On-site with construction crews, Cliff Davis has seconds to pitch complex solutions to his busy customers.
The site manager or company owner he’s meeting with won’t wait around for him to power up his laptop. They don’t have time to hang around while he digs through a briefcase full of brochures.
Davis has no time to waste when meeting with his customers on-site.
But really, does any salesperson have time to waste?
Capturing a customer’s attention quickly is the top priority for sales reps in any industry – because without attention, there will be no sale.
“If I can show them something different — something they can assess quickly — they love it,” explains Davis. “They’ll take the time to watch a short video, and consider what I’m offering.”
Davis discovered the secret to capturing customer attention: surprise.
Ben Parr, author of Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention, believes that surprises are extremely effective for earning customer attention. He puts it this way in a recent Forbes interview:
“The first thing is to violate people’s expectations. You want to have people turn their eyes up a little bit more. … We’re attuned to surprises and we have a pleasant experience with positive surprises. Anytime you can positively break attention, something small everyday and more creative — all the things you do become more attention-grabbing, more captivating.”
As the National Formwork Manager for Acrow, a construction support firm, Davis spends a lot of time meeting with customers on-site. Capturing their attention amidst shouting work crews and noisy equipment is no small feat.
Lucky for him, he has an entire library of enterprise-grade animations and videos to choose from to help him sell the Doka product line to his construction customers.
His challenge? Sharing those interactive assets at live construction sites – quickly and sometimes without an internet connection.
Sales Nightmare Turned Dream-Come-True
Davis considered a wide array of options for storing, displaying and sharing his digital sales assets.
“I was looking for a new way to stand out,” he said. “We [want to] show relevant answers immediately. We couldn’t do that with paper materials, because we never knew what they would ask about. If we were on a laptop, we’d interrupt the conversation while we hunted for the right file. Either way, we didn’t look as professional as we would have liked.”
Doka, the large European construction formwork manufacturer that produces the solutions Davis sells through Acrow, had actually developed their own proprietary mobile sales app for their global network of reps. Using a mobile device in the field made sense – it was less likely to freeze up like a laptop, and with access to his digital sales collateral Davis wouldn’t have to explain technical concepts. Still, though, the Doka app was not as easy to use as he would have liked.
Enter Showcase.
When Davis discovered Showcase, he knew it was the solution to all of those challenges.
“It’s easier to use, and more attractive. That helps to make a good first impression, and holds my prospect’s attention past that initial hurdle,” he shared. “Showcase fit perfectly. It opens prospects’ eyes right up. We’re better prepared to answer their questions, and respect their time.”
He went on to explain that when he uses Showcase on his Android tablet to show his prospects a demonstration video, they just get it. And because they quickly grasp how their projects could benefit, prospects make decisions faster.
In fact, since using Showcase, Davis noticed a higher percentage conversion of first-time customers.
One app – one big boost to the bottom line.
The Profitable Results Continue Today
Years later, Davis and his team still rely on Showcase on-site with construction customers.
“[Showcase is] easy to use and still the easiest and best way to carry around loads of technical information that may be required for meetings with customers. To be able to show pictures and movies certainly still provides the customer with great visual options of talking about our products.”