In my previous two blogs, I looked at how mobile CRM technology is helping field sales teams to become more efficient and productive, improve sales, and nurture relationships with clients.
It’s not just the sales reps out in the field who benefit from this resource, though. By providing their team with these tools, sales managers and directors at builders’ merchants will gain greater insight into the activity and performance of their mobile sales force, empowering them to further optimise the sales process.
The enhanced data that managers and directors of builders’ merchants receive provides an accurate picture of mobile sales force activity, and facilitates enhanced analytics that allows them to provide field staff with the most relevant marketing materials for specific prospects or useful background information about similar accounts within the business.
An in-depth analytics measurement process pinpoints which leads result in successful opportunities, assisting sales managers to identify blind spots as well as prospects in their opportunity cycle. Furthermore, good data collection can accurately predict sales trends and assist in making informed decisions that can ultimately save time and resources so that merchants can productively focus on the most interested targets.
With mobile, everything can be tracked on the go and in real time. When each sales representative has a location-centric mobile device, businesses can gather information such as location of sales, where and who they visited and sold to, how many new targets were added to the book, and how many existing prospects remain to be chased. Mobile can also provide information on activity at construction events and trade shows, giving a full and accurate picture of their mobile sales staff performance.
Furthermore a truly mobile CRM solution empowers sales managers and directors to identify which staff need greater support and resource and build a clear and accurate picture of individual performance. These metrics can then be shared with field sales staff to foster a culture of self-evaluation and incentivises staff to improve performance. It also becomes clearer to see how staff are utilised and monitor workloads, while also ensuring that the best performers receive the recognition they deserve.
If merchants are going to realise their sales potential and optimise mobile sales team’s efficiency, they must deploy a truly mobile CRM and sales management tools that will address the challenges businesses have typically faced. When done right, the end result is a more efficient sales team that can take full advantage of being mobile.
Javier Peralta is UK country manager for ForceManager.
