Today’s sales landscape is different from what it was. Field Sales Representatives are facing many difficulties with arise of the pandemic. But the pandemic has opened doors for businesses by presenting different opportunities.

In this blog, we will cover the state of Field Sales, the difference between Field and Inside Sales and finally 10 Reasons why Sales Reps should use a CRM like Salesforce in their day to day life.

State of Field Sales in 2020

Today’s salesperson needs to be more flexible, empathetic to customers and more importantly well equipped to face the challenges of the Sales landscape.  

Salesforce’s State of Sales 2020 report reveals some shocking facts

1. Field Sales Representatives have also transitioned from in-person to virtual meet due to ongoing pandemic. The confidence of the Inside Sales Reps for making a sale is way higher than that of Field Sales Rep at this stage.

“67% of inside sales reps are confident in their organisation’s ability to close deals. This faith is lacking in outside reps, as only 49% share the same confidence.”

2. Top-performing sales representatives automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks

3. Sales Reps are trying to adapt to new ways of selling. Their major focus is on building trust with customers and potential customers. They also focus on customer needs, their communication, purchase history, competition, etc.  

4. Sales operations team are taking more responsibilities and the companies are formulating new strategies to face the new and competitive landscape.

“From the survey that Salesforce conducted, 75% of sales ops professionals say that they have new responsibilities at work and 64% of professionals expect their roles to change permanently”

The States of Sales report has provided plenty of useful insights and stats. It doesn’t stop there. They have also revealed top 5 tactics for driving success in Sales.

Field Sales vs Inside Sales

The field sales (Outside Sales) representatives meet customers face to face and sell their products/service, whereas the Inside sales representatives sell remotely. The presence of an Inside Sales team is prevalent in today’s B2B, SaaS companies.  

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The Field and Inside Sales Representative’s job description is becoming similar these days. In some companies, they even work in unison. A few things that both Reps have in common are,

• They all work towards the goal of making a sale and achieving their Quotas
• The Reps want to nurture the relationship with customers, offer the best customer experience and build trust
• They demonstrate the product/service offering, answer all queries of the customer, negotiate with them if need be
• Get referrals from existing customer
• Prepare weekly/monthly reports

All of these tasks cannot be completed effectively without a CRM tool in place. We couldn’t think of a better option than Salesforce. So, without further ado, here are our top 10 reasons why Inside and Field Sales Representative should use Salesforce.

1. Work from anywhere

We have a culture of Work from anywhere now. Especially in Field Sales, you might not get a chance to open your laptop all the time and use the tool. Working away from mobiles is definitely our comfort zone.

You could install Salesforce Mobile application in Android or iPhone and then take action in seconds. You could understand about the customer on the go,  take necessary action. The best part is the apps could be customized based on an organization’s needs or it could be personalized. There are many apps built by Salesforce partners which could be reused, if it suits your needs.

2. Accurate Data Management

You need to have a strong foundation in order to build a great building. Data is like the foundation for having a great CRM tool.

With Salesforce Customer 360, there is no question of Data Silos. All systems used by your company could be integrated into Salesforce and a universal customer ID is maintained. The customer information across multiple systems could be viewed by Inside or Field Sales Reps. The Reps need not open multiple systems to get information.

With connected systems, you could offer connected customer experience.  

3. Manage accounts effortlessly

With Salesforce, Field and Inside Sales professionals could get an accurate view of the customers/accounts and key contacts they are working with. The information like communication history, campaigns that involved a customer, their social media behaviour, etc. can come in handy for a Sales Rep to close their deals swiftly.

Field Sales Reps could check the information on the go and attend meetings well-informed and confidently. The Sales Reps could also collaborate with one another or reach to other teams using Salesforce Chatter.

4. Generate more Leads

Field Sales and Inside Sales professionals could track leads and convert them to customers effectively using Salesforce. The activity timeline inside Salesforce could be used to understand the recent communication and contact information of a lead.

A lead could be scored and assigned to Sales Reps based on certain conditions inside Salesforce. In Field Sales, the leads could be assigned based on location. Furthermore, the Marketing and Sales qualified leads could be tracked from within Salesforce across multiple channels including the social media.

Learn how to build a sales funnel using Salesforce.

You could customize a dashboard specific to your company needs. Inside Sales Console offers a consolidated view of all Sales data. It enables Sales Reps to chase leads in a timely manner, identify contacts and collect customer information all at one place.

When a lead gets to Opportunity stage, Salesforce brings all the critical data into the activity timeline. This will help Inside/Field Sales Rep to focus on the right thing at right time.

You could create customized templates and send them to potential customers in a timely manner. Also, you could spin quotes for the products that potential customer wishes to buy in minutes using Salesforce’s inbuilt quoting tool.

5. Align with the Team

With Salesforce, you can solve problems together as a team and achieve overall targets. There is a social tool inside Salesforce, and thereby, there is no requirement to e-mail or communicate outside. You could take help of your teammate who had worked with a customer earlier or solved a similar type of problem earlier, etc.

There is also an individual’s social feed with activities lined up. In Sales, timing is important and this feature helps Field Sales, Inside Sales Rep to keep up with critical projects, activities, etc.

More importantly, you could collaborate with your wider team – be it Marketing, Customer Success, etc. Sales and Marketing team’s alignment is important than ever.

6. Automate Workflows

Your business might be different from others. It might not be standard all the time Step1, 2, 3, etc. With Salesforce you could design and run any process using workflow. You could also set up an approval process and automate the whole thing.

You might be thrilled to know that this could all be done using a drop and drop interface – Process Builder. The manual tasks could be automated and smart recommendations could be offered to Inside/ field sales reps to close the deal faster.

7. Create managerial Reports

Report creation is now not a big deal with Salesforce. There is no requirement for a separate Data or an IT team. In Salesforce, the Sales team itself can create a report using the standard reports set or customize it using drag and drop interface.

You could also build dashboards and track all metrics/ KPIs. The best part is you could view reports from the mobile phone itself. If you senior management is busy, they could review the reports on the fly with this app.

8. Forecast Sales Performance

With Salesforce, you could see your historical data and performance of your team. That’s a given.

Management is however interested in getting a forecast of the performance. You could get an accurate view of pipeline and business in general, take action wherever required. Sales team head could track individual Sales Rep’s performance and see if they had met/exceeded their quotas.

9. Use AppExchange Apps for Field Sales

Salesforce enthusiasts and partners have built applications and published them on AppExchange. They might suit some specific needs relating to Field Sales. In scenarios like creating routes for the day/scheduling the day, scanning business cards, sending SMS form Salesforce, etc these apps come in handy.

Here are a few suggestions specific for Field Sales – Check-in, ProsperVue, Geopointe, SMS  Magic Converse, Scan to Salesforce.  

10. Field Service

Not all businesses are the same. Salesforce Field Service could help with Sales too. It has a specific set of features which makes life easier for people working on the go. Field Sales representatives meet the customers face to face and in conferences, events, etc. Features of Salesforce Field Service could be helpful to solve problems arising from logistics, high costs of onsite meetings, etc.

You can customize a mobile application which will aid Field Sales or Service Reps to understand all the tasks in a given day at given locations. They could collaborate with experts to sell products or solve issues effectively on the go, also they could upsell the products on the spot.

Final Thoughts

During a crisis, flexibility should be prioritized by Sales teams and offered to customers. To steer clear of the challenges and seek a brighter future, a tool like Salesforce is essential.

We hope that this blog threw light upon why Salesforce could be useful for Inside and Field Sales Reps. Have you any questions? Reach out to our team.

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