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What Are The Benefits Of Mobile Field Sales Application For FMCG Companies?

The FMCG sector in India is significantly growing. It is expected that by 2026, the market capital of FMCG will be around $220 million. Furthermore, reports by Nielsen show that the Indian FMCG sector has grown significantly from the first quarter of January to March.

Over the years, the face of sales has changed significantly. Companies send their field sales agents to connect with their clients, but they have to keep a manual record of everything. With the coming in of mobile field sales apps, things have changed.

How Is The Mobile Field Sales App Helping?

The evolution in SFA technology has brought about significant improvements in the mobile field sales app. Companies are now using these field sales mobile apps to execute all major marketing and on-field operations.

The main purpose of the mobile field sales application is to ensure the organization of all details from the ground level. Today, businesses need real results, and a reliable mobile field sales app offers them.

The field force management software revolutionizes the industry as it digitizes and automates the workflow. Therefore, the sales representative can connect real-time and manage every transaction from their phones during the field visit b

Benefits Of FMCG Field Sales App

Having a field sales app for the FMCG business can be extremely helpful as it helps to streamline the entire business activity. Some of the common benefits of having an FMCG field sales app include the following:

1. Aligned Ground Execution

Failing to align the execution process is one of the main reasons many businesses fail to achieve their goals. Having a mobile field sales app helps monitor and track the company’s sales. Furthermore, it also helps to track the on-field activities.

When companies have real-time data of on-field activity, they can align their strategies better. Having an efficient mobile field sales app for the business is highly beneficial. Nonetheless, it is necessary to determine that the FMCG field sales app aligns with business goals. It helps to increase revenue by completing the small targets.

2. Solves Problems With AI Assistance

Having a field sales order app has become extremely crucial for business. One of the main purposes of the system is to generate numerous charts and reports. While this may seem easy, doing it manually can be time-consuming.

The new-age field sales order app can track all the details, thereby assisting the GTM strategy. With the help of these apps, the companies can be aware of the potential problems or shortcomings they face in field execution. Depending on their reports, the sales manager can act accordingly to solve the problem.

3. Better Customer Relationship Management

Irrespective of the field you’re operating in, customer relationship management is extremely crucial, especially for business growth. The field sales application helps you understand customer behavior.

Times are changing, and people don’t want to buy any product randomly. Before purchasing any product, they want to know how the particular purchase will add value. Apart from the quality of products, the customers also want quality service.

Opting or developing customer relationship management can often turn out to be a gigantic task. However, the field force automation software is helping to overcome it by direct integration with the CRM. You can easily get new customers with proper relationship management via different channels such as B2B, HoReCa, and more.

The mobile field sales app helps streamline the entire business process. It also aids lead management and customer relationship management. When you interact with your customers, you get to know them. Hence, this is one of the best ways to win your customer’s trust.

4. Improvement In Sales Behavior

It is how you approach your customer that decides whether you win over them or not. The field sales mobile app plays a vital role in improving sales behavior. All these new apps follow the latest technologies and ways to improve behavior.

One of the most prominent ways these field sales order apps help to improve behavior is gamification. When the sales representative behaves efficiently, they are awarded points and medals. This practice is extremely crucial as the companies get to analyze the employee’s behavior. It also helps to understand where the employee lacks and what steps can be given to improve it.

 

 

5. Digitization Of Sales

One of the significant benefits of the field sales order app is that it helps automate everything. Data entry, physical attendance, and all such things are no longer needed. As long as you have an app, things can work efficiently.

The sales management software has helped automate and digitize the entire sector. Moreover, it reduces the need for manual interference in tasks. The FMCG companies can benefit the most from it to reach a wider target audience. Besides, retailers, sales representatives, and distributors can collaborate in real-time to automate the entire business activity.

6. Better Planning And Execution

Following up is one of the most monotonous and hectic tasks. It is crucial to keep a tab on the clients to ensure reliability. What if they aren’t? It’s a total waste of time. However, with the help of mobile field sales apps, everything can be aligned as per the client’s demands. The sales representative will need to connect with the customer, and the app will manage the other things. This will help in an increase in revenue generation too.

7. Increase In Revenue

The mobile field sales app helps to digitize the entire order management system. This helps increase the order size, which eventually leads to an increase in revenue. Furthermore, it also plays a vital role in cross-selling and upselling that proves to be efficient, especially when you have promotional and trade offers.

Summing Up

It is extremely crucial to have a reliable and efficient mobile field sales application. There are too many of them available in the market, which is why you must research to understand what you need. It will help to promote growth and meet business goals. This will help to overcome any challenges, especially in the FMCG market.

A Guide to Choosing the Best Distributor Management System for the FMCG Companies

Distributor management refers to the successful movement of goods from producing to selling. It is like an umbrella term that consists of various activities such as warehouse management, inventory management, logistics management, and supplier-vendor relationship management.

There have been significant changes in the supply chain industry. According to Forbes, around 65% of executives in the logistics, supply chain, and transportation sectors believe that the industry has noticed massive changes in recent times. However, it is also suffering from slight disruption. Many businesses are switching to a distribution management system to automate the business process.

What Is Distribution Management?

As suggested earlier, distribution management refers to the process of managing a product right from producing it to delivering it. With the help of distribution management software, you can check everything you’re offering to the customer.

Within the distributor management system, you will track various activities. In some instances, distribution management systems can also help with blockchain.

Importance Of Distributor Software For FMCG

Consumer goods companies must analyze the market expansion rate and develop strategic management supply chains, and this helps them establish long-term relationships with distributors. Choosing the right distributor software for FMCG can play an essential role in adding value to your business.

Furthermore, the importance of FMCG distribution channel management system software includes the following:

1. Reducing Pilferage

When companies invest in a good distribution management system, they contribute towards lowering the pilferage cost for business. Furthermore, it also reduces the overall capital cost for overstocking.

2. Integration Of Business Operations

Businesses should focus on integrating business operations at a large scale. The distributor management system helps to offer a centralized platform of communication for the company and distributors. Therefore, it can be said that the software helps to fix the communication gap and integrate it all within a single platform.

3. Better Visibility Of Secondary Sales

When you analyze the secondary sales, you can focus on sales execution. With better visibility of secondary sales, businesses can focus on including different strategies that will help to improve their trade scheme.

4. Better Distributor Experience

The main aim of distributor management software is to offer an organized management system. It also helps to provide automated claims with proper reward management. A proper distributor experience promises long-term relationships.

5. Utilization Of Offers And Schemes

When you have secondary sales visibility, you can utilize the offers and schemes that distributors usually give. With real-time data integration, companies can use these schemes most effectively.

How To Choose The Distributor Management Application?

A distributor software will play an essential role in integrating the business. According to ISM, in 2019, around 39% of companies had to suffer a ‘war room’ situation because of disruptions in the supply chain market.

The right distributor software for FMCG can help bring a significant difference in the business, and it will help you analyze how to manage the distribution nuances. If you plan to use distributor management software, you need to consider different factors while choosing it.

Some of the most critical factors that can help you choose the best distributor management software include:

1. Understand The Retail And Distribution Landscape

Before choosing software, you need to know what your retail and distribution landscape looks like. The distributor management software that you choose should solve problems within the retail visibility. Furthermore, the software should also share compatibility with your distribution management.

You need to check if you need any additional services such as cloud integration and more. If you need such services, you need to choose software that caters to those needs.

2. Does It Solve The Adoption Issues Within Your Business?

Many businesses are likely to face adoption problems. If the software doesn’t ease the lack of adoption problems, you shouldn’t use it. Adoption issues include catering to the demand of multiple brands.

Whenever you choose a distribution management system, you need to analyze if it solves the major issues. The system you choose should cater to your current distribution landscape, which helps to ensure that you will get long-term benefits of accessing benefits for your business.

3. Ease Of Use

Is the platform easy to use? Not only should a distributor management system be compatible, but it should also be easy to use. This will help determine that everyone within the business ecosystem can use the platform properly.

You should check if it can be easily integrated into your system or not. This will help you understand if you are using it correctly.

4. Get Free Demos

Many distributor management software providers offer free demos. With the help of demos, you will be able to check if the particular software meets your brand requirements or not. Yes, you should refrain from purchasing any software that isn’t compatible with your system.

Apart from demos, you should also check the reviews. Unless you have positive reviews about the platform, do not purchase it.

5. Implementation Timeline

How long does it take to implement the software? Implementation has always been one of the tough challenges. You need to ensure that the software doesn’t take a lot of time to implement and can be easily used by the employees and teammates.

Whenever choosing software for your business, you need to identify your goals. Furthermore, you can track data across the platform and create a realistic timeline to receive better results. You need to know what you’re getting into to have the best results.

Final Words

The B2B businesses are moving in a positive direction. You need to identify the distribution management system that will fit the requirements. You should also consider choosing a plan that will suit your needs and add value to the organization.

You can compare the different options and choose one that fits your needs the most. Research is crucial to ensure that there is no risk of drawbacks, and the system should bring about creative and budget-friendly results. However, it is advisable to choose software that will bring maximum benefits to your business and help you overcome the challenges.

How To Improve FMCG Sales During Covid?

After the pandemic, sales numbers in the FMCG sector are usually a cause of concern for most companies. It is a time when people are not sure if they need to continue buying the product, and hence sales drop.

According to Insight Market, April sales in the FMCG segment fell 34%. After experiencing single-digit growth in the first quarter, companies have found ways to combat this dip in FMCG sales software by introducing discounts on their products or even a buy one get one free offer.

So this blog comes with several ideas to improve FMCG sales.

Let’s get started!

FMCG During The COVID World

In the years before the pandemic, the consumer goods industry was booming and undergoing significant changes. Since mid-2018, the industry has slowed, with a steady decline in growth by January/February 2020, with teen growth rates nearly halving.

FMCG players have attempted to compete by cutting prices and increasing consumer offerings in this scenario. The FMCG sector in India has recently increased faster than its urban counterparts, FMCG products are about half of the total rural spending.

With about 12% of the world’s population, which live in villages in India, the Indian national FMCG market is the driving force for the entire industry. FMCG companies plan to develop their national affiliates by introducing small packages for goods that are likely to fit people’s incomes in India’s countryside.

This is an excellent example of how companies constantly develop new growth strategies to increase FMCG sales.

Ideas To Improve FMCG Sales During COVID

1. Create A New Sales Strategy

The world of FMCG sales is constantly changing, and it takes a keen eye to stay relevant. By using the proper marketing techniques, you can get customers to notice your brand more often, which leads to higher sales.

Salespeople must be able to analyze the needs of their clients and try to anticipate their future needs. They must also know how to create long-term strategies to meet those needs.

This may involve working with different departments in the company and with external partners to serve customers better. Then, the sales department collaborates closely with marketing, operations, public relations to achieve their sales goals with sales force automation FMCG.

Another example is that using social media is one of the best ways to update your sales plan. Social media is an excellent tool for FMCG brands because it helps marketers connect with their target audience in an authentic way that’s not too pushy or sales-focused.

2. Improve Communication With Retailers

Communication is the key to any successful business, especially in the FMCG sector during covid. Since communication between two parties is an interactive process, it is crucial that each party involved in a transaction can correctly convey their requirements and expectations.

Communication between FMCG brands and retailers is an essential part of increasing sales. Retailers are responsible for stocking and selling products and providing in-store services to customers.

The relationship is concurrently beneficial for both parties: FMCG brands provide retailers with products, which they can sell at a profit. In return, retailers offer brands the exposure from being present in their stores.

With the FMCG sales app, brands can build positive relationships with their retailers because communication between the two parties can affect sales, distribution, and overall brand marketing. Bad communication can result in negative consequences.

Nowadays, using digital media to stay in touch with retailers has become the “new normal.” Not only is it easy and convenient to communicate, but it also helps build business loyalty and send great offers to existing customers.

3. Efficient Inventory Management

The inventory management of an FMCG Product is a highly complex process. Many factors affect the sales and the demand for the products.

Therefore, it has to be appropriately managed with specific steps to be followed with FMCG sales force automation software, which will help allocate the resources and manage the inventory efficiently.

  • The first step is to examine and assess the effect of various factors on sales like advertising, weather conditions, seasons, competitive activities, and many more.
  • The second step is to plan and implement while keeping in mind the sales forecasted and desired levels of stocks.
  • The third step is to make sure you’re always stocking up on the best-selling products. Be aware of how your sales are doing. The moment you notice a dip in sales, restock your shelves with more of those items.

4. Advanced Visual Merchandising Audits

In the past three years, visual merchandising has become one of the most powerful tools to increase sales of FMCG products.

Visual merchandising audits are essential for retailers and brand owners to understand how customers perceive their products, which is crucial in optimizing their products’ positioning, display, and overall marketing mix.

Retailers can use visual merchandising audits to improve the effectiveness of their entire marketing mix. For example, to enable successful visual merchandising audits, careful planning is required to ensure that all the information needed is collected.

So, the visual merchandising audit summarises the shop layout and merchandising strategy to identify any opportunity to improve sales.

5. Make the Field Force Process More Automated

COVID-related restrictions make it difficult for companies to ensure that front-line workers meet compliance and performance standards.

At the same time, manually collecting and analyzing this data and applying different policies to improve standards can be a daunting process for businesses.

So, simply automating the process of collecting sales or service information onsite in real-time using communication technology (usually a handheld computer, wireless device, or mobile phone) with an FMCG field sales app can improve productivity.

To Wrap Up Things

Some marketers are still not focusing on the digital aspect of the FMCG markets. This is a huge mistake, as digital provides much more information about what customers want, and it helps to increase sales.

This article will provide you with five steps to improve your FMCG sales during Covid. As a business owner, you can rest assured of the challenges in improving your business due to this deadly pandemic with these simple steps.

Why Should You Start Using Order Management Software Today?

The appropriate order management software can play an essential role in increasing the mobility and efficiency of the business. According to data, in the past five years, the demand for an order management solution has significantly increased, nearly double it.

Thanks to the modern eCommerce landscape, traditional manual processes are changing. While initially shipping an order would take more than five to six days, it’s being shipped in just two days because of automation. With the changing times, businesses should adapt to the changing technology. Modern technology such as the order management system can help streamline the process. According to Salesforce, due to integration, there has been a 44% increase in B2B buyers globally in 2020 alone.

What Is Order Management Software?

The primary role of order management applications is to streamline the business process to meet customers’ demands. It follows a very organized manner to ensure the smooth functioning of the business.

The order management solutions ensure a faster delivery to the customers. It manages your payment history, orders, inventory, and more. With the help of real-time data tracking, you will be able to manage your entire team, and you will understand if you and your team are on the same page.

As a result, it will help you manage your sales from start to end.

Benefits Of Order Management Solutions

If you haven’t yet implemented an order management system in your business, you should consider doing so. It streamlines your business, but it also helps to provide a great customer experience.

Here are some of the common benefits of including order management solutions for your business:

1. Numerous Product Options And Alternatives

What would you do when you’re looking for a product and it runs out of stock? You will often search for an alternative. While manually following the process can be time-consuming, the software can ease it. The software will play an important role in increasing sales by providing alternative suggestions to your employees.

Furthermore, the order management software will also provide add-on options, ensuring you don’t have to keep the customer waiting.

2. Inventory Management

The eCommerce industry has often struggled with inventory management. If your business runs out of inventory, you will not manage the orders. This will eventually bring about customer dissatisfaction.

The order management software will play an important role in tracking the inventory. Businesses of all sizes should consider using the software. However, reports suggest that only 43% of small businesses track their inventory using the software.

Businesses that sell fast-selling goods will need to keep their inventory stocked. While it will be difficult to keep a track record of it manually, the order management application can help to optimize the process. It will offer constant notifications about the status.

Furthermore, if there are slow-moving products, the software will allow you to track the sales monthly or weekly. It will also help you manage the inventory pool management across the distribution centers and stores.

3. Sales Tax Automation

Tax calculation can be time-consuming and tricky. Therefore, you must have software that performs all these complex tasks for you.

While you focus on other aspects for improving your business, you can rely on the system to do the tax calculations. Furthermore, many order management applications also come with an optional geolocation integration that helps manage the customer tax rates and integrates the sales process.

4. Credit Management

You can opt for integrating your order management software with accounting. Therefore, your entire business team can collaborate and maintain real-time sales and balances.

The account integration will provide a smooth process for the customer as it helps them view the invoices. Furthermore, it will also track which customer has exceeded the credit limit.

As it helps streamline your business activity, you can enhance customer relationships. Businesses can keep their customers from delaying payments and help those with poor credit.

5. Better Control On Data

Data control is significant for the smooth functioning of businesses. When your company has a massive influx of data, it is prevalent for you to make mistakes.

The order management application helps to reduce the chances of mistakes by offering complete control of data. It will integrate the entire process from order generation to delivery. Since it integrates everything into one place, there will be fewer mistakes.

Furthermore, businesses will not have to wait for data to be calculated. Since everything will be stored and integrated into one place, you will have the flexibility to review and amend it. As a result, you will have complete control over the data.  According to Bringg, around 57% of customers tend to stay loyal to businesses if they receive same-day delivery.

6. Automated Payment Processing

Businesses can’t automate the entire business process because it is time-consuming. However, the right order management software can play an important role in automating the whole business payment process.

It will record when the order was placed, when it was shipped, and the progress in the schedule. This will prevent your employees from engaging in tedious tasks. The software will automatically generate the invoice and send it to the customer.

With the help of software, businesses and customers will stay on the same page.

7. Returns And Exchanges

It is common for you to receive return and exchange requests in an eCommerce business. This may mostly be because of shipping the wrong item, product breaking during the delivery, late delivery, and more. Businesses try their best to reduce the risk of returns and exchanges.

Every eCommerce business should provide good after-sales support, which helps them understand customer feedback. While it was efficient for managing the system manually, now you can focus on integrating the entire process.

With the help of an order management application, your business can provide exceptional after-sales support. You can provide the flexibility to customers to use the software to initiate the returns by themselves. Furthermore, it will also help you track the refunds of the orders.

Final Words

An order management software can help conduct all the crucial tasks of your business. It will manage the returns and refunds across different channels. This will help ensure that you can offer a better refund and return services.

You can add significant value to your business with order management software. Having an order management system integrated into your business will help to increase your sales and provide a delightful experience to the customers. Therefore, if you haven’t got the order management software yet, you should consider getting it.

What Are The Benefits of Sales Force Automation Software For The Spices Industry?

Sales force automation software (SFA) is an enterprise resource planning system. It can seamlessly integrate sales, inventory, and customer management activities.

The global sales force automation software market is projected to reach $7.773 billion by 2023 and is growing at a CAGR of 10.6% between 2017 and 2023. The software also helps streamline operations and manage all the business processes in one place.

This helps to improve productivity, reduce costs, increase profits and enhance worker satisfaction through better communication and collaboration.

SFA can also be used with CRMs that help businesses manage their sales activity, including lead generation, campaign management, and contact management. So this explains the benefits of using sales force automation software for the spices industry.

8 Benefits of Sales Force Automation Software

1. Lowers The Cost Of Running A Sales Operation

The primary purpose of using a sales force automation application is to assist salespeople with their day-to-day tasks, increase productivity and enhance collaboration among team members. In addition, it allows you to monitor customer activity in real-time without switching between multiple applications.

All these features make sales force automation software a handy tool to reduce the cost of running sales operations. It can do this by reducing the time spent on repetitive tasks, improving efficiency and accuracy, and making it easier to access information.

With sales force automation software, employees can spend more time doing what they do best. Automation enables them to spend more time on the phone with customers, building relationships and closing deals, instead of spending hours on tedious paperwork.

2. Boost The Productivity Of Sales Representatives

When sales reps spend less time on administrative tasks, they can devote more time to selling. This increases the number of deals closed, the amount of revenue, and the customer lifetime value.

Companies that actively manage leads using sales force software experience an average of 61% more revenue than companies without such a system. The real competitive advantage comes when individual reps are freed from low-value tasks and empowered with business insight to become more effective.

By doing so, sales representatives can focus on the customer, improving their productivity and increasing customer satisfaction.

3. Minimize Manpower Wastage

The primary purpose of any business is to make a profit. So, it is crucial to minimize workforce wastage and maximize your team’s productivity.

From a business perspective, sales force automation application helps in reducing workforce wastage by reducing the number of employees required to handle a single sales process and increasing productivity and efficiency. Sales force automation software can also automate repetitive tasks with the help of intelligent workflows.

Moreover, sales force automation software has increased sales productivity by 14.5% and reduced overheads by 12.2%. The best thing about sales force automation tools is they are equally effective for small and large businesses.

4. Collect Intelligent Insights

Sales force automation software is the ultimate tool for companies to grow their business and expand their reach. You can collect intelligent insights from your data and make real-time decisions based on these insights to boost sales.

SFA is a great way to gather customer intelligence. It provides an in-depth analysis of the customer behavior, which will be helpful to know what they want and what they don’t want.

SFA also helps you track all of your leads, opportunities, and accounts. It has built-in tools to capture data and make it available to you at all times.

5. Increase Sales

Sales force automation allows companies to keep track of all of their leads and measure their sales process efficiency and effectiveness.

Companies can ensure that leads are being followed up appropriately and maximize sales opportunities by automating their sales processes. Sales force automation application makes it easy for companies to segment leads and track which ones are at risk of disengagement.

From lead to cash automation, sales are expected to grow by 115% between 2020 and 2023. So, sales force automation also allows companies to create custom dashboards and reports to provide insight into sales activities and trends in a targeted manner to influence sales.

6. Enhance Your Relationship With Retailers

Retail sales force management provides integrated processes and analytics to the retail industry. It enables retailers to get real-time data about the customers and their buying habits.

The increasing demand for CRM systems and their benefits have encouraged many businesses to use this software to ease their day-to-day tasks.

For retailers, the most significant benefit of using retail sales force management is that it helps them enhance their relationship with their customers by increasing productivity and eliminating hurdles related to managing multiple points of handling sales processes.

Retailers can track their top customers, predict their behavior, and keep them interested in your company’s products.

7. Quickly Solve Problems In The Field

Field managers are the ideal people to solve problems under their authority. However, qualitative contributions require accurate and timely information.

So the retail sales force management detects issues in the deployment of field workers and alerts the appropriate managers to take immediate corrective action.

For example, suppose sales of a specific product in a particular store in the region start to drop. In that case, the platform will detect the problem and notify the relevant manager to rectify the situation.

8. Customer And Transaction Management

You can easily monitor customer contact details, event history, historical interactions, and account discussions with SFA at any time. Moreover, insights can be obtained from social media platforms, and the SFA enables access to data.

You can create custom campaigns and track how your customers interact with a few clicks. And you’ll be notified at each stage. So, you can improve performance set metric-based goals by obtaining real-time data from your team.

To Wrap Up Things

Many businesses strive to be unique, and it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. Whether you sell spices or business software, you need a system to help you generate leads to succeed.

With so many benefits to using sales force automation applications, it’s no wonder that more and more businesses in the industry are making the switch. This is an excellent opportunity for your business to benefit from as well.

How Does Sales Force Automation Help To Improve Salesperson Productivity And Marketing Efforts?

The State of Marketing Automation Survey Report suggests, 75% of marketers currently use at least one automation tool, i.e., sales force automation software. SFA tools focus on automating repetitive and administrative tasks of sales teams to increase productivity. The lead management system software completes non-revenue generating tasks regularly, while the sales team works on an important task: selling.

As per Salesforce, 67% of global marketing leaders use sales and marketing automation software. Are you wondering how this modern method can improve your sales productivity and marketing efforts? Let’s find out!

1. Automate The Sales Process

SFA software can do a task better than humans with zero errors. Not just does it save manual labor, but it allows the sales teams to improve their productivity.

Salesman tracking software automates various important parts of the sales process, including:

  • Lead generation
  • Automated workflows
  • Autofill data entry
  • Reports generation
  • Research on new leads
  • Auto-population of directories
  • Voicemails
  • Call logging
  • Call routing
  • Lead prioritization
  • Appointment scheduling

 Businesses can focus on revenue-generating tasks and boost productivity with an automated sales process. 

2. Up-selling and Cross-Selling

Businesses are more likely to lose their loyal customers due to the high competition. That is why companies need sales force automation software to boost their sales.

Up-selling encourages customers to purchase a higher-end product, while cross-selling encourages customers to buy complementary items. Both are important for any business. When done properly, they provide maximum value to customers. Thus, it leads to an increase in revenue without the expenses of multiple marketing channels.

3. Salesperson Activity Tracking to Boost Productivity

The field sales tracking app can track the sales-related activities of field employees. No matter where they are, the app tracks their activities remotely. It also helps the sales managers in the following ways:

  • Track call logs: Check all call and message logs of the salespeople and analyze their overall productivity.
  • Record meeting history: Check regular meeting recordings to keep track of the work progress.
  • Geo-reporting: Find out the salespeople’s current location anytime. Based on that, check the status of the tasks that were assigned to them.
  • Automated work plans: Assign the salesperson different activities to boost productivity.

According to Leadsquared, salespeople spend only 35% of their time on direct sales activities. So, to aid them, sales force automation software features GPS tracking, sales dashboard, automated day planning, real-time alerts, report generation, and several other collaboration tools. Utilize these features to make the salespeople focus more on sales activities.

How To Drive More Sales with SFA?

You must take advantage of every sales opportunity you get in the way. Utilize secondary sales tracking to find better insights about what to improve in your marketing strategies. Further, you can focus on the following to enhance marketing efforts: 

  • Maximize sales opportunities: You can utilize sales force automation software to generate more leads. You no longer need to rely on aggregate lists of consumers. Instead, you can provide more information to the sales team. This reduces the workload of the salesperson while improving productivity.
  • Find the best deals: Consumer requirements change every day. Hence, you can use a salesperson tracking app to monitor the best deals and generate more profits. It enables you to find out the not-so-profitable deals and ignore them. Also, it educates your sales team about identifying the best deals for your business.
  • Quick response to inquiries: You should track all customer transactions to analyze customer demand. The SFA tool enables you to respond to your consumer queries on time. This offers you better chances of driving more return sales.

The main advantage of automating the sales process is: Businesses can create an ultimate marketing plan. But, how can you create the perfect digital marketing plan? Let’s find out!

1. Tracking Competitors to Develop Strong Marketing Strategies

For any company, growth and success have no limits. It is necessary to stay focused on the end goals in today’s competitive era. It’s also essential to monitor and track the activities of your competitors. According to HubSpot, 75% of marketers have confirmed how digital marketing campaigns have directly impacted business revenue.

Do you aim to cater to a strong digital customer base? You should prioritize the marketing challenges with prominent strategies, tactics, and methods. Use SFA secondary sales tracking features to track your competitors in the following ways:

  • Following latest trends: Digital marketing trends keep on changing with time. It’s important to track your competitors’ digital marketing strategies and success rates. Based on that, you can custom-plan your digital marketing strategies.
  • Identify, plan, & implement: According to Salesforce, 78% of marketers have changed marketing metrics due to the changing digital marketing dynamics. While tracking competitor activities, the SFA suggests customer referral rates and customer acquisition costs to the salespeople. This helps identify profitable strategies and plan the activities accordingly to boost business profitability

2. Manage the Sales Pipeline: Reduce Manual Efforts

Businesses can utilize salesman tracking software to track and monitor the regular activities of salespeople. 

Moreover, it sends alerts to salespeople when a prospect moves to the next level in the sales pipeline. This simplifies the complex process of monitoring team members’ regular activities. Thus, the team works together for the same goal with a clear vision. Besides, as the sales managers don’t have to monitor the team, they can focus on other essential activities. 

Summing Up 

The sales force automation software is designed to provide businesses with every tool to improve sales and productivity. It includes tools for activity tracking, alerts monitoring, sales process automation, sales opportunity tracking, marketing strategy analysis, and dynamic sales pipeline management.

Sales teams can use SFA tools to get the repetitive tasks done on time, making them more productive. Moreover, it comes with more insights available to the sales team and managers. Thus, it can help improve performance and boost productivity.

What Is Distribution Management System And Why It Is Important?

Emerging economies are vast and complicated, with numbers of resellers, millions of branches, and billions of dollars in prospective exchanges. Producers must manage an extensive array of local and global resellers while also balancing the competing requirements of diverse distribution channels. But how can makers handle everything with limited economic knowledge and information? How are they going to seize authority? How will they work with people and advertising while keeping costs low? And, most importantly, how can we make this simple?

The solution lies in flexible, intelligent, yet straightforward software, which a Distributor Management System provides.

What Is Distribution Management All About?

Supervising the flow of products and services or producers to highlight the sale is referred to as distribution management. It is a broad term that covers a variety of behaviors and mechanisms, including wrapping, stock control, storage of goods, distribution network, and logistical support.

The distributor management application is an integral aspect of the overall economy for manufacturers and retailers. Enterprises’ operating margins are determined by how rapidly they can transform their own products. The further they offer, the greater they acquire, implying a brighter future for the organization. A comprehensive distributor consumer management system is also necessary for businesses to flourish, improve their service, and satisfy their customers.

Important Turnovers

The distribution management application is in charge of a company’s supply chain, from contractors and customers to manufacturers and points of sale, including wrapping, stockpiles, storage, distribution, and logistic support.

Adopting a distribution management strategy is critical to a corporation’s economic achievement and long-term viability. However, the distributor management application assists in keeping things in check and clients’ content.

Recognizing Distribution Management

Distribution management is crucial to a firm’s recruiting clients and running a profitable business. Its efficient implementation necessitates impactful control of the project distribution chain. The bigger a corporate entity or, the higher the number of supply points a corporation has, the further it will have to rely on automated processes to handle the allocation system efficiently.

Developed distributor management application entails more than simply transporting goods from point A to point B. It also entails assembling and disseminating necessary details that can define key opportunities in the marketplace and competitive intensity. Most forward-thinking businesses now use their allocation troops to gather marketing information, which is critical in determining their leading advantages.

Commercial distribution (also widely recognized as sales distribution) and outbound logistics are the two main types of transfer (widely known as logistics). Customer support, shipments, storage of goods, stock management, corporate truckload operational processes, wrapping, accepting, quality control, processing facility, storage facility, store location planning, and information processing are all part of the allocation.

The company aims to maximize customer satisfaction by providing raw materials and components and partly and fully final goods at the right moment in the correct circumstance. Direct materials should be planned in line with the global strategic approach.

Distributor Management As an Important Sales Key

The basic principle of supply chain management as a marketing process is that distribution management occurs in an ecological system.

Goods: An item is not always a physical entity; it could also refer to that of a concept, entertainment, or details.

Fee: The benefit of goods and services for both the supplier and the consumer, including quantitative and qualitative measures such as original amount, discounted rates, funding, and the probable answer of current and potential customers.

Advertising: Any interaction used by a vendor to notify, try and convince, or reassure purchasers and prospective customers well about the vendor’s products, assistance, picture, concepts, and the effect they have on the societal structure is considered a promotion.

Configuration: This is the process of ensuring that items are produced, accessible, and visible to end clients or corporate clients in the aim networks or clients where they are needed.

Successful distributor management entails marketing your product while ensuring adequate inventory in networks and handling promotional offers and their differing prerequisites in those streams. It also entails ensuring that a distribution network is effective enough just to keep allocation prices low enough in a particular product or service at the appropriate cost, thus assisting your marketing approach and maximizing profit.

Final Word

The purpose is to achieve productivity and produce crude ingredients or finished goods at the correct time and place in an excellent state. As a result, a Distributor Management Software:

  • Performs order fulfillment
  • Stock and warehouse management
  • Lowering overhead expenses and managerial expenses
  • Synchronizes merchandise producers and consumers
  • Makes delivery arrangements and manages the payment process
  • Produces a Proforma receipt or Negotiable instrument
  • Analyzes company data and generates claims
  • Makes the company projections, among other things

And this is why the involvement of DMS is critical and, therefore, should be implemented in every organization for the greater good, increased generating revenue, and lower costs.

Why Is Sales Force Tracking Important?

Employing age-old practices to track your sales force is one of the biggest deterrents in the entire sales process. Unfortunately, many companies are still using their pocket notebooks to keep a record of the sales activities going on in the team. Figuring out the loopholes and properly using training and assistance is next to impossible in such a setting.

For this reason, many firms are resorting to the use of sales force tracker which makes tracking sales activities a piece of cake. It is not surprising to know that over 95% of the Fortune 100 companies use Salesforce tracking to do away with the old and tedious procedures of managing sales activities.

What Makes Sales Tracking Special? 

At present, there is a plethora of CRM software that you can use to track sales activities, but what makes Salesforce stand out of the crowd is the amazing set of features that the program comes with. These features allow for an easier tracking procedure. The sales force tracking app will enable one to access features such as:

  • Task management
  • Contact management
  • Opportunity tracking
  • Workflow creation

These features are directed towards making sales force tracking a better experience. Salesforce offers you several elite services that enhance customer experience and facilitate ease of use. 

The coveted sales force monitoring app is also infamous for creating reports about previously held sales activities, allowing a sales manager to be ready with all the necessary information before a meeting. These reasons are why tracking sales activities via sales force management software such as Salesforce is highly beneficial for your team. Let us now throw some light on why it is important to track Salesforce activities.

What Makes Sales Tracking Important?

1. Makes coaching easier

The end goal of any sales force tracking activity is to help a person attain a better viewpoint of the ongoing operations in a company and understand how they engage with potential clients. All of this enables you to assist the performance of your sales team, thereby making coaching much easier. Being a good coach to your sales team will directly translate into your company’s growth.

2. Prioritizing Tasks

One of the biggest reasons behind tracking Salesforce is that the activity allows you to prioritize the overwhelming tasks of your salespeople. Today’s competitive market requires salespersons to accomplish a huge number of tasks every single day.

From contacting new leads to following up on the previous ones, having them purchase your products, to genuinely following the steps until the completion of the transaction, a salesperson’s work gets tedious. A good sales tracking app can relieve your personnel of the confusion when deciding which task to work upon first by prioritizing the tasks.

3. Work While You Travel

Business owners often have to leave their companies’ premises either for personal or business purposes. In the absence of a leader, many sales activities start getting out of hand. A good sales team tracking app allows a manager to keep an eye on the activities going on within the team and supervise despite staying physically absent.

This is a huge benefit of Salesforce tracking since such type of tracking requires only a sales employee tracking app and a mobile phone or a laptop, and a stable internet connection.

Tracking sales activities during your physical absence isn’t just confined to the managers. Instead, the feature plays a defining role when a sales rep goes out in the field and wants to communicate with his or her team leader. These figures and stats are distributed easily, and the entire work gets done quicker.

4. Keeps The Staff Motivated

As per a survey conducted by LinkedIn, 94% of the company’s staff would stick to the company they are working at if it took a greater interest in their career. Instilling healthy competition among the staff is a vital part of Salesforce tracking, but this process isn’t direct.

A decent sales force tracking management application will enable a leader to record the sales reps’ activities and accurately track their performance over time. The app allows a leader to figure out the strengths and loopholes within the staff and award incentives accordingly. This, in turn, ignites a spark within the other sales reps who get motivated to perform better.

In addition, every group must hold regular meetings. This is another method that will assist your team in determining which aspects of their sales activity need to be improved. The software aids in the collection of data on all sales activity, which can be shared with the team to provide a complete picture. Instead of giving them blind feedback, data-driven feedback would push them to work harder toward their goals.

5. Provides Concrete Data

Regular data collection through reliable sales force tracking software allows your sales team to have an appropriate image of their growth. The collected data is the most appropriate yardstick to measure your team’s performance. It also gives an idea of what needs to be done to improve.

The loopholes are made public, and the team members can actually get to know the areas they need to improve upon. This is what makes Salesforce tracking a crucial task. When you have numbers right before you, it becomes relatively easy to draw conclusions and design an action plan.

Final Word

As is evident from above, Salesforce tracking is one of the most important aspects of a sales activity. In the absence of a proper sales tracking application, you and your team may end up in a lot of confusion. An incredibly common sales monitoring app in the U.S., it has been estimated that mid-sized organizations which employ sales force tracking via Salesforce earn annual revenue between $1 and $50 million. The staggering growth of these companies that engage in Salesforce tracking speaks volumes of the application and how its proper tracking can benefit you.

Sales Force Automation Software: Expectations vs Reality

According to Hubspot, over 40% of sales leaders leveraging sales automation expect to exceed their quotas this year. Additionally, 61% of businesses using sales automation exceeded their revenue targets in 2020.

These stats make a strong case for salesforce crm automation (SFA). However, there’s an enormous gap between what sales managers expect from SFA solutions and what they actually get. 

Let’s bust some myths regarding SFA tools, so you can set realistic expectations.

What Is Sales Automation Software and Its Importance?

Sales force automation software is a tool that streamlines your sales process. It automates several redundant tasks, like sending emails, managing sales pipelines, scheduling appointments, data entry, and more.

  • Leverage smart sales forecasts to predict future demand and opportunities
  • Enable sales reps to respond to incoming calls and queries quickly
  • Reduce resource wastage and cut down operational expenses
  • Boost employee performance, engagement, and retention
  • Get more sales and improve your bottom line

Sales Management Software Expectations vs Reality

Sales force automation tools have many benefits. They automate mundane tasks, generate accurate forecasts, reduce costs, and transform your business into an efficient sales-generating machine.

But is it really a fairy tale, or should you expect bottlenecks? Here’s what reality looks like.

Expectation 1: SFA Software Is the Only Software I Need

When looking for a sales management solution, managers often search for all-in-one solutions that fix all their sales issues. They expect to get a one-stop system that creates sales forecasts, manages pipelines, creates landing pages, manages customer relationships, and more.

Reality: While the sales management software you implement is the backbone of your sales, hardly any solution will cover all your requirements. And that’s okay. Even though several multi-functional SFA tools are available, it’s impossible to find a system that takes care of all your sales management requirements. 

HubSpot is a great example. HubSpot CRM + SFA is one of the most feature-rich SFA systems with built-in CRM capabilities. But it lacks some key SFA features like order management and distributor management, despite being a combination of two tools.

Therefore, sales managers should stop chasing the perfect all-in-one solution and instead add a combination of tools to their tech arsenal.

Expectation 2: Implement SFA Software and Start Using it Immediately

You’ll come across some SFA vendors claiming to offer out-of-the-box and ready-to-use sales force automation software. Such solutions are a fantasy. 

Reality: Though some sales force automation tools may have plug-and-play functionality, the usability of most solutions will depend on your current marketing technology stack. A few tools require minimal configuration, but some degree of manual work is still needed. If you’re expecting to just log in, press a few buttons, and start getting sales, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Also, if you use other tools, you’ll need to integrate the sales management software with them. To reduce the set-up time, evaluate your integrations carefully and find a sales management system that integrates seamlessly with your current tech stack.

Training is another cause for the delay. When you implement new software, you’ll need to train your employees to use it, which could take a few weeks. 

So, when adopting a new sales tool, expect some disruption in daily operations. It’s crucial to plan the implementation and transition properly.

Expectation 3: I’ll See the Future with Sales Forecasts

Sales forecasting is a key feature of sales force automation systems. Sales forecasts can help you predict future trends and capitalize upon upcoming opportunities. With sales forecasts, you can see the future. 

Reality: Sales forecasts aren’t always so accurate. Upland Software surveyed over 200 companies and found that sales forecasts are less than 75% accurate. And they’re entirely worthless if the margins to measure success and failure are less than 25%.

Does that mean you shouldn’t use sales forecasting? No. But it certainly means sales managers shouldn’t be overly optimistic about the forecasts. 

This brings us to another myth about sales automation and forecasting — technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) generate accurate forecasts. They have become buzzwords in the sales and marketing space. 

AI and ML can surely increase your forecasting accuracy and help you make better decisions. But sales managers must understand that these tools learn from what you feed them. The work they do, including the forecasts they generate, depends entirely on the data you enter into them. 

So, while sales forecasts and technologies like AI can enhance your sales process, don’t expect groundbreaking changes.

Expectation 4: There’ll be so much Free Time

Probably the biggest fantasy associated with sales force automation applications is the abundance of free time. SFA systems streamline mundane tasks like sales forecasting, appointment scheduling, and data entry, saving reps hours daily. That doesn’t essentially mean there’ll be more free time.

Reality: SFA automates administrative tasks, so sales reps can invest that time in revenue-generating activities. Sales managers shouldn’t expect their teams to be self-sufficient. The agents will still need sales training to become proficient sellers. 

Once they’re on board, they’ll need months of assistance to become productive. And once they start contributing to company goals, they’ll need constant recognition from you to keep performing. In fact, 76% of employees quit due to lack of appreciation, according to Lifeworks.

So, after implementing SFA software, a lot of free time is a myth.

Final Word

Sales automation tools are a mandatory addition to every sales team. These solutions streamline various administrative processes, enabling sales teams to be efficient and productive. However, a sales force management app isn’t a magic bullet, and it has its limitations. To leverage it properly and generate value, you need to understand its true capabilities. 

Visual Merchandising Techniques: 9 Ways To Boost Sales In Retail Store

Customers are also referred to as the driving force of a business. Customers have the power to make or break a brand. So to attract/retain customers, a business must engage effectively with them.

Visual merchandising is one of the several techniques used to attract and retain customers. In simple terms, it’s an aesthetic display of products to attract people. The main goal of visual merchandising is to make their products desirable and convert visitors into customers in the process.

From using display lights to arranging products in an organized manner, businesses use several visual merchandising techniques. Extravagant visual merchandising techniques include having a themed store or using aesthetic glass display panels to display products. 

But why is visual merchandising so important? The main reason is that it is an effective way of grabbing the attention of people. It helps businesses engage with their customers effectively. Humans, in general, love things that are appealing to the eye. This is why visual merchandising is used. Furthermore, it helps in creating a good first impression on people. As per crowdriff, 65% of people prefer good pictures rather than descriptions of products. 

Visual merchandising can also be used to increase the value of a product. Some businesses/stores position their least selling appealingly. This is because it helps in selling the products relatively easily. 

Now let’s take a look at the 9 of the best visual merchandising techniques

9 Visual Merchandising Techniques To Help You Boost Sales

Here are some of the most influential visual merchandising techniques:

1. Product Placement is Key

When a customer walks into a store, they expect to see the visually appealing placement of products. You can place your products vertically or horizontally; that doesn’t matter. But, making it look good does. It helps in highlighting certain products as well. If done well, it can be a game-changer. 

2. Themed Displays is the New Trend

Having themed displays can really help in making a business stand out. It helps in attracting and retaining customers. If enough emphasis is laid on understanding the customers, then making changes accordingly with the theme in mind can help boost a business. It can also help customers understand and connect with your brand.  

3. Window Displays 

One of the most employed visual merchandising products is displaying the best/newest products near windows or entrances. If done well, customers will have an incredible first impression of the brand. 

To effectively display your products, keep your windows clean and well-lit. These small variables make all the difference in the world, so pay attention to them. 

4. Signages Should Be Easy To Read

This is among the most important visual merchandising techniques. Even if a display is beautiful, but the signage doesn’t convey the message, it’s no use. 

Make sure your sentences are not long and don’t use complicated words. The best way to make attractive signages is to follow the 5-second rule. This means your customers should be able to read the sign within 5 seconds. 

5. Sometimes, The Fewer The Better

You don’t always have to place all your products together in a visually appealing manner. It could be overkill, which is why sometimes, only a few well-chosen products can do the trick. Too many products can lead to colors clashing, which could defeat the purpose. Make sure you place your best products rather than all. 

6. Customized Interiors

Things done differently are always an attention-grabber. It can even apply to the way the interiors are done. By bringing a different element into the store will grab the attention of a lot of people. For example, using customized shelves can help in making the store look different from the rest. This positively affects retention rates. 

7. Using Brand-Themed Props

Using props has always been a great way to grab people’s attention and is used by many theatre artists. But there is no reason as to why brands can’t do that. In fact, using brand-themed props can help in making your store stand out. For example, a toy store with inflatable cartoon characters will attract more customers than a toy store without one. 

8. Sales Team

As per Iqmetrix, 73% of the customers expect the sales team to know the products displayed.

Every sales team representative must be well-versed in the products on display. This way, they can help customers know more about the products. This increases the chances of turning visitors into customers. Without adequate knowledge, even the most elegant display cannot turn most visitors into customers. 

9. Music Helps

Playing music that goes with the theme of the brand/store helps in setting a tone/mood for customers. It’s a simple way of keeping the customer engaged and interested, similar to good lighting. But make sure you play music following the theme of your store. If it doesn’t match the theme, it can be overwhelming. Also, ensure the music isn’t too loud; this can annoy customers. 

Final Word

It is quite evident that visual merchandising is an important variable if you want to attract more customers. Without effective visual merchandising techniques, your store may not get the recognition it deserves. 

The main thing you should keep in mind is never to overdo it. That can defeat the purpose, so make sure you follow all the tips mentioned appropriately to get the outcomes.