Playbook: Mobile sales app

Salespeople on the road can't see stock, prices or customer history

The problem

A salesperson standing in a customer's shop needs three things: what this customer bought before, what it costs them, and whether it's available. The desktop ERP is not an option on a phone in a doorway, so they phone the office instead — or promise something wrong.

What you end up with

A phone-sized app they install on their home screen. It opens on their customers, shows history and prices for the one they pick, and lets them capture an order or a visit note on the spot.

What it needs

• Access level: App Builder access.
• Instance: connected — the app reads live customer, price and stock data.
• Pro app: only if you want the app to keep its own data, like visit notes or draft orders that are not yet ERP documents.
• Sharing: each salesperson needs the app shared with them, or access via the instance.

Build it step by step

1. In the App Builder:

   Build an app called "Sales on the Road", designed for a phone. It opens with a searchable list of my customers. Tapping a customer shows their last ten orders, their agreed prices, and their outstanding balance.

2. Add the capture step:

   From a customer, the salesperson can start a new order: search products, set quantity, see the customer's price and the current stock, and send the order to ERP.

3. Add the small things that make it usable outdoors:

   Big tap targets, one column, works with one thumb. Keep the search box always visible. Show the stock as a coloured indicator, not a number.

4. If you want visit notes, make it Pro and say:

   Store visit notes in the app's own table, one row per visit, with the customer, date, note and the salesperson's name.

5. Share it with the sales team — see Sharing Apps — and tell them to open it and use Add to home screen.

Try it

Open the app on an actual phone, not a resized browser window. Walk through one real customer: find them, read their history, build a small order, send it, and confirm the document in ERP. Anything that needs two hands or a pinch to zoom goes back to the Builder.

Variations

• Read-only version for people who should see but not order.
• Route for today — start on the visits planned for today rather than the full customer list.
• Photo capture — attach a shelf photo to the visit note.
• Voice — combine with the voice sales executive for hands-free work in the car.

Where it can go wrong

• Too much on one screen. Desktop layouts fail on phones. Say "phone first" in every correction.
• Slow lists. Thousands of customers in one list is slow. Ask for search and paging rather than everything at once.
• Wrong prices. Make sure the app asks for the price for this customer, not the list price.
• Connectivity. Coverage in a basement is nobody's friend. Keep the flow short so a lost connection costs one screen, not an hour.