The software is part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and allows a comprehensive view of all the interactions and activities between your company and the customers, including customer support and marketing interactions. This ensures that you contact the customer only when needed and avoid over-contacting.
Sales force automation software also offers a lead tracking feature to maintain sales leads acquired through marketing and sales campaigns. This improves your up-selling and cross-selling. Moreover, SFA enables sales forecasting, order management, and product knowledge in addition to integrated scheduling as well as calendar and email synchronization.
1. Cloud or on-premises: Based on the installation, a sales force automation software is categorized into two types; SaaS and On-premises. The SaaS software is paid monthly and is hosted on the server of the vendor. Thus, the business owner does not have to install, update, and maintain the software. On the other hand, the on-premises software is hosted on the company’s local server and is covered with a single license. This is the most expensive type and requires a complex setup and regular extra hardware installation.
2. Contact Management: Keeping track of every lead in the pipeline is tough. The beauty of a sales force automation system, especially in the field service management industry, is its ability to manage the contact list of the team. A good sales force automation system will schedule and reschedule the sales meetings automatically. This structures your team’s time efficiently. Additionally, the automation software updates the status of the deals as they develop in the pipeline and automatically follow-up with the opportunities based on the parameters you have set.
3. Reporting and Tracking: SFA software can automatically track the revenue your field technician is bringing-in on each deal. This is great as it gives you an insight into your team’s performance and trains the technician who is falling behind. Moreover, it can track results for multiple product lines and give you a detailed analysis so that you can focus on the products that need help. Thus, a good automation system will automate a ton of the administrative work of the sales teams making them more productive.
4. Trend Analysis and Sales Enablement: Monitoring business trends is essential for discovering new opportunities. A good sales force automation system will analyze your data and find trends you can monetize. Moreover, it will provide your sales team with everything they need to close a deal. A sales force automation software when used appropriately, will allow you to build a solid sales strategy.
5. Free Trial: Prior to making a decision and investing a huge chunk of your hard earned money, be sure if the software actually fits your needs. Register for a free trial and try out its tools. Also, find out whether the vendor can help you to pilot the platform. Although this may cost some money, it is worth the effort as it will give you the requisite results and points to analyze before making a crucial investment.
In addition to these factors, make sure that you can scale it to your sales team. Ensure that your sales team has had a comprehensive training of the software. In conclusion, your sales force automation system goes hand-in-hand with your CRM. Choosing the right software with the right features requires you to make an honest analysis of your current setup and your future goals.
Avail the sales force automation software that is just right for you and your needs.