Happisales – Blog

Tag: Sales Force Automation

  • 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!

  • Top upcoming trends in field service automation that can transform a business!

    Top upcoming trends in field service automation that can transform a business!

    Heading a field service company can be a challenging task. Especially when your major goal is to offer rapid, efficient, and effective repairs to your clients, but owing to COVID-19, the traditional manner of conducting business took an unexpected turn in 2020.

    In a flash, firms were forced to limit — or even stop — in-person field service trips. The pandemic wreaked havoc on the field service sector, and every field service firm has likely reevaluated its business model in some manner since then. One such change that has been brought about is the implementation of automation in this sector. 

    Impact of automation trends on business

    Sales force automation software automates the time-consuming but important processes of selling, freeing sales crew from mindless, repetitive behind-the-scenes work and allowing them to focus on what they do best: selling. Sales force automation, unlike other business solutions(that cater to certain zones), applies to all sizes of organizations. Consequently, whether you are a one-man operation operating out of your garage or an employee of a large corporation with hundreds of items, Such software assists in shortening sales cycles, thereby improving sales and thus increasing productivity.

    What to expect in the new decade

    With changes happening by the minute in today’s world, we can expect a lot of changes in the field of field force automation. Some of them are elucidated below:

    Integration of AR and VR

    Customers may have regarded remote service visits in the past as a waste of time, believing that it was quicker for a professional to come to their location. Customers are already accepting new technologies as a result of COVID-19, allowing businesses to assess new processes and procedures with the long-term objective of making them permanent.

    A technician, for example, can utilize augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)-based applications and tools to get information about the item they’ve been assigned to services, such as maintenance history and diagnostics, without having to disassemble it. Instead of dispatching a second team, your firm may utilize augmented glasses to connect the initial technician with a secondary team working at a central location in cases when a technician has been deployed but runs into difficulties or requires a second opinion.

    AI-run business processes

    Customers benefit from digital tools, and technicians benefit from them as well. Subsets of claims are still addressed by dispatching employees to make in-person service visits, but customer-technician communication is still required from the first maintenance report through repair. Field technicians should have excellent mobile applications to connect with consumers within the Field service management software, according to providers. Only 30% of field service firms will be prepared to implement AI-based decision assistance in their field service management platforms by 2022. This capacity gives you a huge competitive edge, and as the field service team becomes more mobile, you’ll need better mobile apps to connect with customers and track their status.

    Inclusive workforce

    A mixed workforce is defined as a workforce that is made up of both employee technicians and independent or third-party contractors. It gives field service companies the flexibility and capacity they need to provide high-quality service. Service providers may easily scale and develop to the needed capacity or area by combining field employees, saving time and money on hiring and training. Field service businesses can send the appropriate expert to the right task at the right time thanks to the flexibility of a mixed workforce paired with intelligent management solutions, resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction and improved operational efficiency.

    Network tracing

    Network tracing can be quite a broad term, but it would be best simmered down to the topic of discussion here  – Business networking. Every business and the people concerned with one would have a vast connection of networks. Such can be either professional connections or a cluster of conglomerates that can help run a business smoothly. A field network can be as vast in the vertical scheme of a business process. A manufacturing company can have different entities working for them across various processes. Packaging – Transit, – delivery – each of the legs can be handled by a different business entity under a contract. Such is a network of the manufacturing entity. Though the field service trackers have a minimalist tracking of such a notion, it is still combined as a single arm of the service provided. This might change in the upcoming years and can help the customers understand the level of proficiency that each of the contracted businesses brings to the parent company.

    Field service for Home needs?

    AI-aided home utilities have come a long way in today’s world. Right from apps running home music to intelligent cooling technologies in your home refrigerator – things look rather progressive in the home automation scene. But there are certain limitations to them at this point. What if a field force automation solution can step in ways that can change the way we shop groceries and fill up our everyday needs at home? Imagine this – What if a sales force tracker app can keep tabs on the quantity of food required for the household and can order a said amount of rice for the month on its own? We do agree there are plenty of applications in the play store or the apple store to track your edible stocks at home, but we do not have one yet that can plan and keep the inventory going. Imagine your app being able to book a can of water or a pack of vegetables based on the balance between the dwindling stock and the household requirements?

    The future’s uncertain and full of surprises. As a wise turtle once said – “Tomorrow is a mystery”. The aforementioned points may be a predicament of where the field force automation ideas are heading towards, but a slight deviation can result in something bigger or better! Change is constant and the biggest investment today is the investment in the future. Are you looking to bring about transformation in your business? Connect with Happisales for a demo today!

  • How much can the work force management software help the e-commerce industry

    How much can the work force management software help the e-commerce industry

    E-commerce in India has changed the ways of shopping. With hot debates making rounds about it bringing an end to the retail market, the industry was a pioneer in making full use of sales force automation techniques even before the concept deepened its roots in the Indian market.

    What was once seen as a sceptical chain of business has reinvented ways to cater to the needs of the open public. Although it had its inception in the mid 90’s it wasn’t until the industry started focusing more on the B2C markets. Players such as Myntra (est.2007), Flipkart (est.2007) and Amazon India (est. 2012) focused more on tapping the inclusive market of the country’s population. Households had more access to high-speed internet and the business quickly emerged as one of the key players in the Indian Economy. 

    Apart from the giants, business chains that were once exclusive retail only establishments have jumped onto the bandwagon citing opportunities to vast coverage than to restrict their clientele in and around their establishments.

    Challenges in the Industry & workforce management

    India is a huge market with a population of 1.3 billion with almost 25% of the population preferring to shop online. With ISP providers like Jio penetrating the rural consumer market, the E-commerce market in India is touted to grow as much as 51% in the upcoming years. But operating in a competitive market of the world’s seventh-largest country would be no easy task. 

    It would take a great deal of management, workforce and financial resources to make things work. Here is where workforce management software takes its high stand. Here are a few ways by which the e-commerce industries can make things work through such a utility.

    Cut down expenditure

    Every e-commerce industry in the country has its very own sales force automation today – be it a single business line, or an establishment like Amazon dealing as a one-stop window for all. One of the biggest plus sides of having workforce management software is arguably its ability to track expenses in real-time. This would reduce human errors such as duplication, input errors etc. 

    For example, any and every expense in the daily operations can be tagged to a QR code or have an existing data log – Wages per hour for the field sales team can be 40 INR while wages per hour for management crew could be 45 INR. Any personnel tagging into the quota would be paid a precise amount for his time logged through the tracking system. This would cut down any possibilities of manual errors that would reflect hugely on the financial reports. This may not sound like a big deal, but any E-com establishments serving such a vast landmass as India would benefit from such a system.

    Adaptable operational process

    As its name suggests, workforce management software is ideally suited to manage your workforce. As lame as the definition sounds, its utility as an embedded operating system in your e-commerce establishment can make the difference between a successful business and a total train wreck. 

    The E-commerce industry in India is one of the biggest employers of the country. People from various educational and skill backgrounds work under one big roof to scale the business in various forms. Managing such a crew manually would be a tiring task considering the magnitude of both the manpower and business goals in hand. A workforce management software helps track the employees and keeps tabs on all their information from their respective resumes. This way you could filter out a management guy from a field delivery guy and use their skills with more respect and responsibility.

    Improved productivity

    This would be more of a result of a butterfly effect. A Field Service software implemented business establishment, would have excellent productivity and a higher efficiency rate. How you may ask!

    Inefficiency from the workforce is usually a sign of uninterested employees. This may predominantly prevail due to the reason that an employee has been put into a task that doesn’t quite fill up his day. 

    Here is where workforce management software helps you with it. As mentioned in the point above, the software helps find the right people in the employed unions and match them with the right JD. This would not only reduce their induction time but would also get the department up and running swiftly. The upper management can also keep track of the task completed and the hours of work put in by every employee in the organisation. The best part about it is that the management could shuffle around their resources (without having to hire or fire) until they feel that the units are working to their full potential. Thanks to the management app, this could now be done smarter and faster than ever before.

    Happy customers

    Happy customers are a happy profit sheet. If you were a user of an e-commerce website like Amazon or Myntra, you would surely adapt to their heavy backend support. Serving a country with a pop of 1.3 Billion would be a huge task and attending to every one of the customers is what makes the business capture the Indian E-commerce market. 

    The field sales mobile app makes this possible. With every query guided automatically to any free back end officer, customer queries are handled almost instantly. The entire data such as the order date, delivery date, of the good purchases is right in front of the attending officer. This would help reduce the time spent in addressing a customer query and increase the number of customer queries attended. One more loyal customer in the shopping bag!

    These are just a few of the many good things that can come out of implementing a workforce management system in your E-commerce business. But there is much more than where such an app came from. If you are an establishment looking to automate your business, we are here to help! – Happisales

  • Can sales force automation help the Pharma industry in the pandemic?

    Can sales force automation help the Pharma industry in the pandemic?

    The Pandemic has hit every industry in the country. The second wave was ruthless and the pharmaceutical industry wasn’t left either. As the country shows resilience in the face of the third way, industries have adapted to new ways of life and have shown significant changes in the way they operate. The pharmaceutical industry is touted to rise again from the ashes to become one of the leaders in the economic charts. Industries have taken to the idea of sales force automation widely and the pharma industry has quickly stepped into it too

    When it comes to the pharmaceutical industry, sales is a big deal. Even as an outsider, one could find pharma reps in clinics and small health care institutions trying to win over the prescriptions of a doctor. Back in the pre-internet era, one could find a rep waiting for hours just to gather a day’s appointment of the doctor. 

    Although things have changed dramatically over the last few decades, sales in the pharma industry have been quite a challenge and take a day’s time from the sales team. A Mobile Sales App helps the sales crew manage multiple prospective clients where he could schedule appointments and meet more than two people rather than warming the waiting bench. If you are from the pharma industry, you would know better, but if you would want to know how sales force automation can help during these dire and testing times, here are a few things that can help you with.

    Streamline the Sales team

    Any sales force automation system implemented in any business has its priority set straight. The app’s primary gift to a business would be to manage, operate and execute sales in a very structured way. It’s not the first time we have spoken about this particular point. Try reading one of our blogs here to help you understand (in detail) how automation can help better your sales team more. 

    Reduce cost through digitalisation

    One of the most traditional ways of keeping track of business transactions is filling up the filing cabinet. A look at the combined yearly expenses spent on files and papers could put a frown on your finance team’s face. What if you could cut down on such expenses, or find a way around it. This is where sales force automation lends a helping hand.

    Adopting a sales force tracker app in your establishment can do a lot more than your average filing cabinet. The app can store every data that you would need to pull out in the near future under any circumstances. Bills received, invoices raised, new client agreements, date of purchases, credit periods, customer disputes – everything and anything that happens between the business and its customers are noted with fine precision and in real-time. Apart from reducing your expense on papers and petty cash needs, it also organises your files automatically and can help you look out for information based on time or customers whenever and wherever needed. If this doesn’t put a smile on your finance team, we can help you with more!

    Spotless order & inventory management

    Let’s be honest. The pandemic was and still prevails to be a hard-hitting punch to the guts of many businesses around the world. The worst part of it was the inability of the business to have its manpower restored to its optimal levels. Such cases had overworked crew, chaos on the sheets and numbers that mismatched with the actuals.

    It is no surprise that small scale businesses adopted salesforce automation to tackle such a dire consequence. A sales force tracker app tracks the inward and the outward movement of goods with zero errors. The user-friendly UI makes the user understand the details on screen more than on paper. Keeping track of the orders that come in along with the location of the order and the expected time of delivery, and matching it with the available goods in the inventory/warehouse gives for proper planning and execution. This way your orders can be executed with precision and eradicates any chance of inventory mismanagement

    Tasks & reports automation

    Managing a team of more than 5 would be a handful while working remotely, and to think of getting updates and providing them with their tasks is horrific. The pandemic has pushed the management to think out of the box and sales force automation has made it easier than ever. 

    Forget spending time on conference or status calls, the sales force tracker app helps you manage your team without having to move from your couch. Assigning tasks and tracking your team’s whereabouts are now possible with the GPS tracking modules and real-time data inputs. This way, you would know what Vinodh was doing at 12:46 PM last Monday! No more spending time on calls, you can now use all that extra hours to usher a new age of sales vibes into your sales reports! Forget keeping up the team’s sales standards, It might even help your team get an extra client or two than be

    Workaround pandemic restrictions

    The restrictions have been severe in the last few months and businesses were forced to surrender their operations. As businesses were forced to operate with closed doors, and their employees working from home, the major network of the sales team was disrupted and possibly left alone to rot. 

    An Sales Employee Tracking App helps manage such situations. It helps the management team to understand the best possible way to cater to the needs of new leads. It helps find people of the sales team closer to a possible lead and can let them connect with them from the comfort of their geographic location. Even more, with the help of an automated sales force, people could get things done with ease.


    Let us just put a thought into your mind as we end this long essay. With a workforce management app giving you the benefit of cutting down costs and comforting you sales team, one could use the saved up costs to sponsor them the covid shield vaccine without a second thought.- Give it a thought, but if you are thinking about getting your industry automated, visit us at happisales and we would love to give you a demo!

  • Top 4 benefits of field force automation in the logistics industry

    Top 4 benefits of field force automation in the logistics industry

    The modern world is automated in many ways and the Indian logistics sector is no different. Location intelligence utilities like the field service management software have taken the sector to new heights. Cutting short the costs incurred and maximising the profit margins, one is certain of its ability to put a smile on the upper-level management.

    The Indian logistics industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country today. Despite the discomforts caused by the relentless pandemic, the industry still manages to function to its full potential. One of the primary reasons for the sector’s independence is the dependence of the other sectors over it. Be it agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce, or retail – logistics is one sector that gets its work done.

    LOCATION INTELLIGENCE FOR THE WIN! – THE OTHER SIDE OF THE INDUSTRY

    But with great power, comes greater responsibility or so to speak. With such a noble sector working its wonders in the economy, certain challenges can prove to be constant troublemakers. On-time delivery is the essence of a logistics business and its major goal would be to strive towards it no matter the consequences. 

    The success of such a business is measured by its ability to manage and deliver its shipments without damage and at the right time. This might be a heft task considering the vast landmass, such a business covered with such little manpower to take. This is where sales force automation through location intelligence helps move boulders and mountains. But what exactly is Location Intelligence?

    Location Intelligence (LI) is putting together the information collected – Geographical visuals, and business numbers from a particular location or a select area. Location intelligence plays a key role in understanding the various aspects of the logistics business at an in-depth level and helps plan better. Here are a few ways how sales force automation through location intelligence can help take the cake in the business.

    On-time delivery

    One of the most important traits of a successful logistics business is its ability to ensure on-time delivery given any state of odds. An implementation of a field service management software would make things more streamlined. While serving a country as vast as India, it would need more effort to keep track of all the deliveries to be made.

    Field force automation gives an added leverage to the crew to understand the flow pipeline better and prepare themselves better for spotless on-time delivery. This is possible due to the information picked up by the field service management software.

    Information such as 

    • date of order placed
    • pickup location
    • transit route
    • warehouse check-in, 
    • regional transportation 
    • local mobility

    can all be streamlined together to calculate the right delivery time, ensuring the management to focus on working towards it. Choosing a closer warehouse to the delivery location, or choosing an alternate route to make things quicker can all be perfected via field force automation. A perfect example of this would be tracker apps used on Myntra or Amazon. 

    Finding the best possible route

    Let us all be transparent here. Apart from agriculture, logistics is the next business that can be affected by an act of god. An unforeseen downpour, a tropical storm, or border politics can hamper the business to great extents. Although field force automation can neither change the weather nor ease up political ties, it does help the management and the crew to find alternate routes to circumvent the difficulties that lay ahead. A shipment that was to reach Bengaluru can either be routed through Mumbai or Hyderabad. Picking the best possible route considering the current scenario between the two can help either fasten delivery or go around an inevitable hurdle. The ability to have ready-to use plans on the field force management software can give the team and the crew to jolt down the best possible route without any hassle.

    Optimization of fixed costs

    As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest contributors to such a business’s expenses is its fixed costs. The fixed costs in a logistics business are its Depreciation, Driver salary, Fuel, Toll charges, Maintenance and services. Even though field force automation cannot eradicate it, but can help the management keep tabs on its expenses. Taking a deep dive into the information provided on the field force service software can help find the best possible ways to cut down the costs. An example would be to take a shorter route and reduce the cost of fuel, and average it out through other means of movement so that the combined expenses of these two would still be lesser than what it was earlier. In a way, such use of field service software can help make informed decisions keeping in mind the essence of on-time delivery of the establishment.

    Care for your people

    The best business is run by its people. Some of the successful businesses around the globe understand the importance of their contributors. With that in mind, the most important people in the logistics business are its front end workers. Drivers and delivery agents working around the clock to keep that brand identity alive are one of the prime concerns for the business. The field force management software helps keep track of the company’s agents anywhere and anytime. This would help send aid in times of need. A vehicle breakdown or an unforeseen accident on perilous roads could catch the eyes of the management very quickly. This would in turn help them dispatch aid swiftly and might save lives in such dire circumstances.

    We at happisales strive to be the forerunners of GPS tracking software and sales tracking software. We live in the modern world and we believe it is time for businesses around the globe to take giant strides in the phase of evolution. If you are looking for a sales force tracker app or a field force management software, we would be glad to help with a demo of our product. Feel free to contact us at Happisales, you are one step closer to the new world of automation.

  • 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. 

  • Is Your Current Sales Force Automation Failing? Here’s Why!

    Is Your Current Sales Force Automation Failing? Here’s Why!

    We all know that sales force automation is the usage of software for automating sales-related tasks, including sales activities, customer management, sales force management, and information sharing. This is frequently a component of a system that connects and integrates sales activities with the rest of the organization’s operations. So the success of the sales force as well as the overall organization depends on it. Upon implementation, these systems are seen to fail to deliver the expected benefits and can be attributed to several factors. Let us delve into the reasons as to why the current sales force automation is failing. Here are 13 reasons. 

    1. Lack of long term vision 

    The reason for implementing field sales reporting should be well and clearly defined, with a clear objective and vision of what it should achieve in the short and long term. One cannot create a technology roadmap simply because everyone else is doing it. Your teams may be doing well with manual processes and meeting your targets, but the automation of the process should be made clear to everyone, right from the top management to the employees, on how it can help you further optimize your sales processes and team performance. 

    1. Lack of commitment from management 

    Even if management decides to implement a field sales reporting system and commit significant resources to the effort, the system may not be successfully marketed internally. This is frequently misinterpreted by the sales force as a lack of support from the management for the system to be implemented. This can lead to a careless attitude among salespeople. Senior management commitment is thus critical to the success of any software implementation project. 

    1. Non-alignment of expectations between management and salespeople

    When implementing field service software, we can see two types of expectations – one for effort and the other for performance. Effort represents the user’s view of the amount of work required to use the system effectively. The perceived cost of using the system rises as effort expectancy rises. Performance expectancy, on the other hand, represents how the system’s benefits are perceived. If the imagined costs outweigh the benefits, the system is far less likely to be used. Compared to salespeople, the management tends to underestimate the effort required for a salesperson to use the system and overestimate the performance benefits. This brings about a mismatch in expectations.  

    1. Setting unrealistic goals/objectives

    Adoption and implementation of field sales reporting in existing business modules serve specific goals. Deployment of an automation process does not necessarily mean that it is not a complete one-size-fits-all solution. A module integrated with CRM has specific goals and should not be expected to generate exponential results or perform micromanagement on its own. For example, the automation software can assist you in improving team performance by engaging them, providing real-time performance visibility, public recognition, and rewarding them for their efforts. However, you cannot control attrition because there are numerous other intangible factors at play.

    1. Implementing field sales reporting but without delegating the responsibilities

    The automation journey cannot begin without defining the roles and responsibilities – Who will be the eventual users, who will be reviewing the data, the role of MIS teams, training and abidance of sales teams. All of these questions are extremely important. Otherwise, you’ll just be circling the wagons without actually implementing and adopting sales force automation. The well-communicated value proposition provides a sense of ease of work, improved output, and, most importantly, more time to explore more productive opportunities.

    1. . Lack of proper training

    The system’s complexity results from a lack of information/training or from only having theoretical knowledge of the subject. Companies must recognize the value of investing time in end-user training. More interactive, on-the-job, case-based, practical, and inclusive training is required. Ascertain that your end-users and sales representatives understand the fundamental concepts of automation and automated factors. The training goal should be to change the way people think and not be afraid to use it. 

    1. Improper implementation of multiple workflows

    It is a known fact that improper implementation of anything will affect all workflows. So, when implementing Field Service Management Software, it should be carefully planned and scheduled – steps such as installation, training, and go-live date can be worked out. Adequate time should be allowed for each stage of implementation. This saves all participants from the hassles of deployment and network integration, among other things. It will be a good idea to get help from experts for deployment of the automation process with minimal hitches. 

    1. Poor data management

    Sales Force Tracker is entirely data-driven. It has been found that more than 50% of implementation failures were because of poor data quality. The master data must be structured and sorted per the KPIs and parameters (product hierarchy, attributes, retailer data, contract dates, etc.). This data must be clean, correct, and relevant. It is also necessary to have a thorough understanding of business processes, customers, distributors, etc, to integrate functionalities into your solution. Poor quality data also leads to a loss in revenue. 

    1. Poor customer service

    Lousy customer service results in an irate customer, thus losing them. Regardless of your process/business size, ensure that you provide exceptional customer service at any point in time – be it before or during or after deployment. A 24/7 customer service line has become a prominent and undeniable differentiator for almost every product/service and should never be overlooked. 

    1. Complex functionalities

    Most automation systems attempt to be jacks of all trades, which leads to increased complexity. Instead of assisting sales representatives in entering meaningful data and making reporting tasks easier, these feature complexities make reporting difficult. Adoption becomes difficult if reporting, planning, and other basic functionalities are not intuitive. Excessive data fields and repetitive entries also add to the complexity.

    1. Unnecessary inconvenient additional functions 

    Sales force automation systems have become more multifunctional in recent years, and there are some that include marketing functions and integrated analysis tools. However, if these functions do not match the objectives of your system, even if there are many of them, they will be useless for your company, and you will end up with a difficult-to-use system.

    1. System integrations

    A sales tracking software solution is not a stand-alone system. It must be integrated with existing platforms such as CRM, ERPs, accounting software, and legacy systems. When it is not financially or technically feasible to integrate into these systems, it becomes difficult to utilize the solution’s potential fully. Keeping data and operations separate is not the best way to maximize its benefits. The success of the solution is also determined by the training provided to its users. 

    1. Lack of end-user interest

    What good is a sales force automation solution if its intended users are unwilling to use it? No matter how much money you invest in it, getting the actual users on board is critical. User acceptance determines the success or failure of a setup. User resistance can be overcome by training and knowledge sharing. It is also a good idea to learn about their challenges before implementation to address them through automation. 

    If you are interested in exploring implementing field force automation for your business, do get in touch with us today. Click here to get all your queries related to automation answered. Happisales is all set to implement sales force software in your field.

  • Best Sales Force Tracker App Features for Smarter Sales

    Best Sales Force Tracker App Features for Smarter Sales

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    Sales force automation is the way forward. Businesses are taking advantage of the sales force tracker apps and were able to see viable results while streamlining their sales crew. Much has been spoken about the various benefits of implementing one such into the business, and it comes with no surprise that businesses are trying to jump on them at the first opportunity. A majority of the businesses that have implemented a sales force tracker app have cited its success during the pandemic whilst working remotely. With that said, many anew to the revolution may be wondering what exactly is a Field Force Automation Solution and why would a business need it. 

    WHAT IS A SALES FORCE TRACKER APP AND WHY WOULD YOU NEED IT?

    If you are hearing a lot about the sales force tracker app and are yet to know what it does, here is a quick brief about them. A sales force tracker app provides accurate and in-depth information on the team’s performance, overall well-being and productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and value. The app is your one-stop solution for your Field Sales Reporting needs.

    But hey, there are so many sales force tracker apps in the market. How would one be able to choose the best out of the lot? This would be the first question that lingers in the minds of anyone who would want to implement sales force automation. Leaving aside the service and the brand, here are the key features that you should consider in your sales force tracker!

    CUSTOMER ARCHIVES

    One of the prime benefits of sales force automation is its potential to keep track of all customer data. Data as simple as customer contact information to the complete history of the customer right from the first moment of meet up to date is all made available under a single tab. Invoices raised to, Bills paid by, quantity sold to, sales personnel tagged in, queries raised and attended to can all be streamlined and kept safe for all customers served to date through the Field Service Software. This would help the management understand customers better and help identify bottlenecks and address any discrepancies efficiently.

    SCHEDULING

    Scheduling everyday tasks and customers intel to the sales crew is of utmost importance. With that said, field sales tracking is a hugely time-consuming task especially when it comes to handling a huge team with a large dossier of clientele to serve to. Field force automation helps cut down the complexity of such a task with one-click solutions. The sales force tracker app helps to manage the team better through automating the scheduling of tasks, customers, objectives to the entire sales crew without having to break a sweat. Automated scheduling at times does it for you.

    For instance, A requirement raised by an existing customer Liam would be automatically assigned to John who has been handling the client from Day 01 based on the data collected in the sales force Tracker App. 

    AUTOMATED FIELD SALES TRACKING

    It is often believed that an efficient sales team spends predominant of its time on the field. Considering the aforementioned belief, it would be quite a contradiction if they were to spend time in briefing rooms for task meets, objective allocations, client intel, reports, etc. This is where sales force automation keeps the “Sales belief” in check. One of the salient features of the Field Staff Tracking Software India (from the perspective of the sales crew) is to update and check on his field sales reporting in real-time. For instance: Tom, a Sales Rep would be able to update his meeting with Mr.Ferguson, the client, add details and required reports as necessary right outside from the customer’s location and his reporting manager would be able to keep track of it in real-time!

     ONE-STOP DESTINATION FOR REPORTS

    Meanwhile, on the other hand, the management would be able to keep track of all the field sales reporting of their sales crew through sales force automation. The people on the higher levels of hierarchy would have a clear understanding of the key contributors, the sales revenue generated, the productivity, and the efficiency down to every single individual in the team. Tracking such progressions in the team could be a key indicator to expand, or cut short the crew as and when required. The sales force tracker app also helps cut down attrition while identifying key players in the crew, allowing the management to incentivize them. A happy employee is an efficient employee after all!

    PRIVACY

    It may not sound like a beneficial feature in your sales force automation plans, but privacy is as important as any of the aforementioned. Any sales force tracking app should provide rights to privacy to and for any business registered for it. The data and information collected by these apps are highly confidential and sensitive to the core of any business. Any breach in such matters would not only result in a compromise of data but could be fatal for the operation and functionality of the business. As mentioned earlier, this might not have anything to do with the progression and evolution of your business, but is an important feature to look into while! 

    Hope that helped you with what you were searching for. There are many more features that would define a complete sales force tracking app. Such applications from different vendors have additional sets of features that may differ from one another but these are the major few essentials that you would need to look for in one. Sales force automation has been touted to be the next step in the evolution of businesses and if you already are sharing the same thought, visit us at happisales – your one stop destination for all your sales force automation needs. Drop us an inquiry and we would be happy to show you a demo which could potentially be what you were looking for in the market.

     

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  • How to improve your selling through salesforce automation amidst Covid – 19

    How to improve your selling through salesforce automation amidst Covid – 19

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Ever since Covid -19 announced itself, the world as we knew it has never been the same. With ample time passing by, and with lockdown restrictions imposed, people and businesses alike have taken to a new way of life, not only surviving but have also shown signs of prevalence in these dark times. How did they do it? How did businesses adapt to a new world and improve selling through Field Force Automation Tool?   

    Impact of COVID 19 

    Trade and Commerce came to a standstill with counties around the world shutting down their borders. Businesses were shut down to bare bones creating shockwaves disrupting the supply chains. As per a statement issued by Nomura India Business Resumption Index, the economic activity fell from 82.9 to 44.7 and the nation saw a spike in unemployment rates, rising from 6.7% to 26%, all in a matter of 21 days! Close to 140 million people in the working class fell victim to job cuts or had taken salary cuts due to the pandemic. Close to 47% of the businesses were shut down costing the country almost 32,000crores in loss with results showing a 40% dip in the country’s GDP when compared to the last year.

    Why is reinventing your sales force important 

    Most of the companies that were at the heart of the crisis were predominantly companies that thrived on sales. With their sales force completely taken down of its functionality, businesses were unable to gather leads and convert prospects into acquisitions. But as a wise quote was once foretold – Life always finds its way!. As the pandemic restrictions loosened up, organisations found themselves adapting to new ways, innovating ideas to keep themselves not only afloat but also thrive in these hard times. Just as companies found their sales force ineffective during the lockdown, the optimistic few found ways to evolve their field sales into something more different, in ways that were in need of the hour. Those who were successful found their footing once again and had relatively better numbers on their financials to put a big smile on their face.

    Ways to keep your sales team upbeat

    A case of “searching for the keys to an open door”. The success mantra is not very complex or something that has been invented. It is an instance of refinding the simple things that were often ignored or assumed a non-aggressive strategy for. Here are the five ways to keep your field sales team at their optimal best in these times. 

    Sales Force Automation

    There has been a paradigm shift in the way companies have taken to their field sales activities. field force automation has already been adhered to by several businesses even before Covid 19. The ability to guide your sales force with such a mobile sales app has been proven to be time effective and also, helps the crew to stay focused without having to scatter around all over the place. Planning and managing an entire crew remotely through a remote and field staff management app is a prime way to keep your people attend to their sales responsibilities even while working from home.

    Streamlining the Sales Pipeline

    One of the biggest challenges your field sales force faces is the bottleneck in the pipeline. The crew would have more than the optimal number of objectives to work on every day and that would only halter their efficiency. Understanding the priorities, requirements and streamlining the tasks of the day through an integrated sales tracking software would help both the management and the sales team to manage their work efficiently and securely. This would help them reduce time on the field while still having a good turnaround time on their goals!

    Keeping tabs on Data-based sales objectives

    Businesses have learnt to function remotely, connecting through the internet, gathering updates and assigning tasks at a push of a button. The ability to keep track of data through field sales app have proven beneficial to push beyond new horizons of inter-departmental functionality. Data collected field assist app such as location of the customer and the location of the employee would help delegate work to the team better. For instance, it would only be right to assign a task on 6th Cross Street to Tom from 5th Cross Street rather than to assign it to Harry from 18th Cross Street. Such details help to manage resources efficiently and simmer downtime constraints to a maximum possible extent.

    Adapt to your ever-changing customer needs

    Customers are every business’s primary importance. The very soul of a successful business is to tend to its customer’s needs and keep them at comfort at all times. A happy customer is a sales agent by his right. Having a check on your customers through a field sales app would not only help manage them better but also help serve them in better ways. It may not be an tiresome task, but something as simple as answering their queries, responding to their emails on the most minuscule of things would go a long way in generating a referral lead that might prove to be rich dividends for your time spent. 

    Look for new opportunities arising in these times

    The final piece of the puzzle – Always be on the lookout for opportunities. The key to success (not only for a business entity) is to be conscious of the possibilities of an opportunity lying in every nook and corner of any given situation. Things may look grim, but the seeds sown today are the fruit-bearing trees of tomorrow. Give a shot at everything that matches the services provided by you. It may be something you and your field sales team would probably know, but just thought a friendly reminder would help you rekindle your thoughts again!.

    A Way Forward – Future of sales

     As per reports about 39% of the businesses (mostly small scale) have no intention in going back to old ways of functionality having found the new way forward. 

    If you had asked someone prior to 2019, there would have been no one who would have told you that the world was going to change the way it has today.  Businesses would have been working towards their 5 year plans as usual treating the upcoming years just as the same as any other year. But to have the ability to adapt to such dire situations through Sales Employee Tracking App and to overcome it is a symbol of flexibility, an evolution of sorts.

    If you are looking to jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late, try visiting Happisales –  A solution to all your sales force automation needs![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • 10 Reasons Why You Must Invest in a Sales Force Automation App

    10 Reasons Why You Must Invest in a Sales Force Automation App

    Presently, the Field Sales Mobile App finds its place in various sectors which include Retail, Healthcare, BSFI, Logistics, and others. The organization has to put more effort to effectively manage its inventory, invoice, payments, customer relations, etc. Sales Force Automation helps in facilitating better work culture, improves sales targets, reduces redundancy of tasks, and achieves better sales targets. If you are a small company or a global enterprise, this app can increase your productivity as a sales agent, which in turn improves the ROI for your company.

    What is a Sales Force Automation app?

    Field Force Manager is a type of software that is designed to monitor, automate, and streamline various key business areas like sales activity, management, payroll management, attendance management, sales pipeline management, sales team performance evaluation, account management, and expense management. This software can be customized based on your business needs, and it also provides actionable insights that will help you in tracking, managing, and improving your sales team.

    Benefits 

    Let us review some of the benefits of the Sales Force Automation App –

    • This app helps your sales workforce to perform effectively on the field by using call and chat options for sharing information. If there is a need to get any important information they can call and chat with their sales manager immediately.
    • You can easily track the attendance and manage the resources digitally with the inbuilt attendance tracking system. You can make use of the automatic scheduling of jobs to the right employee to avoid wastage of time.
    • Using this app, you can track the expenses and claims of your employees which makes the claim process easier for you and your accounts team.
    • This app helps you to track the location and routing of your technicians, which will help to avoid delays and accidental breakdowns in real-time; where unnecessary delays are avoided.
    • Through this app, it’ll be easier for you to deal with invoicing and payment follow-ups, and also you can set up reminders regarding your next payment follow up task.

    10 Reasons why you should Invest in Sales Force Automation App

    Let us discuss the top 10 reasons why you should invest in the Sales Force Automation app –

    1. The sales force automation app helps the sales managers to make better decisions by making use of the different reports that helps them to analyze the sales trends and performance of their field sales employees.
    2. You should know that field force automation software will not replace the sales department; rather it is considered important to effectively manage the sales teams and help them to implement the right strategies to perform better.
    3. Using this app, the management can track expenses, pending payment follow-ups, and boost sales productivity.
    4. Sales managers can assign monthly sales targets to their sales team through this app and as a result, they can view their team’s progress.
    5. Some of the Important reports of your employees such as attendance, location tracking, working hours, distance traveled, payments, and collections can be viewed in the app.
    6. The management team can view the product wise sales reports and improve sales productivity. This app helps in measuring the performance of the salesman and also provides all the details of the overall activity of a particular salesperson.
    7. With a field service management App, it is very helpful to manage and approve the expenses of your field sales employees, you can assign sales targets within the app for your team, and you can check the sales team’s progress.
    8. This app provides notifications of the payments; you can also set reminders for collecting the payments and tracking their progress. Also, your sales team can take pictures from the field and upload them to the app so that the sales manager can have a look at them.
    9. One of the main objectives of a sales force automation app is to assist the field sales force team to complete their sales target and help them to assess their performance to complete the targets.
    10. The sales process can be restructured effectively, which makes the sales process more efficient. If your team members forget to send a report, using the inbuilt features offered by the app, this can be rectified.

    Final Words

    The benefits of using Sales force automation are numerous. It provides several features to help the sales manager and the management to track, monitor, and also to improve the sales team’s performance. To tackle competition, salespeople should be eager to provide solutions to customer needs which helps them to retain the customer. Recent research shows that Field Service Software has been adopted by several companies across India; their ROI has increased 25% on an average, after using this app. Since the economy is moving towards digitization, adopting sales force management software is the best move.

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