New Study Makes the Case for Sales-Focused Mobile CRM Apps

According to a new report from Accenture and CSO Insights, 44% of enterprise Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) remain skeptical of their firms’ ability to hit revenue targets. To address this clear-and-present danger, the report has identified several areas for improving the effectiveness of sales organizations. One of the report’s key findings is something that we’ve been saying all along – that businesses need to drive better outcomes through sales technology enablement.

Based on the report’s findings, we’ve identified some areas where managers can help their teams meet quota by providing the right tech.

The Importance of Mobile CRM

The study showed that 76% of CSOs believe that mobile CRM applications improve their sales teams’ performance, yet only 48% of the businesses that were interviewed are actually providing access to vital customer information on mobile devices.

What’s the disconnect? The failure of most mobile CRM apps to actually provide value to the sales process.

We know that many sales reps don’t spend all their time selling from their desk. Every day, great sales reps are following up with leads from the grocery store, the airport or even while sitting in the bleachers at their kids’ softball game. Simply put, mobile reps need a mobile CRM solution in order to help them keep on top of leads while on the go. Sales reps need a CRM solution that can travel with them. We designed Revenue.io’s mobile CRM apps for today’s sales reps, offering reps the ability to seamlessly switch from selling on their browser, iPad and iPhone. No matter which device reps use at any given time, all data is synced to Salesforce.com

Spend More Time with Leads

The CSO Insights report showed that sales reps only spend 35% of their time selling to leads. So where is all that extra time going? Almost 20% of sales reps’ time is spent in post-sales tasks including tedious account management tasks such as entering data into CRMs manually.

Think about that. If your reps work 5 days a week, that’s an entire day’s worth of time spent doing follow-up tasks. No wonder a third of reps don’t hit quota! The more times your reps can step up to the plate, the more chances they have to hit home runs. Revenue.io automatically logs vital data in Salesforce so sales reps can use the time they were wasting on account management tasks to close more deals.

Maximize the Revenue Closed in Each Deal

The report identified that 82% of CSOs report that their companies are not directing their reps to take advantage of cross-selling or up-selling opportunities. When correctly administered, these techniques can help salespeople maximize the impact of each deal by tacking on related products or convincing leads to invest in higher-end offerings. The larger each deal is, the quicker reps can hit quota. But sometimes it can be difficult for reps to keep track of available promotions and cross-selling opportunities. Our inside sales app can be configured to deliver smart talking points to sales reps, including up-selling and cross-selling opportunities, the moment the phone rings.

Engage in Social Sales

The CSO Insights report also identified a need to invest in social CRM technology in order to gather prospecting intelligence from leads’ social media feeds. LinkedIn, for example, can be a powerful tool for identifying key decision makers within an organization and for qualifying leads. With the right listening tools, sales opportunities can also be identified from scanning prospects’ feeds in Facebook and Twitter. While roughly one third of CSO have deployed some sort of social CRM program, more than half of the CSOs interviewed believe that social CRM has had either a minor effect or no effect at all on driving returns. We think this comes down to context. Unlike many apps, our social sales app gives reps a birds eye view of a prospect’s activities in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn within the context of sales calls. By delivering this contextual data at the right moment, our apps are helping sales reps meet quota.