Mobile sales enablement

Mobile sales enablement is an extension of the long-standing sales enablement strategy. IDC defines sales enablement as: “Getting the right information into the hands of the right seller at the right time and place, and in the right format, to move a sales opportunity forward”[1] When the first iPad was released, some entrepreneurs[2][3] took the opportunity to develop mobile apps that enabled salesmen to sell everywhere. These were initiated out of costly custom agency builds that were difficult to maintain. As technology progressed, standardized apps were developed. Some apps focus on content distribution others are focused on more transactional functions.

Sales enablement is the strategy and processes for helping sales teams efficiently move customers through the sales process to the point where the customer can make a buying decision with a higher likelihood of buying their solution.

— – John Moore, The Collaborator

The definition does not, and should not, define the strategies, tactics, or technologies used to accomplish it. It is a vendor-neutral approach that focuses upon the alignment of sales with marketing, customer success, finance, and product organizations.

Mobile sales enablement can be applied to all mobile devices. This often includes tablets and smartphones. However; the downside of smartphones is the smaller screen size, in comparison with a tablet which has a larger screen for sharing presentations or materials to an audience. Good apps will tailor the benefits of the solution to the specific selling behavior for the devices.

There may be confusion between the terms mobile sales enablement and customer relationship management. This is mostly due to the fact that a lot of CRM providers have a mobile version of their software. CRM software is designed to manage relationships with customers using a database of customers, prospects, and support staff. Meanwhile, mobile sales enablement is focused on making salespeople more successful while on the go. Some mobile sales enablement solutions integrate seamlessly with an already existing CRM solution, thereby helping both tools to be more successful.

Research by Demand Metric[4] into the cost of a bad sales experience indicated that a misalignment between sales and marketing is key to a loss in revenue. Specifically, 72% of sales and marketing professionals agree on this statement. 60% of these professionals often deliver bad sales experiences. The cause of this problem is due to sales thinking that marketing materials lack quality, while marketers think salespeople are not using the content the right way. Mobile sales enablement provides a solution to this problem.

In a recent research conducted by BSharp Sales Enablers,[5] 96% of field sales team said they preferred a mobile sales enablement solution to a PC based solution.

Profitable Channels conducted research[6] into the opportunities provided by mobile sales enablement. They found 3 areas where mobile sales enablement had a lot of potential:

• Drive revenue growth: By having access to the right sales information at the right time, at the right place, the revenue/sale go up.
• Improve sales effectiveness: Due to simplifying the sales process, improving sales productivity, and showing a return on the investment of sales assets.
• Differentiate the customer experience: A higher level of collaboration, a visually clean sales interface and client insights help with bringing the customer experience to a higher level.

Sales enablement serves to equip each side of a transaction with the tools to optimize outcome. They often work most directly with marketing and sales teams, assisting with business-to-business sales. Enablement teams have three major functions: creating content (i.e., marketing material), managing digital platforms, and providing training to employees. Enablement teams serve a critical role in a company, and companies of different sizes are engaging them. For instance, sales enablement teams equip the sales group with the most updated sale enablement approaches, making them competitive in the market, and consequently scaling up the success of the company by teaching collaboration culture, proper choice of tools, and exercising oversight.