Maximum Mobility
March 28, 2008
To maintain high productivity on the go, give these tech tools a gander
By Jeremy Cohen
Sales professionals are a mobile lot by nature—a status quo that hasn't exactly been threatened by technology's nonstop march. Indeed, if you're looking for the embodiment of the word "mobility," the cell phone-, laptop- and PDA-tethered sales force of the 21st Century pretty much fits the bill.
Of course, for all of its benefits, having an increasingly mobile team poses its own unique challenge: How do you maintain a high level of productivity with everyone always on the go and out of sight? To answer that question, we again turn to the marvels of the modern age. Today's sales manager has a wide array of tech tools at his disposal, any of which can significantly help keep him and his team performing optimally while on the move. Here's a sampling …
Tapping into Genius
Ostensibly a sales enablement platform, SAVO might better be described as a portable teleportation device for your reps—one that enables them to summon the entire organization to their aid at a moment's notice.
"When you talk about keeping sales managers and their teams at peak performance, it's being able to always arm them with the latest and greatest of how we, as an organization, can solve a problem that you, as a customer, are describing to me," says John Aiello, co-founder and CEO of the Chicago-based company. "And what's interesting is, absent of some help, that doesn't happen very well."
Enter SAVO. "The way that we approach this challenge, quite simply, is we have an on-demand application that really looks to harness the collective genius of the organization," Aiello says. Collective genius? "We realize sellers don't just need the PowerPoint, the PDF and the Word doc," he explains. "What they really need, in addition to those things, is non-structured information ... The three questions to ask that can overcome certain objections, or the latest and greatest competitive intelligence that somebody's got on a competitor that I'm going in to pitch against in 30 seconds," he continues. "Content doesn't just come from marketers. It comes from the field, as well."
As you can imagine, for such a service to work effectively, ease of use is paramount. "We've got to make it easy for people to get information into a solution like this," Aiello says. "We're partially content management. The reason why a lot of content management solutions fall by the wayside and don't get adopted is because it's too hard to use.
"So, the e-mail that the sales manager might send to everybody based on a question that he or she got from one seller—instead of 'replying all,' and copying the entire organization, simply copy SAVO. Everyone will have it at their disposal immediately."
The In-Store Solution
Narrowing our focus somewhat, let's shift the spotlight to O4 Corporation, a leading provider of next-gen mobile software solutions for CPGs—an industry with distinct on-the-go needs.
"Our focus is all about mobility," says Harris Fogel, president of O4's North American operations. "Mobile solutions for the consumer products industry. Now, we define 'consumer products' quite broadly. It's basically any company that wants to sell a product to a retailer or outlet—like a store or restaurant—and ultimately is going to sell it to a consumer."
Armed with their PDAs and handhelds, O4's software enables reps to more effectively meet their daily objectives. "Typically, a field representative would have a device," Fogel says. "They walk into a store or outlet, and on their handheld [is] their route planner, journey planner, call planner … whatever you want to call it. Where are they supposed to go today? What are the key tasks they're supposed to accomplish?
"Tying into the POS networks," says Fogel, by way of example. "When a rep walks into their store, they know where the out-of-stocks are because it hasn't been scanned on the point-of-sale system in the last 10 hours or X days. So they can be very pointed on issues that need addressing.
"Maybe there's a promotion that is running in the store and they need to build a display," he adds. "Once the task has been completed, it routes back up to the home office. Headquarters knows the status. Conversely, if the representative either hasn't done it or couldn't do it because the store wouldn't let him, the headquarters knows that as well."
Talking Shop
Orthopedic surgeons may not be fans of SkyMail, owing to the likely decrease in carpal tunnel cases it portends. But for sales managers and their teams, this innovative technology from Pacific DataVision is a godsend.
"There's lots of great technologies out there for the mobile worker, but it all comes down to simplicity and adoption ... How easy is it for them to use?" says John Pescatore, the Clifton, N.J.-based CEO of PDV.
It doesn't get much easier than SkyMail, an application that allows you to wirelessly dictate, document and share any random thought that pops into your head, courtesy of your cell phone (the service is available on all major carriers). The sender selects a preassigned recipient or subject line from their contact list and speaks a message, which is then delivered to the recipient or recipients' inbox. That's it—no futzing around on a tiny keypad necessary.
"Basically, a SkyMail message is just making a phone call, and the recipient is just clicking on a link and typing a text message back," Pescatore says. "We embed a reply path in our text message so that it makes it very easy for the recipient to respond while they're driving. They can be running to a sales call, and they're able to get a message back to one or many.
"It gives you a powerful messaging and documentation tool that everyone can use, because everyone knows how to make a phone call from their cell phone," he continues. "All of this information's also stored for documentation and risk mitigation purposes on a secure server, so the company has access to it later."
Want specific examples? "I have all my sales team on one contact," Pescatore says. "I can push a button and say, no matter where I am, 'How'd your day go?' or 'We need you to get your sales results in as soon as possible.'"
Scenario number two: "You probably take some good notes during your meetings with customers," he says, "but as good as they may be, I get into a car and I'm talking through my notes as I look through them. And that allows me to capture so much more detail."
Webinars Revisited
When discussing mobility solutions for a sales team, don't make the mistake of discounting existing tools that might strike you as old-hat—Webinars, for instance. As Tim Ross, CEO of the Boston-based consulting firm Trainingwell can attest, this is one old dog that's quite receptive to new tricks.
Having worked with a number of sales teams with the intent of boosting their efficiency, Ross has drawn some conclusions regarding what differentiates so-so reps from great ones. "These successful reps—the ones in the group that were really doing well—weren't waiting for leads to come their way," Ross says. "They were always developing them on their own. So we were asking, how are you doing this time after time?
"We began to explore that, and what we've been able to share with other clients [is that] these successful reps were leveraging the tools that they all had at their fingertips."
As noted, chief among these is the use of Webinars. "People have been doing that for some time," he says. "They usually try to give it more of a sales focus, like an introductory type of thing.
"But the successful sales reps weren't doing that. They were doing more of a 'Tim's informational session': 'Hey, I'm getting everyone together … I'm not going to be able to travel and touch all my clients in a month, so Friday at 2:00, I'd just like to share with you a customer example.'"
As Ross attests, the distinction is a big one. "We would have a Web seminar and do a customer showcase, and it would draw the other clients in their pool to listen and join in," he says. "They didn't actually want to hear from the sales rep—they wanted to hear from the other company.
"It worked out great for the rep," he continues. "For the next month he would send out some e-mail campaigns: 'By the way, if you couldn't join us last week, we had a lot of great responses on this Web seminar. Click here for the link and you can go ahead and listen to it for free.'"
Sidebar: Don't Forget the Customers
Your clients can also get in on the mobility act, and it's very much to your benefit that they do so. Consider the potential of TimeTrade, a Bedford, Mass.-based provider of appointment scheduling software.
"If I need, in the course of my day—whether I'm a salesperson or otherwise to schedule time with somebody or some party, to be able to do so through a selfservice interface is a tremendous efficiency gain," says Chris Murphy, TimeTrade's vice president of sales. "It alleviates the need for me to even deal with anybody [and engage in] phone tag and all of the back and-forth that's typically involved with getting some kind of an appointment."
"Another piece of it is the 24-7 aspect of self-service," adds Cindy Johnson, the company’s vice president of marketing. "The sales guy's on the road all day long, and then he's making phone calls back to his customers at the end of the day."
"He might not have an opportunity to even make an appointment, or call during business hours to make an appointment. But he can get online at midnight if he wants to."
And should the hypothetical rep happen to be logging on at midnight, odds are very good he won't still be on at 1 a.m. trying to make sense of the interface. "No confusing screens," Murphy says. "Just a simple transaction. And they're 10 times happier than if they have to call and deal with a receptionist or a call center agent."
As Johnson notes, there's one additional benefit for you and your team. "When you schedule an appointment, whoever you're scheduling with has the opportunity to ask you some questions," she explains. "You get a confirmation e-mail and then a reminder e-mail. In that reminder e-mail, there can be all sorts of tips and information.
"It can give you specific information to make sure that when you come for that appointment, you come ready with whatever it is you need to bring."
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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