Why you should have a mobile sales app for your business

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Not a fax machine, price sheet or product catalog in site.

No fax machine, price sheet or product catalog in sight.

 

Does your current sales process include a fax machine, pre-printed forms (multi-part forms!), printed product catalogues, or price sheets? If you can get past the competition and land a sale using with such antiquated tools, do you have to pass along the order to a customer service rep to re-enter the data into your order management system?

The above scenario almost sounds silly these days. The simple reason you should have a mobile sales app for your business is because it makes the whole process more convenient. Every step of the way.

Using a mobile sales app, your company ends up with a better-informed workforce that is more confidently equipped to do business with whomever, whenever—whereever. Mobile sales apps not only accelerate your supply chain, which gets you paid faster, but they also reduce administrative costs.

You may ask, “If I spend money on a mobile app, how can I be sure it’s more convenient than current tools?” Valid question. Think about it for a minute. Consider the role of the smart phone in your personal life. Why do we rely so much on our mobile devices? We use a smart phone because it is the most convenient way to access information these days.

Using a mobile device from any location sure beats waiting until you’re hunkered down at the office, at a designated desk, on a computer.

In our personal lives we turn to our smart phones for content and data like music, Facebook, Instagram, photos, email, Draft Kings, YouTube, Twitter, and texting. We look up maps and restaurant menus, order tickets for sporting events and concerts, compare prices at local and online merchants, register for personal enrichment classes and college courses—and even access children’s grades and homework assignments.

It’s about content and data. Real, live business data that you can access and on which you can take action on immediately. Interact with customers and the back office, about really important stuff—like closing new business or serving a customer. Do all of this right from the phone in your pocket or purse.

So, when you ask the question about the convenience of a mobile device, really think about it. Consider how much more efficient your sales and customer service team can be when they are empowered with rich information about your customers right in their pockets, too.

Your team will be able to quickly access content like how much a customer owes. They’ll have access to data about shipments-in-transit, and orders you owe customers. They can smartly respond to opportunities to quote a prospect. Or respond to a customer who wants to know if such and so product is in stock. They’ll be able to provide customer pricing. They can show off a product photo, or provide specs on the fly.

On a more exciting level, would it be great to be ready to accept a customer payment from any location?

Our smart phones provide all kinds of ways to interact with our friends, family and conduct personal business. But when it comes to your business, shouldn’t your smart phone be doing more for you and your customers?

Smart phone. Smart sales team.

 

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Why Creating a Great User Experience Matters Most

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Take a guess at the #1 criteria for having a great mobile sales app for your business? If you guessed creating a great experience for the user then you are correct.

The reason is simple. It’s because most (if not all) of your business goals for mobile are linked to user adaptation.

When you invest in a mobile sales app, naturally, you expect certain measurable results, such as these:

  1. Larger orders
  2. New revenue streams
  3. Higher close rates
  4. Reduced admin costs
  5. Better equipped and informed sales reps
  6. New intelligence

When you invest in a mobile app—whether you build one customized for your company’s needs, or choose an out-of-the-box option directly from an app storeit should improve the experience of doing business with you. This should be true all up and down the supply chain, but especially for the user of the app.

What, then, does it mean to create a great user experience?

Your new mobile sales app should be intuitive. If it seems like there may be a lot of training involved, keep shopping. It should be dependable. The app can’t be crashing on you every other time you use it.

Your mobile app needs to introduce something new—something memorable. Your app should reward the user and keep them coming back to the app again and again. Think maps to customer locations. Think item images, spec sheets or even instructional videos to improve the understanding of your products. Think geo-awareness, signature capture and other measures that improve accountability. Think alerts and push notifications. Think photos. Think new intelligence gathering and a means to understand customer behavior in ways you never imagined.

Creating a Great User Experience Matters.

Focus on creating a great user experience for everyone involved, and your mobile sales app initiative will be on a sure track to success.

Taking photos at the customer location, whether it be a display case - or even a proof of delivery, enhances your understanding of your customer and helps to create a great user experience

Taking photos at the customer location, whether it be a display case – or even a proof of delivery, enhances your understanding of your customer and helps to create a great user experience

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How to Download a Free Trial of iSales 100

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Ready to kick the printed catalog / order form / fax machine habit?  xkzero is here to help - you can download a free trial of iSales 100 directly from your iPhone or iPad and try it for yourself.

It’s true. And in less than 3 minutes you can download iSales 100 to evaluate the features and benefits of one of the most flexible and adaptable mobile sales apps you’ll find for B2B wholesale distribution.

Here’s a less than 2-minute video showing you the steps to download your free trial of iSales 100 for Sage 100.  

 

How to Download a Free Trial of iSales 100:

Step 1: Search for iSales 100 on the Apple App store and launch the app

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Step 2 – Login (User ID – xkzero Password – easy)

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Step 3: Synchronize the data (tap on the circular button on the bottom and choose ‘Sync All’)

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Step 5: Start Using the Free Demo of iSales 100!

The best way to learn how iSales 100 can benefit your business is to contact us for a personalized demonstration, including a demonstration of how iSales 100 can be personalized to meet your needs.

Contact us at info@xkzero.com or call 847-416-2009.

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The single biggest mistake in sales?

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Meet the fax machine

“Four pages total. That should only take me about 20 minutes to enter into our sales order system!”

What makes a great sales process?  

Processes paired with the right business tools in order to drive maximum revenue at the lowest sales administration cost possible.   If you can do that while providing excellent customer service and a rewarding experience for your employees then you’re really on to something.

Which makes me wonder – can you have a great sales process when the tool in the middle of it all is…a fax machine?

At a recent technology conference, I presented a session entitled, “Why mobile, why now: a decision maker’s guide to success.” I asked the audience, “How many of you use a fax machine in your sales process?” Out of the approximately 110 people in attendance, half of them raised a hand.

Mobile app developers salivate at the sound of this kind of news.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the fax machine had its heyday, but it no longer serves us well. Today, using the fax machine as a tool for sales and purchasing processes can have a negative effect on your business. Here are some reasons:

  • It’s wholly inefficient.
  • It’s unnecessarily time consuming.
  • It creates potential for inaccuracies.
  • It terrifies younger workers.

In a world of integrated systems—ERP, CRM, e-commerce, mobile commerce—the fax machine should be at (or near) the top of your hit-list of antiquated tools to replace.

When a transaction is faxed, literally twice as much labor is required to complete the transaction than with an integrated mobile sales app—or even an online solution. A faxed order is first created on one system by the person generating the order, then it must be received, reviewed, and entered againthis time in the system of the receiver.

Benefits of an integrated mobile sales app include:

  • eliminate the redundant entry on the other end of the transaction
  • speed up the supply chain
  • reduce of errors
  • better experience for the sender and the receiver

As your company grows and the volume and size of the orders increasesthe more costly the fax machine becomes for you.

Whether you realize it or not, you are inevitably hiring workers in the new generation of so-called digital natives (those who were born using digital technology). Will your sales training include processes built around the fax machine, or will you embrace modern technological processes that will make your team more productive—and help you attract and retain an efficient and staff?