9 Tips to Boost Your Field Sales Team's Productivity Using Field Sales Management Software
A sales representative's job is not easy. They are always on their toes — conducting different client meetings, reporting back to management, creating sales funnel, and much more.
When sales reps are working from a desk in your office space, you can pop in and check their progress anytime. But unfortunately, when your sales team is on the field, you don't have the leverage to frequently check their performance and keep them engaged.
Since fieldwork is important and unavoidable for sales teams; thus, sales managers should use Field Employee Management Solutions to manage their field workers.
Field sales management software can help to stay connected with field workers and monitor their progress in real-time. It can also set field workers' schedules so they can focus on the priority tasks and build personal relationships with customers.
Field sales management apps are highly effective in boosting your team's productivity without micromanaging them. Really?
Yes, at TrackOlap,we have already helped several field sales teams to deliver high-quality services. Below we have mentioned a few quick tips to improve individual sales rep's productivity using field sales management software.
Let's dig in.
Tip #1. Get Your Sales Team On Board
Before investing in a field sales management software, have a meeting with your sales team and clear up all their fears. It is common for employees to think that they will lose some leverage, and managers will start to micromanage their work with live tracking tools.
Therefore, managers need to show a long-term view to sales staff. They should tell employees how automated field solutions will help them better perform their duties. Show them how automation can save their time. In addition, discuss how self-evaluating performance reports can help employees grow professionally.
In short, managers have to discuss employee monitoring software benefits with the sales team. They should also demonstrate to employees how they can use software to deliver high-quality services and convert more leads.
Once your staff is on board with the field automation solutions, they can help you drive maximum return. Plus, they can make suggestions to better use software to streamline the company's field operations.
Tip #2. Adopt Mobile-friendly Solution
The most important field automation tip is to get mobile-friendly field sales management software. Field sales reps can't carry heavy laptops with them all the time. Imagine how annoying it will be for employees to plug in their laptops every time they need to send or receive updates from the back office.
Therefore, it is mandatory to get field sales software with mobile support. This allows your field team to easily access the app, mark their attendance, and receive daily assignments or progress reports. They can also quickly send work status and receive intel from managers on their mobile devices.
Therefore, while designing the TrackOlap field sales management app, we make it our mission to create a mobile-friendly solution. Today, users can easily download our app from the App Store and Google Play Store. In fact, you can download the app on tablets and other mobile devices for better accessibility.
Tip #3. Fetch Real-time Location Data
Managers are always concerned about their field workers' current location. In addition, they always worry about their safety and productivity when they are on the road.
Managers often think that making phone calls and texting field sales reps after every 30 minutes is the best way to track their whereabouts.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. In fact, constant calls and texts can distract employees and jeopardize their safety. Suppose your sales rep is driving when you are calling him. It is a perfect recipe for an accident.
Here, GPS-powered field sales management software is the best solution. The software can send real-time location updates, mark an employee's live location on the map and let you geofence locations.
In fact, Employee Time Tracking Software can allow managers to look into individual employees' travel logs and check where they have been visiting in the last few days. This helps managers ensure sales reps are following their orders and taking the quickest routes to reach clients.
Tip #4. Use Live Location to Assign Tasks
A vital sales operation is chasing hot leads and converting them into paying customers. But it is not easy to pinpoint hot leads and reach them in real-time.
Thanks to field management software, sales teams have the ability to connect with hot leads quickly. Using the live location data, managers can assign leads that are near to them. They can also mark priority leads based on their position in the sales funnel.
This practice enables sales reps to connect with leads when they are hot. This, in return, will increase sales and revenue in your firm.
So, leverage real-time location data to empower your sales teams.
Tip #5. Look for Cloud integration
Besides the mobile support, cloud integration is the best feature for a field sales management app. You never know what information your sales rep might need during a client meeting. And it is impossible to carry a physical copy of all the client documents.
Thus, cloud integration will help your employees access the clients' information anytime. They can go through the client's files before the meeting to prepare personalized deals.
Cloud integration also empowers managers to monitor and access employees' performance reports from anywhere. They can even compare an employee's performance reports over time to see an increase or decrease in their productivity.
Tip #6. Keep It Simple
While shopping for a field sales management app, make sure to get a simple and clean tool. If your team can't understand the features and interface of the software, they will not be able to properly use it.
Plus, not every person is tech-savvy. When a sales rep can't use your field sales app, this will annoy them, and eventually, they will resist using the app.
So, companies should ease the transition process by providing the right support to field forces in the beginning. They should provide proper demonstrations and tutorials to help employees understand the software. You can provide help in different manners like training sessions, documented materials, feedback sessions, etc.
At TrackOlap, we provide free demo sessions to clients so they can better make their team understand the software features. In addition, we have built a vast blog gallery that helps users know how to use our solutions and explore all the latest market trends. And our 24*7 customer support is always available to help you out.
Tip #7. Harness Transparency
Transparency is vital to making your field workers productive and earning their trust. When you use automated performance reports, you can bring transparency to your workflow.
Your employee will know that productivity reports are generated based on real-time data, so no personal basis is involved. Also, the same standards are used to monitor every field worker's performance.
Besides this, you can maintain a transparent workflow in the organization. Assigning tasks via a centralized dashboard allows employees to check work assigned to everyone in the team. This way, they can see how you equally distribute work among all your employees.
Creating a transparent work environment will reward you with honest and loyal field workers who won't hesitate to go the extra mile for your company.
Tip #8. Make the Software Part of your Company Culture
Top management should be dedicated to promoting the field sales management software in the organization. They need to include the software in the daily work operations.
Management should consult individual field sales reps to listen to their feedback, needs, and challenges. They should not only listen to employees but work on their feedback.
You can use the software itself to collect feedback. For instance, you can create custom forms to get field workers along with their digital signatures.
Tip #9. Develop a Field Automation Policy
We have often noticed that companies simply order field force automation solutions and enforce them in the workflow. They don't tell employees how they plan to use the software and how it will impact them.
All this can confuse field workers and reduce their productivity. Therefore, we recommend our clients create a proper field automation policy, including—
● Which performance metrics will you consider?
● How do you plan to track employees' locations?
● What are your expectations from field workers? Etc.
We have added a policy management center to our software family to make the policy creation process easy. This will help management to quickly draft field tracking and monitoring rules and share them with concerned individuals to get consent from them in real-time.
Let's Empower Your Field Teams Today!
There you go, people! You now know how to make your field sales reps productive using the field sales management software.
You first need to get simple, mobile-friendly, and comprehensive software. Next, draft a proper fieldwork tracking policy and have one-on-one interaction with your team to show them how they can use the software to save time and become more productive. And enjoy a smooth field workflow.
That's it for now! But if you have any further queries related to the topic or want to Book a demo session with our team, drop a call or email anytime. We are eagerly waiting to help you.