Be it a small, medium, or large company, and if your sales team is not performing to the mark, then there are chances that your competitors will outsmart you.
Effective sales operations are critical for the success of every business. And, it is a must to understand the sales team’s needs to improve their efficiency.
Mostly, defective planning, inadequate goal setting, lack of preparation, imperfect execution, and inferior team handling leads to sales rep’s production decline.
Also, not presenting them with the right tools and technologies can play a critical role in the decline of operational efficiency.
Let’s analyze each challenge in detail in the sections below.
Tip #1: Inadequate to near-to-perfect goal setting
Every sales rep must have a specific goal for the long-term and short-term to boost the business bottom line. In reality, what happens is the lack of goal setting or setting up unrealistic goals that are challenging to execute.
Goals should be realistic and should be discussed with the sales rep beforehand. Many factors like the number of customer meet-ups in a day, status updates, attendance, leaves, and reporting have to be analyzed ahead.
However, performing all the tasks manually consumes much time, and it might take a day or two to develop a realistic goal. This can affect the sales rep’s weekly productivity and impact overall sales goals and cycles.
How to set goals in a short period?
The best way to improve the goal-setting is by implementing field force automation solution. Mobile app-enabled automation software will simplify a sales manager’s woes in setting feasible goals.
The exact help the workforce to work on the goals, check the progress, and adhere to the deadlines to ensure that both the sales team and they are on the same track.
Setting up goals in the automation software is relatively simple, and you can easily do it without a sweat.
Another fantastic benefit of having field service software is the reward system. For every short-term goal achieved, every rep can be rewarded with a gift or incentive that boosts his confidence and morale to perform better for the upcoming weeks.
And, sales managers don’t have to spend much time assessing and rewarding the systems with the help of the software.
Tip #2: Defective to practical sales rep tasks and planning
Without a specific plan and action items, it is hard for any sales team to meet the deadlines.
With sales being the heart of the enterprise, having a defective plan for the week can quickly derail your entire sales process.
Defective task planning is primarily due to manual operations and status updates from sales reps. A sales manager can plan anything, but everything does not need to be executed by the representatives.
Starting from route planning to customer meetings setting up the right tasks for a day is vital to improving the customer service and business bottom line.
How do you improve defective task planning?
Leveraging the tools and technology is the best way to improve field sales efficiency. Setting up a realistic plan with a field sales tracker and mobile app is never difficult.
It takes only a few minutes for the sales reps to update their daily status about customer meetings and for managers to set up tasks and routes for the sales force.
The app simplifies both the challenges effortlessly. With the updates in hand, tracking the number of meetings and tasks closed is seamless.
It helps in long-term planning and task allocation. The field force tracker enabled with Google Maps can also help the reps identify alternate routes during natural calamities or avoid roads not destined for traveling.
Tip #3: Lackluster to well-defined preparation
Most often, the sales reps out for meeting customers don’t have the right tools to list their to-dos. With manual notebooks or pieces of paper, it is hard to track and stick to their plan.
Also, it is ubiquitous for humans to miss out on an essential piece of advice or suggestion from the management and customers. As they don’t have the right technology tool to capture customer feedback, satisfying them will be challenging.
How to improve lackluster planning?
On the other hand, if you have advanced field service management app with an inbuilt to-do-list feature, it is easy for your reps to prepare well in advance.
It won’t take much time to record the customer feedback/suggestions. Also, they can easily take notes using the mobile app, digitally authenticate customer signatures, etc.
With this approach, the sales reps can save time, won’t miss any details, and perform their best to their potential.
Tip #4: Inferior to the superior team handling
Handling a team of sales reps is always challenging for most sales managers. Without the right tool or system in place, managers have to deal with many papers to evaluate every sales rep’s performance and efficiency.
Every detail of the day’s updates from a sales rep must be studied before sitting with the representatives for a weekly meeting.
Inaccurate or missed data leads to chaos and creates disengagement between a rep and sales manager.
For sales managers, understanding the challenges of reps, day-to-day closures, and the progress of weekly planning is backbreaking.
How to improve inferior team handling?
A simple field force software powered by a mobile app can simplify the above challenge for your sales team.
The app helps the reps update every detail on the go, and the complete data is captured in the CRM without manual effort. The sales manager must process the data, discover the best rep of the week, and reward handsomely.
With this approach, handling the team becomes seamless and improves the operational efficiency of both the sales managers and reps.
Final thoughts
From the above discussion, it is evident that field service software can transform the way the sales crew works. By saving time and boosting your sales team’s operational efficiency, the business can experience skyrocketing outcomes with improved customer experience.
Is your organization facing the challenges above? Is your sales team performing to their potential? If not, it is high time to rethink your strategy.
Invest in the right automation software to improve your sales team’s efficiency.
Want to experience the power of our field force automation software? Start your free trial today.