AI being the winning technology in the field is a claim also made by CRM market leader Salesforce and IDC, based on a recent joint study. The statement has proved just as well to be a safe bet: according to the study, 28% of the respondent companies already have AI in place, while 41% plan to have it in the next two years.

Salesforce is citing the ultimate argument of AI boosting businesses by USD 726bn extra revenue and USD 265bn of cost savings between 2017-2021, mainly through improvements in productivity and customer engagement. In total, that means a USD 1.1tn of revenue boost.

Besides these convincing figures, recent acquisitions and investments in the AI marketplace by the likes of the largest CRM vendors have also pointed toward a bright future of artificial intelligence.

Make AI Listen, Analyse, and Speak

We love AI because it is capable of things we get soon bored of and accomplish those tasks 24/7. Whether it would be routine automation of conversations, analysis or insights, it is there, but it also enables the equal distribution of insights, faster decision-making, and pattern recognition by its collaboration features.

From the customers’ angle, it means “someone” is always there when they have a question as AI keeps early-stage consumers busy by talking and listening to them (see chatbots). Sometimes it simply handles claims, sometimes it qualifies leads from these conversations (even identify those who are eligible for certain discount), and generates them automatically in the CRM.

Some AI’s are even more intelligent or have learned enough along the way to be able to assess the highlights and pitfalls of the consumer journey. With such an analysis, companies can find the best workflow for conversions or see what content is the most successful (relevant). From that information, the AI can be programmed to run campaigns alone.

AI Use in CRMs Spreading Like Wildfire

The Big Five

Salesforce introduced its own Einstein in 2016 and has been heavily promoting its features ever since. Einstein is able to customize advertisements and recommendations, replace manual data entry, give customer insights, and prioritize leads, among others. But Salesforce doesn’t stop here: it has recently introduced a new feature that integrates customer service tasks in the regular service offering and allows Einstein to handle routine requests building on customer history, natural language processing, and machine learning, the official statement claims.

Salesforce and Microsoft have also made a deal with IBM to use their Watson technology for campaign automation, that includes automated messages on all available channels and gives a new type of insights for marketers. The users can collaborate better with sales by getting an overview of the strategies and find new ways to improve it.

In fact, one of the major announcements of this summer was Microsoft committing to AI-based analytics as something it believes will improve the life of the end user (i.e. the salesperson, the marketer, or the customer service agent) and not just the bosses reading the reports. The tools to provide this experience include chatbots, predictive lead scoring based on communication traffic patterns, and automated welcome emails, among others.

For some time, Adobe has also been on the market with its AI-based API, Sensei, that allows the creative professionals to be more efficient and insightful. Sensei’s specialty is to analyze images and animations, recognize their aesthetics, but it can also define the sentiment of other documents if needed. In a recent effort to extend Sensei’s reach within the developer community and to improve the performance of the AI tool, Adobe further committed to its partnership with hardware maker NVidia. Lip sync, face awareness, or auto-tagging are some of the features to be developed further.

Improving operational efficiency and predictive insights is also in the focus for SAP that has its own AI-based assistant, Leonardo. Named after renaissance hero Da Vinci, the tool combines (since last year) artificial-intelligence with IoT, analytics, the blockchain, and machine learning, to accelerate digital transformation for businesses. Leonardo is now used to find business problems within an organization and is then able to compare it with an industry-specific database and define the technologies and methods to solve them. SAP takes pride in data safety as well, as it gives users the opportunity to utilize data that is at their own premises, in the systems used every day.

Smaller Scale, Bigger Dreams

All of the above is just the surface of what is happening in the CRM space right now. Public announcements of AI-enhanced software are coming out every week, showing the smaller players are just as well aware of the direction they should take.

It might very well worth it, as the example of Pegasystems shows, that has just been named the market leader of customer engagement by analyst firm Ovum mostly because of its AI capabilities.

Zoho has also announced an upgrade to its Zoho One suite, by extending Zia, the AI assistant’s services to the whole cloud platform. Zia was first introduced as a feature of Zoho CRM only and to help sales reps with suggestions based on client data.

Newcomers to the market already have AI in their initial offerings and investors are keen to support such projects. One of the latest announcements is of Spiro Technologies that claims downright the title of “the first AI-powered CRM”: it has raised USD 1.5mn in seed funding that will be used to add even more AI features to the product.

The trust in the increasing demand from the consumer side that requires the latest technology to stay ahead of the competition also makes CRM vendors try to meet the clients halfway by adding third-party AI-services into their offerings.

The selection they can choose from is impressive already: according to Get CRM’s recent compilation, AI providers have targeted at least 15 business functions with their technology. Speech analytics, for example from Cogito or Uniphore’s Akeira, is one field with a great potential, allowing companies to optimize call outcomes with real-time guidance or improve call resolution rates for service centers.

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1. Draw blueprint drafts and technical details

An obvious use of a mobile device with a digital pen is to draft or sketch blueprints and technical details while out and about, even when in front of a client. The user has to be neither an engineer nor an artist: unlike in maintenance or technical design, the sketches serve only the purpose of telling a story, not to be a measure. However great work your sales enablement team is doing, there can be times when the rep is not equipped with the blueprints and detailed designs he or she needs. But expertise and some drawing skills are there to move the deadlock.

2. Sketch processes

Especially in B2B selling, reps need to present complex processes that lead to the solution the client requested. However, the complex nature of these processes require a complex explanation and that is sometimes too much for the other party – not to mention the important details that can be lost meanwhile. In order to make things easier, reps have a great tool at their disposal. They can make a quick sketch of the process they are talking about at any point in the presentation! Prospective clients will also feel unique as the meeting notes come with handwritten sketches, made only for them and following their own requests.

3. Highlight important points

Personal conversations are invaluable but so much can be lost while talking. By highlighting (underlining, circling, etc.) important points of a presentation or a product documentation, salespeople can make sure the agent will have the most important messages delivered even when forwarding the materials later to the client. Reps themselves might find it useful as well to get a quick overview of the points they need to act on.

4. Make presentations complete

Presentations are mostly known as the boring variations of stories. Surprises, on the other hand, will help get the attention of the audience. They come in many shapes and forms but sketches are certainly among them. So how to show the client that an agent is listening to them? By drawing and writing missing information in the presentation during the meeting, it is more than obvious that the agent listens and makes an effort to add even more relevant details to what is being told.

5. Take handwritten notes

Handwriting is more comfortable for many than typing and, therefore, can be quicker. But there is another aspect of handwritten notes: it suggests a higher level of authenticity, so it is great for building trust with clients. You should never underestimate the power of trust: the average sales cycle has gotten longer in the recent years and it has been paired with a growing skepticism from the part of the prospective buyer. The only thing that is able to speed up the process now risk-free is trust, and any tool that helps build it should be honored and nurtured.

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Voice Command Is Taking Over

Humans love to have their voices heard – you can see the proof in the ever-growing popularity of voice-enabled digital assistants or VEDAs. The likes of Siri, Alexa, and Cortana are invading the households. What’s more, they are effortlessly slipping through the “personal mental firewalls,” a phenomenon that surprised many opponents concerned about privacy issues.

Consumer technology that becomes so popular so soon always finds its way to the offices. Think about mobile devices, and you are only a step away from the thought of robotic assistance fighting for a cubicle. Putting it simply: they will come regardless of you liking it or not. Besides, you have to love what your customers want to stay competitive.

Don’t try to find counterarguments just yet. Accepting VEDAs to the workplace is a spectrum rather than a point in time. The question is, what’s your stance on that spectrum? Are you looking to replace all your sales reps with a cheaper alternative, are you entirely against robots, or are you trying to find a compromise?

Naturally, some industries and professions are more prone to such automation of workflows. Translation, customer service or logistics are the first to come to mind, but legal, medical, or educational professions are not safe, either. Plus, wherever administration occurs, voice-activated functions will appear and, well, take people’s jobs.

On the other hand, it is still a long way until they can accurately analyze a person’s tone and realize emotions. It is also a long way until human customers get so comfortable with robotic interactions that they don’t mind a non-human selling them something. Today, Capgemini data shows 20% thinks so, and it will grow to 31% by 2020. So until then? Let’s make friends!

Reps and Bots = BFF?

So voice-enabled digital assistance might as well be a beginning of a beautiful friendship, and not just based on commanding a shopping helper hidden in a speaker in the living room. After all, is it that bad if the new digital assistants do the dirty work and make sure all the data is in place or flowing in the right direction? The administration is something humans hardly ever enjoy and, besides, the strengths of our kind lies more in finding creative solutions.

Voice assistants can be the first line of contact and sales enablement can support them by providing the data for the initial communications and research. Further along the pipeline, human reps can take over and give the different quality of the connection. Remember, empathy, caring, or even competitiveness are emotional traits that have a big say in a deal, and they all belong to the human character.  

So reps don’t have to abandon their newly found BFFs even during a personal sales meeting with clients. When you integrate a VEDA into the mobile sales app, the whole experience changes for both the rep and the client and not as to exclude the agents.

The bottom line is that voice command function facilitates for example, the note-taking during and after the meeting when on the go, but if further developed by artificial intelligence, it can also “take part in the conversation,” and find out in the course of the meeting what materials it should present at which point.

Analytics and emotional intelligence: the digital assistants can analyze tons of data that helps the rep understand the client better and use his or her emotional judgment to find the right time and place to offer the right product.

Meanwhile, the personalization of VEDAs is an issue that you cannot ignore. Languages, accents, or “just” preferences and mental pathways are some of the things users expect their digital friends to recognize – sales reps are no exception. The best is when the sales reps know their way around programming: they can then make the voice assistant their partner and not their competitor.  

Integration: The Peace Treaty of Sales

The basis of the friendship between a rep and a VEDA is the proper integration of the artificial intelligence into the systems used. Speaking of sales, it goes without saying that CMS or CRM will be the top references and the data within these systems peculiarly clean. Other than that, the integration itself is not rocket science, and it is available for mobile apps, too – so reps can take their new friends with them wherever they go.  

You might want to develop your interface on the platform of Amazon, Apple, or Google, but integration is a more viable option you should consider. That is the starting point if you want to upgrade your mobile business application to the latest standards, and it only involves some particular API’s completed with the specific tools provided by your developers.

Essential voice assistant features for sales can be the following:

• Communication: Your VEDA will call, text or email anyone on the contact list
• Content: It mines the documents, presentations, images the rep needs
• Scheduling: Appointments, follow-up calls, conference attendances, report preparation times
• Navigation: Finds the way to and from meetings

For that, you will need some key technology like speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS). Furthermore, it can even have noise reduction and voice biometrics (to recognize the rep’s voice). We bet it will not be long until even more features become mainstream and VEDAs will be able to adjust their tones and languages to the user automatically or also develop their personalities.

No matter how artificial intelligence and voice assistance is all the rage these days, let’s not forget about conscious professionals to provide the right input for the technology and use the human creativity to find out more business cases where robots can add value.

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The post Can Siri and Co. Replace Your Sales Reps? appeared first on Scolvo.

It Won’t Work Without Measurement

Before we take a look at the figures that show how much the business can gain by enabling sales, it is essential to stop for a minute. The mentioned numbers would not be available without companies measuring their efforts.

Sounds so fundamental, right? However, you would be surprised how many of them forget about that in the rush of implementing the new workflows. Alternatively, according to our sources from around the online water cooler, each of the stakeholders considers different measures the most relevant and the projects slip on disagreement.

Don’t be that company! Arrive at an agreement with the C-suite on the measures in advance and continuously monitor your KPIs – just as you are already doing it with your targets. Sirius Decision’s State of Sales Enablement 2017 study shows that 57% of the companies use some impact-based measurement of their sales enablement efforts.

Have the Cracks Been Fixed?

So many hard-working hours and good intentions can fall through the cracks if those have not been fixed. Processes tend to erode over time and, before you introduce any new technology or method, they should be checked for faults and fixed.

The most common mistake is letting data gather in different systems that are not integrated with each other. The bottom line is your CRM is well-connected. Even better is a mobile app, combined with the CRM, that can also function as a distribution and command center for sales ops. From a C-suite perspective, that central hub becomes essential when creating the reports, which are only as good as the input of data.

The other well-known phenomenon is the inability to react to changes midst the complexity of the products and customer demand. More complex products require more consultations, and engaging today’s more informed customer requires competent advice all the way through the buyer’s journey.

Numbers, please!

So if everything goes as planned and you have avoided all of the above pitfalls, how far can you get with sales enablement? With 44% of Sales Tech survey respondents stating that failing to get approvement from the C-suite for their sales technology purchases, it is more important than ever to see clearly about the return of such investment. However, sales enablement is even more than tech: it needs to help the organization excel in many ways.

A 67% improvement in closing deals

One of the significant advantages of sales enablement technology is that it can closely align the sales efforts with the marketing operations, e.g., by providing content for all steps of the journey the potential buyer goes through. With this close cooperation, companies can become 67% better at closing deals, as well as grow their revenues 24% faster and their profit 27% faster in three years’ time, according to a Wheelhouse Advisor infographic.  

At least 10% increase in conversions

In their Sales Enablement Practitioner Survey of 2016, Highspot found that half of the respondents could increase their pipeline conversion rates by at least 10%, with 12% of the companies recording an over 30% increase. Higher conversion rates mean the revenue per rep increases, too.

59% of top performers use it

Of those organizations that earned more than their targets, 59% have a dedicated sales enablement function. Moreover, of those that could do even better, achieving a 25% growth compared to goals, 72% had already invested in sales enablement, a Forrester Insights and Brainshark joint report claimed.

17%-21% potential improvement in quota attainment

An essential pillar of sales enablement is training, including the onboarding of new reps. With a dedicated investment in the necessary services through sales enablement, the potential to attain quotas improves by 17.7% for conventional methodology or process training and 21.3% for onboarding, according to the Sales Enablement Optimization Study by CSO Insights.

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Enablement Is More Than Support

Has your marketing team created content (brochures, presentations, photo galleries, white papers, ebooks, blogs, infographics) to support your sales team? If it has: great! But you’re not done just yet. (If you haven’t got such assets, our best advice is to stop reading this article right now and create some.)

Have you ever asked around if the sales agents use those materials? More often than one would think, the answer is no. And the reason, more often than one would think, is: “I have no idea where to find them.” Or, sometimes: “It doesn’t fit my client’s needs, and I have no way to customize it.” In fact, stats show that, although 95% of clients make a buying decision when they get content at each step of their journey, 65% of reps can’t even find the content the clients are expecting and 90% of them avoid using the material they locate because it is outdated and not fit.

Thus, putting the corporate content in a central place is the first step. The next one would be automation. When you have a well-specified workflow, it is quite easy to associate the right content with the right step of the process and offer the agent just the piece he or she needs at the right moment. For example, the sales insurance products always starts with an assessment and most likely goes on with product presentations. Sales enablement automation will make sure the assessment questionnaire is the first content piece an agent sees and that they won’t see any presentations until that questionnaire is clicked through.

Having the content in place is the support that forms the base for enablement, where the material provides a seamlessly integrated background to the sales rep’s work, i.e., using the persuading power, product knowledge, and personalization skills to offer a tailor-made solution to the client’s problems.

Enablement Triggers Efficiency

Sales reps are pushed from two directions to increase their efficiency: the employer wants them to contribute to more profitability while the clients expect them to save their time while helping them make well-informed decisions.

By its very definition, sales enablement does just that: it creates a business-friendly environment by giving the agent all the engagement tools and information that he or she needs to forward the sales process.

If this is too vague, let’s take a closer look. The most critical barrier to efficiency, according to a survey conducted among sales practitioners but also confirming common beliefs, is the time spent in the CRM. However, searching for content is also among the most time-consuming activities. When enabled by technology, sales reps have a more streamlined process for CRM use (as it is integrated into the sales enablement tool), and a central place to look for the content they need for their work. In return, the conversion rates, as a measure of efficiency, have improved at 95% of the companies of the survey mentioned above, at least to some extent.

A sales enablement automation tool also support the sales managers in being more efficient. The technology can log all the processes, all the time measures, and all the content usage, that managers use to inform themselves and make decisions. These logs are then quickly put together into a report and can be automatically sent to the management level. The time previously spent on administration and chasing down reps for the report now can be spent to work on strategic initiatives!

Mobilization Puts the Icing on the Cake

Today, when no technology is binding sales agents anymore to their desks for any tasks, sales enablement cannot be complete without a mobile solution, either. Companies are already investing in mobile technology, hardware and software alike, and it’s just a bonus that some of those solutions have the potential to also enable their sales teams.

The interaction that requires the most support from mobility is the personal meeting. In today’s customer-driven business environment, not being able to respond to a client request immediately and adequately easily becomes a dealbreaker. Meanwhile, a mobile device, equipped with a corporate app specially developed for these sales interactions, is a tool that delivers accurate information to the prospect, in real time.

A mobile sales enablement tool is the sales rep’s Swiss army knife: it has all the functionality for the assessment and the engagement of the prospect, as well as all it takes to contract on-site. What functions are we talking about? We have mentioned questionnaires and product presentations before, but integrated client data, emails, todo-lists (either by the manager or by the agent himself), multimedia, electronic signature, or voice notes. Furthermore, tracking and reporting is also an essential part of any mobile sales enablement tool.

The sales profession has exciting times ahead as the digital transformation allows the traditional interactions to develop in many ways. Technology helps to achieve a sense of purpose again by offering opportunities to win the almighty trust of the prospects. Who, in turn, become more engaged by experiencing a new type of sales activity. As much a higher achievable pay, this engagement will drive the agents’ commitment, too, and motivate them to perform better and better.

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Too Much Or Not Enough Data

We all know the primary reason why: the time it takes to send a document back and forth before it contains all the information correctly and gets signed by all the parties is just too much. According to a survey commissioned by Qvidian, 75 percent of sales operations, management, and enablement professionals work with an average of four persons on a proposal, many of those are in product teams or remote locations.

The data to fill is just too many and, in the midst of circulating it, it’s quality also deteriorates. If a CRM and some templates are involved, at least the reps don’t have to fill the data manually. Still, the redundancy of registering information is usually way too high and, again, circulating that many copies take its toll on time-effectiveness. The worst part: the more time the agents spend on such rounds makes the client more likely to look elsewhere and find a better deal.

Time to Automate and Accelerate!

Automation in itself won’t solve all the problems of an organization or even a proposal-making process, but it does contribute its fair share to the acceleration and improved efficiency of a workflow.

There are several levels of automation that each adds a severe degree of life-points to both the reps and their managers:

• Digitalization of documents (templates, presentations, calculation databases): Flipping through pages is outdated, did you know? Unless you work in book sales, your clients will likely expect to get the material from you in a digital format. It’s also easier to search this way.
• Cloud storage (of documents): A central storage location for all the records cuts the searching time significantly while ensuring data safety. According to Brainshark, 41% of top-performing companies say they want seamless and fast content access in the field.
• Integration of CRM and quote calculators: No more typing and retyping client data or missing figures in a quote. Reckoning in the head is right for your brain but not always for the accuracy of a quote.
• Mobile app with electronic signature feature: The most advanced automation of proposal preparation is when the sales reps take it with them. Mobile business apps on tablets free the agents from the latest barrier of purchase: location. If completed with the option for electronic signature, the deals can be closed right on site.

Beyond the Speed

Clients and businesses are equally busy in the rat race of processing and reacting to information faster. Time is money has never been more valid but what if we concentrate too much on speed and forget about the rest of the equation?

Right automation shifts gears in creating proposals yet it remains relevant because it combines quickness with personality and transparency. Automating bids through a mobile app is one level higher: the agents sit next to the clients while showing the presentations, the client clicks through the integrated calculator, and the meeting ends with a digital quote made by the app, ready to be signed electronically.

Because the reps use the same database for the calculations, the same service will always cost the same for the client. Such process gives an impression of professionalism and trustworthiness. And are any of you, sales managers, familiar with the onboarding of new reps and how painful it can be and with what an uncertain outcome? Now a mobile app can navigate the agents through the same process every time and gives them the same documents and add-ons, making sure they check all boxes of the to-do list consistently.

Sales proposal automation has just reached its maturity with the introduction of mobile software, creating a culture of efficiency and success among the sales professionals and a rise in the almighty client engagement.

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The post Be the Winner Who Takes It All with Mobile Sales Proposal Automation appeared first on Scolvo.

We break down the significant points of debate between a laptop and a tablet when used for the work of a field sales agent.

The Standalone Issue

Choosing either a laptop or a tablet for field sales tasks depends much on whether the new device is supposed to be a complementary or a replacement for the office computer.

Previously, it was apparent to consider a mobile device only as a secondary slate as portability take its toll on productivity. However, with the evolution of tablets and laptops and the rise of corporate hybrids, it is not necessary anymore to have two or more of the mobile equipment.

Hybrids also make it unnecessary to bring even a tablet just for quicker and more beautiful presentations while on the go, and the professional line tablets make serious efforts to close the performance gaps between the laptops and the everyday use tablets.

If you think the price tags are too much for these types of devices, you might reconsider when adding up the values of the multiple device purchases.

The Field Sales Solution: A pro tablet, equipped with as many of the capabilities of laptops and desktops as possible.

The Writing Issue

No judging but it’s a fact that laptops have physical keyboards and tablets do not, and that point alone can make or break a deal on any of them. Think about the writing issue: if your job as a sales representative involves much typing, then, of course, you will prefer a physical keyboard and, therefore, a laptop.

However, not everyone has to write a lot all day: some like things put in letters even if that’s not an obligation, while others might prefer drawing, sketching, or multimedia to complete their tasks.

The typical sales workflow instead includes more of the “click&see” or “click&show”. Reviewing client data before a personal meeting, scheduling those meetings, presenting products or updating the sales pipeline information doesn’t require much writing. Similarly, the best allows the agents to send automatic reports and assemble personalized offers with a few clicks only.

Also, the dictation-based note-taking feature of Siri in the iOS11 or a similar function in Android can save the day when typing is not an option or is just too much hassle.

Not to mention the ever-evolving precision of styluses and the capabilities of some wide-screen, high-resolution tablets would make them perfect for the presentation of slides and product videos.

The Field Sales Solution: A tablet with a dictation feature for voice notes and a stylus for sketching, drawing, or electronic signature.

The Portability Issue

For workers who are on the go every day for long hours, the portability of a device is of utmost importance. Still, that can be affected by several factors that should all be considered when choosing between a laptop and a tablet.

The smaller and the lighter a gadget is, the longer the rep can carry it around – this is a no-brainer. But often, battery life will suffer the advantages of the restricted physical dimensions. If a sales rep is, in fact, out and about the whole day, every day, the battery with the most extended endurance will be the deal breaker. Remember that these days, you don’t have to consider taking a charger with you all the time.

The Field Sales Solution: Tablets, as they are increasingly made to last longer by apps that don’t use that much power to operate and massive computing is not required for the job anyway.

The Platform Issue

Sometimes the choice is not even determined by the type of device, but the operating system. What platform the operating system is running on determines the compromises the user has to make when using the gadget out of the office.

For sure, the two major mobile (tablet) platforms, iOS, and Android will lack the extensive functionalities of a Mac or a Windows laptop. Their functionality will depend on the selection of available apps, including productivity and security applications.

On the other hand, field sales reps don’t need the full desktop functionality of the software to get their jobs done. Weaker multitasking capabilities of a device can even result in more focused work and, therefore, more productivity. Plus, secure access to enterprise documents is also possible through cloud services.

With the right applications specially developed for business, there is no limit to efficiently tackle the day’s tasks and just them – no distraction from other programs, just pure GTD. Enterprise apps also have the advantage as their usage and settings can be entirely controlled by the management and IT. A true win-win!

The Field Sales Solution: A tablet equipped with industry-specific, easy-to-use business applications.

SCOLVO Sales – The ultimate selling machine for financial institutions has arrived:

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Financial services companies are constantly haunted by the competition but it has been proved that new, innovative solutions, such as mobilization, are able to keep them in the game. Still, it’s not a cheap bet, so smart budgeting is essential.

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Through the following examples, we show you how to build strong commitment by the smart allocation of resources, in order to achieve success in the banking sales department.

Changing the perspective

Imagine your firm, a financial services company, has a digital transformation strategy in place and, as a part of it, a mobilization project for the whole workforce. Your task as the sales department head, will have to work on translating your own team’s corporate workflows to a targeted app on a mobile device. You will have specific needs, though, in terms of devices, mobile and desktop applications. How do you make sure you’ll get a fair share of the budget while not asking too much of an already huge financial commitment?

Media reports that giant global corporations easily spend billions of dollars on digital transformation projects. At the same time, Gartner’s recent forecast on IT spendings had an interesting statement: they claimed that while it was clear that companies would keep on spending on digital devices and IT services, the political and economic uncertainties would restrain them from spending as much as previously thought. The device budgets remain flat at $USD 589 and the services budgets will only grow by 4.2% this year.

To better achieve your mid- and long-term goals, try opting for a fixed percentage of the total technology budget: your actual spending on the different elements of the mix will depend on the developments in other areas, such as the back office, the data security and management, and the likes. One global firm was not afraid to allocate 30% of its total technology budget to mobility and collaboration projects, affecting 100,000 employees, and changed the entire ballgame with solutions like intuitive mobile dashboards and work chats.

Getting the C-suite on board

The strategy of your company focuses on eradicating inefficiencies in operations by giving people consumer-like technologies to work with. In practice, it means creating a BYOD-policy completed with the development of easy-to-use enterprise mobile applications.

While it’s not hard to see how such mobilization would benefit the sales team in their field work and would result in improved figures, the fact it is not an isolated project makes more room to negotiate the department budgets.

Be part of something big: when C-level executives are convinced to digitalize the enterprise and allocate the necessary budgets, it will be a large-scale opportunity for the sales department to up the game with more innovative solutions. One way to do that is link every line of the department budget back to the corporate strategy. Spending on a top enterprise mobility management tool ensures the most secure operations for the field team. Or, the high customer engagement, resulting from the increased responsiveness, validates the costs of a disruptive mobile application.

Securing a quick win

When breaking the down the costs of your project, it is useful to keep in mind that, although making the switch to digital and mobile is at least a few years’ investment, there are possibilities to ease the risk anxiety by securing a quick win.

Carefully examine the usual elements of a mobile plan: it is quite rare to spend equally on new hardware purchases, consultancy, mobility management and collaboration tools. Some of these areas will stand out either with their lower costs or by providing a quicker or higher return.

In our example, cutting device acquisition costs will not be a highlight since the strategy already builds on employees bringing their own devices to work. Consequently, you will not be able to save much on management tools, either. But if you can make these tools work sooner? That would be your win on the ROI-side and the more chances you get to have your budget approved.

Scoop the market for ready-to-use software solutions that are most likely to fit your operational workflows. Individual development not only costs more but also takes more time, and these sacrifices are seldom justified in use. You can also find sales-specific, ready-to-use applications that can even be customized, but not to the extent where it actually slows down the processes instead of accelerating them.

You can also focus on the savings side: sales can be especially strong in saving on paper costs when digitalizing its processes or cutting down on down times when mobilizing the field team. Also, If you make a good software choice as seen above, that means your team can use them from day one, saving on training costs as well.

Enjoy simplicity and ease of use and make your employees more productive in a days – Request a demo

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There are three main areas where mobile solutions present real answers to the insurance industry’s current challenges – let’s see them in detail!

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Sales: from Slumping to Stellar

Insurance companies globally are struggling to close the most deals possible in the shortest amount of time, facing tough competition along the way from technology-driven players. Other than driving down the prices, they make the whole process of buying insurance easier – again posing a threat to providers with sluggish processes.

Traditional insurers need to keep up with this trend, and mobile applications are able to ease the pressure. Consumer-facing apps are a suitable solution for today’s conscious customer who demands a quick and transparent buying process with more interaction with the service provider, even if it’s virtual, like a 24/7 customer support.

When they do require a personal contact with the sales agent, employee-facing apps are the solution to support the sales cycle in many ways. Accessing data wherever and whenever is not a problem anymore, so agents can support their argument in real-time when meeting with clients. Equipped with a tablet, the agent can give full control to the customer in the calculations with automated quotes, while also able to show rich presentations or give advice on critical choices backed by database evidence.

Let’s not forget that mobile apps are two-way tools: while the agent is on the road, he or she can also supply business-critical information about customers and deals, such as quotes and preferences, that the whole team can have access to. Managers can communicate with the field team in real-time, through easy-to-use interfaces, and call the attention to cross-selling opportunities.

Damage Appraisal: from Dilatory to Dashing

Damage appraisal is one of the most important activities of insurance companies and a typical field job. Traditionally, it had been a paper-based process with lots of delays because of the slowness of paper file transfer and manual data input.

Digital transformation, however, didn’t leave the industry untouched, and the paper-based workflows are slowly being replaced by digital ones, ideally with a mobile-first approach. Some companies even take it one step further by embracing the increased connectivity of devices known as the Internet of Things, for on-site, automated claim management.

Mobile devices and easy-to-use apps are a way to maximize the output of an aging workforce of damage appraisers while attracting new, tech-savvy talent to the profession.

Mobile applications can handle the submission of low-risk claim forms in an instant, and provide the agents with information on the customer, helpful hints on reasonable claims, repair cost estimates, or compliance issues.

A simplified daily routine makes the use of a mobile app attractive to the agents, increasing their engagement and loyalty, especially if the application interface is user-friendly and minimal training times are required.

Due to a real-time input of appraisal data, claims can easily be adjusted by the next day, reducing the usual waiting times by even as much as 40%, which will increase engagement on the customer side.

Valuation: from Valid to Value-Added

Even the property sub-market of the insurers has been experimenting with steering their processes in the mobile direction to meet new demand from the customer side.

Frequently changing regulatory environments, market conditions, call for a sustainable solution to stay in the competition. By cutting back on process times and costs, insurers can save what is lost in the price competition.

During property valuation, the most useful is probably an appraisal helper that allows the agent to synchronize data about a property that was either put in off-site or on-site and add sketches or photos to a complete picture. Some applications also have the capability of converting documents like blueprints to portable formats and store them in the cloud for easy access.

The real-time access to specific data sends the message of professionalism to the client. Mobile applications allow the agent to use downtime to increase productivity as well as to add real value to a process without much effort.

For a worker who is always on the go, tracking mileage and other expenses without any paper involved is also a function of utmost importance. These documents can also be attached to reports and getting handled by the back-office staff with more efficiency.

See how SCOLVO helped improve the processes of Aegon Group, one of the most well-known names in insurance globally

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