One of the main concerns of field sales managers is the little oversight they have of their reps’ activities throughout the workday.
For this reason, many businesses have been adopting field sales management apps as a way to increase rep accountability as well as mentoring tools. By knowing what is going on in the field, managers can identify areas of opportunity and properly coach their teams.
However, as the market offers several solutions, the options and tools might be confusing. As with any software, there are some features that are mandatory while others that are not so important. In this post, we highlight which capabilities of a merchandising app managers should look for when deciding on a solution to implement.
The must-have features of an effective merchandising app include:
Visit scheduling and planning from both sides:
If the software is to be an effective solution for managing and mentoring field reps, it must allow the scheduling and planning of visits both from the manager’s and rep’s side.
GPS tracking and route optimization:
For managers to be sure that reps properly carried out the scheduled sales calls these must be verified via GPS. Route optimization allows reps to save time and fuel by calculating the shortest route for their day.
Real-time access to field data:
The true benefits of a merchandising app can only be achieved with faster decision-making and real-time access to field data allows issues such as out-of-stocks or urgent orders to be addressed as soon as they are detected.
Easy reporting and data exchange options:
In order to please all inside and outside stakeholders – that might include data-heavy departments such as planning – an effective field sales management app must be able to exchange data in various formats, from exporting spreadsheets to allowing BigQuery access.
VisitBasis merchandising app offers all of the above features and more. See how it works for your company:
