There was a major transformation in the dot-com era as companies developed their digital presence. This included their website, e-commerce functions, databases, and digital tools for collaboration and communication.

The next phase will focus on the development of mobile connectivity. Mobile usage and industry growth are already occurring at a rapid pace. Consider the following:

• Statista reports that 69 percent of the Canadian population had a smartphone in 2018. This number is projected to rise to 79 percent in 2023.
• The number of mobile users across the globe is now estimated at over 3.7 billion and growing. Statista says mobile data traffic across the globe is projected to increase nearly sevenfold by 2021.
• Mobile commerce revenues were $669 billion in 2018, a significant jump from the $184 billion recorded in 2013.

As you can see, the future potential of mobile technology is enormous. The Internet of Things (IoT), for example, is set to drive connectivity even further as it gathers data from mobile devices, credit card purchases, and transportation networks, among other places.

Business benefits of mobility

The growth potential is exciting for businesses in all sectors. Many companies investing in mobility are now developing their own apps. In addition, mobile solutions can help businesses drive improvements in:

• Human resource management
• Customer relationship management
• Workflow management
• Time tracking systems
• Lead generation
• Lead and opportunity management
• Sales management

The business advantages of enhanced mobility are plentiful. In this article, we’ll dive into four key benefits of adopting mobile technology.

1. Improve employee productivity

The most immediate benefit of mobile technology can be seen in your employees’ productivity levels. Confidently place that smartphone, tablet or other mobile device in your employee’s hand and watch them thrive with real-time communication, enhanced access to customer data, and improved workflow management.

It’s easy to picture how your team members might take advantage of these features. Just imagine:

• Sales reps using their mobile devices to check inventory or prepare estimates while at client meetings
• Construction managers using their tablets to update project details from the work sites
• Consultants using their smartphones to access data on client accounts while on the train

Team managers and employees alike will love the productivity benefits offered by mobile apps.

2. Increase your customer engagement

Those valuable customer relationships don’t flourish while you’re sitting in your cubicle. Customer engagement grows out in the real world — at client sites, collaborative meetings, sales demos, conferences, and industry events.

However, the massive growth of email has taken away some of these opportunities for in-person connection. Have you ever had a sales rep who simply sent out the emails, then waited for the replies? It’s one of the downsides of the modern workplace and it frequently creates a roadblock for reps who are struggling to gain traction.

When you invest in mobile technology, your sales team will no longer be tethered to the office by paper files and desktop programs. Instead, they can take essential account information with them as they:

• Visit client offices
• Manage projects and workflows on-site
• Submit orders from the field
• Attend industry events

As the mobile transformation takes hold, your reps will have a greater ability to form strong relationships by meeting customers where they are.

3. Drive your company’s growth strategy

Take a look at your company’s growth strategy. Chances are, your future growth will develop in two ways: expanding your organization and entering new markets.

Increased mobility gives you increased flexibility in both of these areas. A mobile-savvy company is not tied to a specific location or customer base. With your data in the cloud and your team on the move, the possibilities for new developments are wide open.

Enhanced mobility is an important factor in adding more people to your workforce. In fact, some of today’s growing companies are entirely remote as their mobile capabilities allow them to perform at a high level with no office or home base. Having the ability to recruit people from anywhere increases the talent and diversity in your organization.

Mobility is also essential for expanding to new markets. In today’s global and networked economy, it’s no longer necessary to open a new office just to get a foot in the door in a new region. Instead, companies in every sector are taking advantage of mobile technology to acquire customers beyond their own country’s borders.

4. Ensure data accuracy

Have you ever seen a business struggling to conduct analyses with outdated information, or relying on incomplete data while trying to manage customer relationships? It happens more often than we want to believe. Picture a manager who sets unrealistic targets based on inaccurate results from last year, or two sales reps who send conflicting quotes to a customer because neither one knew what the other was doing.

Adopting mobile technology is an important step toward cleaning up your company’s data. When every employee is able to update a centralized database anytime and anywhere, it creates a single source of knowledge for your entire team. For instance, a mobile CRM app is great for ensuring that customer interactions and transactions are always kept up-to-date.

Maximize your mobility investment

More and more companies are working hard to ensure that all of their business management tools — from their CRM and accounting software to their communications networks and servers — are mobile-ready. If you’re thinking of doing the same for yours, don’t delay! The sooner you act, the sooner you’ll see the benefits for both your business and your customers.

The post 4 Business Benefits of Enhanced Mobility appeared first on Method.

But guess what – by adopting a QuickBooks-friendly CRM, these three small business owners have streamlined the sales processes for their mobile teams. The result? They’re closing more deals.

Allow me to introduce Jacob, John and Michael…

BEFORE: Field staff spent too much time taking customer calls when they were on the road, which would result in less orders executed in a day.

AFTER: Jacob established a head office call center by centralizing the company’s customer info, making use of his CRM’s multi-tenancy function. Now the call center has access to all franchise customer info, so his franchise owners spend less time managing customer calls and more time on revenue-generating work. Best of all, his pet owners remain loyal to DoodyCalls thanks to their timely customer service!

BEFORE: John had to wait until the end of the day when he was back at the office to provide quotes to potential customers. But because of the time lag in getting quotes to leads, he would often lose the business to quicker competitors.

AFTER: John knew his QuickBooks integrated CRM would have to streamline his sales workflow, so he customized it to do exactly what he needed. Now, less than five minutes after speaking to John, potential customers have an email with all the information they require, including the estimate complete with project phases, cost breakdowns for each phase, and the required down payment. John is now able to close more sales and spend more time in the field earning revenue.

“With Method CRM my sales process is hyper-efficient. My customers have all the info they need to make a decision quickly, to the point that now I close 95% of my sales.”

BEFORE: Less than 10% of his mobile team’s sales occurred during the initial estimate or consultation with the vast majority taking place a week or so later. But with so many sales staff all over the state using their own follow up processes, he struggled to ensure the leads received follow up emails or calls.

AFTER: Using his QuickBooks integrated CRM, Michael’s team now schedules weekly follow ups with leads to stay top-of-mind and close more sales. And, to keep costs down during off-peak seasons, Michael makes use of his QuickBooks integrated CRM shared user feature.

Check out Michael’s full Small Business Success Story here.

If you have a mobile sales team, how are you streamlining your processes to grow your pipeline? If you’re interested in trying out a CRM made for QuickBooks users, give Method a go for 30 days without charge.

The post How 3 Small Businesses Close More Deals on the Road appeared first on Method.

But what if you’re one of the millions of companies using QuickBooks Desktop?

Can you get QuickBooks mobile access?!

Luckily, the answer is yes – with Method CRM.

Whether you’re an avid QuickBooks Desktop user with remote staff across the country or a field services business with an on-site team, we have a solution that gives you QuickBooks mobile access.

If you’re already a Method CRM customer or partner, you know about our patented QuickBooks sync.

But for those of you new to Method, this means you can create estimates, invoices, work orders and more within our CRM and have this work automatically mirrored in your QuickBooks account.  

And because Method CRM is a cloud-based application, it gives you QuickBooks mobile access so that you can get customer data and complete tasks on the go.

Now that we’ve gone over how Method helps small businesses get QuickBooks mobile access, let’s look at how they’re using it to kick but in today’s competitive economy!

QuickBooks mobile access helps small businesses:

1) Centralize data and keep customers happy

If your team is using manual processes to:

• Document lead info
• Keep track of estimates
• Record customer details

Your business could benefit from QuickBooks mobile access.

This is also true if your team uses handwritten notes, spreadsheets, or notebooks to house important customer information.

And if you were nodding your head in agreement to all of the above situations, it’s likely that your team doesn’t often enter this data into QuickBooks. If they bother at all…

So what happens when one of the customers they worked with calls in to get clarification on the estimate they just received?

Without any info shared about the estimate, the rest of your team won’t be able to answer any of this customer’s questions. And if you’ve experienced this before, you can agree that scrambling for information while on the phone with a customer is the worst!

With anywhere, anytime access to QuickBooks via Method CRM, your team can input customer information directly from a mobile device so that your entire team can stay informed.  

2) Speed up the sales process and increase revenue

If you have an internal process for when your sales team submits an order, your business could probably benefit from speeding this workflow up.

With QuickBooks mobile access, small businesses empower their teams to enter estimates instantly through their phone and can put an end to the delay between sales, order fulfillment, and accounting.

Since the sync between Method CRM and QuickBooks updates in real-time, other team members (whether down the street or across the state) can get going on orders as soon as the customer makes a request.

This means no more time-lag of someone getting back to the office, or their desk at home, to submit sales orders by phone or email. Instead, your team gets going immediately!

3) Connect distributed teams

Millions of companies use QuickBooks Desktop because it’s able to handle various business complexities.

Note: Intuit will stop selling all QuickBooks Desktop versions (except Enterprise) to new U.S. subscribers after September 30th, 2024.

But what they don’t realize is that the cause of this complexity often comes down to working with geographically dispersed teams.

Let’s say your head office resides in North Carolina, but you have a salesperson in Georgia, one in New York, and a third in Texas.

The challenge?

It’s not making sure salespeople keep in contact with the rest of the team, but rather it’s ensuring that they keep the rest of the team up-to-date on their sales opportunities.  

So, how do these companies stay on the same page and make sure lead and customer data is not:

• Physically lost on paper notes and hard drives
• Lost in translation via emails or phone calls

Well, by centralizing all sales communication and data into a single system.

With Method CRM, sales team can log in on the device of their choice and update their sales pipeline from anywhere in the world.

And whether you’re running a two-person family business or managing a team spread out across multiple states this is essential to your success.

With QuickBooks mobile access, you can rest assured that no piece of customer information falls through the cracks and you can focus on what matters – growing your business.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is the QuickBooks Desktop stop-sell initiative?

After September 30, 2024, Intuit will no longer sell QuickBooks Desktop (except Enterprise versions) to new U.S. subscribers. This includes: 

• QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus. 
• QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus. 
• QuickBooks Desktop Mac Plus. 
• QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll. 

How does the stop-sell initiative affect existing QuickBooks Desktop customers?

If you’re currently using QuickBooks Desktop, the stop-sell will have no impact on your experience. You will continue to receive: 

• Security updates.
• Product updates.
• Support from Intuit. 

Method’s integration with QuickBooks Desktop will also remain unaffected.

Get QuickBooks mobile access now with a free trial of Method.

Image Credit: Arisa Chattasa via Pexels

The post 3 ways you win with QuickBooks mobile access appeared first on Method.