Debunking Mobile Salesforce Myth?

I recently discovered a chap I befriended when he was a client of mine many moons ago was now at the sales helm of Europe’s largest lighting manufacturer/distributer.  I caught up with top fella Brian and was delighted to hear him in fine fettle.

We naturally got to comparing his past and present outfits, as over a beer we regularly used to mock his old employer’s lack of IT nous.  He was extolling the virtues of his bespoked crm package, emanating from Germany, where every quote is registered and each opportunity dutifully progressed.

And the one thing he’d just done was give his (around 100) reps in the field 3G cards.  The idea is they’ll be more likely to input crucial data when waiting for ten minutes in a car park, rather than rely on feeling like it when arriving home, confronted by a million and one distractions later that night.

It’s interesting that everyone accepts that if you don’t jot something down, you will forget about it.  It is impossible for us reps to remember every conversation we have, every promise of delivery made, every proposition suggested and every date we’re supposed to call back.  Yet I bet it’s a relative stroll for a crm vendor or internal IT department to write a mobile device-friendly input routine that allows for whatever the 4 or 5 key elements you want to capture to be documented the instance they occur…..(and avoid the typing by toothpick barrier). I feel a product coming on 🙂