Mobility has completely transformed our daily interactions. We now operate in a world that expects to get exactly what they want in immediate context and moments of need. Forrester refers to this way of thinking as “the mobile mind shift.” With this shift comes opportunity for the enterprise. An opportunity to leverage mobile innovation to get customers what they want in their moments of need.
While mobile innovation impacts every function of business, the biggest impacts and opportunities for transformation lie within sales. Mobility enables the sales function to achieve unprecedented results. However, according to Forrester’s Mobile Mind Shift Maturity Framework report, “few companies have adapted to the mobile mind shift.”
Considering that “21% of online consumers in the US expect to use their mobile phones to get anything they want immediately, in context,” (Forrester, 2014) companies should be thinking about how they can adapt this mind shift and take advantage of the transformative abilities of mobile. Even if your company is not prepared to make a complete shift immediately, it’s important to understand the path to mobile maturity so you can leverage existing resources and plan for the future.
Assessing Your Mobile Maturity
Forrester defines four stages of mobile maturity based on years of reach to understand how companies are approaching mobility. Interestingly, they cite in their Mobile Mind Shift Maturity Framework report that “Less sophisticated firms use mobile to support a narrow set of business goals.” On the other hand, “more sophisticated firms use mobile to impact the broader business.”
To help you determine where you currently fall on the path to mobile maturity and plan your approach to making the mobile mind shift, we’ve summarized Forrester’s four stages of mobile maturity:
Stage 1: Shrink and Squeeze
At this stage, many companies offer scaled down services (originally designed for PCs) on a small screen. Although this approach is easy and affordable, it’s not a viable long-term approach because, according to Forrester, “Shrinking or squeezing experiences onto a small screen assumes that the needs or motivations of the consumer are the same on a mobile phone as they are on a PC.” Truly capitalizing on the transformative abilities of mobility requires a mobile solution that not only innovates but also elevates customer interactions.
Stage 2: Mobile First
According to Forrester, being “mobile first” consists of thinking about enhancing experiences in the physical world with mobile—from differentiating your sales pitch to monitoring how sales content is used in the field. Being mobile first also consists of thinking about how to utilize mobile innovations to offer new services to customers.
Stage 3: Transform Your Customer Experience
A major shift in your strategic thinking happens when you stop thinking about simply being mobile first, and you start thinking about how mobility can transform your overall customer experience. According to Forrester, this stage is “thinking about how mobile helps you achieve business objectives whether they are to improve customer service or increase conversion rates.”
Stage 4: Disrupt Your Business
At this stage, companies are using mobile to reinvent business models and create new services. According to Forrester, “You probably aren’t here unless you are a mobile-first startup.” Companies like Uber and Lyft, for example, have used mobile to transform transportation services for consumers.
Success with Mobile
Mobile innovation is not something that should be treated as a project—you can’t just build a mobile app or mobile-optimized website and call it a day. The mobile mind shift is about something greater. As Forrester puts it, “Customer expectations of mobile experiences demand deep integration with systems of engagement or the business technology that fuels customer interactions in real time.” Having all of the pieces in place to make the complete mobile mind shift doesn’t come quickly. The first step is to assess your mobile readiness, and then plan accordingly so you can begin to take advantage of mobile’s transformative abilities.
When it comes to mobile innovation, how mature is your business? Where do you see yourself with mobile in the next year?
John Burns is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Mediafly, Inc and the author of Mediafly’s Sales Insight blog. Please have a look at some of the products and solutions John has had a hand in selling: SalesKit and ProReview.
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