Mobile Technology: The New Tool to Sharpen Sales Imagine two salespeople presenting the same product to the same potential customer. The first arrives at the office of a hot prospect armed, he thinks, with some notes scribbled in h9is address book during a previous visit. Only he can't find them. Maybe he wrote them on that paper napkin he tucked in his wallet months ago. No luck; the scrap of paper has disappeared. Pressed for time, the salesman places a hurried call to his own office and asks a colleague to get out the prospect's file and pass along some intelligence. Trouble is, the colleague pulls the wrong file and delivers the wrong information. The mistake becomes apparent in the course of a very confused - and brief - conversation, at the end of which the prospect is anything but hot. A short time later, a second sales rep shows up at the same office. He takes a few minutes before leaving his car to open a file on the handheld computer device. Contained there are detailed notes about the prospect's business, as well as a few personal details. This conversation goes well. The rep is able to convincingly relate the product he's selling to the prospect's business needs. And his inquiry about the Little League baseball career of the prospect's eldest son is icing on the cake. Back in his car after the meeting, the rep gets out his handheld and, with a couple of keystrokes, move the prospect record into the new accounts file, creating and closing the sale. That night he will connect the handheld to his laptop, log into his company's network, and update the central CRM database to reflect that a prospect has become a new customer. Smarter Sales People, a Fatter Bottom Line Welcome to the world of sales force automation. The ability to provide marketing intelligence to sales reps in the field has taken an already overheated marketplace and made it even more fiercely competitive. Before long, salespeople without handheld access to databases full of valuable account information will be rare. Underlying sales force automation are a couple of difficult-to-refute assumptions:
Combine greater knowledge with greater efficiency and the end result is a reduction in the cost of inventory and order processing. In other words: a lower cost of sales. Meanwhile, increased customer satisfaction is promoted through improved, better-informed service. Also, since field data can be entered throughout the day as it's being generated, the information making its way into the company's marketing database is more reliable than if it were being entered through an end-of-day data dump. And by doing away with mundane tasks, sales personnel can be more productive and can focus on closing deals. Microsoft's Entry in the Mobile Marketplace Considering the broad implications of sales force automation, it's no wonder that a heated race has developed both to develop and adopt mobile technology. According to various market analysts, here's the big picture:
An important new entrant in the mobile applications marketplace is Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Mobile. These software applications, which can be acquired from resellers in the Microsoft partner network, can be customized to meet the unique requirements of individual companies and have the added attraction of low cost of ownership. A Solution That's Easy to Use Essentially, Microsoft CRM Mobile is lean but still muscular, completely portable, and designed to run on Pocket PCs and Pocket PC Phone Editions with Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 software. Key functionality includes the abilities to:
When connected to a corporate network, it is possible to synchronize data on the mobile device with data in Microsoft CRM. Connection can be made via a VPN, wireless LAN, or connected LAN. Microsoft CRM Mobile runs atop Microsoft SQL Server for Windows CE database for mobile devices. Deployment packages, created using Mobile Deployment Manager, are used to install and configure Microsoft CRM Mobile on mobile devices, and can also be used to configure device settings. Low Total Cost of Ownership When preparing for their time out of the office, mobile sales representatives "subscribe" to the type of information they'll need on their sales trips. The relevant data is then downloaded into the Pocket PC from the company's central CRM database. Once on the road and disconnected, the sales rep uses the application to plan activities. When connected again, the application provides easy access to information about the customers who will be visited. then, during the sales calls themselves, Microsoft CRM Mobile can be used to answer customer queries and update customer and opportunity information. At the conclusion of meetings, follow-up activities can be detailed and scheduled. Because it is so easy to deploy, implement, and customize, Microsoft CRM Mobile has a relatively low total cost of ownership. Microsoft's introduction of its mobile solution figures to further extend an already popular customer relationship management tool. Philipp Harper is a veteran freelance writer who writes about the impact of government and the economy on small business.
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