WHITE PAPER Mobility Won't Wait for Your Sales Force Urgent first steps in developing a Mobile strategy
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary Page 4 Survey Results Page 4 Developing a Mobile Strategy Page 5 Design Page 5 Build, Secure and Deploy Page 6 Smoothing Out the Ride Page 7 Thinking "Quick" Page 7 Customer Case Studies Page 8 AutoTrader.com Page 8 CEVA Santé Animale Page 8 MetLife Page 8 3
Mobility Won't Wait for Your Sales Force Urgent first steps in developing a Mobile strategy Is your field sales force on the move or stuck in its tracks? Enable your sales reps to be 10X more effective with mobile sales enablement apps. Executive Summary MicroStrategy, a global innovator of mobile solutions, recently surveyed 500 U.S. organizations on the use of tablet computers to support sales activities across a large, diverse group of industries. The survey results suggested many companies are facing significant hurdles to sales enablement related to the limitations of their internal sales systems, which are largely not equipped for enabling sales processes out of the office. Tablet computers, and the powerful business applications that run on them, have the potential to address many of the obstacles mentioned in the survey. Some companies, however, are hesitant to pursue this course due to concerns about cost, stranded investments, user adoption, and more. The MicroStrategy Mobile App Platform has the ability to address these concerns and to facilitate mobile sales enablement. To guide the journey, the article outlines the urgent first steps in developing a mobile strategy and presents several customer case studies that illustrate the benefits of the MicroStrategy Mobile platform. It also invites the reader to learn more by registering for a complimentary Introduction to Mobile App Platform workshop, or participating in a QuickStrike focused professional services program in which a MicroStrategy team assists an organization in building a world-class mobile sales enablement application in only 10 days. desktop systems and/or software applications not suited for field activity. Internal sales systems in many organizations, it appears, are not agile enough to keep pace with the rapidly changing needs of sales reps and their customers. Additionally, when asked to assign a grade to the quality of their sales meetings, most organizations, small or large, gave themselves a B or below. The focus on internal processes and systems becomes even more intense when viewed through the lens of C-level executives. They pointed to their respective sales forces lack of understanding of customer needs as a major barrier to selling (75%), along with limited mobile access to systems (50%) and failure to keep product knowledge current (50%). Both those in the field and those in the executive suite seem to agree that sales organizations are being held back by immobile and underequipped systems and software. The cure is also apparent since a tablet with mobile apps that allow on-the-go-transacting could help solve most of these challenges. Tablet devices, in fact, have ushered in a whole new era of field sales capabilities. Many of their inherent features, such as intuitive touch-screens, instant on, long battery life, GPS, and 3G/4G Internet access, translate into powerful sales capabilities when combined with the sales-focused business applications that run on them. Survey Results Sales reps face a number of hurdles every day, ranging from competitive battles to no purchase decisions to cancelled appointments. While barriers constructed by external parties are to be expected, some of the most challenging hurdles to sales enablement can be found much closer to home. MicroStrategy, a global innovator of mobile solutions, recently surveyed 500 U.S. organizations on the use of tablet computers to support sales activities across many industries.* Nearly one in two sales professionals cite limited mobile access to key selling systems and chronic inefficiencies in administrative work that wastes active selling time and as major challenges in sales enablement. Along those same lines, approximately one-third said they are challenged by laptop/ Armed with mobile sales enablement apps on tablets or smart phones, sales reps can vastly improve interactions with customers and prospects through the ability to spontaneously exchange information as well as access and share the latest multi-media content on-demand. They can also better prepare for meetings and present more compelling offers by having customer and product information, along with timely market and competitive intelligence, at their fingertips. Overall productivity can also be improved through on-the-go processing that allows reps to do routine administrative tasks such as updating opportunities, adding CRM call records, or even capturing a customer s signature for an order during meetings or cognitive downtime while still out in the field. Sales reps no longer have to wait until the end of the day to catch up on sales or 4
opportunity-related administrative tasks. Notably, sales organizations have a good idea of where they d like to go with mobility someday. The survey respondents commonly reported there are several activities they d like to see their sales reps doing on a mobile device, including create or update opportunities, view sales collateral, view CRM records, view sales analytics, and collaborate and share ideas with other team members. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, sales directors viewed collaboration as their number one desired activity. MOBILE SALES ENABLEMENT SURVEY RESULTS of sales organizations grade themselves at a B-LEVEL OR BELOW on sales MEETING QUALITY be stolen or misplaced? Put another way, many believe that the road to mobility is an intimidating endeavor, and while they know they have to go down that route eventually, for now it is much more comfortable to wait. This view, however, is rapidly becoming impractical. While adoption rates vary by industry, mobility is fast becoming a strategic imperative. MicroStrategy s survey revealed that companies across every industry are at least contemplating ways to utilize mobile devices to enable their sales organizations, not to mention that customers now expect salespeople to present timely, relevant information in an attractive format that meets their needs and makes the most of their time. Sales reps who can t fulfill these expectations are at a decided disadvantage to those who can. Fortunately, mobile development platforms are now available that can address the aforementioned concerns, lower the cost of deployment, and altogether smooth out the ride. LACK OF MOBILE ACCESS Developing a Mobile Strategy nearly 1 in 2 sales professionals cite lack of mobile access as a sales challenge TOP FIVE desired MOBILE sales activities: 1 Create or update opportunities 2 View sales collateral 3 View CRM records 4 View sales analytics 5 Collaborate and share ideas with other sales team members Whether your sales organization is just now contemplating a move to mobility or it has started to test the waters with pilot projects, a mobile strategy is necessary to guide the journey. This strategy should address the main facets of implementing mobile applications: design, build, secure, and deploy. EXECUTIVE LEADERS POINT TO THESE SELLING OBSTACLES LACK OF INSIGHT into what products, services, and solutions to offer customers 2013 MicroStrategy, Inc. All Rights Reserved. LIMITED MOBILE ACCESS to key selling systems SOLUTION: Failure to keep product KNOWLEDGE CURRENT MOBILE SALES ENABLEMENT APPS Despite the growing awareness of the benefits, sales organizations are often reluctant to move from their current relatively immobile system landscape to the desired future state of mobility. Many concerns may plague the leaders of these sales organizations. Will their current investments in legacy systems be stranded? Will their sales reps be willing and able to adopt the new technologies? And perhaps, most critically, will their data be secure on these mobile devices that may Design There are many ways in which mobile apps can enable sales processes and enhance sales effectiveness. Based on our field experience as well as feedback from our customers, the most effective mobile solutions combine three elements: Commercial intelligence This includes sales analytics, such as buying patterns and cross-sell/up-sell opportunities, as well as customer information, such as account data and client communications. Market, product and competitive intelligence also fall into this category. Via a mobile solution with these capabilities, more often than not, sales reps will be well prepared, able to navigate any customer meeting, and know where to focus their time and energy. Customer engagement The tablet is the optimal device for supporting in-person sales meetings since its rich displays and multimedia capabilities are well-suited for capturing and holding attention. Through information-rich mobile apps, reps can display 5
customized insights and access up-to-date materials to support spontaneous conversations with customers. This allows reps to go with the customer s flow of discussion, presenting information that is relevant and interactive versus static and stale. Field execution Through embedded workflows and transactional capabilities, a mobile solution unfetters reps from their offices in performing administrative tasks, such as taking orders, adding CRM records, updating opportunities and forecasts, and compiling task lists. This translates into action and sales process continuity in the field instead of delays and downtime. Additionally, MicroStrategy-powered mobile apps also offer the ability to understand how, when and where the app is being used. This allows managers and sales enablement professionals to provide coaching on ways to improve the selling process as well as to identify areas where the app itself can be enhanced, thus achieving continuous improvement. According to the survey, less than 10% of field sales orgs are excellent in execution. What if you pushed your organization s execution up a level? How much more could you sell? In an organization with 10% excellent executers who produce 60% of total sales, if you transform 10% of lower performing reps into excellent, you could increase sales by 55.5%. Very poor Poor Average Good New customer opportunity execution Build, Secure and Deploy Excellent Very poor With a solution design that incorporates these elements, sales reps can move seamlessly from preparation to presentation to execution anywhere they happen to be. However, sales organizations are often reluctant to move forward in developing a mobile strategy because they have already invested heavily in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution or a Sales force Automation Solution (SFA) for which they have yet to realize the anticipated ROI. Ironically, mobile sales enablement apps, which are sometimes incorrectly perceived as an extraneous investment, may hold the key to realizing the complete benefits of these and other internal systems. An end-to-end view of the sales process reveals why. In general, CRM and SFA solutions are about improving outof-meeting efficiency by automating business processes. Although they Poor Average Good Up-sell/cross sell execution Excellent do have some efficiency benefits, mobile apps, in contrast, are more about improving in-meeting effectiveness by providing better commercial intelligence and a compelling means of engaging the customer. In other words, mobile apps are the other half of the equation. When combined with CRM, SFA or other sales-related data and systems, they give reps a complete toolkit for working optimally in the office and in front of a client. Mobile apps allow reps to connect to their IT support systems through one intuitive front-end. This makes them a complement and not a threat to the investments made in CRM and SFA as well as other enterprise systems such as business intelligence (BI) and analytics, content management, order configuration and management, finance, supply chain, and other operational systems. Through this integration, sales reps can rapidly access the data they need so they don t waste a single minute of selling by having to search for some bit of information or content found in disparate systems. But how can a sales organization achieve this level of integration without thousands of person-hours in development time? The traditional method of coding from scratch quickly becomes unwieldy and cost-prohibitive even for companies with the largest of budgets and the most experienced IT staffs. The answer instead lies in introducing a mobile application layer on top of existing enterprise systems, which can be done through mobile app development platforms such as the one offered by MicroStrategy. This new layer seamlessly brings together existing capabilities that are critical to sales reps and makes them available through a variety of mobile devices. In so doing, it addresses another important technological concern: how to cost-effectively build and deploy apps that can run on the many mobile devices and many different operating systems on the market today. Again, creating custom code is not the answer. Mobile app development platforms offer a way around this complexity by allowing companies to build a mobile sales enablement solution that uses one set of code for multiple devices and operating system platforms.that way, when changes are made to the solution, the system, not the IT staff, automatically propagates the changes and makes devicespecific adjustments. Among other benefits, leveraging a mobile app development platform satisfies the need for speed in building and deploying mobile solutions. For instance, the MicroStrategy Mobile App Platform, which uses codefree, click-to-configure technology that assembles apps instead of coding them, is estimated to be 100X faster than writing native code. It also decreases the time and resources needed to develop and implement 6
mobile apps by including important features, such as robust security (e.g., AES encryption, two-way authentication, single sign-on, etc.) as well as secure asynchronous content delivery that takes advantage of Wifi availability at night to automatically sync content for offline access important when connectivity at a customer site isn t always available. Overall, the idea is to design, build, secure and deploy mobile apps that allow reps to do customer research, make presentations, and perform administrative tasks all from one place: a single, intuitive user interface on their tablets or smart phones. This reduces their need to switch back and forth between disparate systems while on-the-go or back at the office. Smoothing Out the Ride If account executives in your organization are accustomed to uploading and downloading Excel files and making PowerPoint presentations, then the road to mobility might seem like it s just too far to travel. MicroStrategy, however, has developed two programs aimed at facilitating and accelerating your organization s path to mobility. Both programs allow companies to experience first-hand how quickly, easily and cost-effectively a high-roi mobile application can be built using the MicroStrategy Mobile App Platform. And, both programs are free! The first is the Mobile QuickStrike, a focused mobile specialist engagement that delivers a brilliant prototype sales enablement app in a matter of days. This application is based on your organization s own business processes and data, and it is packaged with other high-value deliverables, including a detailed, fully-documented application design and a video demonstrating the full capabilities of the app for easy sharing within your organization. The second program is a free one-day workshop that introduces MicroStrategy's Mobile App Platform, architecture, and design. Through this hands-on Introduction to Mobile App Platform workshop, you can learn how to build smart phone and tablet apps to access your business information anytime, anywhere. And, you need not be technically inclined; the experiential workshop shows you how to build a sales enablement app code-free using the widgets and templates provided in the platform. yet to develop a mobile strategy. The road to mobility is not a road untraveled. MicroStrategy alone has invested more than 10,000 person-years of engineering in developing its mobile platform. Other vendors too have done their part. And hundreds of companies, some of which are probably your competitors, are already reaping the benefits of mobile sales enablement applications. The decision of whether to stay put or to venture down the road to mobility has never been easier or more urgent. To take those first steps, contact MicroStrategy today at info@microstrategy. com to find out more about the Mobile QuickStrike program or register for the free Introduction to the Mobile App Platform workshop in a city near you at http://www.microstrategy.com/events/free-classes/ mobile-platform/. *This online survey, conducted by MicroStrategy, is based on the responses of 500 U.S. organizations, predominately in sales (83%). Nearly 40 percent indicated their organization employed more than 25,000 people. The survey respondents represented a diverse group of industries, including pharmaceutical, healthcare, travel, manufacturing, technology, telecommunications, energy and utilities, consumer packaged goods, financial services, retail, and more. Thinking "Quick" If someone approached you and said they could offer you a proven, cost-effective tool that could make your field sales reps 10X more effective, you d at least want to know more and fast. As experienced by MicroStrategy customers, mobile apps can do just that: improve sales effectiveness by more than ten fold. Many companies, nonetheless, have 7
Customer Case Studies Sales forces around the world are being enabled by MicroStrategy Mobile apps. AutoTrader.com This automotive classified web site allows consumers to research and compare new, certified and used cars by searching for body type, mileage, price and numerous other criteria. The sales force sells advertising packages to its customers designed to maximize the effectiveness of their advertising to the millions of qualified buyers who visit the site. Leveraging a mobile sales enablement app that was built using the MicroStrategy platform, sales reps can: Engage with the customer instantly without waiting for a laptop to start up Fluidly tailor their presentations to the customer s needs Show customers maps that illustrate the impact of their advertising Examine their books of business and see how they re trending for the month. The results: Reps can now access information whenever they need it from one specific place. The convenience and time-savings afforded by the mobile app is translating into increased productivity and greater sales effectiveness in the field, especially since their customers, primarily auto dealers, expect targeted, on-point conversations that are respectful of their time. The results: Sales reps are customizing conversations with their clients and making more sales. Overall productivity is increasing, largely due to the offline capabilities of the tool, which allows reps to optimize their time wherever they are. MetLife This leading global provider of insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs built an ipad app for its annuities wholesalers using MicroStrategy Mobile. The app is part of its multi-year technology roadmap consisting of both an internal and external mobile strategy. Through the app, wholesalers can: View a broker s entire book of business Analyze performance across customer demographics, products, regions, and more while looking at contextual sales information at the point of interaction with the broker Make proactive recommendations, such as which product will be optimal to sell in a particular market Foster better customer relationships by sharing relevant data in meetings The results: MetLife annuity wholesaler representatives are able to sell better and close deals more quickly. As wholesalers leverage sales details on their ipads to improve their performance, MetLIfe gains by proactively displacing the competition. CEVA Santé Animale This global veterinary pharmaceutical company, CEVA Santé Animale, built a sales enablement app that aggregates CRM, ERP and sales data, and makes that information available to sales reps both online and offline. With the app, sales reps can: See how a veterinary practice has performed against itself and against other practices around it. Access a map of clients in a particular area and analyze their performance against each other to spot high-value opportunities. Link to client sales data, view their buying cycles, and enter call notes about the practice Monitor personal productivity and see where they are spending most of their time 8 COLL-1151 0713