The support of the sales organization through software solutions is often summarized under the term sales force automation. The main focus here is the customer and contact management as well as the efficient handling of rout activities. For this purpose, companies in their sales organization must be able to access customer data, order processes, tour planning as well as e-mail and calendar functions, regardless of location and location, and in simple administrative processes.
On the way to the interactive product catalog
Recently, Salesforce Automation is increasingly associated with smartphone, iPad and other tablet editions, and is gaining a new dimension with the possibilities of a new product presentation. What is often neglected by user companies is that the end device itself is in most cases the decisive criterion for the high expectations with regard to increased work efficiency in the distribution and image enhancement at the enterprise level.
Impressive presentation possibilities
Rather, it is of central importance to prepare the content in such a way that it can also develop its full potential through the respective terminals. The possibilities and chances for the sales work, which can be solved by means of appropriate sales software solutions, are presented below. At the same time, the contribution also addresses risks and critical factors in the acquisition of such new solutions.
Introductory costs versus long-term surplus values
No question: Compared to a product catalog or a high-gloss brochure, which is still professionally processed, the interaction on the large touch screen opens up a new form of staging the brand and product. It goes well beyond the usual display on the screen. The salesperson guides the customer through an interactive showroom and dives with him into a product world that has been harmonized and edited in a multimedial manner.
Working processes changing
This also results in a psychological component with a new quality in the customer dialog as well as in the brand and advertising effect. For this reason, the iPad has already established itself as a coveted platform for product marketing.
Recent studies indicate that 47% to 53% of medium-sized and large companies in Europe are investing in mobile devices for distribution, mainly because of new opportunities in product presentation.
What is often underestimated is that the prestigious terminal does not yet provide an interactive product catalog. Explanatory texts, picture galleries, 360-degree views, product videos and price information must be supported and controlled via appropriately prepared product information and software systems. This is where the chaff of the wheat separates. The intelligent product catalog becomes the actual distinction feature.
This opens up entirely new possibilities for strong brands. An impressive product staging with 3D effects and the use of multimedial elements has a positive influence on the image of the company and underlines the value of the product brand. If the interactive presentation reflects a high quality level, the end customer will unconsciously have a positive impression of the brand and the company.
Novel display forms not only extend the salesman's ability to present a product in an intuitive and customer-oriented way, and in addition to factual arguments, it also has pictures and emotions. Corresponding solutions should be evaluated at the earliest in the selection process and checked for the highest quality requirements.
People "buy" first emotions, then arguments. Thus, if the combination of the terminal and a powerful software solution is defined for the processing of its own market offer, the emotionalization at the point of sales creates new possibilities for making a purchase decision easier, especially for complex products requiring explanation.
The impressive effect of the visual presentation and an attractive surface design thus have a strategic value for customer relationship management and create the prerequisite for a successive expansion of the classic customer relationship management (CRM) by a customer experience management approach. The goal is to redefine customer experience. Products and services are designed to create an experience world and will be presented accordingly. This increases the willingness to buy and promotes recommendations.
Last but not least, this also has an effect on employee motivation. Many salespeople who have so far avoided notebooks because they needed only 10 minutes to power up the device save time and see the use of the iPad as an active sales tool that makes their workplace fashionable, trendy and attractive and thus becomes a prestige factor Code>
As far as acquisition costs are concerned, these are often reduced to the end devices, the direct project costs as well as the license costs for the software. In fact, these costs are only a part of the actual import costs.
Create acceptance
Often neglected costs arise, in particular, with the adaptation, integration and data transfer, or the creation and configuration of the product information system. Costs can be minimized by choosing a mobile solution that already provides a connection to the existing ERP system or can be integrated with it in no time-consuming steps.
A liquid integration option in the existing user landscape not only creates significantly lower overall costs, but also offers more flexibility in technical implementation and ensures a functional expansion of the company's own CRM strategy. In addition, the mobile solution should be platform-independent to allow free choice of mobile devices.
Conclusion
If a new work equipment is provided to the sales department, this does not only change individual work steps. Projects of this kind are usually characterized by a comprehensive conversion process - even if they are trendy and easy-to-use products like the iPad. After all, it is about establishing new processes, or of changing tasks and areas.
This requires comprehensive discussions with the relevant departments in advance in order to prepare for the upcoming challenges. Not least, the impact of the mobile solution on company-wide workflows has to be considered. With the introduction of the mobile solution, internal processes should therefore be simultaneously questioned and, if necessary, organizational changes should be considered.
Softwaresystems are now indispensable tools for the systematic preparation of customer and product information. The prerequisite for this is, however, that the solution is simple to operate, understandable in the achieved benefits and consistently interwoven with the corporate strategy. This also applies to the sales area. Sales management is really efficient only if the application is perceived and used as a value-added product. If the sales representatives are skeptical or even negative, the most user-friendly, "hottest" and most functional solution is not used successfully.
On-going support, training on innovations as well as a broad understanding of the technology around the topic of "workplace sellers" are necessary measures to support the company's goals. The CRM tool - no matter how prestigious and attractive - should not be used in this context as a pure control instrument by the higher management, but primarily as a solution for the optimization of the customer relationship.
The expansion of the classic sales work for mobile CRM and a customer experience approach is gaining a new dimension in daily sales through the possibility of product processing on mobile end devices such as the iPad. Comprehensive display possibilities of products that go far beyond the possibilities of printed catalogs or PDF documents expand the seller's action spectrum, motivate the sales team and enable the customer a new approach to the products and the company's brand
In addition, over 70 percent of the sales force is already familiar with the use of smartphones or iPads. The "working device" iPad is thus not a foreign body. Nevertheless, it is currently only used by the fewest sales organizations within the framework of a uniform CRM approach or as an aid for interactive product presentations. According to recent studies, 95% of enterprises also lack the conceptual scaffolding and the corresponding software solution to implement this innovation thrust.
The potential of mobile CRM and the new possibilities to equip the sales innovatively and in a timely manner is recognized, but weakens in the implementation but above all still with the use of the right tools and the consistent pursuit of a consistent strategy
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