The Apple iPad of your Eye: Sales and Tablet Devices are a Perfect Pair
It is the middle of 2011. Apple iPad sales have surpassed expectations and it is notable that there has been a significant decrease in notebook pc and netbook pc sales via retail channels in the US marketplace since the iPad introduction in April 2010. There is speculation from some that a tablet is in fact a modern replacement for the traditional notebook computer, that perhaps a tablet device can be even better at doing many of the tasks consumers want to do with their mobile computing platform.
iPad sales are predicted to eclipse 40 million units in 2011. Corporate purchases may account for almost half of those numbers and more than 60 percent of surveyed iPad purchasers said they were planning on using the iPad for work-related activities. Android tablets and RIM’s Playbook are just hitting the market and will also need to be factored into the global market share.
Professionals from all directions are embracing tablets in business as well. Day-to-day business communications can be facilitated on a tablet platform. Business apps custom written for data gathering or warehouse management are flowing from programmers' minds into the tablets of Fortune 1000 companies and even the mid-sized businesses that keep our economy moving are developing their own business apps for their corporate tablets. Retailers are providing sales associates on the sales floor with tablets showcasing all the products, containing detailed specifications and options, some have inventory and location data or even provide the platform for the final sales transaction, right there in the middle of the sales floor (no more cash wrap?) Less real estate required.
There are now restaurants providing menus on tablets with pictures, video imagery, and nutrition information. Medical records and test results are being delivered wirelessly to doctors' tablets in some medical institutions. Students are buying all their textbooks in e-book form, tests are administered on school-provided tablet devices. Newspapers and magazines everywhere are publishing right to apps tailored for their publications, delivering articles, dazzling pictures, and media to readers. And these are just a few of the uses that tablets have been put to use doing in the past few years.
Centering on the use of a tablet device for an outside sales endeavor, there are a few considerations to keep in mind. At this time, there are no tablet platforms that can claim to be truly viable enterprise devices. RIM’s Playbook has shown the most promise out-of-the-box for enterprise management, but, with what appears to be lackluster software at release and a low initial adoption rate (when compared to iPad sales), the Playbook seems to need a lot of work on RIM’s part before we have something that will dominate in the field. Until then, there will be a lot of iPads and Android tablets in travelling sales associates' hands.
The iPad in particular is well positioned for corporate use. Some enterprise security and management additions in the future could cement its place as “the” corporate tablet. Until then, the iPad already has complex passwords, remote erase, and worldwide positioning tracking capabilities. These are very strong features for corporate IT to endorse and support a computing device in the field.
Outside sales associates will have several uses for the tablet in the field, including checking and replying to emails. While this can also be done on a smart phone, the diminutive keypads on most mobile phone devices are not only a strain on the device’s spelling corrector, but also may lead to carpal tunnel syndrome, and only the occupational therapists of the world are going to benefit from this problem. Tablets make emails easier to read and to reply to, and standard-sized wireless keyboards are compact, light, and easy to connect to most tablets.
Sales professionals on the move can use their mobile-enabled CRM systems to find sales opportunities and plan sales calls, as well as mapping and navigation apps that will get them to the front door of their next sales call.
Jet-setters will appreciate a tablet’s media capabilities, follow a trade journal, read a book or magazine on the plane, watch a film, or do a crossword puzzle after responding to emails and finishing up the latest spreadsheet.
Finally, there is the field sales presentation, which, when using a tablet today, potentially throws a few hurdles at the marketing manager since a tablet device’s standard set of apps does not really lend itself to an integrated marketing message delivery. Accessing a mobile web site, even with a 3G (or 4G) enabled tablet can still be less than satisfying if wireless coverage is at all spotty and may not provide the exact message and experience that the face- to-face sales call requires. Ideally, a customized corporate presentation application would to be deployed on sales associates’ tablets. Then the tablet presentation can truly eclipse anything once delivered in brochures and more recently, rather clumsily, on netbook computers with tiny screens and integrated keyboards that kept the visiting salesperson from just passing the device over to the prospective client to interact with the presentation directly.
Add in the instant-on capabilities of tablet devices, long battery life, and the instant connection that a tablet’s ease of use facilitates, and it seems that tablet presentations in face-to-face sales meetings may be one of the smartest uses of these new devices in corporate marketing’s hands.
A sales professional with the company product and services presentation on a tablet device such as an iPad will be perceived as projecting the image of a brand that is current and forward thinking. It can help project and protect the confidence of the sales professional and the company in face-to-face presentations and can be much more interactive than a notebook computer presentation. A company representative can share the tablet with the prospect and let them interact with the corporate presentation app, engaging the prospect and reinforcing the connection with the company in a way old school media simply never could.
A tablet device like the Apple iPad has mobility, unsurpassed interactivity, simple learning curves and intuitive interfacing, extreme battery life, and instant on capability, leaving netbooks and notebooks in the dust when it comes to provisioning a company sales representative in the field with the selling presentations and materials they need to push a company’s products or services into the future and make more sales. Corporations are embracing the new technology quickly and easily. What the distant future holds is yet to be seen, but for now, tablets are the present. It is easy to see why netbook sales have fallen so significantly and why sales professionals will benefit from hanging up their old netbooks and switching to a tablet device.
© 2011 by Jason Verenski
About the Author
Jason Verenski is CIO of PromoteHD, a tech startup integrating new technology and marketing messages has worked with both SMBs and Fortune 500 companies. You may contact Jason at 262-842-1168 or email jay@promotehd.com.