Sales Reps Around The World Are Using Tablets To Collect Contact Information

As technology changes, so to do the tools that companies use to achieve their goals, such as generating sales. Many industries around the world employ a sales force who spend their days interacting and engaging customers and prospects. It used to be that when a sales person showed up at a location, they would be carrying a large back full of paper, handouts, laminated sales sheets, etc. Those times, they are a changing… Now, with the release of tablets like Apple’s iPad, companies around the world have been spending the past few years figuring out how to effectively leverage these devices. The low hanging fruit was to put tablets into the hands of their sales force, have custom apps developed OR leverage third party apps, and use those tablets to both engage customers and prospects, but to also collect critical personal and sales data.

3 Ways Sales Reps Use Tablets

For a few years now sales reps are using tablets in the field to help do their job better. That said, we are still at the early stages of leveraging tablets in the field by reps. Currently, there are three main ways that sales use tablets:

• Display engaging digital content – Sales reps are using tablets during conversations with customers and prospects to show their audience digital content. Reps are trained to use the tablet similarly to the old laminated sales sheets, to better explain the company’s products & services. Reps are seeing that customers and prospects are more interested and engaged when a rep uses a tablet like the iPad. Even the pharmaceutical industry who calls on doctors who are extremely busy and normally don’t give sales reps as much time as they used to, are finding success using tablets to engage physicians with digital content.
• Push digital content to customers and prospects – There are apps out there that allow sales reps to actually push content via email or other means to customers and prospects so that they can interact with the content on their own terms. Reps who don’t get enough time with their customers OR who want to follow-up a good conversation with support information really find this useful as it’s another touch point for them.
• Collect contact information with tablets – Sales reps are collecting contact information and other data about their customers and prospects with tablets. Whether it’s through tracking software that understands what was covered during the discussion simply by tracking what’s been tapped on, or whether it’s through data input fields that the rep fills in during or after the meeting, sales reps are using apps like OnSpot Social to collect data with tablets while in the field.

Tablet Brands Sales Reps Use In The Field

At this point, from the information we have, a lot of the larger organizations with thousands and tens of thousands of sales reps are using the iPad. Small and medium-sized companies also use the iPad, but more of those companies are also trying some of the other tablets on the market, as they don’t have as much to spend on the hardware. The iPad seems to draw the attention of customers better. Many of them want to take the iPad from the rep and play with it. In the future, as tablets become more and more similar, I think you’ll start to see other tablets taking more of the share of this market, but I also think Apple will continue to do well with the iPad for those who think it’s worth spending the extra money on it.