The practice of selling out in the ‘field’ has been around for many years. In fact, the reason it’s known as field selling is that years ago, salespeople trekked across the fields to get from town to town and sell their wares.
Thankfully, things have progressed since then, especially in the world of technology – to the extent that field sales reps now travel in cars, but more importantly, use the miracle that is field sales software turning a previously tiresome manual sales process into a seamless, automated one.
As technology has moved on even further, there is a wealth of field sales software solutions to choose from. With so many available – how can you spot the best one for your business?
IMAGE: PEXELS
Before You Research – Ask Yourself Some Questions
The best place to start before investing in B2B software is to ask yourself – what are the specific needs of your business? Are you a small brand or a large wholesaler? What problems do you want to solve? Is your priority to acquire new customers or maintain existing relationships?
Once you have a better idea of your priorities you can choose the best field sales software for you. But there are some other important factors to bear in mind before choosing. Let’s look at some of them…
Field Sales Software Must Give Your Team The Tools They Need To Be Productive
The software must be user-friendly and simple to use. This will encourage your sales reps to use it and will make the switchover, from a manual process to an automated one, as seamless as possible.
By eliminating paperwork, the whole sales process, from taking the order to fulfilling it, is a much quicker process. Your sales reps can use this time to increase their order size and margins. They can use customers previous orders as a template, saving time and increasing productivity. They can define customized price lists, offer discounts whilst checking out and introduce special offers in real-time.
These features are so effective that according to a study by Nucleus Research, sales reps experience an increase of 26.4% in productivity by using field sales software.
Your Sales Managers Need Full Visibility Of Their Sales Team
Sales reps need the motivation to achieve their targets and this motivation should come from their manager. But sales managers are busy people and may be managing many people at one time. Using field sales software is a great way to track sales reps activities from a single platform, ensuring they are meeting their targets, to communicate effectively with them and update them with any new information.
Will Your Field Sales Software Work Side-By-Side With Your B2B E-Commerce?
It may seem counter-intuitive to be thinking about field sales software working with B2B eCommerce but when done right your field sales reps can be your best ambassadors for promoting a B2B e-commerce platform.
Forrester estimates that B2B eCommerce will reach $1.2 trillion and account for 13.1% of all B2B sales in the US by 2021
The question is ‘How to do it right?’ You need to make sure your field sales software and your B2B eCommerce software are part of the same solution so both know what the other is doing in terms of orders and therefore stock availability and managing and monitoring customer accounts.
You also need to make sure your field sales reps are onboard. Do this by making B2B eCommerce sales to their customers count as part of their incentive plan. A win-win for you and them. By investing in one solution that has you covered in both field sales and B2B eCommerce you are covering yourself for the future.
Follow the guidelines above to spot the best field sales software for your business.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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