2. 2
The purpose of this guidebook is to provide concise, step-by-step directions on how to
maximize your sales efforts selling apps and mobile websites to business owners.Through easy
to follow guidelines, you will be able identify needs, satisfy delivery of those needs, and
efficiently capitalize on your opportunities.
MOBILE APP Sales Handbook
• Mobile Sales Methodology
• Mobile Sales Life-cycle
• Qualifying Questions
• 9 Pitch Ideas
• Common Objections
• Small Business CRM
• Mobile App SpecificTerminology
• TargetVerticals
Table of Contents
3. 3
While a standardized sales methodology has been proven effective, depending on your
customer, it is best to nuance your process in order to suit each individual client.The following
tips are meant to serve only as general guidelines to approaching your clientele.
BENEFITS OVER FEATURES
Emphasize the importance of mobile apps and mobile websites for a business, and you'll
be more likely to catch the interest of decision makers. If you are not generating a positive
response, then you are more than likely describing a feature instead of a benefit. It’s not the
number of features, but added value of them.Tell your client how the app can relate to their
success, rather than listing off each individual feature.
INSIDE, OUT
Emphasize targeting your immediate social circles, or
professional networks first.You want to work inside out.
Go with what you know in order to maximize your efforts.
By using this method, you will be able to see a larger
return on your most valuable asset—your time.
LET'S USE THE RIGHT BRAIN APPROACH...
When decision makers weigh cost and benefits in the
purchase decision making process, the best tactic is
to fully utilize emotional elements. One of the best
ways to inject emotional content into your sales
approach is through storytelling.
...BECAUSE EVERYONE LOVES TO HEAR
A STORY!
Use of testimonial storytelling can increase sales by
as much as 700%!Your prospects expect you to play the
role of a salesman, but they generally trust their peers
to be realistic about their product experiences. Use quotes
from satisfied customers and include statistics that highlight
the benefits of using mobile apps for their business. Remember
to always be specific, citing verifiable source data.
MOBILE Sales Methodology
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WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
In order to generate strong responses, it's important to give your prospects compelling
reasons why mobile apps and mobile websites solve problems, fulfill needs, and most
importantly, benefit the financial health of their organization.
Remember to offer demo apps and case studies of how mobile apps have improved similar
organizations.This will establish, in the decision maker’s own opinion, that your product will
positively affect their business.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR PROSPECT
Another important process in sales methodology is listening.
Some decision makers may have preconceived opinions about
the mobile app landscape and value, and you will need to listen to
those viewpoints. By listening and understanding, you will be able
to effectively educate your clients about the value of mobile apps.
Remember to give both verbal and non-verbal acknowledgement
that you are listening and understanding. If you need to, repeat
what they have said in order to verify complete understanding.
Secondly, relate to your client that you understand their concerns. Use your storytelling.
Emphasize both emotional and quantifiable results.
ASK FOR THE SALE
Finally, it's important to ask your client for the sale.This is
a crucial step and many sales can be lost because the step is
neglected. If you have built an effective narrative, with quantified
benefits and emotionally resonating features, the decision to
purchase a mobile app will be quite simple!
MOBILE SALES METHODOLOGY
• Stress benefits rather than features
• Capitalize on emotional elements
• Tell stories to engage prospect
• Explain how mobile apps will positively affect their business
• Communicate effectively by listening and offering your own take
• Ask for the actual sale
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Examining the sales process for mobile app sales is a very useful tool in maximizing your
efforts.There are four essential stages in the mobile app sales cycle: Acquisition, Installation,
Usage, and Renewal.
ACQUISITION
The acquisition stage of the app sales life cycle can be the most intimidating. This is where
new clients are obtained using resources found in your CRM. However, as your business and
clients grow, a majority of your time will be spent managing and maintaining your customers
through the remaining stages of the mobile app life cycle.
INSTALLATION
The installation of the mobile app to your client is the second stage of the app sales life-
cycle. During this process, the app is being built, customized, and deployed according to your
customer's needs. Some customers may want specialized features, additional capabilities, and
even nuances such as font changes! With this stage, it is important to validate and positively
reinforce your client’s purchase decision.
USAGE
During the usage stage, your client is actively using their app and paying monthly fees. Again,
your main role during this stage is to reinforce the value of their mobile app. If there are any
issues or training requirements that your customer needs, create time to fulfill those needs. It
is always more expensive to obtain new customers than to maintain current ones.
RENEWAL
The final stage of the app sales lifecycle is the renewal stage. During this process, an app
may need to be rebuilt to accommodate changing technology, or even a changing business.
Ask questions about their business performance, and provide them with tools to measure
business performance before and after the app deployment. These tools are all available in
the Small Business CRM.
MOBILE SALES Life-cycle
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Lastly, in order to quickly identify a compelling business prospect, a few questions should be
asked to determine if a mobile app would fulfill their needs.
QUESTION #1 DOES YOUR BUSINESS CURRENTLY
HAVE A MOBILE APP OR WEBSITE OPTIMIZED FOR
MOBILE DEVICES?
The answer to this question should be known before you
approach your prospect. A simple internet search for their
business will show you if they have a mobile app, a mobile
website, or even an online presence. If the answer is no, then
continue to pursue the prospect. If the answer is yes, determine
if their current solution is effective.
QUESTION #2 WOULD A MOBILE APP PROVIDE TANGIBLE
AND SIGNIFICANT BENEFIT TO THE ORGANIZATION?
Determining if spending time on the account would offer benefits
not only to your customer, but to you, is very important. If a
business has limited potential business expansion in the mobile
web space, then you have a greater advantage moving on to your
next prospect.This would be a rare occurrence however, as most
businesses have customers that use cell phones.
QUESTION #3 DOES THE BUSINESS HAVE THE FINANCIAL
CAPABILITIES TO ACQUIRE THE SERVICE?
This question may seem obvious, but it is often overlooked. If
a business is not financially qualified to receive the services and
products you offer, then you will never benefit from your efforts.
Remember to do ample research on your leads before you begin
the sales cycle.
Three MOBILE APP Qualifying Questions
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Here are some examples of how to share the benefits that mobile apps can provide.
1 SHOW THEM AN ALREADY BUILT EXAMPLE APP
The most effective way to impress a potential client is an in-person example. Knowing the
desired industry, show the potential client an app that would be similar in nature to theirs
and give them a brief walk through. Display all of the relevant features that could improve
their customer retention and the endless possibilities for inbound marketing.
2 CREATE A CUSTOMIZED APP DEMO FOR A CLIENT IN 15 MINUTES
With the way our system works, you won’t be charged for the number of
Apps you make, only the ones that are uploaded to theApp Store. So a great
way to impress a client is to create their app before you try to sell them on it.
Usually when a business owner already sees their app built out, they can gain
a much better idea of what you’re offering and are usually impressed with
your company’s quick turn around time.You can easily set up a demo for each client that you
speak with in 15 minutes. Offer to complete the demo if they agree to purchase the app.
3 PUSHING PUSH NOTES
Explain the use of push notifications and their use in getting customers inside their business.
For a restaurant during a slow period, they can send out a push notification for a food special
and get people in the doors.This can be a very powerful selling point for businesses as it can
directly help bring customers into their business!You can also compare these in-app push
notification messages to text message marketing - which is extremely expensive!A typical
SMS plan can cost upwards of $500/month and with your service, push notifications are
included with each app free of charge.
4 EDUCATE ON THE GROWING MOBILE INDUSTRY WITH STATISTICS
The mobile industry is growing rapidly. Share the scale of the industry, percentage of
growth, and number of devices that have been sold. Compare this mobile market to the
expansion of the PC market. Average time spent web browsing from desktop/laptop
machines have increased by less 10% since 2010. However, mobile app usage since 2010 has
more than doubled!
5 SHOW THEM THE CMS
Be sure to push the fact that within one hour, a mobile app can be ready for submission.
Once approved by the App Store the app works in real time.This means that at any time,
your customer can log in and make changes and send push notifications. Also, the customer
can see key download analytics to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
9 Pitch Ideas
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6 COUPONS, COUPONS, COUPONS
No matter what the business, coupons are not cheap. However, with mobile
apps offered by you, that all changes. Our mobile apps offer GPS coupons,
QR coupons, or any other custom events and notification coupons your
customer implements within the App.The cameras on mobile devices can
read QR codes.These are used to replace outdated stamp card coupons.
These robust features are what some service providers charge $30-40 a
month to maintain alone.These coupon systems are specifically designed
to help businesses with repeat customers which can provide a direct return
on investment for their mobile app.
7 HELP THEM MARKET THEIR APP
Provide an added value service to the small business by offering to set up QR codes to place
inside their business to encourage app downloads by their customers! Inside our client
management panel, we provide QR codes for every app.This marketing template is easily
downloaded and printed using our service. Let the business know that you will be creating a
nicely formatted QR code enabled flier for them to put up in their business free of charge.
8 EXPLAIN HOW MUCH MONEY THEY ARE SAVING
DEVELOPING AN APP WITH YOUR COMPANY
Mobile application development is not cheap. Let the business know
that your mobile app service is but a mere fraction of the price of a
custom developed mobile app.On average, a restaurant can spend
upwards of $20,000 and spend months on development to end up with
a fairly basic app. Using your service, they can have an app in a week
for a few hundred bucks!
9 BE FLEXIBLE WITH YOUR PRICING
Have a guideline for your pricing structure when you are ready to make a pitch, but be
mindful of the financial capabilities of that prospect. Offer a free HTML5 or Android app. As
resellers, you can publish as many as you would like without any additional charges. Offer
these for free to your clients for a small monthly fee or for no charge. At all.
• Show them an existing app example
• Create app before you try to sell them
on it
• Explain the value of push notifications
• Educate client on the growing mobile
industry using stats
• Show content management system
• Explain the benefit of coupons
• Offer to set up QR codes
• Explain how much money they are saving
by developing an app with you
• Be flexible with your pricing
PITCH IDEAS
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“We already have this” or “We don’t need this”
If you come across this objective, ask if their current solution is effective, and ask for specifics.
If you have done your research, mention your lead’s competitors. Mention their success stories
and how their business is growing with quantifiable figures.
“We don’t have the money right now”
Again, if you have done your proper lead research, you will know that this
statement is simply untrue.What this statement is saying is that your lead is
unprepared to spend money on something that is not explicitly demonstrating
a benefit. Instead, stress the fact that you are not asking for a sale immediately.
Your want to educate your customers on the value of having a custom designed
mobile app. Allow them time to process that value. Ultimately, using this process
will provide a positive experience for everyone.
“Why does my business need to go mobile?”
A recent Google study showed that 40% of customers will go to a competitor if they had a bad
mobile experience. In addition, 57% of customers would not recommend a business with a bad
mobile experience. Mobile websites help businesses bring in new customers and mobile apps
are great at helping to keep those customers coming back. Mobile apps and mobile websites
combined create a “complete mobile marketing strategy” for a small business.
“My business does not need a mobile app or mobile website.”
The mobile industry is the fastest growing industry in recorded human history. If a prospect
presents this idea, utilize all of the different infographics and materials available in your
marketing center.There is a ton of information at your disposal that speaks to the increasing
importance of mobile devices. Stress that the world is increasingly mobilizing and that this
evolution is here to stay.
“I am not a programmer or developer.”
Mobile apps are a highly intuitive and extremely easy to use platform.You need no
programming or design experience whatsoever to use these systems. If they still do not want
to build their apps, offer to build it for them.
“Apps vs Mobile Websites”
It has been shown that customers actually prefer the use of mobile apps over the mobile web.
Mobile apps also offer the exciting opportunity for a business to market to their customers at
anytime through push notifications and other interactive features.
• Mobile websites are great for customer acquisition through searches.
• Mobile apps are great for customer loyalty through interactive features,
push notifications, and robust mobile experience.
• Small businesses need to be thinking about both!
Common Objections to MOBILE APPS
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The most valuable tool at your disposal is Small Business CRM (Customer Relationship
Management). Using the tool measures your sales performance, the performance of your
clients, and provides resource materials to support your sales process.
Once you have access, the easy to use CRM tool will become your best friend, providing
graphs and other quantifiable displays for you and your clients.We also provide full video
tutorials which guide you through the CRM, with a resource of customized telephone and
email scripts for your sales process.
HOW DOES SMALL BUSINESS CRM WORK?
We organize local leads by industry and then narrow them down based on numerous optional
criteria.This allows users to easily track their sales.
For example, Small Business CRM can help users find Chinese food restaurants in the San
Francisco area with a Facebook page,Twitter page,Yelp page, OpenTable page, web page,
email address, phone number, physical address, and more.
The strategy behind this approach is that SMBs that are already active in online marketing
(has a FB page & website) are far more likely to invest in a new type of marketing product, like
a mobile app or mobile website.
Other features include an easy to use sales tracking pipeline,
an appointment scheduling calendar, a powerful metrics
dashboard, team collaboration ability, and an iPhone app to
track sales on the go.
These marketing materials are provided for free in your
reseller dashboard.
SMALL BUSINESS CRM
SMALL BUSINESS CRM
• Use CRM to measure performance
• Provides graphs and displays for you and
your clients
• Users can easily track their sales
• Those with FB page and website are more
likely to invest in mobile app or website
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MOBILE APP Scientific Terminology
Here are a few useful terms to use when you educate your clients about the value of
mobile apps.
App Store: This is where iPhone apps are downloaded.There are strict
protocols in order for apps to be placed in the App Store.
SDK: Software Development Kit.This is the software used to create
mobile apps.
HTML 5: This is a programing language that is used to create apps within a
mobile device's internet browser.
Flash: Flash is a technology that adds interactivity and video to websites.
The technology generally does not function on mobile devices.
ResponsiveWebsite: This is a website that changes according to screen size.
When a screen is small (such as in a mobile device) content and functions
change to accommodate the user.
CMS: Content management system.This is where clients manage their mobile
apps and mobile websites.
APK: The Android app file that you upload to Google Play.
iTunes Connect: This is the area in which we upload your iPhone apps.
Google Play: The area in which customers upload and then also download
Android apps from.
Redirect Script: A script we provide to redirect users to a mobile website if they
view a website from a mobile phone.
Native App: An app that is specifically designed to run on a specific phone and
is uploaded directly to the App Marketplaces.
Web App: An app created in HTML5 that is designed to run on most smart
phones through the internet browser.
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There are a wide variety of business and organizational categories that could take advantage
of mobile apps and websites optimized for mobile devices. Here are just a few examples:
These verticals all have custom case studies prepared in advance with verified, quantifiable
results. In addition to this handbook, there are even more resources available in the Small
BusinessCRM.
TARGET Verticals
Non Profits
Churches
Nightclubs & Bars
Hotels & Resorts
Restaurants
Djs & Artists
Financial Advisors
Law Firms/Lawyers
Gyms & Fitness Clubs
Realtors
MOBILE APP Sales Conclusion
The most important aspect of selling to small businesses is putting in the time and effort.Selling
to small businesses can be a daunting task, but with the right drive and focus, you will have a
successful mobile company in no time.
In addition, we’re here to help! If you have any additional questions about the sales process of
mobile apps and mobile websites -- please contact us!
