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  • How Sales Force Automation Software Will Transform Your Small Business

    How Sales Force Automation Software Will Transform Your Small Business

    Salesforce automation software (SFA) has been used by organizations for their sales teams to optimize sales strategies by providing powerful automation for streamlining the sales process. It is helpful for the businesses to maximize the workflows which improve the sales process and increases sales conversions, which in turn optimize better customer relations. When the sales agents are offered tools, they can entirely focus on offering their best experience to convert the prospects into clients. These tools that are used by the sales agents are referred to as sales force automation software.

    What is Salesforce?

    • Sales force automation software is also known by another name – customer relationship management software (CRM) which provides the company to track and manage interactions between the sales team and their clients.
    • By creating a system of records with sales force management software, organizations can manage all their data regarding sales and their customers. This software helps them to make informed decisions regarding the sales process.
    • Field Force Automation tool makes sure that the interactions between the sales team can be seen by the sales manager, between the sales team, and the top-level management. It integrates different categories and includes software for marketing, finance, sales, and more.

    Sales Force Automation Features

    • Helps in handling large Workloads

    Several people think that sales force automation software is specifically designed for large businesses because of its cost, but it is not true. It offers several benefits for small businesses as well. Particularly, small businesses can benefit from SFA because this tool makes it easier for the small teams to handle larger workloads thereby making it easier for them to concentrate on every aspect of sales.

    • Chatbots

    Chatbots are used by sales teams when a prospect comes to the website or to social media to enquire about their services or their product. Currently, it is powered by artificial intelligence which makes them more helpful in clarifying the queries of the clients; chatbots can direct the prospects to an agent for streamlining the sales process. As per statistics, placing a call to a new prospect within the first minute increases the chance of conversion by 391%.

    • Follow-ups

    It is important to maintain cordial customer relationships because it saves a lot of money and builds a strong Foundation for repeat customers. The cost of generating leads is higher than maintaining current customers.  Field Assist App comes with automated follow-ups which makes the sales process easy for agents which include setting specific parameters like scheduling an email and the follow-up period.

    • Affordability

    Some of the major issues that concern SMBs are whether sales force automation software is affordable for their business. Even though the prices are high, several field service software providers are providing pricing plans that can be customized for SMBs, which makes them affordable.

    • Workflow Management

    Work Flow is one of the important features of this software. Workflow management and creation are more focused on sales agents and their day to day task, this helps them to view how much sales have been achieved by the sales team. This software helps the sales managers to delegate tasks to the sales agents more effectively and ensure that the work is allotted to the team members.

    Sales Force Automation for Small Business

    If you want to understand how the sales force automation software can help to improve your business by taking it to the next level, we have given below the three steps SMBs can leverage on sales automation for brand awareness and higher revenues. 

    • Increase Productivity

    When a prospect enters a sales funnel, it is important to make sure the sales team gets back to them as quickly as possible. One of the fastest ways to accomplish this is by automation.  If the prospects are passed over to the sales team at the right time, and if they act on it faster, potential customers become clients to the company.

    • Top of the Sales Funnel

    Sales funnel is the foundation of your entire sales process; if there is no awareness about it, you cannot generate more leads and the company does not generate any sales; it runs the risk of losing its prospects. 27% of the leads from the sales funnel are converted to potential customers and 44% of the leads goes beyond the first follow up. Using the sales employee tracking app, you can track leads when they enter the sales funnel and the customers can be sorted out as per the requirements. 

    • Improved Customer Relations

    Customer support plays a very important factor in making purchase decisions; sometimes clients proceed with an agreement with your company because of efficient relationship management, otherwise, they move to your competitor if there is no remarkable customer support.

    Advantages of SFA

    1. SFA is a good software for small businesses for managing their existing customers.
    2. Using SFA tools makes the job easier for Small businesses to find new customers.
    3. The small businesses can manage sales and customer support with SFA without any hindrance.
    4. If you are using SFA, you don’t need to install any additional software; cloud access enables the user to access real-time customer data.
    5. Organizations can track their employee’s sales activities easily like calls made, emails sent, and tasks completed. 

    Final Thoughts

    Through the Field Service Management Software, whether if you are a small or a large business, it can offer better customer relationship management and provides vital account details that can be accessed immediately. In the present scenario, Sales force automation has become one of the biggest tools that small businesses should add to their business. SFA will add value to the business if it is added to their marketing mix to increase sales. These tools help to achieve your business goals and improve your sales team’s targets.

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  • Do You Need Sales Tracking Software for Your Business? This Will Help You to Decide!

    Do You Need Sales Tracking Software for Your Business? This Will Help You to Decide!

    If you are in sales, you are aware that sales tracking is the most important function of any business, as it prevents business losses and helps the sales manager to make smarter decisions.  You can have a sales report at your fingertips; you don’t have to make any decisions based on any second guesses; also you can forecast your business based on the numbers which you already have in the report. Having a strong sales employee tracking app gives you an edge when you’re dealing with competitors, who might be still dealing with cold calls and emails. 

    Sales Tracking and Its Benefits

    The sales tracking system is software that provides clear insights about sales through the data that has been entered or extracted from other reports. Not every sales tracking software is the same, some have general features that can be used by all industries, while some of them have features that are industry-specific and beneficial to specific businesses. 

    A good sales tracking software helps you to track starting from leads that are in pipeline, quotes, track your sales representatives on-site, and offers clarity in business.

    Let us look into some of the benefits offered by the Sales employee tracking app –

    • Real-time sales Insights 

    With a Field sales tracking app, the user gets real-time sales insights and it also gives you up-to-date information on key features like expense management, attendance management, earned revenue, client management, the time taken to close a deal, and many more. By having access to this type of information, you can get any sales related information, based on the data available and not on assumptions.

    • Recognizing potential problems

    Sales Force tracker helps you to recognize a few problems before they become larger problems. By tracking active sales processes, you can analyze how your business opportunities are carried out in real-time. This helps the sales managers to mitigate potential issues before they turn into larger disasters.

    • Effective sales tracking

    The inbuilt GPS in the sales tracking software helps you to see how your sales agents are carrying out the task thereby tracking their sales activity. By doing so, sales managers can get real-time updates about the performance of the sales reps. With the Field Sales management software, you can identify which sales rep is efficient, and which one needs a push.  

    • Benefits sales representatives

    Sales tracking software not only helps the sales managers, but it also helps the sales representatives to stay on top of their toes. It helps them to manage their attendance, other sales activities, and they can check whether they have completed the targets on time.

    • Better decision making

    This software helps the management to know what are all the activities are outstanding, which will help them to prioritize the task and ensure that no activity has been neglected because of oversight.

    • Track issues

    You can constantly review your team’s tasks and certain tasks that need to be addressed by checking the reports available on the app. For example, if the sales team is performing 30% lower against the sales target, you can identify the reasons for under performance with your sales rep.

    Features of Field Sales Automation Software

    Let us discuss some of the features offered by the software – 

    • You can overcome some of the sales challenges by setting targets, measuring the performance, and equip your team with the right knowledge and find out what the team is lacking to increase their performance.
    • Happisales real-time sales employee tracking app helps the sales manager to track down the current location of every sales rep along with the required information about their daily schedule. At end of the day results matter, and this can be accomplished by the app.
    • By having instant access to the Field Force Automation Solution, you can manage your customer complaints and address them before they are out of your hand. With this powerful app, customer complaints can be dealt on time and rectified before it goes to your competitors. 
    • You can also track your sales rep calls and their messages; this helps you to analyze their efficiency and productivity. You can also view the app, check whether they have met the assigned sales targets.
    • The major advantage is, you can download detailed reports of each sales rep like, their travel report, details of their locations, distance covered, which helps the managers and accountants to approve and reimburse the expense and claims. 
    • When the sales meeting is over in the client location, the sales reps can log in to the app to send their meeting notes. This helps the management to know the minutes of the meeting, which helps them to make important business and sales decisions.

    Summary

    From the above, you can see that sales tracking software is important for all businesses; it can help both big and small types of businesses and it does not matter if you are a B2C or B2B. Considering the current digitalization trend, sales tracking software helps you to optimize the performance and gives you good results. Just give it a try! 

    Get in touch with us today to find out more about field sales automation software and take your business to the next level!

  • Do you find your field sales team more effective, but less efficient?

    Do you find your field sales team more effective, but less efficient?

    Sales managers are often focused on achieving the highest levels of performance from field sales professionals. And, why not? Targets have to be exceeded and the order board has to look busy. Well, more or less that’s the staple field sales people are nurtured on.

    But then, there is the pertinent question the C-suite asks, is the sales team being more effective than efficient?

    Typically, sales effectiveness hinges on executing in the best possible way, including sales process maximizing the ability to connect with customers; creating value in the buying process; identifying and pursuing every opportunity, and enhancing the ability to win. At an individual sales person’s level, you can define effectiveness as the ability to understand the customer’s needs, position their product as the ultimate solution to those needs, and gain an understanding of that customer’s business so the solution can improve it.

    Now, just as our customers want our products or solutions to make their business profitable, our sales process and the sales teams also need to be nimble, agile and sharp, to operate in a profitable fashion. Quite simply, beyond being effective, become efficient.

    Is there a difference between effectiveness and efficiency, one may ask. Sales efficiency has a small but qualitatively different focus than sales effectiveness. The focus is on speed, time and efforts – achieving the goals in the shortest time possible; reducing the time and/or resources required to execute the strategies; compressing sales cycles. Simply put – achieve the same goals more quickly, achieve the same outcomes with a smaller resource investment.

    It is a given that effectiveness and efficiency go together when we are looking to achieve the highest levels of sales performance. But, why do field sales teams often fall short when it comes to efficiency?

    The right use of resource time. A 2017 study by InsideSales.com found that – Sales Reps only spend 36.6% of the time actually selling. It reported that dealing with internal policies and approvals takes 12.8% of their time, and another 12% is taken up by researching target accounts and contacts. The administrative tasks are simply the bane for the efficiency of salespeople. While heavy-duty CRM tools are available, the need of the hour is for a simple, easy to use, flexible app that enables them to manage the administrative tasks fast and easy, every day.

    Targeting right will help the sales personnel translate prospects into confirmed leads. In reality, field sales professionals are left to prospect with a wide playing field. The easy availability of market intelligence – the right market info at the right time – will help the sales reps reach the right targets faster.

    Meet the customer with the right meat… meaning having the right company and product info at the right time so that the right solution can be proposed. A great time killer for the sales reps is the time to be spent on research on their products, understanding them and even reaching out to experts within the organizations for the right info. Make the best and most relevant information available to them on the go, and all the time. It will help them move the needle on efficiency.

    While these can be achieved through intelligent investment in the automation of the sales process, the real difference is made through the culture we build in the sales organization. A culture of efficiency means rewarding the right behaviors, not just the achievement of goals; and placing a premium on productivity, not just numbers.

    If you are looking for an expert to help you with automation, talk to Hakuna Matata (one of the leading digital transformation solution providers). Our HappieSales app has the features and functionalities to enable your field salespeople to get efficient.  

  • Inside Sales or Field Sales. How to make the wise choice?

    Inside Sales or Field Sales. How to make the wise choice?

    Inside sales versus field sales

    How can you increase the chances of your product or service being purchased? Would you choose inside sales or field sales as your vehicle? Is field sales (or outside sales) dying due to the digital revolution?

    Enterprises have different options as they build sales strategies. A key decision to make is to go for inside sales or field sales. Before understanding the benefits each strategy offers, let us understand them in simple terms.

    Inside sales are done “virtually” from a single location. Inside sales are not conducted in person. They involve interactions via phone calls, emails, chats, social media, and texts.

    Inside sales is a highly efficient strategy. They can be conducted from anywhere, anytime; the sales reps can contact customers across geographies; they can quickly move from customer to customer without traveling between customer locations – with the entire sales process being managed from the same location.

    Field sales is selling through in-person, face-to-face interactions with the customer. They include door-to-door sales, sales made through visits to customers’ homes, offices, and local businesses, or retail sales.

    Field sales has proven to be highly effective. As the sales reps make personal contact with customers, they have a greater chance of converting leads into sales. The sales reps make product presentations, share collateral and other visual aids, and build a strong interpersonal connection, which helps them in influencing buying decisions.

    The impact of technology like field assist app and the ever-changing buying processes have resulted in an increased focus on inside sales vs field sales. Some even argue that field sales will soon be out of business altogether.

    Let us look at the benefits of both strategies.

    Inside Sales – Besides cost efficiencies, that we spoke about, inside sales have other significant benefits

    • More collaborative: As inside sales teams work out of the office, the opportunities for collaboration among the team members as well as with other departments is more.
    • Aligned to today’s business: The shift to online has made inside sales more effective when selling to digitally active customers. The ability to react quickly and design marketing strategies around what the customers are demanding makes inside sales more attractive.
    • Adaptability: Closer management access to sales personnel – enabling training and developing – leads to improved adaptability. Further, inside sales provide more versatility and agility to the organization’s sales process.

    Field Sales – Besides their high success rate, that we spoke about, field sales have other benefits

    • Relationship building:  Field sales reps can build relationships with the customers, which is crucial to close the sale and even extend the business.
    • Solutions approach:  Field sales reps can have detailed, in-depth conversations with the customers on their business challenges and propose the right solutions than merely position their products.

    Should you really choose one over the other?

    Whether it is using a storytelling approach to position how your product or service helps unlock new opportunities or making a hard-hitting pitch on how you are going to solve a pertinent challenge, the key is in addressing a market need with the right solution at the right time with the right approach. The reality is that by leveraging both inside and field sales, you can enjoy more flexibility in reaching out to the target audience at diverse touchpoints and in multiple ways.

    At the end of the day, customers are also individuals and they respond differently. By using both the sales strategies, you can increase your sales funnel, gather valuable customer insights, and provide the customer with more information and more options. When optimized, inside and field sales, working in tandem, can help improve conversion rate, earn greater revenue, and build stronger relationships.

    For example, a customer, who is first contacted by a field sales rep, may have some interest in a product or service but has not decided on making a purchase. The inside sales rep can follow-up to offer additional information and help influence a positive decision. That’s not all. The inside sales rep may also be able to present an alternative to the customer, like a different service package, that better fits the customer’s needs. In other situations, when the inside sales rep works with an existing customer, the opportunities to build opportunities for upselling and cross-selling are easier than when done with just inside sales or field sales is chosen as the structure – thanks to information sharing and multiple touchpoints with the customer.

    In a different scenario, the inside sales rep can make initial contact with a prospective customer and refer them to the field sales rep. This prospect has already been given a picture of the product and the company, providing a platform for the field sales rep to build a relationship faster.

    Are you using a combination approach or a singular approach? What is your experience? Feel free to share your thoughts with us.

    A fast-growing technology solutions organization, we have been recognized as one of the leading digital transformation solution providers. We have built a new age, flexible Field Force Automation Tool –  Happisales – that greatly enhances the productivity of field sales organization. 

  • Field Sales Automation – 5 Reasons Why It Is Critical for Your Sales Success

    Field Sales Automation – 5 Reasons Why It Is Critical for Your Sales Success

    Sales is one of the most critical fields of any enterprise and there are countless challenges faced by the sales team. The most common of all are access to real-time sales data and getting field sales executives involved or keeping motivated.

    Here are some of the other challenges field sales executives and enterprises face every day.

    • Managing dispersed workforce
    • scheduling and managing tasks for sales executives
    • Capturing and submitting sales data on a daily basis in CRM
    • Monitoring field sales data accurate through a single window
    • Managing overall sales operations
    • Efficient workforce performance tracking 
    • Enabling faster decision making

    Executives out for day-to-day field sales activities face the mammoth task of meeting customers, selling products/service, collecting feedback/insights and updating the respective sales data in CRM at the end of day. On the other hand, the sales managers have to track the data updated by reps to evaluate their performances. 

    The entire process is time-consuming and impacts the overall sales cycle’s efficiency. 

    To achieve maximum ROI and accelerate productivity, automating the entire process is the best way as this simplifies the jobs of both the sales force and managers. Automation not only helps the entire sales team acquire real-time data throughout the process but also keeps the workforce motivated.

    Motivate workforce, really? You would wonder how this automation will help. Here’s the answer. 

    Sales force can use the complete list of customers from the mobile app, can plan the customer meetups without any discomfort, can send expense reports instantly, can submit end of the day reports on the go. This simplifies their day-to-day chores and keeps them motivated. 

    And, this is the reason why smart enterprises are investing in Field Force Automation Solution. 

    SEE ALSO: You might like “3 Tips for Building an Efficient Sales Team” too.

    The Growth of Field Sales Automation

    According to a report from Market Research Future, the field sales automation market is expected to surge to 8 billion USD by 2023. From the report, it is evident that field sales automation solutions are embraced by most enterprises as they improve productivity and ROI of the business. 

    (Source: Market Research Future)
    (Source: Market Research Future)

    Let’s look at the top 5 reasons why enterprises should invest in field sales automation to overcome these challenges and improve their sales cycles. 

    Real-time sales data simplifies field sales operations

    Field sales professionals spend the better part of their days in the field. Having easy, remote access to timely and critical customer and sales information allows them to work with real-time data and update the to-be visited customer’s feedback/concerns immediately, rather than wait until they’re back in the office. This enables the managers to effectively track data through the sales funnel. 

    With such ease of access to customers’ information like customer details, product portfolio, etc. during a planned visit will simplify the tasks of a sales rep and will enable to delight customers.

    This, in turn, keeps them motivated, resulting in improved productivity. 

    Ensures better customer experience

    Thanks to sales automation, managers and field force can track and analyze customer orders history to help improve prospects. Past sales information can help better understand customers’ demographics, order patterns and preferences. 

    This can help them better deal with the present leads. And this powerful information can help marketing teams to create better campaigns to generate prospects.

    Enables smart time management, productivity

    By automating manual tasks such as data entry and data maintenance, organizations can create more than one month of selling time each year for each rep. 

    Further, the automated system helps sales reps in organizing and tracking collections, pending payments and returns, and thereby provide better sales reports.

    With a good Field Sales Mobile App, managers and sales reps can create and keep track of their appointments and get auto-reminders. GPS enablement allows the field salespeople to save time in reaching their destinations on time.

    Enables faster decision making

    With automation, organizations can ensure that field sales data rolls up to management in real-time, flagging issues before a negative impact. Managers can spend more time in helping work through issues rather than asking questions. This will help make sales reviews more effective, as well as improve trust and relationships.

    Having the best field force automation software means marketing and sales activities being fully aligned and driving actionable results for the sales force to follow-up on. 

    Having access to collaboration tools enables field salespeople to tap into collective intelligence and customer insights across the whole organization. They can spot, capture and qualify a lead faster and pass it on to the right sales channel.

    Enables to foresee sales data for improved efficiency

    Use of field service management App helps understand past and current sales trends, even while having a clear view of opportunities in the pipeline. Using this powerful, comprehensive data sales teams can make reliable forecasting of future sales providing the management better insight into the revenue pipeline.

    Did you know that many brands have improved their business productivity and efficiency by at least 3 times with the help of a sales force tracking and management solution? Interested? Try our product now.

     

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  • Enterprise Field Sales Automation: Top Challenges and Solution

    Enterprise Field Sales Automation: Top Challenges and Solution

    Be it any enterprise, manufacturing, construction or logistics, sales plays a critical role in its growth. When I say sales it includes both the primary and secondary sales. Managing sales activities manually involves a lot of time and money. Especially, the field sales executives who are mainly outside for customer visits face the wrath of manual data updates. 

    The below example would help you better connect with challenges faced by the entire sales team. 

    Consider X as a sales rep and Y as the sales manager. The former visits customers on a daily basis and have to report the data at the end of the day to Y. 

    Two scenarios evolve:

    1. X having challenges in updating the customer visit data, fuel charge, additional information to Y at the end of the day. He has to capture and save all the above-stated data manually. This is a backbreaking process and eats up most of his time.
    2. The sales manager has no clue about the customer visits of X and got to believe what was targeted is achieved. Also, updating X’s expense details and other customer-related data to the backend is strenuous.

    Most sales team faces these challenges and look for solutions to negotiate them. A simple yet effective solution to transform the way the sales teamwork is by investing in field service management software. 

    There is a misconception in the business landscape that field sales tracking solutions are exclusively developed to track the field salespersons and their activities. It is wrong! 

    SEE ALSO: “5 Reasons Why Field Sales Automation Is Important”

    The ultimate aim of the workforce automation solution is to simplify the tasks of both the field sales and managers, executives involved in the process. 

    With an automated solution, the enterprise can accelerate the overall sales cycles and achieve improved RoI, growth. 

    Generally, Field Force Automation Solution are mobile apps. 

    Here are some of the ways an automation solution will help an enterprise. 

    For field sales reps

    • Update lead information instantly and from anywhere, even during offline
    • Prevent data errors using easy-to-use custom fields with validations 
    • Add notes on specific client feedback or competitor insights 
    • Update end of the day reports on-the-go without any discomfort

    For managers

    • Track attendance, leave & expense management on mobile/tablet, save time and money.
    • Optimize field sales plans for better customer experience, sales cycle
    • Real-time data on staff availability, tasks, and efficiency through single Dashboard

    For CEOs

    • Data-driven analytics for decision making on business improvements.
    • Centralized dashboard for executives to view the complete sales data at one place
    • Improved business efficiency and RoI

    With such a system in place, improving the overall efficiency of the sales process becomes absolutely seamless and easier. 

    Shared below are some of the common features of a field sales mobile app. 

    • Check-in; check out
    • Expense tracker
    • EoD report submit
    • Leave/permission/on duty select
    • customer profile
    • Report export
    • Live tracking
    • Daily reports
    • Dashboards
    • To-dos

    Top brands have already started to leverage field force automation solutions to improve their operations. 

    Give your enterprise sales a boost with advanced automation solutions today and look out for accelerated productivity.

    Your competitors are already there, are you? 

    Make the sales process a win-win for both your managers and executives using a field force automation app. 

    Don’t know how to get started? Let us help. Get started today. 

     

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