Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Mobile CRM Solutions Slow to Hit the Market



Your telecommunication devices, once planted on your desks or in your walls at home are now in your pockets. Society is mobile in nearly everything. However, when it comes to sales and customer relationship management solutions, the mobility you’re accustomed to suddenly comes to a dead stop.

Like other workers, you are no longer chained to your desktop. You’re working from your own mobile devices as more and more organizations invest in mobile connectivity for their workers. According to International Data Corp, vendors were expected to ship out around a billion smartphones worldwide in 2013. More than 200 million tablet computers were shipped in 2013, which goes to show that what was once only done at the desk is now being accomplished on the commute to and from work as well.

So, what’s holding up the mobile abilities of the CRM solution? Some businesses blame the slow uptake on their sales reps that are slow to gravitate toward the mobile solution. Others say that it can’t be the mobile applications being offered up by vendors because sales reps don’t even use the desktop versions of powerful CRM solution platforms.

One train of thought is that the only way sales reps will take up a mobile CRM solution is if it allows them to make their sales reports faster than they can on traditional CRM. Unfortunately, most CRM solution platforms don’t address the needs of the sales reps in the field and stick to processes that are far too time consuming for the average rep.

Vendors can’t ignore the increasingly mobile society much longer. In fact, vendors have slowly started to put the puzzle pieces together and are looking for more automated processes that will suit the sales force. Don’t look for a groundswell of sudden support and mobile apps being directed toward the sales force though – it looks as though most vendors have opted for the long term focus rather than quickly pumping out solutions that will appease the sales force for the short term.

Oddly, the very CRM solutions that are built to help companies create better profit margins are being largely ignored by one of the most key components of the operation – the sales force. The only way your sales force is going to adopt mobile solutions is if they don’t get in the way of their selling. The workflow needs to be streamlined and there cannot be a steep learning curve. While most systems are falling short, there is one company that has delivered.

At Front Row Solutions, we have a management team with foundations in the sales force, and we’ve stepped up to deliver what your sales force is more than willing to work with. We know what sales reps want because we’ve been there. We know that sales reps hate adopting new and difficult to understand CRM systems with reporting tools that take valuable time out of their day.

To that end, we’ve developed a reporting automation service that allows your sales reps to file their reports in about 30 seconds. It’s so easy there is no excuse for not filing. If you’re ready to enable productivity in the field and an easy platform to capture the information you need, contact Front Row Solutions today.