This is the 2nd post is a series on using Android tablets and the iPad as kiosks. You can find the original post here.
The showroom at Taylor’s Boats is stocked with shiny beauties made by Malibu and Cobalt. Because buying a high-performance boat is a big step, prospects want to make sure they’re getting something that will make them happy — they want to see the shape of the wake, see how skiers approach it, and see what it does for them. Sales reps help prospects find the right boat, and are glad to take people out to a nearby lake to try the boat out for themselves, but they want to make sure the fit is right before they invest in the time, effort, and expense of a test trip. A trip to the lake can take 2 or 3 hours, so it makes sense to make sure the prospect is serious, and that they’re trying the right boat.
Showing videos of the boats is a great step to helping prospects know if a boat is for them. The challenge is to find a way to put the videos out in the showroom where the boats, prospects, and sales staff are. It’s too disruptive to the sales process to run back to the office to watch a video.
Steve Miller, a sales rep at Taylor’s, says,
“Technology is becoming more and more effective for us to sell boats. With a kiosk we can just pull up a video and show our prospects exactly what the wake looks like.”
Prospects like to see videos of how the boat performs in the water, and how wakeboarders hit the wake. No need to run back to the office to find a video and watch it. Now they can all stay by the boat and bring a video up right on a pedestal-mounted kiosk.
The kiosk eliminates disruptions in the sales process, cuts down on the number of expensive trips to the lake, and helps prospects see how each boat performs with a few taps of the finger.
Kiosks can smooth the sales process with two different approaches:
- Stationary — a tablet is mounted in a case. It may be on a pedestal, or on a countertop, or on a wall. In this scenario, the sales person and prospects gather around the screen, tapping on items of interest, watching videos, or getting quick answers to questions. It is most likely that a large 10” tablet would make the most sense here. A single showroom could have a few tablet kiosks. iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tabs are great for this.
- Roaming — tablets roam about the showroom premises. Sales people can use it, prospects can use it, or they can look at things together on it. In most cases, the roaming kiosk would have a 7” screen. The Google Nexus 7 is a good product for this. If Apple comes out with a 7” iPad, that would also be a great option.
How can a tablet kiosk help you streamline your sales process? Consider these possibilities:
- Get answers quickly.
- Visualize the product in action.
- Check availability.
- Show configuration options.
You may already have a website and content that does all of these things. The problem is, you need to run to a PC to use your website, and that disrupts the sales process. With a tablet kiosk you can put your website where the sale is happening: out on the floor with your prospects.
How else do you think a tablet can help improve sales?
