Crafting a CRM System to Mobilize Your Salesforce

In terms of features and customization, we demand a lot from our CRMs; today, the ideal CRM solution needs to play a big role in helping your sales force evolve in our increasingly technological and mobilized business world. Many sales teams spend their time inputting data on sales efforts, clients, and prospects solely using the platform's Web-based interface—which is fine if your goal is to merely think about your business. But a mobile CRM solution is where you should turn to instigate action for you business. 

Forward-thinking leaders believe that mobile technologies will help them manage their sales teams and make them more effective. For salespeople, how can a CRM solution ease the transition from Web to mobile? The CRM system has to be a tool that is fast, fun, and actionable. Even better, it should include an easy and efficient way to identify, rank, and communicate with prospects.

So what are some of the features of this idyllic CRM? First, it should utilize existing technology that already collects data. Your smartphone knows which leads you have already called and followed up with. Social networks track the interests and likes for all your contacts and prospects. LinkedIn shows your connections' memberships within interest groups, and YouTube alerts you to videos they've watched and liked. For example, when one of your contacts shows potential interest in your product, a native mobile app on your smartphone could notify you, send trackable media, and remind you to follow up.

Next, your ideal mobile CRM platform should make prospecting fun. Salespeople need an efficient way to identify and prioritize leads. Gamify the technology so that it is engaging by using point rankings and swipe-to-sort filtering for prospects. If your process is gamelike and fun, your sales team will adopt it. Furthermore, your CRM system should help you understand how best to communicate with a prospect: by sending a video, texting a reminder, making a call, etc.

Lastly, the mobile CRM should eliminate tedious decision-making. Just as your calendar reminds you of what to do and when to do it, your CRM should tell you which prospect opportunities are the best and should be focused on first, along with finding out the ways in which each prospect prefers to be contacted. Mobilized sales forces can make prospecting even more efficient by incorporating demographics such as region into best practices. If a prospect is located in China, for instance, the mobile CRM should tell your salesperson to send a text message using WeChat instead of an SMS.

Don't make your team interpret abstract data—automate it and deliver an immediate action point. The solutions provided in your mobilized CRM should utilize mobile data and online social activity in order to reveal the best opportunities. Analytics lead to finding the most efficient way to close on a customer and therefore drive overall revenue and streamline operations. Tracking millions of data points on sales and recruiting activity leads to solid improvement in your sales. The information gathered by these algorithms allows you to make informed decisions, increase sales per prospect conversion, and run more efficient teams.

These ideal features aren't limited to just finding prospects and closing the first sale. A mobile CRM platform can act as the centerpiece for all of the rep's personal business growth. It can house up-to-date training materials that provide digital mentorship, keeping your brand's messaging consistent with videos and news articles that are automatically populated in the mobile platform. It can teach best practices through a series of step-by-step instructions for the salesperson to follow in order to learn the ins-and-outs of your business. And, of course, it can generate helpful reports that track which clients and prospects are close to renewal or expiration.

With access to improved technology and analytics data, you can learn (in real time) what it takes to close and keep a sale in the most efficient way. A great mobile platform will turn your smartphone into an immediate point of sale, a tracking system for orders, and a guide to the best sales and team coaching actions to take in real time. We still use the Web to think about our businesses—but the mobile CRM that encompasses all these aspects is truly the place we go to instigate action.

Michael McMillan is the vice president of Customer Experience at Fragmob and manages the sales, marketing, channel relations, strategic account, and technical account departments.  He has more than 14 years of experience in the contact center service industry and has worked in every role from a front-line agent to a VP of sales and marketing. Connect with him on LinkedIn and @SalesKingOnline on Twitter.