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Category: General

  • 8 strategies to optimize the performance of your field service team: Increase profits, enhance customer loyalty and boost productivity

    8 strategies to optimize the performance of your field service team: Increase profits, enhance customer loyalty and boost productivity

    If you wish to see a plant grow into a full-fledged tree, you need to set up the right atmosphere to nourish it. Simply wishing is not going to make things happen.

    You need to till your garden and prepare the soil, add the right compost and fertilizer, provide protection from pests and diseases, water the garden bed regularly, and ensure ample sunlight as well as fresh air to help your plant blossom.

    The same holds true for your field service team: simply bombarding them with goals and objectives isn’t going to transform your team. You need to create certain conditions to help your team thrive. 

    Before exploring these conditions, let’s explore the attributes associated with a high-performance team. High-performance team players consistently show high levels of collaboration and trust. They are also:

    • Highly skilled
    • Goal-focused
    • Innovative
    • Produce superior results

    To empower your team to live up to these traits, you need to ensure the following conditions:

    Process

    A process sets up the foundation of how your field service team interacts with your business, office, and customers to transform an input into output. Field teams must be:

    • Provided with a workflow that is well-connected, transparent, short, free from roadblocks, and designed to cover a wide spectrum of what-if scenarios. The workflow should support collaboration with cross-functional teams and internal users to ensure seamless performance.
    • Equipped with essential resources at each milestone such as information, tools, and enough time at hand to complete repairs and simultaneously build positive relationships with clients. Field teams empowered with audio-visual communication and tracking and monitoring tools are highly likely to coordinate event logistics and perform jobs more efficiently.

    Training

    Field technician training encompasses three aspects:

    • Skills: Your technicians should be trained to effectively diagnose the problem, determine the solution, and successfully perform installation, repair, maintenance, and test tasks.
    • Communication: This aspect involves both internal and external communication. It could be properly communicating any foreseeable problems to the authorized personnel at the earliest indication. Likewise, communication with external stakeholders like customers or other teams helps build a positive brand experience.
    • Safety: Your technicians must be trained to operate safely, following all the procedures and protocols in place. 

    With the advancement of technology, delivering such training isn’t cost-intensive and can be a fun-filled experience for your teams. Upskilling employees at regular intervals can also help you foster better relationships with them. 

    Hiring

    There are many preferences that dominate hiring decisions. The most common one is that the candidates must have experience in a similar domain; the best is to have worked with competitors. Another is to have exact skills as required to fulfill the job criteria.

    While these factors offer a shortcut to measure the candidates’ knowledge and experience, they are regressive and restrict the entry of fresh candidates.

    Maintaining a fair ratio of fresh talent and those that possess deep technical knowledge has proved to be an effective hiring strategy for service businesses across industries. While training these fresh faces may seem daunting from financial and other perspectives, its long-term benefits far outweigh the efforts.

    Tech Enablement

    Empowering technicians with futuristic technologies such as IoT, AI, mobility, communication tools, cloud solutions, and data analytics can not only improve their efficiency and overall profitability but also nurture a positive brand image.

    Purpose

    High-performing teams are synergistic social entities that work toward the achievement of common goals—short-term and long-term. They often exemplify a total commitment to work and to each other. 

    Team members do better work when their roles are clear: They know how to do their jobs and why they are doing them. Each member must understand and support the meaning and value of the team’s mission and vision. 

    Clarifying the purpose and tying it to each person’s role and responsibilities enhances team potential. Consider setting up a goals meeting with the team as a forum to discuss key priorities. This allows them to have some input in the development of objectives, and they will likely be more committed to achieving them.

    Leadership

    High-performing leaders generally accompany high-performance work teams. Essential leadership qualities include the ability to:

    a) keep the purpose, goals, and approach relevant and meaningful 

    b) inspire commitment and confidence 

    c) ensure that team members constantly enhance their skills 

    d) manage relationships from the outside with a focus on the removal of obstacles that might hinder group performance 

    e) provide opportunities for others without seeking credit 

    f) get in the trenches and do the real work required 

    Effective team leaders focus on purpose, relationships, and an unwavering commitment to results that benefit the organization and each individual.

    Trust

    Trust is at the heart of any successful team. Without it, teams will be unable to progress due to fear of conflict or lack of commitment.

    Establishing trust between team members can help take the team from satisfactory performance levels to outstanding results.

    Being open and honest about strengths and limitations in workplace behaviours is an excellent way to help generate trust between team members.

    Create a culture of transparency, innovation, and collaboration. Encourage your team members to brainstorm and present new ideas, cultivate their problem-solving skills, and train them to make the best decisions in any scenario.

    Incentives

    Both monetary and nonmonetary systems that encourage high performance have a positive impact on the implementation of business goals. 

    Over the long term, intrinsic motivators such as personal satisfaction at work and working on interesting projects provide the greatest impact on performance. 

    In addition, a belief in one’s self and abilities encourages people to take more strategic risks to achieve team goals.

    In a nutshell

    Taking care of the factors mentioned above can turbocharge the performance of your field service team. Supporting your business with a robust field service management software is another excellent way to boost the performance of your field executives.

    Happisales is a neat and elegant field force engagement platform that allows you to perform sales, collection, order, and service in a synchronized way. 

    Designed to enhance collaboration between managers and field reps, Happisales allows managers to assess and maximize the performance of field executives. 

    Schedule a free consultation and talk to our experts today! Take your first step towards field service transformation.

  • Top strategies to reduce Field Service Operation Costs

    Top strategies to reduce Field Service Operation Costs

    One of the paramount concerns for every field service organization is its high operational costs. In recent times, most organizations are striving to reduce them without compromising the quality of the services offered.

    At the crux, to achieve a competitive position in the service industry, one needs to remain profitable while fulfilling customer expectations and keeping them satisfied.

    To achieve this, it is essential to deep dive into these issues and address them. Let us look at some of the strategies that can be implemented to reduce the costs-

    1. Improving the effectiveness of the technician’s first visit – A lot of the field technicians complain about the lack of proper information available to go in for the initial visit.

    This leads to more follow-up trips, thereby increasing the cost of fuel expenses and resources. To prevent this, you should find out the customer’s issues along with their expectations in advance.

    This way you can send the right technician along with the appropriate equipment to solve the issue in the first visit itself.

    Further, a follow-up should be initiated with the customer to ensure that the task has been accomplished to the customer’s satisfaction thereby improving the trust and goodwill of your organization.

    1. Optimizing the Inventory– It is never a good idea to overstock or understock inventory because holding too much inventory can eat away the profits whereas understocking leads to losing potential customers.

    You need to strike the right balance between the two. To achieve this, you need to evaluate your business needs and requirements and find the right inventory management tools that provide the real-time status of the inventory.

    These tools will aid in improving inventory management and cashflows, saving storage costs, and retaining customers.

    1. Ensuring scheduling is up to date- Poor scheduling practices often lead to internal conflicts within the team, low productivity, and high field service operation costs.

    To avoid such conflicts, you can employ a smart field service software that can help in assigning tasks based on the technician’s skills, in other words, putting the right person for the right job, tracking the location of the technicians on a real-time basis to improve efficiency, and optimizing the routes to save travel time and fuel costs.

    1. Reducing costs of Training and Recruitment – Ideally, hiring new candidates and providing them with the necessary training involves a huge cost.

    One of the effective ways to save such recruitment and training costsis by retaining the best talent. To do that, you should motivate the employees by recognizing them periodically.

    This recognition should be data-driven and not be fuelled by any biases. By using the right software, you can build a performance evaluation profile for each technician based on the metrics such as the number of work orders assigned and finished in a day, type and current status of the task assigned, inspection, and validation of the task, etc.

    You need to set optimal performance metrics to perform at the best productive level. The performance profile of each employee can be evaluated against these metrics to determine appropriate rewards and compensation.

    1. Going Digital- About 50% of the field service organizations still operate using manual methods. Such methods are neither cost-effective nor efficient.

    If you have hired people to perform tasks such as scheduling and planning the work, it is time to automate it. Using a filed sales management software tool allows you to gather important information such as invoices, billings, business contracts, attendance and leaves of the employees, etc leaving no room for errors.

    This way the employees can now focus more on meaningful tasks. So, the first step is to identify the business processes that are redundant or dependent more on paper, examine the cost associated with people performing such tasks, and then plan to automate them in order to save on such expenditures.

    1. Customer-centric support solutions: Customers often experience unnecessary wait times even for issues that can be resolved online.

    Innovative solutions can be provided to handle such issues. You can implement AI-enabled Chatbots that can handle redundant customer queries.

    Customer rating can be captured for all the AI-resolved issues. Technicians can further review the ratings and update the AI resolution mechanism on a regular basis.

    A ticketing system can be used to report issues that are not resolved through AI support. All such issues reported by customers through tickets can be reviewed for online resolution by interacting with the customers.

    Technicians can be assigned for field resolution only on a need and priority basis. In this manner, you can create a better customer-centric experience and also utilize the technician’s time more efficiently and effectively.

    In a nutshell

    Optimizing field service costs is imperative if you are running a field service organization. Digitizing and using relevant field service tools can help you achieve your goals while remaining at the top of your game.

    The above-mentioned strategies are some of the ways that can help you cut down on costs, and focus on elevating customer satisfaction.

  • How to craft winning sales pitches: The ultimate guide (Part 1)

    How to craft winning sales pitches: The ultimate guide (Part 1)

    The first thing that pops up in people’s minds when they hear the term sales pitch is an unwarranted phone call or an awkward email from a pushy and aggressive seller.

    Thanks to these terrible salesmen, people around the world have grown wary of sales pitches and do their best to avoid them. But a good sales pitch is so much more than an intrusive phone call or email.

    In fact, a great pitch should make a buyer’s life better by connecting them with products and solutions that solve their most urgent problems.

    In this guide, we’ll decode the nuances of an effective sales pitch and discuss various strategies that you can use to optimize your outreach efforts. Finally, we’ll explore some exceptional sales pitch templates that will help you nail your conversions!

    Let’s dive right in.

    What is a sales pitch?

    A sales pitch is a well-crafted sales presentation. Typically, a salesperson gets less than two minutes to explain how their business will benefit the prospect. 

    The attention span of people in this tech-driven world is ever shrinking. As such, salespeople no longer have the luxury of an hour-long presentation geared towards selling a specific product or service. 

    A good sales pitch needs to convey the intended message concisely in a compelling manner. If the sales pitch is on point, you are on the right path to making profitable sales. 

    The first few minutes of a business conversation determine the direction your interactions will take. Be sure to use this sales pitch as your attempt to convince the prospect about the superiority of the service you are offering. 

    If you are selling a product, a sales pitch is your chance to dispel a prospect’s belief about the product. This is when you reassure them of the benefits they will enjoy if they buy the product you are selling.

    The anatomy of a successful sales pitch

    Sales pitches can take on many different forms and use different approaches. But when you break them down, they almost always have these five key elements:

    1. The open

    The open is the introduction. It’s as simple as saying hello, introducing yourself, and asking the prospect how they are. It’s also your first opportunity to start building rapport and break the ice with your prospects.

    2. Identification of the problem, pain point, and/or goal

    By asking a few meaningful and well-thought-out questions about their work, you’ll start getting a better understanding of what the prospect’s challenges and goals are. 

    Using active listening you’ll begin to understand how your product can help address the prospect’s issues in order to reach their goals. 

    3. Demonstration of value

    Once you’ve established rapport and begun to understand the scope of their needs, you can begin to address each one using your product as the solution. 

    You should be able to speak to one or more of their pain points with how your product can solve the problem. 

    4. Supporting facts

    If you want to build trust, you should be prepared to support your pitch with facts and figures. Consider using social proof, like positive results that show how you beat customer expectations or prove that your other customers derived value from your product or service.

    5. The close

    By now, you should’ve clearly shown your prospect the value of your product and how it’s going to make their job or life easier. The close is essentially the point where they say yes and the transaction occurs. 

    The best sales pitch templates ever

    Having established the elements of a winning sales pitch, it is time to witness these in action. Here are some sales pitch templates which will supercharge your growth!

    Data dump

    Data is a great way to catch buyer attention, especially if it can help them make the case to their team for your product.

    The bad news: marketing burn is all too real these days. The good news? Help is on the way. New research shows that our platform can deliver:

    • 72% increase in buyer engagement
    • 50% in open-rates
    • 20% decrease in attrition 

    Show that you care

    Highlighting your prospects’ pain points and offering personalized solutions is an excellent way to forge meaningful customer relationships. 

    G2 is one company that pulls this off really well in its pitch:

    “G2 plays a huge role by providing unique, authentic peer advice in real time. We give buyers better guidance than traditional analyst firms, which can take up to 2 years to update and publish technology research. That timeline just can’t keep up with the pace of technology. At G2, we aim to be a trusted source that helps every business professional in the world make better technology decisions.”

    When they discuss how you’re being told by analysts what to do, or people who haven’t used a product, they highlight a clear disconnect in the market between what you need and what you get. 

    The company allows verified users of products to write reviews and becomes an essential resource for their users.

    Make a note of what really annoys your customer and pitch how your service can resolve this grievance. It’s another way of re-framing the customer’s needs, and it works because it’s a powerful way to describe the situation.

    In a nutshell

    We hope you have a clear idea of what an ultra-effective sales pitch looks like by now. An important note to make about these sales pitches is that they are all amazingly optimized for a short conversation.

    Lack of brevity can quite literally break your sales pitch and ruin your chances of converting prospects into customers. So, keep your sales pitch short, clean, and simple! Your customers will thank you.

    In the next article of this two-part series, we’ll list a few more sales templates that you can use and show you how you can craft your own pitches as well. Until then, stay tuned!

  • 7 Time Management Strategies to get more Efficient & Productive during the day

    7 Time Management Strategies to get more Efficient & Productive during the day

    It’s all about doing the right things in a shorter time. Perfect focus is like a workout for getting forward in your job, completing assignments effectively, or even getting a promotion with a salary raise. It may not be easy, but staying on track with the actions that assist your projects and clients is essential.

    The superior you are at remaining focused and managing your time, the more you will be able to do and the easier it will be to leave work on time while still having time to live. Effective time management skills help you produce better outcomes at work, but they also benefit you outside of work. Your job will improve as more of you remain for the long term.

    7 Time Management Strategies

    It’s all about personal time management, which means taking control of your time instead of letting it dominate you. We have compiled a list of 7-time management ideas for Field Force Help for the initial start.

    1. Start your day early

    Ascertain what you want to do and what you definitely must complete as your first work-related action of the day. Then, before you read your email and begin responding to questions and resolving difficulties, start your day early and become focused on this goal. Setting a clear goal for your day may take five minutes, but it may save you hours of wasted time and effort.

    1.  Focus on high-value activities

    Recognize the action that would have the biggest beneficial impact on your project, your team, and your customer if you dealt with it right now before you start something new. 

    This time management technique is implemented by successful businesses who recognize that there are both urgent and important things every day. Therefore, they try to find a fine balance and postpone the more monotonous tasks until later in the day.

    1.  Use a Planning Tool

    Time management experts advocate adopting a customised planning tool to increase productivity. Personal planning tools include planners, calendars, phone applications, wall charts, index cards, pocket diaries & mobile sales apps. 

    Jotting down your to-do lists, schedules, and things to consider frees up your thoughts to concentrate on your most critical responsibilities. Auditory learners may prefer to dictate their views rather than speak. The key is to choose one planning tool that works for you and adhere to it.

    1.  Stop Procrastinating

    If you have trouble remaining focused or procrastinating, making an external commitment to yourself may be beneficial. For example, plan a meeting in two days when you will show your work and by which time all of your actions must be accomplished. Completing the most disagreeable duties first thing in the morning and rewarding yourself with minor prizes once you’ve finished them is also helpful.

    1. Learn to delegate

    Take the time to interview and hire the greatest people so that you may have confidence in your team. Therefore, you may give some control and allocate responsibilities to individuals who work for you rather than attempting to accomplish everything yourself.

    1. Apply the 80/20 rule

    The Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule) states that 20% of activities produce 80% of results. The remaining 80% accounts for only 20% of the outcomes. It translates to successful field force managers understanding that their top objectives will generate the most significant outcomes. The remainder is delegated.

    Similarly, rather than completing many low-value activities, focus on some high-value jobs. Remember the 80/20 rule: 80% of your output originates from 20% of your inputs.

    1.  Assign time limits to tasks.

    As per the psychological studies, Multitasking does not help save you any time. In many cases, the reverse is true. When switching from a different location, you might lose time and productivity. Multitasking regularly might make it harder to concentrate and sustain attention. 

    Setting time limits on tasks instead of working until they’re finished should be part of your planning approach. Also, close all doors demanding your attention to reduce distractions and get more work done!

    Final Thoughts:

    Take some time to assess the effectiveness of your time management tactics. If you make a determined effort to improve your time management abilities, you’ll discover that your days and tasks will go more smoothly!Organisations want to define, manage, and assess goals across the firm, not simply broad goals that only top-level employees know. Successful time management with a Field Sales Mobile App leads to increased personal satisfaction, more success at home, and a more fulfilling future for the company!

  • 4 Ways to Build the Ultimate Sales Kickoff

    4 Ways to Build the Ultimate Sales Kickoff

    It’s never been more crucial to make the most of face-to-face moments worldwide when in-person discussions are supplanted by Skype meetings, e-mails & instant messaging conversations. A clever annual sales launch meeting has become a reliable way to create energy.

    Let’s discuss the importance of a sales kickoff discussion, how to narrow down the priorities that lead to company goals & the parts that produce a robust sales kickoff discussion with the best methods from renowned firms.

    What’s a sales kickoff?

    A sales kickoff discussion aims to gather your complete sales team, share best practices, product updates, and new sales methods, and re-energize everyone to hit the streets and bring in new business.

    For most field force managers, it’s a significant expenditure regarding travel and production costs and lost opportunities. In addition, taking your sales crew out of the picture for a full day or two might be difficult to sell at any organisation.

    On the other hand, a sales kickoff meeting should leave your reps feeling motivated, confident, respected, and more prepared to interact with leads and close sales if done correctly.

    Key advantages of a having a solid sales kickoff plan:

    Sales kickoff events are crucial in getting your year off to a good start. They keep your team and stakeholders updated and engaged on your year’s goals and objectives and help grow and enhance a sales team’s vision and leadership. 

    It is why sales launch events are so important: they give the team motivation and a surge, putting them on the right course for the rest of the year. So, what are the benefits of a well-planned sales kickoff plan?

    1. Creating Friendly Relationships & Trust

    Face-to-face interactions provide a one-of-a-kind chance to connect & form personal bonds. When teams are anchored on solid, productive relationships, they can be 10 times highly productive for the entire year.

    Furthermore, spending time with teammates and interacting with them fosters trust & emotions, laying the framework for joint ventures.

    1. Energised Team

    A successful & interesting meeting always got a steady flow of energy. A captivating speaker, an awards ceremony, or a little pause to create a positive vibe are amazing techniques to refresh your group.

    1. Focus Throughout the Year 

    Online meetings are used for multitasking & distraction. If you bring them face-to-face, you are more inclined to capture and hold your team’s focus throughout your plan. When people gather for the sales kickoff discussion, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to educate and train your team on the business.

    4 tips for creating a killer sales kickoff:

    Sales kickoffs can raise morale, establish team trust and rapport, and guarantee that everyone in the company works on the year’s goals and objectives. Here are our four particular kickoff planning suggestions!

    1. Kickstart with your plans

    Your sales team must be organised with your firm’s broader goals to meet your revenue targets. Your sales team’s efforts must be in line with the company’s objectives to be effective. 

    Your sales kickoff meeting is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to interact with those higher-level goals or strategies that aren’t making it down to leadership and use mobile sales app to expedite such.

    This open & deliberate talk about your company’s strategies and objectives can help your staff understand the vision & can be a great motivator. Use this opportunity to incorporate your company’s story into the one told at your kickoff.

    1.  Make it engaging

    Choosing a topic for your sales kickoff will help define the event’s mood and purpose. So, why do you need to pick a theme for the sales kickoff? First, if all of your content revolves around a single theme, it will be more interesting and memorable. 

    Second, it increases the level of amusement. You can include jokes, slideshows, skits, mini-contests, and more with a theme. 

    Finally, a theme helps you stay on target. When kickoffs are all over, reps forget what they’ve heard, and the information has no enduring significance. So, give your kickoff a theme to make it more successful.

    1.  Involve the right people

    According to research, group members can stay engaged when they get any idea in the process. Polling the team well before the meeting is a smart approach to involve them in the planning. Of course, it’s critical to include their input and add policy goals depending on their suggestions.

    Delegating some instructions & tasks to your group can help in management & scheduling is another way to involve your team. At the same time, you can use a sales force tracker to monitor their activities.

    1.  Make use of advanced technology

    Everyone nowadays is glued to their phones. Therefore, look for methods to integrate tech concepts into your meeting when preparing it. For example, incorporate a streaming poll system to reach your customers during your online sessions, create an easy app to manage the entire schedule & sign up for group discussions. 

    You can also organise a virtual event! Using technology, irrespective of whatever option you choose, you need a simple method to turn your resources interest and informed while organising the event.

    Final Words:

    Your sales launch meeting can be an amazing way to get your team together, agree on a strategy, build excitement, and encourage collaboration in the months ahead. Building camaraderie in today’s extremely competitive industry is more crucial than ever.Get benefit of this great opportunity to get your team on the same page, whether you can schedule an in-person event or host one using a field assist app like Happisales. Companies that invest in their employees are the most successful. One method to show your team that they have your complete support is to host a creative sales kickoff event.

  • Why is Route Optimization Important in Field Sales Management?

    Why is Route Optimization Important in Field Sales Management?

    Field sales are still relevant in every industry segment and are thought to be the most successful in generating fantastic business opportunities. Managing field trips, tracking salespeople’s routes, measuring the number of time salespeople spend on the road, keeping track of meetings, prioritizing client obligations, and optimizing routes are some of the basic statistics that field force management requires.

    It necessitates using a route planner/sales route management tool to effectively manage the complete sales path. The traditional system involved manually plotting maps and routes, which resulted in longer hours and mismanaged timetables. 

    Now comes the automation of route planning and scheduling visits, thanks to an efficient system that can help field force managers optimize routes to their maximum potential. Sales route planning has proven extremely effective in linking sales reps with significant business possibilities at the proper time and location. 

    Start with explaining sales route optimization and then look at why a key route planner is so important for field sales teams.

    What is Route Optimization?

    Identifying the most efficient route for a given number of waypoints is known as route optimization. It is an extremely sophisticated procedure, and the number of alternative routes grows exponentially as the number of waypoints grows. Building the shortest route for the provided waypoints based on time or distance must also consider other parameters such as the number of intersections.

    Route planning and optimization can help you determine the quickest and most efficient routes, lowering fuel expenses and reducing the amount of time field salespeople spend driving.

    The Significant Impact in Field Sales using Route Optimization:

    People who work in sales need to go from one area to another swiftly and efficiently. Many salespeople have to drive 30 to 45 minutes to and from their sales zone. With this in mind, your sales force must have access to the necessary planning tools to stay productive when on the road. 

    Field Force Automation Tools will assist them in planning routes that they are confident will get them to and from their destinations in the shortest time possible. It can help them cut down on travel time, allowing them to be on time at work and increasing their chances of selling more. Appointments are an important aspect of a company’s sales process. 

    The Sales Representatives must travel to visit clients at various locations, and the number of appointments they can complete is determined by the routes they take. The following are some of the advantages of route optimization for businesses:

    1. To Save Money, Time & Fuel Efficiency:

    The total distance and average miles driven between waypoints are minimized when Sales Reps design and optimize their itineraries. Gasoline efficiency improves as the distance is reduced. When the total money spent on fuel by an organization is added together, route optimization alone saves money.

    1. Improve Client Satisfaction:

    Sales reps can spend more time serving clients and enhance overall customer satisfaction by planning and optimizing their routes ahead of time. Furthermore, addressing spontaneous meetings becomes simple because the route may easily be modified to incorporate extra waypoints.

    1. Aim for a higher On-Time Performance Rate:

    One of the most vital benefits of Route Optimization is that Sales Representatives can boost their on-time performance rate. Because the routes have been adjusted, Sales Representatives may reach customers on time and avoid keeping them waiting. 

    Even if your field sales representatives are unavailable in the office, you can view real-time updates on customer data and the newest deals as a manager with route optimization. In addition, you can see your sales team’s performance by stacking sales reps according to how many check-ins are made, closed sales, and their income with a sales employee tracking app.

    Are Route Planners much needed for Optimizing Field Sales?

    Using route planning software for your sales staff has numerous advantages. First, your salespeople will appreciate the increased efficiency. 

    They will be more effective and in a better mood if they have a route planner that resolves various issues in organizing their journeys. A route planner offers much more than just a list of destinations to visit and the best routes to take to get there. 

    It provides you the optimum period to go, hold back, traffic, and environmental factors. Knowing these elements will enable your sales team to make more accurate and timely judgments, allowing them to achieve more.

    1. Advanced Sales Force Activity Planning:

    A route planner assists field salespeople in arranging their sales activities ahead of time, resulting in a well-organized framework that can be managed and monitored. For example, a route map can be developed to display the distances to be traveled, the client list, and other options available. Sales managers can use this information to optimize and successfully organize the entire schedule.

    1. Complete visibility:

    Implementing a route planning module keeps managers up to date on the most up-to-date real-time data, allowing them to conveniently monitor and manage the field force. In addition, more coordination and interaction between the road teams and the managers provide a complete view of the situation.

    1. Relief from Inefficient Expenditure:

    A strong software solution for route planning and management like Happisales can save the sales force money and time by preventing them from making unnecessary journeys. Furthermore, it aids in the extraction of the finest feasible paths by which sales agents can save money and time.

    Final Words:

    A strong sales force management solution is built upon intelligent and effective route planning. Therefore, a few vital aspects of a Field service management software & must be prioritized from the beginning to the end.
    A comprehensive sales route management module, such as Happisales, can aid salespeople and managers in various ways, including increasing sales and ensuring a seamless operating flow between routes. As a result, when adopting any Field Force Help, good sales route planners are necessary and must be given proper consideration.

  • Field Force Automation Software Benefits for Businesses

    Field Force Automation Software Benefits for Businesses

    Field force management is a highly challenging task: it can be especially gruelling since you are not physically present with your field force executives. Many industries have a large deskless workforce deployed across the globe to perform a wide variety of tasks. After all, you cannot run a business with the help of desk jockeys alone!

    That being said, there are several things that you need to ensure to streamline field force management:

    • frontline workers maintain excellent standards of operational execution and compliance
    • data is accurately captured in the field and used effectively by the head office to drive continuous process improvements
    • workers in the field are provided with an enriching experience that nurtures and brings forth their full potential

    Field Force Automation is a fantastic tool that can help organizations achieve the objectives mentioned above. It ensures greater efficiency and compliance. In addition, it optimizes employee performance and establishes real-time communication between the head office and operational frontline.

    Let’s dive deeper, understand what is FFA and the benefits that it offers to your business.

    What is Field Force Automation

    Field Force Automation is an aspect of field service software that leverages mobile technology such as mobile devices, wearables, and IoT sensors to facilitate bi-directional communication between technicians in the field and the head office. Data is instantly recorded in the back-end, eliminating the time spent on manual data entry and the risk of errors associated with it.

    By implementing FFA, organizations allow field force executives to capture and share data in real-time, enabling managers to evaluate, provide feedback and boost performance. 

    Advantages of Field Force Automation 

    Increase efficiency

    By leveraging analytics, you can process the abundant amount of data generated in the field and gain valuable insights into locations having plenty of business opportunities. Route optimization empowers field workers to navigate their territory in the most efficient way, reducing the time and cost of traveling. 

    Assign leads automatically

    When a lead is captured, the FFA software automatically assigns that lead to the relevant salesperson based on certain criteria like zip code, product, or proximity. This reduces response time drastically. The sales rep receives instant mobile notifications and can access the available lead details with just a tap.

    Achieve greater visibility

    Operational directors can use FFA to gain greater visibility over performance in the field which helps to eliminate inefficiencies and reward top performers.

    Field Service Management Software allows you to see what is happening on the field from a distance with real-time geo-tracking, spontaneous updates on sales activities with customers, or requests for assistance from the manager. 

    It makes it easier to track the performance of your sales team members without breathing down their necks. A simple dashboard on the web app provides you with a clear report of all sales reps, which includes what they’re currently working on, their location at the moment, the client they’re meeting, the distance they’ve travelled, etc. 

    Build meaningful and personalized customer relationships

    FFA allows you to forge longstanding trust-based relationships with customers and deliver an engaging customer experience. It provides customer information and history to your field force executives, enabling smooth interactions with customers. 

    The automation tools are often identity-driven: they can identify past track records, touchpoints, and communication history, helping your field force executives to better plan their approach to customer service.

    FFA software can provide notifications to the customer about shipping status, delays, etc. to make sure the customer is informed throughout the entire process. To put it simply, it helps customers identify and relay their requirements accurately, allowing you to better serve your customers.

    This kind of directive and administrative software improves communication and shows both the customer and the home office more about what is needed and what the company can do to serve a particular client well.

    Nurture the well-being of your employees

    A seed does not grow into a tree, simply because of your desire to eat its fruit. It needs healthy soil, manure, sunlight, water, and active nourishment from your side to blossom into a full-fledged tree.

    The same holds true for your field force employees. You need to create a positive, uplifting atmosphere in which your field force employees can thrive. FFA technology enhances employee engagement in several ways.

    It allows organizations to create a knowledge repository of field workers’ expertise and enables employees to upskill quickly. If any of your frontline workers leave the workforce, their expertise can be preserved and used by newcomers in the organization.

    Field force automation solution also empowers frontline workers to execute tasks, communicate and collaborate with greater effectiveness, saving them valuable time and providing them with a frictionless experience.

    Using FFA software, organizations can transform frontline operations into a fun-filled process and enhance employee involvement. You can recognize and celebrate individual achievements, offer personalized feedback, and set performance incentives to bolster employee spirit. 

    In a nutshell

    Looking for robust FFA software to turbocharge your field force operations? We’ve got the perfect solution for your needs.

    Happisales is a neat and elegant field force engagement platform that allows you to perform sales, collection, order, and service in a synchronized way. Using Happisales, you can log customer data effectively, avail push notifications based on tasks performed in the field, and track the journey of your field executives in real-time.

    It is a progressive solution that automatically plans the best travel route based on the location of meetings and generates actionable customer insights, enabling your field reps to create meaningful customer experiences. 

    Designed to enhance collaboration between managers and field reps, Happisales allows managers to assess and maximize the performance of field executives. In addition, it simplifies attendance tracking as well as order management enabling you to optimize field force activities. 

    So, what are you waiting for? Talk to our experts and schedule a free demo today!

  • Important metrics to measure your sales performance in 2022

    Important metrics to measure your sales performance in 2022

    Marketing and sales teams are under much pressure regarding working performance. They must not only generate revenue but also demonstrate it. If you don’t have the correct data, you’ll have difficulty proving your direct (and indirect) effect on new leads and sales.

    Only 23% of marketers are convinced that they are tracking the proper KPIs, indicating that this is a problem that many marketers are dealing with. Everything you do at work has to have a measurable return on investment.

    In the sales & marketing arena, this is particularly true. Along with it, field sales tracking tools have evolved. In sales and marketing, creativity is crucial, but you also need methods and statistics to back it up.

    Thanks to robust AI-based solutions, we now have more sales data at our fingertips than ever before—but merely having access to sales metrics and analytics isn’t enough. Understanding what to assess and how to interpret the data is critical.

    What Are Sales Metrics? 

    A sales metric is a variable that indicates a business or industry. For monitoring performance and examining trends, sales metrics follow the money. In other words, they measure what you are doing well and incorrectly in your sales process. You may successfully measure how well or poorly your firm is doing by developing a good understanding of its sales KPIs and optimizing and improving performance.

    On the other hand, sales data analytics examines sales data, metrics, and trends to gain insights that can help enhance sales team performance, efficiency, and profitability, drive more accurate sales projections, and optimize the overall sales process.

    Sales analytics helps field force managers enhance performance by showing the strong points and flaws of individual sales reps and the sales team, allowing them to alter behaviors and sales strategy to assure success. 

    Problems with common ways to measure your marketing and sales performance

    Marketing and sales performance management enables businesses to plan marketing efforts strategically, measure their impact, and make more informed sales decisions. They can evaluate data, create forecasts, and optimize marketing efforts and resources by analyzing data and making predictions. 

    Businesses that employ the field assist app cite advantages such as sales performance alignment with specified targets, budget optimization, increased accountability, and data inclusion.

    Unfortunately, many companies struggle with marketing performance management and fail to reap the benefits. They cannot optimize sales efforts since their databases are insufficient and erroneous. 

    For sales and marketing reps, data is a vital resource. In an increasingly competitive global economy, 64 percent of marketing professionals feel that data-driven marketing is critical to success. But, having too much data, especially from several sources, can be troublesome, and businesses cannot gain valuable insights from multiple data sources.

    In marketing and sales performance management, non-automated reporting is also a major issue. It’s inconvenient and time-consuming, leaving space for costly errors and data integration issues.

    Six sales metrics to measure performance

    The key performance indicators you designate as critical to your business model are used to discover the crucial metrics for your organization and your team. Here are 6 of the most critical sales metrics for any revenue team:

    • Customer Acquisition Cost

    Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a system that compares the cost of acquiring a new client to the customer’s long-term worth. Startups and organizations use it to determine how much they’re spending on customer acquisition through marketing methods.

    • Average Revenue per Unit 

    You gain an average amount from 1 unit, to put it simply. Therefore, the important KPIs of any subscription service company can be the average revenue per user (ARPU) and average revenue per account (ARPA). The formula divides the total revenue earned in a particular time by the average number of customers to that service during that same period.

    • Customer Churn Rate

    The churn rate is the number of customers who cancel or do not renew their subscriptions during a given period. Your plan’s churn rate is an important metric. It can assist you in determining whether you should cut your rates, improve client satisfaction, change your goals, and more. In addition, it’s a popular measure that SaaS companies use to track customer retention.

    • MRR Growth Rate

    The net MRR growth rate is a widely used industry indicator for assessing a company’s financial health. This marketing metric estimates the percentage increase in your company’s monthly recurring income. In addition, you can use this scale for tracking your company’s overtime performance.

    • Conversion Rate

    For an E-commerce business, this is the most important number. The conversion rate is a percentage that indicates how many visitors to your site perform the action you desire. The conversion rate depicts the visitor’s percentage who become customers.

    • Cost per Acquisition

    CPA stands for Cost Per Action. It indicates the amount of money you spend on a non-customer, such as advertising to generate leads, new users or registrations, or transactions made during a free trial period. 

    The cost per acquisition (also known as the cost per conversion) is a metric that analyses the total marketing costs incurred due to user action that results in revenue.

    Final Words:

    Organizations require the correct metrics to assess achievement in the right business sectors, such as the right Field Force Tracking Solution. They also require leadership to recognize which metrics are most important to allocate resources better. 

    While selecting performance indicators and establishing baseline targets, sales executives must align their teams on a clear set of strategic objectives and measures.

    With real-time sales data analytics, best-in-class revenue teams utilize Happisales, a Field service software, to spot risk and act on opportunities. In addition, revenue teams may track sales activity data automatically with Happisales.

    Are you interested in understanding how real-time sales analytics from Happisales can help you provide your sales team additional visibility? To chat with one of our revenue experts, request a demo or send us a note.

  • Field Sales Automation | Manufacturing Company

    Field Sales Automation | Manufacturing Company

    Improving sales efficiency requires a well-designed automated sales procedure. The procedure aids in reducing lead times and the increase in output. The automation of the sales process also makes it easier to provide real-time data reports, ensuring strong data visibility.

    As a result, the organization can make timely and suitable business decisions, resulting in commercial success. But right now, many manufacturers rely on manual systems to carry out sales operations, which results in higher costs and lower sales volumes.

    Today, we’ll look at how we used Happisales Salesforce to empower a worldwide manufacturer by creating a tailored solution to automate their sales process.

    About the Client

    The client we dealt with is one of the country’s oldest and most famous corporate companies – India’s major maker of bathroom items. The company rebranded as the ‘Always in Fashion’ brand, emphasizing its commitment to providing clients with the most innovative and visually pleasing bathroom solutions. 

    They are a highly trusted and leading trend-setters in the market, dedicated to offering world-class bathroom solutions. It has the highest quality standards & outstanding design through best-in-class customer service.

    Objective  

    To oversee sales from the General Trade channel, the company maintains sales personnel stationed across India. The customer wanted us to create a system that would help them automate their sales process. 

    However, the lack of a solid field force automation solution proved a barrier to efficiently managing and increasing GT sales. That’s when they began searching for an SFA solution that would have all of the following features:

    • The area sales executives are in charge of capturing daily orders.
    • New outlets can be added simply from the app.
    • Following up on the ASMs’ market trips.
    • A configurable and dynamic dashboard for tracking sales and ASE productivity.

    Challenge

    • The organization has a strong secondary sales force to meet with customers daily. 
    • Advancing the cycle and updating sales data is a huge challenge for both main & other sales teams.
    • The time & money spent on paper-based communication such as reporting, manual call reports, and other sales-related task updates were excessive. 
    • It has resulted in lower employee productivity, efficiency & a longer sales cycle overall.

    The customer wanted a multi-tenant mobile application that would allow Sales Teams and Management to ‘digitally’ manage the full sales process and save time on email, paperwork, reporting, and status update meetings or calls.

    Approach

    Our client conveyed that they were looking for a top mobile application development company in India to assist their field sales executives with an Android app that would allow them to reach out to customers with ease while also allowing them to update sales data from anywhere, at any time. 

    In addition, the app should allow them to send their final report while on the go. We discussed the project’s data with the team and devised a wireframe for an Android app to automate and track sales force activity.

    Solution

    Happisales is a simple, easy-to-use, safe, and powerful mobile and web application that we designed based on discussions with the customer and wireframe approval. 

    The live monitoring Android App for sales executives allows them to digitize the entire process. In contrast, the web platform for senior executives allows them to track all of their salespeople’s daily activities and sales closures in real-time and empowers real-time Punch-In and Punch-Out for call entries with Geo Tagging and Timings for field sales executives.

    The program automates sales reporting and effortlessly interfaces with the client’s data systems. The tool also combines all major parts of everyday sales activity into one mobile app, allowing field sales executives to use it as a 24/7 personal digital assistant while out meeting with consumers. 

    The web app is highly beneficial for sales managers because it allows them to track the activity of field force members who are out on customer visits utilizing a real-time tracking tool. The Android Field Assist App may be used offline, and data is saved as cookies and updated to the backend once internet connectivity is restored.

    Outcome

    • Increased Productivity in Sales.
    • Time reduction to accomplish a manual task.
    • Improved efficiencies in order processing.
    • Sales team efficiency, order volume, retailer information, and high-selling models were visible on an interactive and intelligent dashboard.
    • It significantly improved the sales force’s discipline and process compliance.
  • Best practices to follow when digitizing field sales operations

    Best practices to follow when digitizing field sales operations

    As your company grows, business procedures can become extremely complex. To better understand how to modify how you do your business, you must first define how each of your existing processes work. When purchasing products or services from any business, most people seem to expect the same type of digital experience. Many customers today are looking for businesses that have field force automation integrated and ensured customer-friendly functionalities, continuous availability of products, and customised services. They are also looking for businesses that provide instant satisfaction and wide range of choices and consistency. This is why, in today’s world, modernisation and digitisation of business processes is critical.

    Best practices to reap full benefits

    As of today, a majority of modern software such as field sales tracking is cloud-based. There are no hardware requirements for server installation. Similarly, a mobile app can be downloaded from PlayStore or AppStore and can be used on a smartphone or the laptop/Mac itself, it does not require a specific device. Apart from this, availability of low-cost data, digital transactions are other aspects businesses can leverage upon. Here are some best practices to help you get the most out of digitising your business.

    1. Make decisions based on data

    The key to making good decisions is to use as much data as possible. Collect and analyse data about behaviors, trends, and timelines, so that you can make healthier, more risk-free decisions. Ensure that your team understands their role and how it affects the business as a whole. Despite this, mistakes can still happen, so learn from past mistakes to improve future decisions.

    1. Run a beta test

    Starting with a controlled beta test is always the best approach to transitioning to a more digitised business model. Prior to rolling out new technology to the general population, work out any bugs with the test group of the software implemented, such as the sales employee tracking app. It is considerably easier to manage small group changes than a snowball problem.

    1. Invest in training team members

    With the rapidly changing world of work, organisations need to digitise operations to keep up. Providing effective training is critical. Organisations and individuals who are familiar and knowledgeable about their digital assets will perform better in daily operations. 

    1. Build a logical roadmap

    Implement an integrated roadmap for field force automation such as development, marketing, source and other research, sales, customer interaction, and HR. Focus should also be on what increases creativity, productivity, and collaboration. Do not let confirmation bias cloud your judgement. Ensure you fully comprehend how and why the organisation works from the ground up. Make sure you don’t overlook information from the trenches.

    1. Be proactive

    Thanks to the digitised business model and virtual selling, leaders now have an easier time participating in meetings and observing them. Being able to observe and participate allows them to be much more proactive in coaching, providing feedback and constructively redirecting as necessary.

    Digitising your business is the logical way forward. Happisales is one such technology for field force automation or field sales tracking that you might want to consider investing in, keeping in minds its various features and benefits. Schedule a demo today and breeze through the digitising process!