4 Myths About Driving Mobile Sales Enablement

Mobile-supported activities are a new domain for most sales organizations – looking to mobile as a means to further improve sales process efficiencies and customer interactions. But during the course of our research on Mobile Sales Enablement, we uncovered four common myths:

Mobile sales support is a passing fad: With the need for in-the-moment access to information, sellers are increasingly having to use mobile to stay ahead of the game. Indeed, our recent survey on mobile sales enablement shows that 84% of the sales force already uses mobile for various sales-related activities. In addition, the proliferation of sales apps coupled with their proactive discovery by sellers, despite limited organizational support, are all strong signs that mobile sales enablement is not just here to stay, but to increase in the near future.
 Mobile support is best used for routine, transactional activities: 92% of the sales organizations we surveyed focus mobile support on low-end, non-customer facing tasks such as task and schedule management activities and access to CRM data. While their benefits are easily recognized, our research shows a spurt in the use of decision-making and interactive capabilities like BI and sales analytics, customer and peer collaboration, and information exchange and remote training activities among the most progressive sales organizations.
Mobile support technology development should be kept in-house: Mobile technology is marked by rapid change that necessitates agile mobile strategies to deliver consistent sales functionalities successfully. Most companies cannot achieve this alone. By tapping into outside experience, companies can optimize costs while ensuring higher quality and faster goal achievement. We see companies defining roles of internal and external experts to achieve a balance in meeting sales requirements and maintaining control.
Mobile support is easily accepted by the sales force: Not true! Most companies provide a plethora of capabilities but often forget who their target audience is. To stay on top of customer requirements doesn’t mean providing a variety of mobile capabilities to the sales force. In fact, it means recognizing what your sellers need to be more effective, e.g., easier navigation, offline access, real-time data. In addition, companies need to nurture mobile use through a well-structured execution plan which includes constant reinforcement and communication on mobile uses, benefits, and sales success stories, to drive mobile acceptance across levels.

What has your experience been? Are there any other myths you’d like to share?

CEB Sales Members, to learn more, register for our upcoming webinar on the topic. Also review our recently published research on Mobile Enablement for Sales.