Overall, the idea of turning work into play with rewards is catching on, especially with the iPad. In July, the most popular presentations at the Mobile Health World Conference in Boston covered “gamification” in mobile healthcare apps for iPad. Gamification is the idea that you can include the elements which make games fun and addictive in work that isn’t traditionally thought of as a game. Great iPad apps for healthcare or sales can use game play mechanisms for non-game applications to make the app for iPad stronger and help people to accomplish more.

Use Carrots not Sticks for the iPad to Build Sales Performance

Traditional methods of incentivizing or motivating sales reps for better performance include “stick” methods like “walls of shame” or using basic statistics from their Salesforce to identify sales “winners” and “losers.”

ISM is focused on creating relevant apps with great data that reps can share in a way that makes it easy for them to use. When we give data to a rep in a CRM system, including Mobile CRM HD for iPad, we’ll automatically build in quick, easy ways to know whether it’s valuable for sales reps to pay attention to or not. You’ve got talented salespeople and employees. In a lot of cases when you look at what they’re actually doing, you find they spend too much time on things that aren’t really important. You can make it easier for them and more fun to perform by offering a lot of different “carrots” combining information and incentives. We’re big fans of “carrot” concepts at ISM.

Making a Great Sales App for iPad

According to motivation/performance guru Daniel Pink, “Gamification could go either way — toward 2.0 if the rewards are the point of the exercise, towards 3.0 if the rewards are a form of feedback, information, and a way to make progress and achieve flow.” In other words, the “game” part of the App should fit with the work that’s being done and make it easier, not harder, for sales reps to do their jobs.

This is where ISM’s experience comes in. We’d like to hear how you see the iPad working to improve your sales and work for your sales reps. If you have any stories about “walls of shame” or a “gamification” of your sales process where the sales reps came out as winners, post a comment below, or we want to hear from you. We’re gearing up for Dreamforce, August 30 – September 2 in San Francisco, where we will showcase our Mobile CRM HD iPad App.  Let us know if you are going, we’d love to meet you.

To learn more, please visit our Mobile CRM page.  Or call us at 877-553-0485, or email us!

Being visionary is part of what makes Salesforce.com CEO Mark Benioff so motivational and successful. Mark talks about “Cloud 1″ and “Cloud 2,” and according to Mark, we’re in the middle of Cloud 2, even though some enterprises aren’t fully-aware of it. The big motivator for moving to Cloud 2 is the iPad, Benioff told TechCrunch. “The iPad shows us what now is really possible,” Benioff said. “It shows us we all need to go faster.”

ISM’s Mobile CRM HD App for iPad

ISM’s Mobile CRM HD App for iPad uses Salesforce.com’s powerful functionality in a genuine iPad app. ISM’s Mobile CRM HD App is continuing to evolve and is in an open development phase. Currently, the iPad app allows sales reps to manage and schedule their accounts, and they can quickly note what was discussed, schedule follow-up calls, and take notes. Everything sales reps are working on can be accessed in the field. With the current Mobile CRM HD App for iPad, reps can also identify what product they want to order, what quantity, and enter payment information.

iPad Apps Should Be Flexible and Fun Like Facebook

According to Mark Benioff, “Our industry has gone through many shifts, but ultimately, the big ones have always been about software, not hardware. Now, we are seeing a simultaneous software and hardware revolution. This will result in a new generation that looks more like Facebook on the iPad than Yahoo on the PC.”

What Apps look like is important, but what they do, and what you can do with them, is the aspect that we know is important to you. We’re interested in your Salesforce/iPad experiences! This is a great place to share them – good, bad, or in-between. Our products aren’t designed for ISM, they’re designed for you and your sales enterprise. We also have a more formal way for you to participate in the development process for Mobile CRM HD for iPad, and we want to hear from you. Your input could help make the best app for Salesforce.com on iPad. Another place to talk with us about moving into Cloud 2 is at Dreamforce, August 30 – September 2 in San Francisco.  We’ll be at Booth 33 and we’re looking forward to meeting you!

For more information on the iPad Apps we are developing, please visit our Mobile CRM page.  Or Contact Us via email or call us at 877-553-0485.