Field sales software

i Explanation

Type of field sales

Field sales software can suit different ways of selling outside the office. In door-to-door sales, salespeople visit homes or businesses without an appointment made beforehand. B2B customer visits often involve account managers visiting existing or potential business customers. Retail and store visits focus on representatives who support shops, while mobile order taking is about recording orders directly with customers.

What should you look for? Choose the sales activities that fit your organisation. A package can support several forms of selling. Check which processes are specifically supported, because a mobile CRM app is not automatically suitable for every form of field sales.

i Explanation

Sales territory management

Sales territory management lets companies organise their sales activities geographically. Managers can, for example, assign neighbourhoods, regions or other areas to salespeople. Some packages show these territories on a digital map, so staff see straight away what they are responsible for. Other solutions keep track of which areas have already been visited and where sales opportunities remain.

What should you look for? This feature is especially useful for companies with several representatives or door-to-door salespeople. Check whether territories are easy to change, whether several staff can work in the same territory and whether the system shows progress per territory.

i Explanation

Route and visit planning

Route and visit planning helps field staff organise their work efficiently. With route planning, salespeople can plan several customer visits on a map or in an overview. Automatic route optimisation then works out an efficient order of visits, for example based on distance or travel time. Some packages can also schedule appointments and organise recurring visits.

What should you look for? Check whether the software only shows routes or actually optimises them. For account managers who are often on the road, automatic route optimisation can matter. In door-to-door sales, an overview of planned visits within a neighbourhood is often more valuable.

i Explanation

Lead and visit logging

Lead and visit logging lets salespeople record which potential customers they visited and what came of it. Think of a new lead, a scheduled appointment, no interest or a completed sale. Some packages also support planning follow-up actions and prevent different salespeople from needlessly visiting the same customer again.

What should you look for? This functionality matters most when several staff approach the same customers or territories. Check how easily staff can log visit results and whether that information is immediately available to colleagues and managers. That prevents duplicate work and improves the follow-up of sales opportunities.

i Explanation

Location and customer information

Location and customer information gives salespeople extra insight before they visit a customer. Some packages show customers and sales opportunities on a digital map. Other solutions support GPS logging of visits or offer additional data on addresses, buildings or sales territories. Think of public housing information or business location data.

What should you look for? Check which data is available and whether it is relevant to your sales process. A provider of sustainability solutions, for example, needs different information from a representative in wholesale. Also consider the origin, currency and privacy aspects of the data used.

i Explanation

Quotes and sales orders

Quote and order features let salespeople complete the sales process during a customer visit. Some packages offer options to create quotes, have them signed digitally or register orders. Staff then need to re-enter less data afterwards and agreements can be processed faster by the back office.

What should you look for? Not every field sales solution has a complete quoting or order system. These features are sometimes offered through an integration with CRM, ERP or invoicing software. So check whether the functionality is standard, is offered as an additional module or depends on external software.

i Explanation

Sales team management and reporting

Sales team management and reporting help managers steer field staff and assess sales results. Think of managing teams, setting sales targets and tracking appointments, leads and revenue. Some solutions show results per salesperson, while others also give insight into the performance of whole sales territories.

What should you look for? Decide which information matters for steering your sales team. For smaller companies a simple results overview may be enough. Larger organisations may need separate team leaders, access rights and more extensive reports. Also check whether results update automatically.