The sales department happens to be one of the most crucial industry verticals throughout the history of economic activities. It has also surfaced as the primary business function for many establishments that engage in the only distribution of products and services exclusively.
As a result, the entire business management philosophy gets altered with more and more attention being put into the mobility of human resources. A significant portion of its employee strength is comprised of sales associates, and they are expected to travel in the market for the achievement of targets.
Since the territory may or may not be fixed, their performance can not be evaluated on the basis of conventional models of assessment. Therefore, Performance Management Systems with mobile integration will prove to be disruptive in this domain, and we will have a look at the pros of using one.
Studies pointing towards the need for modernization of performance evaluation:
In of the recent studies, it was found that having a concrete territory design will increase the sales output by a considerable 30%. while another study found that talent retention in sales cadre needs proper incentive structures. Both of these can only be achieved if the sales staff is monitored even in the market.
Currently, almost everybody uses smartphones which can be used as a tool to capture work details and manage the employees without any inconvenience or added cost.
If the work is recorded on a real-time basis and processed by computerized systems, a realistic view of the ground situation is available to the company while on the other end, the salesmen find documentation extremely difficult and unnecessary.
This gap is bridged by mobile-based Performance Management Systems with significantly low cost of operation and high customization capabilities. Let us view some of the great advantages of the same.
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Table of Contents
Continuous Work Reviews and on-field Support
Every sales firm aspires to manage its employees continuously and monitor the activity of each staff member. Their locational data is tracked by using the geo-tracking feature of the mobile app. This is also accompanied by parallel work reviews where the employee is asked to give reports in the form of simple reviews.
They have to rate the call upon various parameters and note the highlights along with the time duration, prospectus revenue, and in-bound payment details. This allows a better flow of information with the help of the mobile app, which eliminates the requirement of cross-checking and also enables on-field support for document transfer.
Client Database Management and Real-Time Service Reporting
The companies engaged in the product/service distribution have high attrition rates, and high employee turnover has a significant impact on the business. The client database is extremely important, and accessing it is vital for the new employees.
Having knowledge of the past dealings in terms of business revenue, contact person, client’s spending patterns, a convenient time for the meeting, and seasonal fluctuations. With the help of real-time service, reporting will enable smooth data acquisition and compiling it on a central database will improve the future servicing along with reducing the effect of employee turnover.
Sales Associate Network Analysis
Many of the companies have mapped and unmapped territories to be distributed amongst the sales force. This entire network is to be assessed for complete control over efficient. If a sales associate visits a client previously visited by another executive, then it may hamper the closing of calls and damages the reputation of the company.
The network analysis also allows in the proper generation of records for performance reviews. The company can utilize this data for promoting the employees based upon their rapport with the clientele and within the organization. Mapping of territories and client assignment reduces the clashes between the staff while boosting accountability.
Personalized Reports for Self-Assessment with Professional Development
Where the mobile app-based Performance Management Systems are considered, the significant benefit for the employees is the access to extensive reports which provide personalized data. The employee’s working patterns, hours, routing, scheduling, closing ratio, weaknesses, competencies are calculated on the basis of the data input from their smartphones.
As there is no need for analysis by a human supervisor, the employee can use this functionality for self-assessment and professional development also. However, the information can also provide comprehensive inputs for target projections and pipeline revenue and MTD-YTD figures.
The Ending Notes
If your staff does not work from a single location, neither should your employee evaluation method. The mobile-based solutions have emerged as game-changers in the performance management software industry when a sales channel is concerned. The affordable internet rates and access smartphones will play a pivotal role in the success of their implementation in the business dominion.
Most of the MNCs and corporates have started using them and its high time for small and medium scale firms to implement these solutions if they want to keep their organization relevant to the market. However, these tools are for strategic management and not to be considered as mere providers of appraisal data. Every company engaged in distribution will surely witness higher revenue with optimized overheads, making it extremely beneficial to business objectives.
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