5 Key Features for Your Mobile CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have gained rising adoption rates over the past three years, growing to a $23.2 billion market share in 2014. With the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend, more companies are looking into CRM solutions designed around the mobile environment. With mobile access to CRM, sales teams improve productivity by 15 percent and gain much needed mobility. When choosing a mobile CRM solution, you need to keep these five key features in mind.
1. Enterprise Level Security
Your CRM contains a wealth of sensitive, valuable information. Remote access introduces plenty of security concerns, especially when you consider the sales team may be using personal mobile devices for access. Whether you’re a small business or a global corporation, you want the best security measures available from the CRM vendor. If there’s one thing that’s sure to sour a sale, it’s a data breach in the middle of the sales pipeline.
2. Device Compatibility
A mobile CRM might sound like an excellent choice, but does it actually work with the mobile devices used by the sales department? Device compatibility might not be that hard if everyone is using company-issued smartphones and tablets, as this configuration provides you with full mobile device information. In most cases, companies stick with a few models and the same operating system.
BYOD is where it gets tricky. You have multiple hardware profiles, operating systems and overall capabilities to deal with. You need to carefully select a CRM platform that fully supports the range of devices available. In some cases, it may make more sense to provide company-issued tablets or smartphones instead of finding a solution that supports both a four year old Android 2.3 and the new iPhone 6.
3. Distilled Feature Sets
Getting everything and the kitchen sink in a feature set is tempting, but consider the working environment of the sales team when they’re mobile. They don’t need every feature, and bogging down the mobile CRM solution can result in frustrationand a drop in productivity.
Instead, choose only the most essential CRM features for the mobile platform based on your team’s on-the-go needs. If they’re going to client meetings, having sales pipeline presentations and other sales assets is critical. Logging phone calls, text messages and other mobile contact by the sales prospect provides useful data points. Examine exactly how a CRM fits into the field work the department does prior to choosing CRM feature sets.
4. Data Aggregation
A mobile CRM provides flexibility for the sales team, but it also introduces the potential for lost or isolated data. Your solution needs some form of data aggregation, either by syncing with a central server or reporting data, so the sales team doesn’t lock essential information to a single device. The last thing you want is for a big deal to fall through because critical customer information is stuck on someone’s lost mobile phone.
5. Real-Time Analytics
Many mobile CRM solutions are deployed for remote sales teams that don’t always have the luxury of time. Instead of waiting for analytic information from the company’s home base, real-time analytics provides actionable insights while the sales team is still in the field. This feature improves the responsiveness and productivity of the team because they can change strategies or adjust pitches based on real-time information.
Conclusion
A mobile CRM provides a valuable tool for sales teams, especially for those who operate out in the field. Choosing the right features for your mobile CRM solution provides you with all the advantages to increase productivity instead of reducing it.
CRM
Sources
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3056118
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/08/mobile-crm-sales.html