Sales support apps - gimmick or spearhead?
Analysis of current apps
As part of the master's course "Co-Creating Value with Strategic Customers" at the University of St.Gallen, we investigated how apps for sales support generate added value and what needs to be considered when implementing them. Ten currently used apps from the areas of services (4), consumer/consumer goods (4), and capital goods (2) served as a basis.
Quick Wins of a Sales App
All of the apps examined offer access to up-to-date, multimedia content; search and navigation functions also provide efficient support for large amounts of information. Thanks to their app, sales representatives have everything they need at their fingertips and spend less time compiling content to prepare for meetings. On the marketing side, new or updated content is distributed centrally and simultaneously at the touch of a button. In many cases, this content can even be shared directly with the customer via e-mail or within the app in collaboration rooms, and further use can be tracked.Additional functions, such as on-screen signing, streamline processes and make their contribution to the paperless office. In short, many tangible benefits of sales-supporting apps can be identified. But if you are only satisfied with increased productivity and more efficient control, you will miss out on further, effective potential.
This is where the real potential lies!
If you expect your salespeople not only to offer standardized products or services, but also to develop new solutions together with customers, you must also equip them with the necessary digital sales support. Three promising starting points present themselves:Inspiration: Every new business usually starts with a brilliant idea or vision. A sales-supporting app can do much more here than just present success stories in multimedia form. For example, a system provider for coffee stations integrated an augmented reality function into its app. This now impressively shows the customer how his coffee stations are presented at different locations.Decision making: Credibly helping the customer to make the best decision - this is where potential analyses, calculators or profiling tools show their effectiveness. A pharmaceutical company, for example, uses a calculator and current data from the CRM to clearly demonstrate how the customer can optimize the total cost of operation.Customizing: With an app, it is possible to adapt content immediately (even hidden, if desired) to any situation. This includes not only their placement in the visual, emotional world of the conversation partner by selecting the right moods. But also the tailoring of the argumentation. For example, a tire manufacturer adapts its product-specific argumentation to the customer typologies. At the push of a button, the salesperson's argumentation is then geared to "cost reduction", "low downtime", "ecology" or "safety".
The fallacy trap
In retrospect, some of the assumptions made by the companies we supported turned out to be wrong. Among other things, they underestimated the effort required not only to adapt existing content to media requirements, but also to make it more customer-oriented at the same time. But also to make it more customer-oriented at the same time. In addition, too little attention was paid to matching the use case with the technology - i.e., the hardware and software - and the practicability of the (existing) hardware and the effective possibilities of standard software were overestimated. And last but not least, it was often wrongly expected that a sales-supporting app would automatically transform every salesperson into a convincing moderator, navigator and consultant.
How to make the app your spearhead
Three tips to ensure that every sales app provides measurably effective support in the customer conversation and is not just a "have-it-yet" marketing tool:Spend enough time for the definition of the use case. In most cases, consulting processes need to be developed first and then embedded into the sales process. For example: What questions should the sales force ask? How should they activate the customer?Obtain from the beginning to the soft skills as well. Just as the distribution of a B2C app requires time and money, the use of a sales app requires training and support. This applies not only to the aspect of "ability" in the context of training, but also to that of "understanding" and "willingness".The management of the sales team must play a central role. Among other things, by using the app itself in day-to-day business and utilizing the collected data material. In this way, it is possible to find out how successful salespeople work. This knowledge then flows into the coaching of the entire sales team. 
