We all know that increased productivity and efficiency are by-products of your mobile sales team utilising their business mobile phones. But what do you need to think about in terms of the best mobiles for your sales team? This article dives in.
The Compatability Test
It is an essential requirement that business mobiles for your sales team are compatible with any existing internal software, especially when your reps are travelling about the country. Collaboration between your travelling sales staff and your office processes ensure seamless productivity, and everyone remains connected.
Wi-Fi and Your Travelling Sales Team
There are some risks involved with your sales team on the loose with public Wi-Fi! Enable the team to use their business mobiles where possible to eliminate the need for using public Wi-Fi.
The following pointers will ensure the maximum security possible:
- Don’t be fooled by those Wi-Fi hotspots that offer you free Wi-Fi where you need a password; this does not mean it’s a secure connection!
- Avoid logging in to any online accounts such as retail websites, banks, email accounts and social media profiles.
- Don’t access public networks like those in cafes, restaurants, hotels and airports without a VPN. A VPN encrypts your connection which reduces the harm that a hacker could do.
- Select the most secure settings on your PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets. Turn off any features that will automatically connect your device to any available Wi-Fi network. Also, turn off your Bluetooth unless you need it.
- Change all of your passwords before you travel and then change them back on your return.
- Carry out all software updates because chances are those updates have new, stronger security settings because they have identified an area that a hacker could exploit.
- Check the URL of the site you are visiting because if it starts with “HTTPS” because the “S” stands for secure, and data is encrypted.
Unified Communications and Collaboration Tools
Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) was born from the need of businesses to be more flexible in their approach to working with suppliers, customers and internally with their staff.
UCC tools really come into their own when it comes to flexible and remote working, which is now very much a rising trend, with mobile devices in particular becoming an extension of the corporate network, so your sales team can be productive absolutely anywhere!
For example, a typical Unified Communications tool will be an application - but from that application you can conduct a Voice call, Video call, Instant Message, Share Documents and Calendars with multiple people, internally or externally.
A super productive remote sales team would be able to use their business mobile whilst out of the office, and link directly to the business hosted phone system. Colleagues would instantly know if their sales team are currently available, or engaged on another call. This all leads to enhanced customer service and satisfaction.
Recommended UCC Tools
When considering UCC tools, be mindful of matching the UCC tools available to any existing phone systems.
For Hosted Phone Systems we predominately recommend Horizon and Wildix. Either of these phone systems would work well with your business. They both are easily scalable and have some great (and similar) features so ultimately, it would be down to user preference and cost. Typically, from a costing point of view, they aren’t vastly different but Horizon is usually the better costing option when there are 1-15 users, whereas Wildix is best when there is 15+ users.
For IP Phone Systems and Hybrid Phone Systems we recommend Wildix, Mitel and NEC.
Again, all of these phone systems have the right features for your sales business however, some of them have slightly more advanced feature sets which would depend on whether your individual business would need them. The main difference between them would be cost and user compatibility.
We recommend a demo for these phone systems so you can see which is the best fit for your sales team; along with a discussion to see which mobiles would be optimal for compatability with your current internal software.