Benefits of Mobile Workforce Management for Outside Sales Teams

Sales teams are always looking for new ways to reach potential customers at the perfect moment, whether that’s at home, online, or in a brick-and-mortar store looking for a product or service. The need to reach customers in new ways has become apparent as many major retailers are allocating floor space to third-party vendors for kiosks or pop-up booth. 

Moments like theseーwhen a customer is already actively shopping for a product or serviceーare incredibly powerful for sales. But temporary selling locations present challenges for managing the customer experience, communicating with the main office, collecting timely and accurate data, and more.  

It takes a great deal of operational efficiency to move seamlessly from the first point of contact, to closing the deal, then providing service offsite at the customer’s location. Without business-wide visibility into your systems and processes, as well as insight into who is doing what, where, and when, this can feel like an insurmountable challenge for sales and operation teams.

For companies that approach sales as an exercise in meeting the customer where they are, mobile workforce management technology can optimize onsite sales scheduling and help increase revenue.

Make a Winning First (and Second) Impression

Potential customers base purchasing decisions on how positively they feel about the initial buying experience your sales teams offer. According to a survey by American Express, 33% of customers consider switching from one company to another after just a single instance of poor service, and more than half of customers abandon a planned purchase because of bad service. 

This means organizations that exceed customer expectations are positioned to win. 

Never Miss a Customer Meeting

It pays to ensure sales reps are prepared to nurture and close leads in a way that reflects well on your company. First and foremost, your sales reps need to show up in the right place, on time, so customers are never left waiting. This is true whether the sales person has made an appointment with a prospect or whether they are assigned a shift at an in-store kiosk. Your company should never lose a potential sale because someone was double booked or misinformed about where or when an appointment is taking place.

A mobile workforce management (MWM) solution makes “no missed appointments” a reality. You’ll never miss a customer when you have scheduling capabilities that take into consideration that customer’s availability, sales team calendars, location of appointments, and any other details necessary to successfully connect your company to a potential customer in person.

Deliver a Pointed, Personalized Interaction

Mobile workforce management tools help you quickly match customers to the best salesperson available with the right skills and experience, whether you’re sending sales reps to a store as a third-party vendor or out to meet the customer at a space you want to rent to them. This strengthens your organization’s power to provide high-quality service from the first interaction, ultimately leading to more sales.

A mobile workforce management solution puts customer history and other key information at the fingertips of your sales teams. This seamless data integration with your customer relationship management (CRM) system gives sales representatives the tools and information they need to answer a customer’s questions, build trust, and solidify customer relationships. The mobile app of a MWM makes it significantly easier to capture meeting notes, view customer history, and start an informed conversation with a potential purchaser.

This puts an end to asking the customer the same redundant qualification questions at the beginning of every interaction. When customers don’t have to repeatedly explain what they need, what happened the last time, who they talked to, etc., customers feel like the company is truly paying attention to them. With relevant customer information more readily available, your mobile teams can sell more in less time, wherever they are, repeatedly.

Additionally, your sales reps should be properly equipped with checklists and guides designed to make the buying decision easier for leads. By adding consistency and accountability to sales, you not only make the in-person interaction memorable and positive, but it also helps your brand stand out against competitors. As a platform designed to connect everyone involved in mobile work, a mobile workforce management tool can strengthen sales’ in-person performance and productivity. 

Increase Sales & Service Team Responsiveness

For sales professionals to increase the rate at which they close sales, they must respond quickly and efficiently to potential customers. The faster you can supply them with what they need to make a purchase decision, the easier closing the sale should be.

With a robust mobile workforce management solution, sales teams can use one platform to schedule sales and follow up appointments on the spot. Customers don’t need to speak to another member of your team to schedule a follow up or post-sale appointment, or worse, contact the company again and navigate a whole new process just to get on their own. This decreases the risk of leads dropping out of the sales funnel.

Common, a company that creates unique, co-living quarters in cities, greatly increased sales productivity from implementing a mobile workforce management platform. One of the challenges holding the company back was the manual process for scheduling property tours, including shared calendars with information that couldn’t be trusted. 

After Common implemented Skedulo’s mobile workforce management software, it experienced a 37% increase in scheduled tours, a 94% decrease in the time spent scheduling, and eliminated many of the manual communication processes that followed after a tour was booked. This is the power of a mobile workforce management solution. 

Sell More With a Mobile Workforce Management Tool

Sales has always been a mobile role—meeting customers at their office, in a store, or wherever they’re doing business. But as the way we do business evolves, and customers expect customized and on-demand service, we need to explore new tools that enable greater mobility and agility in sales like never before. 

Built for today’s mobile workforce, a mobile workforce management platform takes the pain out of managing the end-to-end sales process. It helps sales teams schedule faster, provide better customer experience, and improve sales performance. Furthermore, a mobile workforce management tool can streamline processes, invoicing, and much more—freeing up your sales reps to spend more time selling, focusing on personalized customer buying experiences, and less time filling out paperwork. 

To find out how Skedulo’s mobile workforce management platform can benefit your sales team, request a demo today.