The adoption of tablets by salespeople is part of a broader trend of technological advancement in the business world. A tablet opens up a whole new world of possibilities for sales reps, from interactive sales presentations to client portfolio management and more. The tablet will give you a salesperson who sells more, closes more, and earns more in less time.
Does your business work regularly with sales reps but, for some reason, you still haven’t switched to tablets?
Then you should know – using tablets has been proven effective and profitable. It boosts business performance and sales results, enhances the customer experience, streamlines time management, and makes your sales team more skilled and professional.
Whether you run a B2B or B2C operation, you should equip your sales reps with tablets today. We’ve gathered all the key advantages you need to know.
Marketing Presentations That Drive Sales
It used to be common practice for a salesperson to deliver information verbally, that is, by talking. Truth be told, this was pretty exhausting for the customer. Attempts at persuasion and verbal product descriptions, accompanied by a tattered, faded catalog that looked unappealing and failed to showcase your products in their best light.
Fortunately, we’ve moved forward. Today, thanks to tablets, every sale turns into a rich, engaging, and effective multimedia presentation. The tablet showcases your full inventory of products and services in an innovative way, with beautiful graphics, rich photo galleries, video clips, and even 3D simulations with 360-degree views of the product from every angle.
Wait, there’s more. You can also use the tablet to show clients corporate brand videos. Media clips that appeared in the press. Public opinion polls. Graphs and tables. Even a personal video from the CEO addressing the customer. When your sales rep walks in with a winning presentation that looks like a million bucks, it’s no longer “just another” boring, tedious sales pitch – it becomes a stunning multimedia experience that generates revenue!
Because First Impressions Really Do Matter – Big Time!
In life, and certainly in sales, you get one chance and only one to make a first impression. When a salesperson manages to create a strong first impression, they’re already halfway to closing the sale. If you’ve created a negative impression with a client, no matter how hard you try to persuade them, their mind is elsewhere and the sale is pretty much lost.
So imagine two situations in which a sales rep meets a client: Option A – an old-school salesperson who just talks and talks while flipping through a printed catalog. Exhausting, right? Option B – an elegant, energetic salesperson, armed with a cutting-edge tablet, who lets the client browse through products themselves. Each product is displayed attractively and interactively, including details and prices, all on the screen.
Which scenario do you think will make a stronger impression on the customer and encourage them to buy? If you picked Option B, you’re right – the more you can elevate the customer experience, the more you’ll significantly boost the likelihood of a purchase.
Tablets Enable Product Customization for Each Customer
No two customers are alike, certainly not identical. Every customer comes with their own wishes, dreams, and personal preferences. Today, every modern product or service allows you to “tailor” it to the customer’s requirements. Whether you’re selling an insurance plan, an investment portfolio, a software bundle, fashion items, a new car, an architectural plan, an overseas vacation… in short, anything.
That’s where the tablet comes in, with the latest technology called interactive presentations. Your salesperson will showcase products to the customer in a personalized way. Typically, you sit with the customer, fill in their details on the tablet through a questionnaire built in advance to meet the company’s requirements. Within seconds, the screen displays the package or product that fits the customer, complete with a price quote.
For example, if you’re selling a new car, you can use an app that lets you “play” with the settings on the screen. Change the model. Trim package. Add-ons. Vehicle color, and so on. Your customers want you to interest them, excite them, and surprise them. They want you to give them something new, and tablets do the job beautifully.
Centralize All Marketing Assets in the Hands of the Salesperson
When you send old-school sales reps out into the field, you rely solely on their selling skills. No matter how brilliant your product is, no matter how much money you’ve invested in marketing and campaigns – the bottom line is that what the salesperson says to the customer will determine whether a sale happens. If it’s a seasoned salesperson who knows the products inside out and can rattle off the specs fluently, great. But what about young, inexperienced sales reps who haven’t yet built up experience with customers?
A tablet significantly amplifies the marketing advantage in your favor. It enables a sales rep to deliver a presentation, catalog, and marketing material that have been prepared and designed by your marketing department. Graphics, video clips, messages, sales offers, sales scripts, and any additional material created by your brilliant marketing managers. Including content from your PR firm and advertising agency, your graphic designers and video editors. From now on, the salesperson engages with the customer using every asset and tool your marketing team has built for them – all on the tablet.
Sales Reps Must Stay Updated 24/7
Sales reps spend most of the day out in the field, away from the office, but they must stay updated on everything happening in the company. Launched a new product? Released a new version? Updated prices? Running a promotion? Stock about to run out? How can you keep dozens or hundreds of sales reps updated in real time – the answer is a tablet.
Every such change or update gets logged in the company’s information database and CRM systems. Since sales reps’ tablets are connected 24/7 to the cloud, they are updated instantly. If a sales rep was at Customer A and by the time they reached Customer B you’ve updated a promotional price, it will show up on their tablet. If by the time they reached Customer C the product is already out of stock, it will show up on their tablet. Marketing and sales presentations also live in the cloud, so they’re continuously updated for every sales rep carrying a tablet.
An additional advantage is that the tablet gives a salesperson access to shared information from every other sales rep. This way, the entire sales team becomes one integrated unit that operates, grows, and improves together.
The Advantage of a Tablet Over a Laptop
Some sales reps carry around a laptop. A laptop may be able to display everything a tablet can, but it’s far more cumbersome, larger, and weighs at least twice (and often three times) as much as a tablet. Do you really want your sales reps lugging around a bag on their shoulder all day weighing several kilograms, ending the day exhausted and worn out, with muscle aches and joint inflammation? Instead of arming your sales reps with Voltaren ointment, it’s far simpler to arm them with tablets.
Today’s advanced tablets are lightweight, sophisticated devices that weigh less than a kilogram, with a large screen, a powerful processor, and plenty of gigabytes of memory. Their batteries last an entire day and rarely need recharging. Of course, they already come with a Windows or Android operating system, and you can install all the software and applications your business and sales reps need quickly and easily.
Sales Process Analysis and Follow-Up for Deal Closing
Today, it’s not enough for a salesperson just to know how to sell products. A sales rep is out and about all day meeting dozens of people, hundreds in a week. The sale doesn’t close in a single conversation, because customers usually want to think, compare, and consult before making a decision. So the salesperson must remember every person they’ve interacted with and also follow up with whoever needs a follow-up. Do you really expect a sales rep to remember all of that information by heart?
It’s obvious that today a salesperson must manage a client portfolio and information database effectively. A tablet is a great tool for this! With a tablet you can manage a client portfolio – names, addresses, contact details. Which products the customer was interested in. How the conversation unfolded. What questions they asked, what answers you need to follow up with, and whether they had any hesitations. All these important details can be entered into the tablet during the meeting with the customer and reviewed afterward. You can analyze processes and draw conclusions, turn into efficient and skilled salespeople, and close more deals.
Apps and Plugins That Save Time and Boost Sales
A tablet is far more than just a display tool for a salesperson. It allows the installation and use of dozens of advanced apps and software programs that streamline the workflow, save time, and increase profits.
The tablet integrates with the organization’s CRM software and systems. It enables the display of price quotes, sales contracts, service calls, shipment statuses, supplier agreements, and more. Additionally, as digital signatures become increasingly common today, the tablet also allows signing documents directly on it. Printing paperwork and carrying around a stash of pens just to get the customer to sign? Forget about it – with a tablet, everything happens in seconds on the screen.
The tablet allows you to integrate business-marketing automation workflows that improve sales. For example, a reminder for the salesperson to follow up with a customer, or sending a specific newsletter to a customer who showed interest in a particular product. It also helps with time management, whether through the use of a meeting calendar, project and task management software, and other tools that optimize the salesperson’s time.
Additionally, a tablet can serve as an excellent training tool for your sales reps. If your organization produces or provides the team with training videos, seminars, webinars, and more – all of these can be delivered to your sales reps through the tablet.
Want to impress customers with professional presentations? Discover GoMixApp’s interactive presentations system for businesses.