Field Sales Management: 6 Massive Challenges and “#1” Solution

Whenever you hear “Sales,” you immediately think of meeting targets. Most sales managers expect their executives to perform exceptionally and exceed their targets.

Setting up expectations and milestones for the field sales team is fine. It is vital for the growth of the company and satisfying the customers. But, without any goal or milestone, it is hard to motivate the sales team to perform well.

Nevertheless, in the practical world, field sales teams fail to achieve targets for various reasons. And one of them is Sales Managers facing some stiff challenges in managing field sales executives and their activities daily.

Instead of addressing the challenges, sales managers try motivating the field sales team to perform better; this worsens the condition further.

So, it is all about understanding the challenges and seeking answers rather than wasting too much time arguing with the field sales team.

Without fixing the challenges in the workflow and streamlining it, there is no point in improving the overall performance of the process and field sales team.

If you’re a sales manager facing the heat of managing your field force team and improving their performance, this post will help you with a practical solution — a field sales management app.

This post details the top 6 challenges field sales managers face and a solution to overcome the shortcomings.

6 Biggest field sales management challenges

Training reps

Challenge: Hiring and training reps has always been a headache for most sales managers. They are carrying the burden of managing the sales activities; they have to spend additional hours in training and development programs for the newcomers.

This results in burnout and leaves the managers exhausted. It is one of the common challenges managers look for solutions for.

Solution: Try the field sales management application. This could be a game changer for both the reps and managers. The application enables the managers to train the new hires with virtual training and coaching, saving most of their time.

This way, the managers can manage the sales activities and effectively coach newcomers.

Planning to perfection

Challenge: Optimizing routes and planning the daily programs for field executives consumes much time for managers. Again, sudden changes in the routes or customer visit frustrate managers and executives.

So, planning the route optimization and updating the details about customer visits in real-time is necessitated for the well-being of both managers and reps.

Solution: A field force management app will be the fitting solution to this burning issue. The application enables to plan and optimize routes seamlessly.

The other good thing about the application is that it helps the managers update their plan to change in the middle of the program with the help of SMS from anywhere, anytime. Thus, it saves time and effort for both the managers and the reps.

Tracking field force team in real-time

Challenge: Marking attendance and tracking the activities of every field sales executive is a nightmare for many sales managers.

Permissions and leaves are other factors that add salt to the injury of the managers. Especially performing all the above said tasks in real-time makes it even more complicated for managers.

Solution: A field sales management solution will fit the company’s purpose and bill if you’re facing a challenge. The field sales management app helps the managers to track every activity of the managers on the go.

On the other hand, reps can easily apply for leaves or permission without visiting the office, saving time for both. Managers can adjust the program of the executive based on the activity and his production efficiency and can reward him for motivating further.

In other words, it can boost the morale of the executive additionally to produce more in a short period.

Communicating with executives in customer place

Challenge: Internal communication between managers and field sales personnel has always been challenging. The lack of perfect systems and solutions further improves the complexity of the process.

So, managers always look for solutions that simplify their communication with peers and executives.

Solution: Field sales management app to the rescue. Managers can leverage a field management app to communicate with field sales reps anywhere and at any time.

The application enables the managers to communicate via SMS, and reps can reply with details from the customer’s place without hassle using the application.

So, the real-time communication between managers and executives will accelerate the process further and help achieve the targets on time without any deviation from what is expected from the management.

Motivating reps to improve productivity

Challenge: A way to encourage your workforce to perform well is by rewarding their achievements and performances. But what if you don’t have any system or tool in place? Mainly, it is not possible with any data.

This is another challenge most managers confront daily. Lack of motivation frustrates reps and impacts their morale resulting in disengagement with the organization and increasing attribution rates.

Solution: The field sales application helps sales managers with real-time data to evaluate reps’ performances quickly and effectively.

By monitoring and assessing the performance of every agent, the manager can award the best representative for reaching a short goal or milestone with an enticing reward that will motivate him and the other workforce to perform even better.

Such an approach will encourage everyone within the company and increase productivity and customer satisfaction.

Updating CRM with accurate customer data

Challenge: Updating customer data daily and managing them is an uphill task for every manager, provided he doesn’t have the right system in place. Lack of real-time data and inaccurate data updates by the workforce is other headaches that will impact the manager’s performance.

With no accurate data to analyze, making informed decisions becomes difficult. This affects the overall growth strategy of the company and improves customer satisfaction.

Solution: Despite spending much time updating the customer data, reps can easily update the data using the field sales application.

Similarly, sales managers don’t have to sweat it out while updating the data in the CRM, as the process is completely automated. Using data making informed decisions is breezy.

Is your performance efficient and productive?

As a sales manager, you should focus on improving your and your team’s performances to accelerate productivity and efficiency.

It is almost impossible to achieve the best outcomes if you don’t have the perfect set of tools and systems.

So, what are you waiting for? If you have realized a simple application can amplify the performance and production rate staggeringly, wait no further. Take the next step by investing in a field sales app.

Want to know more about the field sales management app and its features?

Schedule and get your demo now.

BY NANDHAKUMAR SUNDARARAJ

A Technology leader with over 18 years of experience, Nandha is the visionary and the anchor of Hakuna Matata solutions — a leading Digital transformation services company. His deep technical knowledge, and experience across diverse technology make him the pillar of strength for the team