In case you hadn’t noticed, enterprise tablet adoption skyrocketed last year, and there’s no reason to expect the trend won’t continue in 2013. While Android continues to make strides, Good Technology reports that the iPad still owns the enterprise tablet market, with nearly 90% of all tablet activations in Q4 2012 going the way of the iOS.
For B2B organizations, salespeople have perhaps found the greatest value in what the iPad has to offer. As a selling tool, the iPad provides more convenience and flexibility for corporate travel, content access and live presentations – and those benefits have gotten people talking.
So why has the iPad become the B2B salesperson’s best friend? Here are 10 powerful quotes from around the Web on the unique value the iPad brings to today’s reps.
#1. “In a B2B sales environment, your image as a sales person counts for a lot. Did you know that companies that use iPads for sales tools are often seen as more dynamic, progressive and responsive than other companies? The iPad is a legitimate sales tool that people will want to look at and use — and learn about your company as they do it.” – Padalog, B2B Sales Tips: Using Mobile Technology
#2. “Using an iPad or other tablet, for example, salespeople can decrease lag time when conversing with potential clients, since they have the ability to provide them with product or service information on the spot… Besides, it’s just a cool image for the company to use a tablet to show slideshows, charts, or photos during a sales pitch meeting.” — Chris Preimesberger, How to Roll Out an iPad Deployment at Your Company
#3. “A Huthwaite Global Survey found that 70% of individuals with a company-issued tablet hit their sales target in a given period versus only 62% of sales reps overall. Also, 90% of salespeople surveyed said the devices improved their productivity as tablets allowed them to focus more on buyers rather than search for information.” – Nancy Pekala, How Tablets are Revolutionizing Sales for the Road Warrior
#4. “Instead of lugging around order forms, brochures, catalogs and more, you could equip your salespeople with a tablet, loaded with all the product catalogs in PDF form, which can easily be reviewed with a customer/prospect and emailed right to that person if needed. Those catalogs could be supplemented with video or a photo gallery showing your company’s work in that product category. Once a quote is needed or a sale ready to submit, the entire thing could be done right there on the tablet.” – Renae Gonner and Elton Mayfield, The Building Products Tablet Revolution
#5. “The iPad’s success in B2B isn’t just based on portability. As products become more and more complex, the difficulty for salespeople to effectively convey core product features and benefits is exacerbated. That’s where the iPad, serving as a presentation device, lives up to its reputation. The iPad enables use of interactive content as the primary engagement vehicle between a sales organization and the prospect or customer.” – Gavin Finn, Show Don’t Tell: Interactive Tools on Tablets Are Key to Sales Rorce Success
#6. “Using an iPad as a presentation tool… is natural. The tablet is easily passed around, can be read like a magazine, and can also output to external displays with less hassle and fewer steps than a laptop.” – Darrell Etherington, Why the iPad is a Salesperson’s Best Friend
#7. “By delivering dynamic, interactive content to B2B prospects during meetings, tablet-enabled sales forces are more effective — shifting the experience from ‘presenting information’ to ‘engaging and driving discussion.’” – Jeff Stokvis, Hidden in Plain Sight: How Mobile is Quietly Revolutionizing the B2B World
#8. “The iPad, by its very nature, is visual. Brief, concise videos are very helpful to sales teams. Two great uses of video include internal videos that teach or reinforce sales messaging and external videos that help sellers build greater value into their sales process.” – Scott Eidle, The Tablet Enhanced Sales Force
#9. “Tablets enable users to have the power to showcase lively visual presentations to their customers… Of course, they could show the videos on a laptop, but in today’s day and age, that’s so passé. Showcasing a product on a sleek tablet, on the other hand, adds a bit of oomph and flair – and could lead to convincing a client to buy what you’re selling.” – Tech Dude, Tablet Trends: Empower Your B2B Business
#10. “With the iPad, the product really sells itself. All we have to do is just put it in the customers’ hands.” – Joe O’Connell, iPads Have Helped Some of This Company’s Salespeople DOUBLE Their Sales
Learn More: iPads in the Enterprise
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