Step Up Your Field Sales Game: The Power of Digital Business Cards

Have you ever heard of digital business cards? If not, they could be the missing pieces of the puzzle in your quest to connect with more clients and business associates.

Businesses and sales professionals use digital business cards to improve how they network and interact with potential customers. Let’s explore how digital business cards help sales professionals generate more leads and close deals.

3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Paper Business Cards

Sales professionals have used paper business cards for decades to network at conferences, dinners, and other outreach events. Today, though, paper business cards are obsolete and usually end up in the trash. 

Here are three primary reasons why paper business cards no longer work in today's business world.

Provide Limited Information

The average size of a paper business card is 85mm by 55 mm. With such limited space, you can only share little information about your business.

You should also refrain from including too much information in the card; it will make it look unprofessional, cluttered, and unreadable.

You Must Reprint the Cards to Update Information

If you relocate to a new office premise, add more products, or change your contact information, you must print new business cards and send them to clients and partners.

Reprinting and sharing them again will cost you an arm and a leg. It's an unnecessary expense you can avoid by shifting to digital business cards.

They're Expensive

In the United States, the average cost of printing business cards is as high as $194 in some states. You may spend up to $48,500 per year on the paper cards.

Such huge operating costs will plunge your business into financial turmoil if you don't get it right the first time and have to reprint the cards.

How Digital Business Cards Increase Field Sales Professional's Performance

The average human attention has steadily reduced since 2000 and currently stands at 8.25 seconds. This statistic means a lot to sales professionals. They have to grasp the attention of a potential customer in under nine seconds and encourage them to take the desired action.

The hard truth is that you cannot beat the clock and your competitors with paper business cards. The interactive experience that digital business cards offer will get the job done by capturing and retaining the prospect's attention and interest in your brand. Consequently, they increase the probability of closing a deal.

However, interactivity is just one of the many advantages and reasons why you should change how you network with clients and other businesses. 

Let's shift gears and look at other ways digital business cards will enhance your networking efforts and grow your business.

Supports More Details

Unlike paper business cards, digital business cards are not limited by space. You can include all your brands or professional details in one interface without ruining the card's appearance. For example, you can add your website URL, email address, social media buttons, and phone number in just a few clicks.

Facilitate Paperless Networking

A decade ago, sales professionals would carry a stack of business cards to networking events. Sometimes, they also carried brochures, flyers, and other promotional materials. 

Digital business cards eliminate the need to carry too many paper documents. You can share your contact details with clients and associates by sharing your card link or scanning a QR code.

For example, you can share your digital business card in seconds via Google Wallet and Apple Wallet. This contactless and paperless way of networking will give you an edge over your competitors.

No Need to Reprint Cards

When you relocate to a new location or introduce new services/products, reprinting cards will increase your operating costs and reduce your profit margin.

Digital business cards will cushion you from such expenses by allowing you to update the details on your card in real time. You don't have to reshare your card; the new details will be added to the card in real-time for all the prospects to see.

For example, if you have a geo-specific promotion, you can create a card for each location at no extra cost. You can also create custom copy and design for each card to effectively resonate with the target audience.

Depending on where you're, you can seamlessly switch the cards and share them using the mobile app. It's that simple!

Saves Time and Money

Time and money are two limited resources you must manage well to grow your business and realize its full potential.

Finding and buying suitable materials for making papers can take up to 30 days or more. The process of hiring a printing and design agency complicates the process further.

Digital business cards will save you time and money for other equally important business tasks. The digital cards can be shared minutes after completing the design process.

You don't have to wait weeks to get a new batch of cards from the printing company. Everything is in your hands, and you can update the details whenever and from wherever in less than 5 minutes.

The average cost of designing and printing paper business cards is $48,500. Digital business cards are affordable. The average digital business card cost ranges between $77 and $143 per employee annually. You can save up to 80% by switching to digital business cards.

Real-Time Tracking of Results

Like digital marketing campaigns, it's essential to keep track of your performance to know whether you are headed in the right direction or need to tweak your strategies.

Digital business cards have an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard that organizes and displays all the contact information collected. You can integrate it with over 5,000 business apps and CRMs for real-time monitoring.

With traditional business cards, measuring your team's performance and monitoring interactions is impossible. Thanks to digital business cards, you can track performance based on metrics like:

• Total number of card views
• Number of times your business contact information is saved
• Best and worst-performing digital business cards
• Number of potential customers with your card
• Categorize card engagement rates by device, location, date, and time

Having all this information in an easy-to-understand report will help you get maximum ROI from the selected digital business card package. You can also share the report with your team for analysis to make informed decisions.

Two-Way Lead Capture

One of the significant disadvantages of using traditional business cards and cold sales calls is that they are one-way. In most cases, the sales professionals will only issue the card and not get the recipient's contact information, creating an information gap that hinders conversion.

The process of manually inputting client info in the CRM is cumbersome, and there is always the risk of inputting the wrong information, such as phone number and address.

Digital business cards provide a two-way lead capture form that removes the conversion funnel's friction points. They also eliminate the need to input information in the CRM manually.

Customers' contact information will be saved in your digital address book with just one tap of the card or scan of the QR code. The information is well-organized for easier viewing. You can also export all the contacts in a CSV file to your CRM and share them with your team during meetings.

They're Planet Friendly

Transitioning to digital business cards will promote environmental conservation by reducing the demand for paper, as the cards are 100% virtual. No paper and PVC plastic materials are used to make them, thus significantly lowering your carbon footprint.

Earlier, we mentioned that customers gravitate towards brands embracing technological advancements. Here is another point to note: with the increased awareness of climate change and environmental conservation, customers prefer doing business with eco-friendly brands.

Using digital business cards will attract more customers by showing your brand's commitment to environmental conservation and sustainability.

Examples of Industries That Can Leverage Digital Business Cards for Field Sales

By 2030, the global digital business card market will be worth $6 billion. Concisely, the demand for digital business cards will steadily increase across all industries as the benefits become more evident.

Some of the industries that can leverage digital business cards for field sales include, but are not limited to:

• Real Estate
• Hospitality
• Banking and Insurance
• Repair and Service Providers

Real Estate Industry

Real estate is one of the industries where competition is cut-throat. Real estate companies employ hundreds of field agents in the locations they serve to market properties.

Having many agents is good, but monitoring their performance and following up with clients using paper business cards and property brochures is counterproductive.

There is always a communication gap between the real estate company, the field agents, and the client. Digital business cards fill this gap by facilitating smooth communication between the three parties.

The agents can quickly and conveniently share their contact details and save prospects' details using the dedicated mobile app. In addition, clients can easily find the company's contact details without shuffling a pile of brochures and business cards.

Similarly, the company can monitor the agents' performance in real teams using the built-in CRM. The company can also stand out by including other resources in the digital cards, such as:

• Digital brochures
• List of similar properties
• Social proof to build trust

Hospitality Industry

Hospitality is one of the industries where sales executives meet in person with customers before closing a sale. Digital business cards will make customer engagement more professional and interactive by providing a simple and efficient way of sharing their business name and contact information.

For example, your target customers often engage with different companies and get many business cards and proposals. Comparing and contrasting the services and rates using paper documents takes time and effort.

Save them from such hurdles by sharing your digital business card. It will reduce paper clutter and make your brand stand out. The card also contains all the information the clients need to plan accordingly for the service to be rendered.

Banking and Insurance

Banking and insurance are competitive niches where only the best companies thrive. You can get ahead of the competition by expanding your reach to different locations and having a dedicated digital business card for each location. Customize the copy and details in each card to match your target demographic to get maximum ROI.

For example, if you specialize in selling auto and life insurance policies, you can have a card for each or a custom insurance software.  The software will help you monitor leads, identify trends in the market, and determine which policy best suits a particular demographic or location. 

Repair and Service Providers

The mantra "out of sight, out of mind" makes sense in the repair and service industry. Most consumers don’t save the contact details of the service providers after the service. They spend hours looking for your business card from a pile when they need your service.

Improve customer interactions, and make your brand more memorable and easier to contact using digital business cards. The card will make it easy to share your business information, and save customer contacts in one central contact book.

It also reduces downtime. Such convenience and simplified interaction will help you close more deals.

Get More Field Sales by Using Popl Teams Digital Business Cards

Field sales are integral to the growth and success of your business. Make your brand memorable and endear it to existing and new customers by switching to Popl Teams, the world's number 1 digital business card solution.

Our cards will make it easy for you to share contact information and save potential customer's details. The card is compatible with over 5,000 business applications and CRMs. Meaning you will be able to monitor results in real-time.

Through the CRM, you can delegate and reassign tasks while on the road using the mobile app. Popl teams can support up to 1,000,000 members, and there is no limit on the number of business cards you can create. 

The CRM will also help you to monitor the performance of individual teams and sales professionals. The reports will also help you decide which customers to follow up with, when, and the kind of custom message to send.

Choose one of our digital business cards to catapult your brand to the next level of success.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of digital business cards?

Digital business cards improve how sales professionals network and share their contact details with potential customers. The contact details are compiled in one database and displayed in a central dashboard. From there, you can track the shared card performance to know which clients to follow up with and when. 

What information should I include in the field sales agent's business card?

The information you should include in a field sales professional business card includes;

• Business name
• A professional headshot of the sales executive
• Full name of the sales executive
• Your business branding details, such as logo and tagline
• Website URL and links to landing page/service pages
• Phone number
• Email address
• Physical address

Any information that will help the customers reach you conveniently and convert should be added to the card.