Managing sales operations when your team is in the field was once a challenge, let alone the uphill battle faced by field sales reps, who are often left to face last-minute scenarios not quite prepared for. But all that’s changed thanks to the mobile revolution and to useful mobile sales applications that totally empower field reps to close deals from anywhere.

The newest generation of mobile sales apps on slim devices such as smartphones and tablets travel without the bulk of laptops that just yesterday were the standard of portability. These new tools slice the sales cycle by providing the field sales rep with all the latest marketing materials, live inventory reports, product configurators, digital contracts and even allow customers to sign documents on the spot.

Biggest challenges faced by sales reps today

1. Sales Ramp-Up Time: Ramping up new sales reps takes too long and is one of the top reasons why sales teams are failing to reach their quota goals.

2. Personalization and Communicating Value: Sales teams are not meeting their quotas in large part because they are not personalizing the buyer journey and communicating value at every turn. We are all well aware that the buying process has changed. Buyers are more informed, more prepared, and no longer entering into a conversation with a salesperson without a basic idea of the solutions available. Despite this fact, there is still a huge disconnect between what the sales rep provides and what the buyer is looking for. This disconnect contributes to the cycle of inefficiency in most sales organizations.

3. Lack of Efficiency: One of the major challenges standing in the way of sales leaders capturing new accounts and upselling existing ones is the inability of managers to coach effectively. Similar to sales rep ramp-up time, disconnected systems intensify this problem, with over 70% of organizations reporting that the tools and systems their sales reps use in the sales process are only somewhat or slightly connected.

As you go through the process of identifying what apps may be relevant for your own business, these are the 5 key areas where mobile can make a difference:

Informing your audience about new product launches, marketing promotions, etc.
Initiating a new communication channel.
Repackaging your data to foster new ways to interact with your products and services.
Improving productivity, for example by better integration with your back-end systems.
Driving conversions in purchasing funnel: viewing a video, downloading a product trial, asking for a quote.