How mobile CRM helps sales with data leakage

Data leakage is one of the worst things that can happen to a sales team—especially one that’s on the move. When sales reps are unable to update and maintain information about prospects, a company’s CRM ends up with incomplete, inaccurate or no data at all. The results can be frustrating for sales teams and monetarily damaging for the company.

It’s important to note that when we say “data leakage,” we aren’t talking about hackers. While cybersecurity is an obvious concern, the alarming fact of the matter is that most leakage, breaches and information loss stems from a firm’s own employees.

Data leakage is damaging because important business information (data that drives sales!) is lost. It also calls into question the data that is captured in your CRM. Is it complete?

Data leakage from sales reps in the field is a problem that needs solving. Here are some answers.

Data Leakage in the Office

First things first: Ensure that there is no information loss occurring at the main office of your company. Information loss can happen if your CRM isn’t up to the task, confuses employees or if your sales reps aren’t doing their job properly.

Ensure your CRM makes data leakage a non-issue in the office such that it delivers a true 360-degree view of your customers, and it allows you to monitor customer data across multiple channels with ease. Key information is stored in a centralized system categorized under different customers, and you can capture data while being involved with other activities like lead prospecting on social media. So, your CRM ideally needs to have seamless integrations and it should allow you to capture data while surfing the web by using a Chrome extension for eg. for the browser, among other ways to easily capture info.

Your CRM should have a  full integration so that it also negates the need for extra software, thereby restricting leaks and duplication. You should also be able to check any customer’s complete information on a single page.

Leakage in the Field

Modern business necessitates that sales teams be highly mobile and active while still able to perform their duties. This includes travel, general fieldwork or even missing a flight. Of course, due to complications that can arise from such situations, information loss is far more prevalent while traveling than not. So a good mobile strategy to protect against loss is key.

A sales rep might be distracted by their circumstances and lose track of important information. They could find themselves unable to use their company’s CRM because there is no mobile version or the CRM lacks what they need to do their job. There is also the inherent danger of corporate information making its way to a consumer device.

Many mobile CRMs lack the robust functionality of their desktop counterparts. To be effective in the field, sales reps need access to not only contacts in their main CRM, but also the ability to track sales productivity, deal management and lead conversion rates. They need to see recently viewed contacts, deals and upcoming tasks. Without the ability to do so, your sales reps are flying blind—and this leads to leaks.

Ease of use is another major factor in a successful mobile CRM and capturing information. Given the nature of mobile devices, smaller screens and lack of a physical keyboard and mouse, poor user interfaces on a mobile CRM is like asking for lose data. A streamlined, intuitive app is the only one worth considering.

Sales reps need to be able to manage information and contacts with only a few swipes or button presses. Your team should not have to scratch their heads when they’re looking to view contacts, add tags, change lead scores write notes or check tasks. Ease of use and simplicity are key.

Tracking deals is another integral part of a rep’s job.  They can’t be expected to make sales without the ability to see other ongoing deals, track progress and monitor milestones. On top of that, it’s critical to check pending tasks, mark tasks complete so that the home office knows what’s going on as well as create new tasks.

Businesses that want a mobile workforce have to provide their workers with the right mobile CRM–something that hits all the right marks. It is also important to note that while a desktop CRM might seem to be the right solution, the portable version might not be all that great. You need software that works seamlessly across all platforms. For example, GPS data might seem irrelevant on a desktop, but it certainly isn’t on a mobile phone or tablet. The user experience has to be top-notch.

What sales teams need is a fully-functional, mobile CRM that has all of the features of its office counterpart. There are plenty of CRMs out there that boast of being mobile-ready. The levels of integration, however, can vary wildly. So, for CRM companies who have not joined the wagon and created a robust mobile app for their CRM, it is high time that they invested on developing a Mobile CRM that would keep them from losing customers to their competitors. Also, as per the Mobile CRM Software report, nearly half of all CRM users say they access CRM systems using smartphones, while 45 percent use tablets. Nearly 30 percent use a combination of laptops, desktops and mobile devices. Over half of mobile CRM users say that mobile access greatly improves the quality of their CRM data.