close sales with fewer touchpoints. Instead of playing phone tag when you’re on the go, you can take sales calls with full information at your fingertips, and you’ll rarely leave meetings without having answered your prospect’s questions.

It’s difficult to overstate how valuable all that is.

But it isn’t the only way mobile CRM saves you and your customers time. When CRM is on your phone or tablet, you don’t have to wait until you’re back in the office to update records. And if your mobile device is voice-enabled, you can even perform simple data entry tasks hands-free, which can be a huge time saver on the go.

Once you’ve made the sale, you can enter it from anywhere. This can reduce delivery times and increase customer satisfaction.

And if your CRM is properly set up, data entry and reporting should be simple and low-effort, ensuring you don’t waste time better spent cultivating leads, advancing opportunities, and closing deals.

4.) You’re always responsive

For many salespeople, the more they have on their schedule, the more likely they are to miss an opportunity or two. None of us can be everywhere at once, and most of us can only remember so much.

A good CRM system is like an invisible personal assistant, reminding you of what you’ve done and what you need to do. Mobile CRM takes this a step further. Mobile CRM is like bringing your personal assistant with you whenever you leave the office.

CRM push notifications on your mobile device make it much less likely that you’re forget to follow up even when you’re on the go.

In addition to scheduled notifications, most mobile CRM systems will enable you to automate notifications. That removes another opportunity to forget, and further increases your follow-up rate.

And with good analytics driving your automated notifications, you can do more than just schedule follow-ups. You can create sales opportunities by building and automating proactive rules based on your information, history, and trends.

For example, if Widgets ‘R’ Us orders X widgets every Y months, you can set your system to notify you when they’re likely low and looking to re-up. And with mobile CRM, it doesn’t even matter where you are when that notification fires: you’ll get the reminder, and you’ll be ready to make the sale.

So not only does mobile CRM ensure you follow up, it ensures you follow up at exactly the right time!

5.) You’re always selling

All these time savers and prep tools mean you can sell whenever, wherever.

No more calling back once you’re in the office. No more digging through records or notes. No more missed meetings. No more data dumps after a day of meetings. No more delays between handshake and sales entry.

Mobile CRM means you can meet your customers where they live, whether that’s in person, online, over the phone, or some combination.

And no matter which spaces you’re in, you’ll have everything you need to take advantage of the touch points you have to make a good impression, offer complete information and service, and win more opportunities.

Are your sales fully mobilized?

If you only have access to up-to-date customer information in the office, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage the modern salesperson can no longer afford.

Contact us today to learn more about how to move your customer information into the palm of your hand!