Did you know? Field sales reps spend only 35.2% of their time actively selling, while the remaining 64.8% is consumed by admin tasks and paperwork. To improve field sales, businesses must identify where time is lost and which tasks delay sales processes. The right field sales solutions help sales reps focus on closing deals rather than administrative burdens.

Field sales, in simple terms, refer to outside sales. Field sales software helps streamline various business operations, particularly for mobile sales teams. A field sales representative performs the following tasks:

• Shows product listings to customers using a digital catalog.
• Offers promotional prices and persuades customers to make purchases.
• Takes orders for future deliveries.
• Restocks shelves at retail locations.

If your business relies heavily on field sales, ‘How to Improve Field Sales’ should be a top priority. This blog will help you overcome common challenges and leverage field sales software for higher efficiency and increased revenue.

Four Common Challenges in Field Sales

1. Providing accurate pricing to customers

Field Sales representatives often face challenges when quoting prices. Many rely on outdated paper price lists, which can be confusing. Since prices fluctuate and promotions expire, keeping lists updated manually is difficult. Additionally, contacting the back office for real-time pricing slows down the sales process.

Solution: A field sales software with flexible pricing features allows real-time access to prices, making the sales process faster and easier.

2. Taking orders based on current stock

Field representatives frequently struggle with stock visibility. Without real-time inventory data, they may promise products that are unavailable.

Key Concerns include:

• Should they accept orders for out-of-stock products?
• Can they partially fulfill orders?

Solution: For better field sales solution, make sure your software has order management feature to smoothly Integrate orders with the back-office inventory systems. This will sync stock data between warehouses and sales teams.

3. Prevent Order Errors & Improve Data Accuracy

Manual order entry by field sales reps is prone to errors, making it difficult to maintain accurate records. This could lead to a loss of critical details regarding customers or orders. This creates problems downstream, when orders have to be accurately entered into an Excel or order management software.

Solution: A field sales software automatically syncs order data in real-time with the back office, preventing errors before they affect deliveries.

Additionally, digitized order processing ensures:

• Auto-filled customer & product details to reduce manual input
• Instant data validation to flag inconsistencies
• Seamless integration with inventory & accounting systems

Fact: 96% of dissatisfied customers leave without complaining. Ensuring order accuracy directly contributes to customer retention.

5. Tracking Field Sales Rep Performance with Analytics

For a business owner, tracking a Field Sales Rep’s route to ensure all calls are completed often relies on blind trust rather than real-time data. Without a proper system, managers cannot verify completed sales calls.

Solution: Look for Delivery management feature in the software you invest so you get detailed reports and live tracking of sales reps’ movements, helping businesses evaluate efficiency.

Book A Free Demo with Route Magic- Your All in One Field Sales Solution!

Top Solutions to improve field sales:

Efficient field sales solutions allow businesses to respond more quickly to customer needs, optimize resource allocation, and reduce waste or downtime. While many strategies can be implemented, we’ve picked out the top strategies that will help improve the efficiency of field operations.

1. Flexible pricing strategy to improve field sales

With Routemagic software, flexible pricing strategies can easily be configured, making closing deals easy for field sales reps.

Routemagic software showing stock visibility, can be seen on the field sales mobile app too along with pricing limits.

With Routemagic, the field sales reps can do all of these:

• Quickly access product prices without contacting the back office or looking up a manual catalogue
• View pricing limits that are set per product/customer
• Offer custom discounts to loyal customers, as set in the system
• Thereby, field sales reps can adjust prices in real time based on customer needs.

2. Real-time stock visibility to improve field sales

Research from Capgemini shows that integrated order and warehouse management systems lead to:

• 20% increase in inventory accuracy
• 15% improvement in order fulfillment rates
• 25% reduction in order processing times

This field sales solution will give your sales reps the confidence as they will know exactly what’s in stock while taking orders. RouteMagic provides:

• Accurate stock visibility to prevent overselling and backorders.
• Orders from customers are placed in real-time in the back office app for fullfilment.
• Enjoy real-time stock visibility and updates to reduce the risk of stockouts.
• Access custom promotions and pricing lists from their Mobile App.
• Boost productivity by speeding up the sales cycle, reducing admin tasks

3. Use a Field Sales Mobile App for Efficiency

Are your field sales reps struggling to manage orders, inventory, and customer data on the go?Routemagic inventory management system, has an easy-to-use field sales mobile app, eliminating unnecessary back-and-forth communication. This app includes:

• Real-time order placement and instant back-office updates.
• Live inventory visibility to reduce stockouts.
• Easy access to custom pricing and promotions.

4. Boost Field Sales Productivity with Data Analytics

High-performing teams are 1.5x more likely to use data for sales forecasts. Data is invaluable for small and medium-sized businesses. Field sales analytics can provide:

• Insights into time spent at customer sites
• Order history and sales patterns.
• Compliance tracking and reporting.

RouteMagic’s analytics, offer businesses valuable insights into customer data and field sales activities to improve field sales!

Case Study: BITS n BOBS

Here is an interesting story of how Bits N Bobs, an FMCG wholesaler located in Manchester whose product range includes household essentials, stationery, vaping products, and mobile phone accessories, improved their business operations.

Check out How RouteMagic helped Bits ‘N’ Bobs with better stock control and sales visibility.

FAQs

1. What is the field sales approach?

A field sales approach is a very strategic approach where field representatives meet with existing customers or meet potential customers to sell products.

2. What is field sales software?

Field Sales software is a digital tool that streamlines field operations for both back-office supervisors and field sales representatives. It enables field reps to take orders instantly or for future dates based on stock availability, supported by a back-office app for managing orders and inventory and a mobile app for on-the-go sales.

3. What is CRM in field sales?

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in field sales is a software solution designed to help businesses manage their interactions with customers and streamline their sales processes. In the context of field sales, CRM enables field representatives to efficiently track leads, manage customer relationships, and close deals while on the move.

4. Difference between Field sales CRM and Field Service CRM

Although the target for both Field Sales CRM and Field Service CRM is the same, managing customer relationships, the process is different. Field Sales CRM focuses on managing the sales process, leads, and customer preferences outside the office in such a way that it drives revenue and growth. Whereas Field Service CRM focuses on dispatching, scheduling, and managing customer details for technicians who perform on-site services.