Although I doubt there is a sales person on this planet that would turn down a free iPad from their company, are they really a useful tool for the average salesman? I’m going to run through some advantages and potential draw backs of supplying iPads or any tablet PC for that matter to your sales team.
Advantages of iPads
- Mobile point of sale – depending on how your orders come in, there are a few apps that allow you to take down orders directly on an iPad.
- CRM management – as an iPad is ‘always on’ ie you unlock it and there’s no bootup time it makes entering CRM data less of a chore.
- Sales presentations – it’s a really good tool for non pre organised sales presentations I personally have pulled out a tablet and rocked out successful sales presentations in coffee rooms when there just wouldn’t be time to set up a laptop and have people sit round
- You can pass it to the customer – tablets are great if you want to give the customer a little more interaction and to keep them engaged with what you’re discussing.
- Lighten your load – you can get your product catalogue on there, send emails, make notes and much more. This means that you can carry less stuff around with you day to day.
- They’re cool – there’s no getting around the fact that iPads in particular are cool. They will portray a certain image to your customers that might be advantageous.
Disadvantages of iPads
- They can be misused – although it can be said for any sales tool given to the sales force, they can be misused and they can also waste precious selling time. Angry Birds has even sucked productive time from the US President.
- Expensive – at $500+ a go the money could be better spent elsewhere. What is going to encourage a sales person to get results, an iPad or a $10,000 (iPads for a sales team of 20) bonus if they hit a specific target?
- Continued maintenance costs – with a tablet being a potentially new technology for your companies IT department, expect a slow turn around time with issues and inflated maintenance costs.
- Learning curve – sure the iPad in particular might be known as a super intuitive device, but for some people they won’t want to learn a new tool and for others it might just not come as quickly.
So are iPads useful for salespeople?
In my personal opinion yes, as long as everyone is board. That goes from IT (who will get up and maintain the software side of things) to management who also have to embrace and understand the technology. The ability to do impromptu sales presentations and to be able to pass the iPad to the prospect so they can scroll through product catalogues or literature is invaluable.
Does it need to be an iPad?
No. But it sure makes life easier. They’re the simplest tablet to pick up and use, many people already have charging cables and docks for their iPhone which can be reused, IT wise apple are the furthest along in their enterprise roll out of features and finally apples APP store is by far the largest and most mature out there.
Some alternatives to the iPad include –
- Google Nexus 7
- ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1