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Tag: Field Force Help

  • Field Service Management: How to Simplify Business Operations

    Field Service Management: How to Simplify Business Operations

    A common challenge that most SMBs face today is the insufficient time leading to declined productivity. Of the many factors that contribute to productivity lapse are manual processes, systems, and tools. 

    Still, many companies rely on manual processes believing they are cost-effective and easy to use. 

    But, in practice, they’re not. Manual systems and tools often need much money for management and hamper employee productivity. 

    Just imagine, what if your field service teams have to spend nearly 3 hours every day inputting the field data to the report sheet. With such activity, it makes no sense to blame the employees for the delay in the customer meetings and task completions. 

    Field service manual operation challenges

    1. Time-consuming and labor-intensive
    2. Inaccurate data
    3. Delayed scheduled appointments
    4. Difficulty in field sales route planning and tracking
    5. Poor data integration to the CRM
    6. Expensive to maintain and manage
    7. Chained to desktops to input data
    8. Production delays
    9. Unhappy customers
    10. Negative RoI

    When such things happen in a company, a possible outcome will be below-par customer service and experience. What could this mean to your business? Of course, you’ll be losing many customers in a quick interval of time. Remember, when a customer moves to another brand, chances are less that they will revisit your brand. 

    Business processes and systems in a company should be in a way that they not only help your company deliver unparalleled customer experience. It also present your company with new revenue-boosting opportunities. 

    Looking for options to overcome the field service employee shortcomings and productivity hampering?

    This post has covered a widely deployed solution to accelerate your productivity and field service operations. 

    Digital advancements have transformed almost all departments of SMBS, and field sales is no exception. 

    Of the many solutions, if there is one solution that boosts the field sales operations of many companies today, it is field sales management software. 

    Let’s discuss how the emerging software helps the field sales team and accelerates their operations. 

    Simplifies field sales operations with real-time data sharing

    Field service employees leave the business premises every day to meet customers. The manual routes and task allocation sometimes hamper productivity. 

    The challenges are that the routes may not be feasible for transporting due to bad weather and roads. This can delay the customer meetings, leading to frustrated customers. 

    Also, updating the field service data after customer meetings is daunting as they have to enter every piece of information in the evening. There are two problems: (i) collecting the data from customers without any mistakes and (ii) interpreting the same data without any errors in the CRM. 

    Both are challenging when performed manually. Think how better it would be if your field service team could update the customer data in real-time from the customer place to CRM without breaking a sweat. This could save much time for your service manager and field sales executive. 

    Yes, this is possible with the help of field service management app.

    Syncs service managers and field service executives using real-time tracking

    Another massive challenge that every service manager and field sales executive faces is collaborating and communicating with each other while they are out for customer visits. 

    The manual processes often hamper the communications between the two, and mostly, phone calls connect them. It is hard for someone traveling to understand and execute the information flawlessly. 

    Well, what if your field force manager can instantly collaborate and communicate with the team through an application and get instant replies from them. 

    This could save much time for both. Using the real-time data sharing feature in the field service management app, accelerating the field service operations won’t be backbreaking for businesses. 

    Helps track field service team out for visits from anywhere, any time

    Tracking the field service agents out for customer places is demanding for service managers. Unless the agent updates the details, it is hard for any service manager to track the route and customer meeting details. 

    The service managers are blindfolded to such details, which impacts overall productivity badly. As they don’t know where every field service agent is, they don’t have complete control over the entire process. With no data to act upon until the end of the day, they don’t have any other option but to wait till they hear from a rep. 

    But, the complete blinded folded process can be easily improved with the help of field service Software. 

    The app-enabled software automates the complete process and brings transparency between the field service and managers. 

    The managers can monitor and track every movement of the rep, and the latter can update the details to the managers without any difficulty. In this way, both can expedite the process and productivity rate significantly. 

    Expedites decision-making process with accurate CRM data

    Data plays a critical role in the growth of any business. You’re gone if you don’t have the correct data to analyze and act. 

    The manual processes and operations often lead to manufactured errors, reflecting on the data part. The false data entered into the CRM can easily delay or divert you from making the right decisions. It will help your business grow faster. 

    To avoid this, you need software to help you with 100% accurate data. Field sales mobile app can help you with this. 

    The tool captures the accurate data from the field sales team and allows to input the data into the CRM instantly. 

    The service managers and C-level executives can leverage the data to make faster and better decisions that contribute to the company’s growth. 

    In a nutshell, the automation software will help you save time and the cost of your business while paving the way for new opportunities and revenue streams.  

    Final thoughts

    Automating the process with suitable systems and tools can significantly improve business performance, operations, and growth. 

    Invest in the right field service management software today to improve yours. 

  • A step-by-step guide to create ideal rep profiles: Create killer rep profiles and turbocharge your targeting

    A step-by-step guide to create ideal rep profiles: Create killer rep profiles and turbocharge your targeting

    It is a common notion in sales circles that 20% of the reps generate 80% of the total sales of the concerned organization. This notion drives sales leaders to pin all their hopes onto top performing sales reps.

    The fact however remains that sales is a science and not exclusively an art. There’s a clear cut recipe to nurture your salespeople into high performers and the recipe involves a holistic combination of knowledge, skills, and attitude.

    While the recipe varies based on organization and role, the underlying method that defines the attributes that make sellers successful remains the same.

    That being said, let us first define what the term Ideal Rep Profile means, and why you need one in the first place!

    What is an IRP and why do I need one?

    An IRP defines and benchmarks top competencies – a combination of knowledge, skills, and behaviors – that reps must possess in order to attain success on the field. 

    It is important to document and encode your IRP where you can measure skill development and its impact on business outcomes.

    As you make your own IRP, keep these things in mind:

    Knowledge: Reps need to have a good grasp of certain information and knowledge to be successful. For example, a seller needs to have solid product knowledge, as well as a great understanding of competitors’ products.

    Skills: Sellers must master key skills to be able to close deals. For example, if a rep has strong discovery and objection handling skills, they’re more likely to be successful than those who struggle in this area. 

    Behaviors: Knowledge and skills are the foundation for success. But the real test is how a rep applies what they know when in the field. 

    Certain in-field behaviors can make or break a sale. For example, successful reps listen more than they talk and limit their use of filler words.

    The competencies included in an IRP aren’t simply a laundry list of what sales leaders think reps need to be successful. 

    Rather, they’re the competencies possessed by the best sellers – and those correlated with positive sales outcomes.

    How to create an ideal rep profile: A 3 step framework to build your IRP

    Determine IRP roles

    The competencies required for success vary based on the role of the individual. For example, while discovery skills are very important for an account executive, they’re less important for customer success teams. 

    As such, it’s a best practice to create a separate IRP for each key role. The first step is to determine the roles for which you’ll create IRPs. 

    Typically, companies define IRPs for their go-to-market (GTM) or customer-facing roles. According to a popular research undertaking, the top 5 roles for which organizations define their IRPs include: 

    Account executives 

    Business development representatives 

    Channel sales 

    Customer success 

    Sales engineers

    Identify goals and competencies 

    After identifying key roles, the next step is to identify the goals for each role. 

    For example, a goal for a sales engineer is to perform structured demos, while one for a customer success manager might be to minimize churn. 

    Then, it’s time to determine the required competencies for each role. These should be the knowledge, skills, and behaviors each role needs to possess to meet their goals. 

    This list shouldn’t be created based on gut feeling. Instead, it should be a list of competencies possessed by the best sellers  and each competency should be correlated with sales success.

    According to a popular study, organizations with an IRP define at least 15 competencies per role, and you would be well-advised to emulate the same in your company.

    Rank key competencies

    The typical IRP includes several competencies that are crucial for sales success. However, some carry more weight than others.

    After identifying the knowledge, skills, and behaviors for each role, it’s important to assign a rank to each.

    Harness the power of IRP to supercharge sales rep performance

    Of course, simply creating an IRP doesn’t guarantee better sales results across the team. However, it should serve as the north star of the organization’s sales readiness program.

    Once there’s alignment on the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary for sales success, sales and enablement leaders can strive to develop onboarding, training, and content programs that focus on these key areas.

    In addition, organizations can measure each rep’s competencies against the IRP on a regular basis to nurture the reps’ growth. Completion of training modules and performance on assessments and quizzes can enable you to gauge the progress of your reps and throw light on the kind of support they require in order to reach their full potential.

    But, organizations must dig deep to measure how their reps are actually putting their knowledge and skills into practice in the field. Gaining this intel might involve sitting in a rep’s call or leveraging conversation intelligence to see where reps are shining, and where things need improvement.

    By regularly benchmarking the performance of reps against the IRP, organizations can identify competency gaps early on. This allows managers to deliver targeted and personalized coaching to close these gaps. 

    Then, they can measure improvement on key competencies and analyze how these improvements are impacting sales outcomes.

    In a nutshell

    By establishing an IRP, you can overcome the limiting belief that 20% of reps generate 80% of the sales results in your organization. 

    You can ensure that all your reps reach their full potential and drive sales success for the organization. If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, stay tuned to find out more!

    We will be publishing a host of illuminating articles over time to help you optimize your sales and drive growth. If you’d like us to shed more light on a particular topic, feel free to reach out to us by mailing sales@happisales.com!

  • 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.

  • Upcoming Trends in Field Force Automation to look forward in 2021 – 2026

    Upcoming Trends in Field Force Automation to look forward in 2021 – 2026

    Field force automation is a resource still not fully understood by most companies. Fairly explained, it is a new enterprise entity capable of aiding field service businesses in enhancing their efficiency and productivity, capturing more data than in the past. Understanding the basics of FFA can help businesses escalate their customer experiences, generate more revenue, and empower their field workforce. 

    FFA is a revolution to the working framework of the 21st century, introducing the use of Field force tracking software to bring solutions to the workforce and the managerial positions, turning their field service operations into an automated and mechanized machine. 

    The exponential increase in penetration of the Internet and digital tools, the urgency in automating repetitive tasks, the growing adoption of advanced technologies like Artificial intelligence or cloud computing are the major drivers of the growth of the global Field force automation industry. 

    The soaring need for sales force automation considerably influences market expansion, assisting sales representatives in many tasks via software like Sales force tracker. Adoption of such solutions brings an enhanced customer experience, streamlined sales, and improved workforce efficiency.

    The Global Field force automation forecast of the growth trends from 2021 to 2026 offers insightful data for business strategists, providing an overview of the growth factors, futuristic cost expectations, revenue, supply data, and demand dynamics, besides elaborately describing the value chain and distributor analysis. 

    Market statistics:

    Amidst the global pandemic crisis, the global market of FFA may reach USD 1251.33 million in 2020, which can rise to an estimated USD 1477.79 million in the year 2021. The market expects to reach USD 3453.51 million by 2026, growing at 18.43% CAGR. 

    The global report provides the market sizing and the forecast of the major currencies- USD, AUD, EUR, JPY, and GBP. The forecast allows the business leaders to make better decisions, particularly when the currency exchange data is available at their fingertips. 

    The report considers 2018 and 2019 as historical years, 2020, the base year with 2021 as the estimated year, further considering 2022 to 2026 as the forecast period. 

    The Field force automation US market is estimated to reach USD 371.8 million in 2020. China is projected to reach s size of USD 985 million by 2027, with a CAGR of 22.1% along the period 2020 – 27. 

    Notable markets also include Japan and Canada, forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 12.3% and 15.2%, respectively, with Germany estimated to grow at 13.6% CAGR. 

    Impact of the pandemic on the economy and how FFA helps work around it:

    The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest crises to the human race, impacting people of all races, effectively visible in the global economies’ negative GDP growth and a rise of unemployment in developing countries. 

    There are only a few exceptions among global industries that didn’t face the Covid adversities, and the struggle may continue for some time. However, the 2021 overviews of economic dynamics have been consistently positive, with expectations of improvements in the forthcoming months. 

    Technology can play a vital role in curbing pandemic distress to a large extent. Companies deploy large and innovative Field force tracking solutions to manage the sales operations. The field force management effectively provides real-time solutions to the most critical challenges of businesses amidst the pandemic.

    • We are ensuring the wellbeing of the workforce by the use of advanced sales force automation solutions. 
    • We create a well-established connection with the field team via the Sales force tracker.
    • The field force automation solutions are effective in providing automation during order placement or fulfillment without manual attention. 
    • The sales force automation solutions provide integration of cutting-edge data analytics platforms, measuring the COVID impact.

    Market Segments:

    The global forecast of the Field force automation solution market categorizes the growth trends and revenue based on the following submarkets-

    • The global market across large, medium and small enterprises can overlap organizational size. 
    • Based on deployment, the market use On-premises and On-cloud. 
    • On a vertical basis, the market runs across Real Estate, Energy Sectors, Healthcare, IT, Manufacturing, and Transportation. 
    • Based on geography, the global market across the nations of America (Canada, Brazil, Mexico, US, and Argentina), Europe (UK, Italy, Germany, and France), Asia-Pacific (India, Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan), Middle East (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE) & Africa.

    Growth Trends:

    • Inventory Management – Deployment of inventory management solutions can aid service to offer cost-effectiveness to customers, simplify management services for technicians in several V2B operations, and ease operations in the healthcare sector. The introduction of AI in cloud-based solutions may aid small and large firms in managing their field workforce. 
    • Significant Growth Rate – The Asia-Pacific region can rise due to many SMEs adopting field service management solutions. The global expansion is s major driver for adopting Field force automation solutions, inducing the growth of such solutions’ requirements. 
    • Competitive Landscape – The market landscape of sales force management is quite fragmented, with existing prepackaged solutions but no sole vendor dominating the market. There exist several mergers and collaborations in the market. 

    Conclusion:

    The Field service management firms are witnessing immense pressure to effectively lead teams, ensure their safety, and comply with the regulations of the pandemic. Such a situation cannot get burdened with miscommunication or distrust. 

    It is a high time of distress and crisis, exacerbating fear and distrust, a critical period that calls for emphasizing confidence development within organizations. In the current wake of the Covid pandemic, the estimated growth of Field force automation may further rise, with the pandemic restricting the effective management of remote fieldwork.

    The pandemic has led to limitations in field services, a substantial boost to the adoption of FSM solutions. Such deployment offers better service experiences, including automation in customer communications and feedback capabilities to the current workflow that can elevate your business. Do check out our blogs for more valuable insights.

  • How does field force automation help with order management?

    How does field force automation help with order management?

    Generally speaking, a sales order is created by a seller in response to a purchase request from the buyer that contains information about a product, as well as price, quantity, and buyer information such as shipping and billing addresses, payment methods, and other T&C. Inventory and order management systems rely heavily on sales orders. Doing this manually has its disadvantages but using field force automation can bring in huge benefits! 

    Read on to know more

    The order management cycle

    The order management cycle is a step-by-step procedure that begins when a consumer orders a product and ends with delivery and, in certain cases, returns. To offer a consistent consumer experience, numerous moving elements, typically controlled by various companies, must work together. The cycle is as follows:

    1. Order Receipt – When an order is placed, the information is sent to the fulfilment centre, where the order is processed.

    2. Order Processing – Once the order is received, it is picked, sorted, and packaged.

    3. Order Allocation – After the order is processed, it is allocated to the shipping company by whom it is shipped to the end customer.

    4. Delivery- The products are then delivered to the final consumer. You may feel confident that the order arrived at its designated location if order management was on point the entire time. One of the most crucial characteristics of a successful logistics company is the ability to assure on-time delivery regardless of the circumstances. The use of field sales mobile app software would help to simplify the process.

    Inventory management

    For small units, manual inventory tracking may be sufficient. However, because of the numerous stages required between acquiring raw materials and delivering completed items in a fast-paced business, this becomes a laborious task. Furthermore, firms that rely on manual procedures to manage, track, and stock items are more likely to have stock-outs or overstocks, as manually updating data across all departments might be hampered by human inefficiencies such as delayed updating, late follow-ups, and so on. Inventory management is limited to basic reordering and stock monitoring when manual databases and formulae are used.

    Upgrading to inventory management systems that include everything from end-to-end manufacturing to lead time and demand forecasts to metrics and accounting is a great option.

    Furthermore, field service management software keeps all client information in one location, as opposed to manual entries that may be scattered across several files.

    How Field Force Automation helps

    Automation of field force management involves the use of technology and processes to expedite the processing of orders by removing the need for manual labour. Order processing automation may assist decrease human error, increasing operational efficiency, and speeding up the fulfilment and shipping process. Some of the benefits include:

    • Better customer service
    • Do away with manual entry
    • Eliminate order processing mistakes
    • Lessen Accounting expenses
    • Increase control over data
    • Track information in real-time
    • Order processing from any location
    • Keep your staff happy!

    Now that you are fairly aware of field service software, you sure would be keen on implementing this for your business. Schedule a call with us today and see how your business improves manifold!

  • Advantages of Deploying Cloud-based Field service software

    Advantages of Deploying Cloud-based Field service software

    Field service management, at its most basic level, is a system that maintains track of all aspects of a company’s field activities. Field service management may contain additional key components, depending on the industry. The objective of field service management is to efficiently integrate field activities with invoicing, accounting, and other systems in the office.

    Customers are coming to anticipate this field service management software as a standard component of their service as it becomes more widely available. According to studies, 89% of clients want contemporary technology, such as that used in on-demand ride-sharing services, applied to technician scheduling, and almost as many are ready to pay a premium for it.

    What is cloud based field service software?

    Field force automation is the online management of processes or corporate assets outside of the office. Remote customer service, inspections, maintenance, logistics, and quality assurance are some examples of field service types.

    Cloud based field service software enables field workers to carry out their responsibilities more quickly. Employees may check in with the office remotely, access customer data, and more thanks to the field service management software‘s mobility. The software is used by a variety of sectors to track and manage many aspects of their processes.

    A good field force automation software takes advantage of technology advancements in mobile connectivity and automation to solve problems in the field.

     Advantages of deploying one

    The most noteworthy benefit of using a sales employee tracking app is greater efficiency. For example, when your sales agent in the field is sent out to do a specific task, recording location, client details, and other related data by hand can take up a startlingly large amount of time. If that data is recorded manually, you can find yourself having to deal with issues of data loss caused by ink smears/smudges, water spots, or even having to handle the loss of the hardcopies. This can prevent data from being used or analyzed in any way. Field service companies can take advantage of combining customizing their field service management software to suit their needs. Using multiple features in concert helps create a unified and consistent workflow that is more efficient and provides better data for more intelligent business decisions and insights without relying on team members from multiple departments exporting information into an obsolete system.

    Field service management is critical to the business operations of organizations. With a field service software like Happisales, it becomes easier to handle everything. Learn more about our offerings by scheduling a free demo today!

  • 5 Ways How Field Force Automation Is Benefitting The FMCG industry

    5 Ways How Field Force Automation Is Benefitting The FMCG industry

    The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods or FMCG industry is a wide and dense one. Its distribution networks are so widespread that they need to be managed meticulously. This can be done perfectly well with the help of field force automation. Inventory control and monitoring, lead generation, customer management, order processing, and so many other important processes necessitate extensive monitoring. Carrying out these activities manually can be time consuming, tedious, and cause wastage of resources and revenue. 

    It is widely known that the FMCG business creates low-profit-margin, fast-moving items. Thus it is only natural that the business’s processes and operations be exactly as swift in order to maximize production and profitability. One popular name in the FMCG sector that has already successfully implemented the automation and reaping the benefits – none other than Unilever! 

    Automation is no longer simply about digitalization, as many companies have come to recognize. A company’s performance and profitability need to be improved with the help of innovative solutions. Being able to establish KPI improvements, drive and monitor them via something like a sales employee tracking app could be (and are) a game changer for organizations that are hungry for profits and compete in hyper-competitive industries. Some of the major drivers for distribution organizations are sales and distribution metrics such as salesman productivity, category management of brands and credit management. Being able to watch these metrics in real-time and steer them in the proper direction leads to sales and distribution excellence.

    Field force automation is a boon that has changed the face of several industries- and the effect has been much more significant in the case of the FMCG industry. Field sales app related software generally utilized by companies has not only improved visibility of operations, but the benefits of such software, if utilized appropriately, can extend itself to a wide range of benefits. Some of the changes brought about in the industry are discussed here – 

    1. Improved Productivity & Efficiency 

    Field force automation applications and software help FMCG businesses monitor, evaluate, and optimize a wide range of activities. With the automation being done in a way that has never been done before, it is possible to decrease wastage and theft, improve operations, and save money. It is therefore possible to avoid the time, effort and cost of manually recording data, as well as the possibility of inaccuracy. As a result, the procedure is made tremendously simpler and more efficient. 

    It has been noted that deploying the field sales app has upped the productivity by 25% in FMCG companies. There has not only been an improved productivity, the quality of the output has also gotten better with sales employee tracking app deployment. Better productivity and efficiency lead to higher number of deal closures/sales (discussed below) thereby adding to employee satisfaction which we discuss a little later in the article. 

    1. Better sales 

    One feature that stands out in the sales employee tracking app is that it provides straightforward access to comprehensive and astute analytical data for all operations. With the help of such software, it becomes very easy to understand what is selling, what is not, and why. This gives companies the freedom to promote popular products further in the market, and/or maybe discontinue products that are not popular in the market. We live in an era where consumer preferences determine how business is done, and a tool like this can be extremely beneficial to companies when it comes to making decisions. 

    With a data-driven approach, companies have the ability to work on the pain points and make changes to their approaches as necessary, thereby improving sales of products. As mentioned in the previous point, better productivity enables better sales.

    1. Optimum usage of resources

    Implementation of field sales mobile app software enables optimum use of resources. Let us check out this example – in the FMCG industry, a feature known as route optimization within the sales automation software aids in determining the most cost-effective path for sales people to serve their area.

    This type of route optimization system calculates the most logistically efficient method for covering stores in a region, as well as the amount of resources needed to cover all routes in a streamlined form for more face time than journey time – this ensures that sales professionals can visit as many locations as possible while getting enough facetime with merchants on a given day.

    Some of the leading organizations that have implemented this software are said to have experienced time and distance saving of up to 47% – this automatically saves a lot on the distribution cost.

    1. Problem solving gets easier and speedy 

    The primary goal of sales employee tracking app software is to connect managers with their field personnel smoothly and in real-time. This implies that if any emergency or issue arises on the field, it can be monitored and resolved promptly without the need for layers of needless and time-consuming red tape. This is a feature that is already widely utilized in pharmaceutical sales automation software – the FMCG industry could gain tremendously if there is widespread adoption in the industry. 

    Consider the following scenario: there has been a decline in sales of a specific product at a shop location. With the help of the sales employee tracking app, the store in-charge and their superior would be notified of the issue and both can resolve the problem in a proper way. 

    If we look at the daily schedule of a sales manager, he or she would rarely have the time to sit and study charts and dashboards. There are specific solutions that notify the senior management of possible issues and enable them to find solutions to the problems. This permits better handling of issues on the field so employees can engage better with their customers as well as the team members. There are several players in the automation market who can customize the tool to suit your needs and purposes. 

    1. Employee satisfaction 

    The biggest plus of field service software, by default, is the fact that it brings down the workload of the agents on the field thereby saving precious man-hours. Obsolete and tedious practices such as double-logging entries, passing through layers of red tape, having to report the same things multiple times etc., has become a thing of the past. Cutting these redundant processes out ensures that employees remain energetic, keeping them in high spirits, content, and ultimately more fruitful at their jobs. A happy employee keeps the customers happy and that is what as a business owner you would want, right? We have discussed this point in the preceding points – one thing leads to another and who wouldn’t want to have a win-win factor in their hands!

    As mentioned above, there are numerous field force automation software in the market today. All you need to do is find the one that fits your needs and that which can be customized to suit the requirements of your business. 

    Are you running an FMCG business? Want to improve the efficiency and productivity while making best use of resources? Try out Happisales! Get in touch with us to know how you can get one such system tailor made for your business!

  • Top 7 ways to improve sales productivity to improve productivity

    Top 7 ways to improve sales productivity to improve productivity

    Every sales head in any company dreams of skyrocketing sales just like how it happens in renowned movies like The Wolf of Wall Street or Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year. But, what matters the most is how productive your sales reps are for you to achieve your sales target as a team. Do you measure your sales reps’ work with tracking software? Then, this would interest you even more. 

    The effectiveness of sales reps is measured by the number of successful face-to-face meetings they had with the prospects which is followed by signups or follow up meetings. It looks like a lot of time is involved here. 

    Having said that, how do sales reps spend their time? Has automation been any good for the sales force so that productivity is boosted? 

    YES! 

    How do Salesmen spend their time?

    Have you ever passed by the inbound sales team bay where there is a lot of pandemonium throughout the day? Believe it or not, a lot of conversions can begin or end here. As surveyed by Sales Insights Lab, 42% of the sales people say that the phone is the most prudent sales tool. But how does this impact sales?

    The quality of the data received is the pivotal factor that determines sales productivity in any organization. Void fields and redundant entries block the sales reps way further. 

    Followed by the first one, the sales reps are left with spending a lot of time to research about the prospects as there is insufficient data for them to proceed. 

    With accurate data, the task to-do by each salesman can be easily automated into a workflow. A lot of companies today do it through Field Service management Software.

    Believing that sales is the revenue avenue, a handful of globally renowned companies have been capitalizing on sales and marketing every year. Here’s a sneak peek to it. 

    On the other hand, intuitive CRMs and automation have eased Salesmen’s jobs that eventually contribute to revenue. Are you thinking of a sales force automation anytime sooner?Then this is all you should be knowing. 

    7 Ways to Improve Sales Productivity

    1. Power of Sales Tools

    A bunch of sales tools have proved effective and efficient, enabling sales reps to perform without wasting their time. A mobile CRM is one good example of a powerful sales tool which can also be a Field Service Software. How does this route help?

    Territory specific customer management – You get to organize your customers based on their territories and keep a track of customer interactions in a timeline. 

    Sales activity management – You can manage the activities of your sales reps like customer visits, calls and orders. This can help them achieve their monthly targets. 

    Order management – You can collect orders on the go, manage customer orders, provide discounts and a lot more.

    Collect payments -. Enables your sales reps to collect payments from customers with subtle reminders. 

    Customer complaint management – Your customers are your advocates. Resolve complaints with a seamless workflow before it impacts your business. 

    Impressive isn’t it? We provide all of these features and even more that can lead to a productivity spike in your sales team”. Check out Happisales, a Sales Tracking Software that could level up your business. It is a cutting-edge mobile tool developed exclusively for sales that gives you an edge over other applications.

    Preparing your sales team to get upgraded to such a mobile sales tool would be your first step towards being productive as a Sales Team. 

    2. Capitalizing on Training of Sales Representatives / Sales Team

    When you are prepared to upscale your sales team with Field Force Automation Tool, you are also set to invest in training them to use the product. Apart from technical training, as an organization you are also bound to train them on how to face customers and answer their queries. 

    Experts also recommend another strategy called individual sales training or one-on-one sales training that has actually worked wonders with productivity improvement .

    3. Task Automation & Time Management

    Automation is a time-saver in disguise. Speaking of it, there goes a list of tasks that can be automated when you are in sales. It is made possible using a tech savvy sales employee tracking app. Some of the time-consuming tasks that can be automated are: 

    1. Customer Data Entry
    2. Daily tasks for sales reps
    3. Follow up emails 
    4. Reminders to customers for payments

    For instance: With a field sales executive in the finance industry – (Non-banking sector per se) the maximum amount of time goes into collection of data, documents and payment dues. Automating this using a Field Force Help app saves his time therefore enabling him to be more productive. 

    4. Lead Scoring

    The sales teams have  always been ambitious to close the leads faster. Through Lead Scoring, you can easily evaluate potential leads. This can further avoid time consumption by your field sales executives with non-buyers. 

    Sales teams use traits, characteristics, demographics and historical data to evaluate and score leads. Most companies have this feature in their field assist application. It has helped sales teams make judicious decisions with prospects, understand their buyer persona and convert them based on the data provided. 

    5. Incentivizing Reps

    Employees in the sales team tend to earn more than the ones in the other teams. Sounds like a corporate myth? Ideally, sales employees get the perks of being incentivized. Rewards and recognitions help gain momentum and motivate them to perform better. 

    Gamification is a technique leveraged by big-league companies to empower sales employees and make them productive. 

    Try it and see your sales team perform better. 

    6. Referral

    Your existing customers are your brand ambassadors. Get vouched to have your brand name spread among their peers through traditional word of mouth. Leads that come through word of mouth would be more open to knowing what you offer. The possibilities of converting leads from referrals are higher compared to the ones that come from other channels. 

    With this, you can also put a smile on your existing customers’ faces by providing them with referral coupons and offers. This is another tried-and-tested method of improving sales productivity. 

    7. Alignment of Sales and Marketing

    Sales and Marketing teams in every company have always been rivals for the methods and approaches that are believed and practiced by each team. 

    Here are some tips to get the teams aligned and see them perform better. 

    To quote an example, the MQL or (Marketing Qualified Lead) is one that is considered by the marketing team through behavior and analytics who is likely to become a customer. This lead is sent to the sales team for them to pay more attention to the process of conversion. 

    The Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a qualified lead and a potential buyer / customer displaying interest towards the product or service. 

    Mostly, the difference of opinion between marketing and sales teams tends to arise when the sales team considers some of the MQL as low quality leads. In order to avoid the drift between the two and produce quality leads, you should have regular touch points with the teams. 

    If you are already trying these methods at your organization and looking for a technology change, then try Happisales, a software to aid you with tracking field service as a sale begins there. 

    Happi-Selling!

  • Using an avant-garde Software For Tracking Sales is Planning or Spying?

    Using an avant-garde Software For Tracking Sales is Planning or Spying?

    A few years ago, salesmen breaking-into a house used to be a threat to the public. The advent of technology has given birth to softwares for tracking sales people and field force employees across diverse industries – FMCG, Ecommerce, Health Care & Pharma, Finance and Local Services. A source from SalesForce states that 71% of Sales Reps / Field Sales Employees spend ample time on data entry. The field sales management found the automation process expedient to both team management and customer experience. Organizations have been deploying online real-time GPS trackers to administer the field force employees’. The method has been effective resulting in happy customers and a productive team. 

    When we say real-time employee tracking, it leaves any field sales executive with a fear of doubt that he/she is spied upon by the application from their management. 

    So, let’s probe into the details of employee location tracking – planning or spying?

    Industries that demand employee / sales force tracking 

    Considering the present COVID situation, customer safety has been paramount to all businesses offering door-to-door delivery services. Thereby, a sales tracking software or system has become the need of the hour for such service providers. Some of the industries that are getting benefited from this are:

    -FMCG

    -Ecommerce

    -Healthcare & Pharma

    -Financial services

    -Local Services

    Are they spying on their sales or field force employees or the management is seeing this as an act of resource planning? To answer this question, let’s try to understand what a Field Service Management Software can do. 

    Realtime Location for Customer Visits

    A sales personnel who belongs to the field force is provided with an online real-time location/GPS tracking application to understand his customers are demarcated based on territories. 

    By implementing this:

    -The job of a sales person becomes easier in locating the customer. 

    -He/she gets visibility to nearby customers so that their focus is shifted to more new customers to expand their company’s business. 

    -The number of customer visits done by a salesperson contributes to the monthly target that measures their performance. 

    -The performance of each field force / salesperson is being monitored by this application. 

    -The application can also track where the salesperson is spending his working hours. This can help the management in cross-validation in case of any discrepancies. 

    Would a sales force tracker that can do all of the above interest you? 

    It doesn’t stop here and there’s more to it. 

    Attendance Tracking

    What if a field sales person claims that he was present on a particular day at the customer’s place but he was not? How does a conventional attendance tracking system help in boosting your sales team’s productivity?

    If these have been your pain points with field sales or sales force management, then your eye-opener is here!

    While there are numerous employee tracking systems and android applications available in the market, what are the features you can expect from one such software to upgrade your sales team?

    -Login and Logout time Administration

    Enabled with an online real-time GPS tracker, Sales Employee Tracking App should be capable of tracking both logins and logouts times of an employee seamlessly. Apart from this, an attendance tracking application should also be able to clock the number of hours spent by each sales employee. This shall aid the management in measuring the productivity of the employee, and analyze the time that goes into each activity carried out by the employee throughout his working hours. 

    In cases where the employee has lost possession of his mobile phone, the application should still be able to track the last login or logout time so that tracking the employee’s working hours is not affected. 

    -Leave Management

    Do it with ease by both managers and employees – a leave management module in any online employee tracking app can benefit both in terms of planning and management of resources across the organization.

    Workflow and Task Management

    The best Field Service Software gives you the ease of usability with workflow and task management. While choosing one such application for your sales, the following features can save time and increase the productivity of the team as a whole. 

    -Creation of Tasks

    -Assignment of Tasks

    -Delegation of Pending Tasks and Responsibilities 

    -Data collection of completed tasks like customer visits and documents. 

    -Supporting features like chat and voice notes to ease inter-team communication

    If you are looking for a tool for your local services business, then there are some of the features that can help you in field force management. Read on to get an understanding of how this can work!

    • A field force employee is mapped to a particular territory (a locality in this case).
    • He takes charge of customer visits and service with this particular territory. When (s)he completes their day’s target with this territory, the pending visits in the nearby territory can be allocated to the employee. 
    • Further, the employee can also store the customer documents – photographs of a particular complaint with a local service availed by them and share it with the management. The management can take immediate responsibility and help the customer resolve the problem. 
    • In case of any issues, chat and voice note options are available for the employee to communicate the customer issues to the management. 

    By doing this, you increase the chances of customer satisfaction, retention and service. 

    Document Upload and Data Security

    What would a customer fear for when your organization is using such employee tracking applications? With no second thoughts, it’s their data. 

    All your customer data is in the hands of your field sales. To quote an example, a field force employee who works with a financial institution has access to customer data like Bank Statements, Aadhar Card, PAN Card and Signatures when there is a customer request for a Loan Account. This data requires a secured spot to be uploaded and stored. 

    Choose an online employee tracking application that can be compatible with both android and IOS mobiles offering complete security to your customer data. 

    Added to this, the customer data misuse could be easily tracked if it happens when you deploy cutting-edge field tracking software which is best in the market. 

    Happisales promises utmost secrecy of data and is trusted by 100+ businesses and customers for data security. Read more about the app here!

    Leaderboard for Performance Measurement 

    Sales appraisals can never happen without a performance measurement system. A leaderboard module in field force management is not only advantageous for performance analysis but also motivates the peers with achieving targets. Of the teams in an organization, the sales teams are said to have the most remunerative benefits in the form of bonuses. In some organizations, this happens frictionlessly with managers not being partial towards their team members. 

    Are you encountering such situations in your organization? It’s high time you switch to a software for tracking your sales team and their performance. 

    Summing up: The features like real time location tracking and attendance tracking might throw an impression that an employee is being spied on by the managers. But, deriving benefits from a sales tracking software for your teams testifies the following. 

    -Happenings in the field

    -Cross-validate the field sales team in case of any discrepancies

    -Areas where the sales personnel spend most of their time – Time spent with existing and new customers. 

    This can help the management team to plan the activities of the field sales, instructing them to spend more time with the new customers in order to increase sales and revenue. Therefore, an employee tracking app used by the field sales personnel is righteously being used by the management for planning and not spying.