Current Trends in Sales Force Automation Sales Force Automation software needs no introduction. Just as any other software, the easily deployable SaaS model of SFA gains popularity with companies because of lesser upfront infrastructure costs & maintenance expenses, rapid prototyping & easy implementations, easy integration & scalability and quick returns on investments (RoI). It becomes a turnkey solution along with the sales force software itself. With these usual benefits of any SaaS model SFA focuses on leads, opportunities, customers and forecasts along with the sales work flow. Current Trends in Sales Force Automation
Mobility Diverse devices and apps have become a part of our lives. It is no surprise then that mobility is the most discussed feature for SFA solutions in the New Year. In any enterprise organization the field force depends most heavily on mobile solutions as they are always on the move and their productivity increases manifold with sales force automation which directly helps increase field touch time. Mobile sales force automation gains a fresh impetus with the availability of a wide range of smartphones and tablets to suit all budgets. The cross platform acceptability and integration gives the SFA solutions independence from devices, offering further flexibility to the organizations implementing this concept. The enterprises are free to experiment with diverse gadgets, their hardware and platforms both; without the fear of being bogged down by compatibility issues. The smartphones and tabs are very easy to carry, are sleek and boast of a great UX. The mobile sales force benefit from the ever improving network facilities like 3G and 4G carrier plans making it possible for them to remain connected and carry out their initial daily tasks like lead management, contact management, inquiries, quotations and even conversion to sales orders in a matter of minutes from anywhere speeding up their work like never before. The follow ups, servicing and customer relation management tasks follow later with equal ease and comfort. Virtual workspaces are a reality today with the complete integration of enterprise mobility into the sales force workflow. 2015 is projected to be the year when mobility based sales practices would be a core research area with the aim of improving customer retention, increasing accuracy in forecasting and projections, enhancing efficiency in sales force management and increasing their productivity.
Social Media Selling The frenzy that social media created upon it debut is now a thing of the past. Social media becomes a part of our daily regimes and the various tasks that we carry out. It is omnipresent on all our devices; big and small, fancy and basic. 2015 ushers in the slow
entrant – Social Media Selling by integrating it into the full fledged sales force automation systems emerging as a new chapter in sales and marketing. Social media strategies of companies become a part of the SFA solution itself especially by automating leads directly from social media connections as the first step. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter integrated solutions are the most sought after today as successors to the email integrations of the past couple of decades. Social Media Selling keeps the customer connected with the company throughout the entire buying cycle, maintaining transparency and instilling confidence.
Customer Relation Management –CRM Aligning marketing and sales gets a push by implementing contemporary customer relation management packages in a way that it bridges sales and marketing. The New Year hopes to fuse the two fundamental concepts of any business - sales and marketing. If sales and marketing go hand in hand, so do sales force and customers. Evolving the sales force automation and the customer relation management software in to become almost one is not only logical, it is the call of the day. Maturing to blend in the needs of each other gives a powerful combination of sorts. It is very important that the customer remains connected to the entire sales workflow right from leads, quotes, order, invoicing and feedback to consolidating the relations. This ensures and increases the trust and confidence in the company. The fusion of CRM with SFA also enables the integration of the changing habits of the customers, especially the usage of social media and app based solutions into the SFA and CRM combination.
Cloud Besides offering a flexible storage, cloud based SFA promotes the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. It makes possible the development of a user based pricing model which proves to be practical and beneficial especially for small and medium sized companies wishing to adopt sales force automation software. Online hosting of the solutions aids in delivering an economic and quick roll out of the SaaS model of SFA. This increases the viability of such implementations.
Automated Marketing As more and more companies adopt automated marketing strategies it becomes important that these contemporary marketing tools share their information with sales force automation systems as well. It is only logical that the contact management and lead management of SFA should remain connected to the automated marketing tools as one of their sources of data. These sophisticated marketing tactics are very techno savvy and assist the sales force in creating the correct impression on the clients & prospective clients, increasing the chances of favorable lead conversions.
On a Parting Note As the year progresses, our eyes are set on these emerging trends in sales force automation with a confidence that this indispensible system is on the way to becoming more established with each passing day. SPEC India offers its niche mobile sales force automation solution built using best practices of field sales work flows to offer an endto-end solution with mobile client, back office & communication services. It is proven and tested by Fortune 100 client and other FMCG players and used in 15000+ routes. It helps manage, plan and execute the sales routines for target markets. The multiplatform support is extended through Java, Windows Phone Android and iOS. Contact http://www.mobilesalesforceautomation.net/ or write to us on lead@spec-india.com