BYOD, which stands for Bring Your Own Device, offers many benefits for sales organizations such as mobile access, cost savings and increased productivity. The BYOD trend encourages employees to bring their own devices including mobile phones, tablets, smartphones and even their own laptops. Businesses have jumped on the BYOD bandwagon for many reasons. While some critics have raised concerns, this trend continues to climb. Here’s why.
BYOD Allows Easier Access
Although schools and IT departments have already adopted the BYOD trend, B2B businesses are beginning to have their sales teams take advantage of it. In fact, Cisco states that 89 percent of businesses are already using the BYOD trend.
As you know, the lead time for a B2B sale can be anywhere from a few weeks to a year, and in most cases it can take a few months. When a business is ready to buy, it is best prepare for the sale by having access to its information and your company’s database at all times.
A sales agent who has a mobile device such a tablet or smartphone will be able to access data from anyplace with Internet connection as soon as the lead is ready to make a purchase. This could mean accessing the information from home, during a meeting or even while on a call with another qualifying lead. This eliminates the appearance of being unprepared or the worry of losing potentially promising buyers altogether.
The BYOD Trend Cuts Costs
Besides improving sales, the use of BYOD can also cut your overhead expenses. Encouraging your employees to bring their own connected devices to work allows you to redirect money to your marketing campaigns and other areas of your business, instead of investing in expensive office equipment. It also reduces turnover rates by producing happier employees.
Secondly, allowing your employees to bring their own devices to work eliminates needless business phone bills. It also reduces downtime from system crashes that could grind your sales department to a complete halt. Since your sales agents may work from different platforms, the likelihood of all three systems going down at once is extremely remote.
To see if the BYOD trend is right for your business, you should assess the size of your company and the type of clients you work with. If you have a lot of impulse buyers, the BYOD trend may be best for you, because many impulse purchases happen outside of normal business hours. Also, if your business spends too much money on overhead costs and not enough on sales or marketing, BYOD could free up the funds needed to expand these areas.
SaaS Solutions for BYOD
The BYOD trend will drive businesses into adopting cloud-based services for mobile device management, particularly in the SMB market where IT staff and budget are limited. Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions such as InsideView work directly with cloud computing platforms to provide CRM intelligence through data, alerts and social connections. For example, InsideView integrates with Salesforce, Marketo, Oracle CRM, SAP, SugarCRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Netsuite which streamline communication and keep data stored on servers in the cloud.
Is the BYOD trend right for your business? As shown in this infographic, Gartner predicts that two-thirds of the workforce will own their own smart phones in 2016 and 40 percent of the workforce will be mobile. Using SaaS solutions on BYOD laptops and smartphones means that your business doesn’t have to worry about data stored on an employee’s personal device. SaaS can help a true BYOD organization work seamlessly across devices; anytime and anywhere.
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