In the age of evolving technology, tasks done by sales teams on ground such as planning visits, taking orders, following up with retailers, on-boarding new stores, updating on sales opportunities has to be automated which can help sales teams over these time-consuming tasks and focus on strategies for increasing sales. Here is where Sales Force Automation (SFA) or sales automation comes into the picture. It is essentially an automation software which delivers the best technological solution to control, manage and deliver instructions to your sales force in the field. Most of the FMCG Industries has pioneered the use of sales force automation software around the world to facilitate large organizations with sales enhancement, better communication and better management of field sales executives.
What is Sales Force Automation Solution?
Sales Force Automation solution is one of the technological advancements which automates the entire tiresome sales processes, offering a rapid digital communication to the field sales representatives with dealers, distributors and other stakeholders. Sales Force Automation is a relatively new concept which has exhibited excellent results in the past few years for businesses around the world, especially FMCG & Consumer Goods Companies.
1. What is Sales Force Automation Solution?
2. What are the changes observed by the adoption of SFA?
2.1 Streamlined centralized system
2.2 Transmission channel
2.3 Better Retailer Connections
2.4 Data management
3. Benefits of Sales Force Automation over traditional sales processes
3.1 Rapid Solutions on Field Sales Problems
3.2 Data insights on sales
3.3 Objective-oriented Execution
3.4 Decline in sales cost
4. What are the key sales processes to automate?
4.1 Potential customer identification
4.2 Tracking leads
4.3 Organizing meetings and calls
4.4 Gathering data through conducted meetings or calls
4.5 Order management
What are the changes observed by the adoption of SFA?
Adoption of Sales Force Automation in businesses has led to several changes in the field sales and marketing processes, such as,
Streamlined centralized system
Sales force automation software offers a centralized system which provides updated information on every activity to all its users in a streamlined manner.
Transmission channel
Sales force automation software facilitates real-time digital communication between the field sales reps, managers, dealers and stakeholders for seamless field sales and marketing functions across trades.
Better Retailer Connections
Sales force automation helps modernized business functions like delivery, follow-up, visual merchandising audit, feedback and so on which enhances correlation between retailers.
Data management
The data mustered and stored through sales force automation serves as crucial ground to analyze the performance, customer experience, potential prospects and several other factors in a competitive industry.
Benefits of Sales Force Automation over traditional sales processes
Traditional sales process fails to provide optimal results in this competitive world. With advancement in technology, most businesses have adopted technological tools such as automation software, recruiting software, employee tracking software to increase their productivity and thereby increase their sales. Let us see in detail some top benefits reaped through the adoption of sales force automation solutions.
Rapid Solutions on Field Sales Problems
Unlike the traditional sales method followed, field reps do not need to come back and report at their business premise to receive the next visit schedule or feedback from their management as the sales reps can avail and share real-time data from the field itself. With this software the communication gap is completely eliminated and sales reps can find quicker solutions for any field sales problem.
Data insights on sales
SFA solutions offer more insights which can help you to build business intelligence to plan and target your sales results in future. The software can also track down sales activities of sales reps in the field which helps to improve sales behavior by not only improving the output KPIs but also on input based sales activities known as key behavioral indicators (KBI’s). This in-turn can enable the organization to detect the learning needs of individual sales reps to provide targeted digital training to enhance the sales behavior of field teams.
Objective-oriented Execution
Sales Force Automation enables organizations to set and track their sales targets by helping the business to reach their objective. Cutting off the manual work from day-to-day sales tasks and automating it helps in getting rid of repetitive manual tasks and helps in focusing on customer acquisition process and maintaining relationships with your existing customers. This enables the companies to fetch better returns by integrating SFA when compared to traditional sales processes.
Decline in sales cost
Sales force automation can decrease sales process related costs by potentially increasing sales performance and revenue as the sales process is rapid and seamless. As the time-consuming manual tasks are performed faster, without constant input from a person the business revenue increases as the organization will be able to find good-match of customers resulting in closing more deals.
What are the key sales processes to automate?
Let us check out some of the key sales processes which have to be automated to take a business to the futuristic world.
Potential customer identification
By adapting SFA, organizations can easily seek out the best new customers for their business, by finding the best leads and gaining relevant information on them. With client’s action on your business website, most promising leads can be gained with the actual data collected through SFA tool. By assessing your prospect’s needs through automation tools, your sales team could approach them accordingly on their specific needs.
Tracking leads
An SFA system can detect the prospect’s actions and engagement with your business to inform you the appropriate time to reach out and talk to them. Some AI-powered sales automation platforms can also evaluate and prioritize leads based on different specs like their company, role, location and so on to track the most promising leads.
Organizing meetings and calls
Sales automation has made the process of scheduling meetings and calls with potential leads an easier one. For instance, Prospects can simply look out the sales rep’s calendar right away to pick a meeting or call date on their convenient time and day.
Gathering data through conducted meetings or calls
Data collection is one of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks in the sales process. Some SFA tools featuring Artificial Intelligent (AI) can capture data about the customer, their business and can upload it directly into the integrated CRM system.
Order management
The SFA system can easily handle contact management and order management by recording calls, emails and meetings automatically. SFA with AI can also track previous deals to recommend potential offers, thus creating an optimal deal for a specific customer.
Conclusion
To conclude, a single SFA automated dashboard can guide your business to increase its productivity with optimal results. Sterison Technology Private Limited helps to take your business to a futuristic world through several business automation features in SFA. Connect with us today to know more.
