Of the many factors that decide a business’s success, employee productivity and efficiency are skyrocketing top of the list. Managing the field sales team and tracking their efficiency can be a headache. 

Making the complete sales team (sales managers and field sales) focus on the tasks and work efficiently doesn’t rely only on the CEOs and CTOs. Giving them the right tools and technical assistance can help them overcome the challenges and deliver their best. 

Before getting started, let’s dive deep into understanding the challenges and factors distracting or annoying the sales team. 

Top challenges that disengage field force 

1. Attendance/permission/leave approvals
2. Task allocation/collaboration
3. Route planning/task switching
4. Meeting customers at the right time
5. Reporting to managers

The same can happen to the heads of your sales as well. It doesn’t matter whether your field force or sales heads get annoyed/disengaged. The result remains the same, a drop in productivity. 

Top challenges that disengage sales managers

1. Monitoring field sales executives away
2. Assigning routes, tasks
3. Following up for updates
4. Updating reports at the end of the day
5. Tracking efficiency of field sales executive 
6. Reporting to management with data 

What should businesses do to engage field sales and accelerate productivity?

Most field sales teams of different companies confront the above challenges. The ONE reason for all the challenges is either lack of complete automation or partial automation software implemented by the businesses. 

Even today, many field sales executives report to the managers in the morning and start their day-to-day activities. The process takes some time, and the sales executives have only a few hours to meet the customers on time. 

After completing the daily chores, they report to the sales managers in the evening to provide updates on the customer meetings. 

On the other hand, the managers are clueless whether a sales representative has met the customer at the specific location until he updates/reports to the office. The process lacks transparency and results in a productivity loss for field sales executives and sales managers. 

The total productivity loss from the sales team hits the business’s bottom line hard and leads to the de-branding of the company. 

If your sales team faces the above challenges, you’re not alone. The above-shared challenges can be mitigated with the help of field service management software. 

Top benefits of leveraging field sales app 

• Transparency to the entire process 
• Seamless route planning and task allocation
• Live-tracking app 
• On-the-go reporting 
• 100% accuracy/faster decision making 
• Peace of mind

Let’s discuss each benefit in detail in the sections below. 

6 Ways field service automation helps your sales team to boost productivity

Brings transparency to the sales cycle

A significant problem most sales team faces is the communication between field sales executives and sales managers. Often, sales managers don’t get any updates from the field sales team. 

Similarly, the field sales team is let down by managers sometimes. Lack of transparency in the process hurts the sales performance and customer experience. 

With field service management software in place, sales managers can quickly discover where the field sales executive is and can instantly communicate with sales managers regarding customer meetings. 

Often the software comes up with a field sales app. This simplifies the communication and eliminates the communication block between field sales and sales teams, improving operations and efficiency. 

Seamless route planning and task allocation

Assigning tasks and planning routes for field sales is often a headache for most sales heads. Even more challenging is tracking the field sales team when they are out. On the other hand, field sales face challenges if there is a problem in the route assigned to them. 

This leads to a dilemma and slows down the sales cycle. 

On the other hand, the field sales management software helps the sales team assign tasks and plan the routes without any discomfort. Even if there is a change in the route, the field sales team quickly updates the sales managers so that they can reengage another field sales person near the vicinity to get the meeting done. 

This saves time and improves operational efficiency. 

Live tracking of field sales activities

Tracking and monitoring the day-to-day activities of sales persons is a massive challenge for sales managers. Sometimes they don’t even know whether the scheduled appointment is made or missed until the field sales executive updates at the end of the day. 

The lack of daily updates causes a delay in the sales cycle. 

Sales managers can track every field sales person for customer meetings without using field sales automation software. 

The live field sales tracking feature helps the sales heads to track the activities of the field sales team live. This gives them a quick update on the scheduled meeting progress. 

On-the-go reporting

Updating the sales data from the field sales at the end of the day is one hell of a task for field sales managers and the field sales team. On the other hand, no matter how long it takes, field sales have to update their reports to the managers at the end of the day. 

Both processes consume much time and bring down the sales cycle. 

Field sales can use the on-the-go reporting feature of field service management software to update their activities from anywhere, at any time. Similarly, the sales manager doesn’t have to wait till the end of the day, saving their time. 

The automation software for the field force simplifies the entire process, leading to faster sales cycles. 

100% Accuracy and faster decision making

What if you have sales data updated daily, which is inaccurate? It doesn’t make any difference. Without automation, manufacturing errors are always possible, impacting the performance and efficiency of field sales activities and sales cycle. 

Above all, with false data in hand, decision-making becomes an uphill task. 

The field force automation software eliminates the possibility of errors in the data entered, which helps make faster and more formidable decisions. The accurate data depicts the exact picture of the sales activities and their impact on the business candidly. 

Peace of mind

As most of the process is automated with the help of field sales software, the sales manager and field sales team don’t have to sweat out a lot when performing the day-to-day activities. 

Both teams can complete the tasks well within the stipulated time, which gives much time to get a good night’s sleep and spend time with their families. This helps them to focus and deliver better.  

Final thoughts 

Providing the sales team with the right tools and technology is the best way to engage and delight them. With best-in-class field service management software, both teams can perform and deliver to their best. 

Do you have the right tools for your sales team? Still, is relying on outdated systems disengaging your workforce and team’s performance?

It’s time to re-evaluate your strategy. The competition is brimming, and you must act fast before your competitor does. 

Looking for suggestions or got queries about field sales improvement or software? We are all ears.