You rely on your smartphone to stay in touch with friends, family, and business contacts. However, a smartphone isn’t just a phone. It’s become the number one tool relied on for multiple aspects of daily life.

We rely on our smartphones as much as we rely on our laptops and cars. Smartphones have become our GPS, alarm clock, music player, calendar, appointment book, and speedometer. They’ve also become the most versatile sales tool on the planet. Here’s why:

  1. You can get prospects to commit in the moment

Have you ever been to a sales meeting with a group of prospects? Maybe it was a presentation in someone’s home or in a rented office. Perhaps you were giving a presentation to people from your Meetup.com group.

You know the power of getting a commitment in the moment, even if it’s just a commitment to reconnect over the phone. Even if the prospect isn’t ready to make a purchase, you still need to get a commitment so you can close the sale. Your smartphone will get you one step closer to that sale.

When you’re setting a time and date for your follow-up call, you can schedule it in your calendar and set reminders. You can also send your prospect an email reminding them of your scheduled call. This eliminates the potential for them to forget about the call if they don’t immediately put it in their calendar.

  1. A smartphone can replace multiple other tools

With a smartphone, you can put aside your GPS, tape recorder, and MP3 player along with many other smaller electronics. A smartphone replaces most of the electronic tools we use on a daily basis.

You may not want to throw away your other devices. Perhaps you should hang onto your free-standing GPS for emergency purposes. The downside to smartphones is their screens easily shatter with the slightest drop.

Manufacturers are starting to mix zinc into the aluminum frames to help absorb more of the shock when a phone is dropped, although they’re far from shatter-proof.

If you don’t want to hang onto your stand-alone gadgets, consider the CAT S60 smartphone made by the same tough company (CAT) that makes heavy-duty construction equipment. There’s no tradeoff with this rugged smartphone. It’s truly waterproof and can be submerged up to 16 feet for an hour. Unlike any other smartphone, it’s designed to be dropped 6 feet onto concrete and survive. It also comes with a thermal camera.

Considering how often other smartphones break, this may be the last one you ever have to buy. 

  1. You can access customer data on the fly

Imagine you’re a realtor driving to meet a client to show a house. You can’t remember their spouse’s name and want to make a good impression, so you pull over to reference their email. You greet the couple by name, they’re both impressed, and you’re already building rapport with your client.

  1. You can process payments in the moment

How many times have you encountered a prospect eager to buy, but you couldn’t accept their payment because it had to be done through your website?

When you’re in sales, it’s natural to end up in sales conversations pretty much everywhere. In elevators, restaurants, coffee shops, and even the checkout line at the grocery store. Your smartphone makes it possible for you to accept payments anywhere you have an internet connection.

  1. You can research laws, rules, and prices

Having a sales conversation will bring up questions that need to be answered, or facts that need to be verified before closing the sale. Capturing your prospect in the moment is important, and your smartphone allows you to find your answers immediately so you can continue closing the sale.

If you’re closing a sale with someone and they mention what your competitor charges for the same product or service, you can look it up to verify their claims. Some prospects will exaggerate the competition’s prices (even unknowingly) to get the best deal. Your smartphone is your best defense against haggling with penny pinchers. 

Also, if you’re out shipping products for customers and your package is unexpectedly expensive to ship, you can step back and compare rates through USPS, UPS, and FedEx without leaving the parking lot.

  1. You can update your website on the go

A smartphone gives you access to apps that let you do just about everything you can do on a desktop or laptop computer. This is great news if you’ve built your website with Wix. Wix just introduced a mobile app that does more than let you update your site. It sends you notifications and makes it easy for you to answer customer requests.