How Does Sales Force Automation Software Make Your Process Easy?
What comes to your mind when you think of automating your sales operations? Nine out of ten people say “sales force automation software” while answering this question.
But when you think of sales force automation software as a technological concept, it includes a long list of elements. These aspects work together to facilitate different business operations.
Read on to know more about how you can simplify your business activities with a sales force automation application.
How Sales Force Automation Simplifies Business Operations?
According to an estimate, 80% of different advertisement processes will be based on automation technology by 2022.
Contact management and opportunity management constitute the two primary aspects of sales force automation (SFA). Major companies use these features of SFA to achieve their objectives. Together, these software solutions help business organizations address business requirements.
Apart from these options, there is one more SFA solution called pipeline management. It helps a company track a lead’s data from their inquiry until they buy a product or service. By monitoring the details of a lead, a company can make timely decisions through forecasting.
Customer relationship management (CRM) and SFA are closely related to each other. Given the volatile nature of the mood of customers, company representatives need to keep track of communication.
CRM helps with smooth business communication and monitoring between the representatives of a company and customers. This helps prevent communication gaps which can be a source of irritation for customers.
Additionally, other features of sales force automation help leaders overcome challenges concerning automation projects. These include the following:
- Task Management
Remembering dates and managing tasks can be difficult when you have to do it all by yourself. But an automated system can help you to a great extent. As soon as you create a reminder, the task management feature of SFA integrates it with the calendar.
You can track the communication with customers on different dates and identify your priorities and pending tasks. As soon as you make any change to the logged data or complete a task, the task management aspect of SFA updates the records on its own. Thus sales force automation can give a boost to your efficient sales force task management.
- Team Collaboration
Because sales force automation systems work on cloud technology, its data is accessible on the Internet. With an active internet connection, one can access a CRM on a browser. The best part about it is that many users can do it at the same time.
Even as multiple users make changes to the data of CRM, they get automatically updated on the CRM. This feature is nothing shorter than a blessing for sales professionals as they can log in to a CRM and work remotely from any location. Also, they can communicate with each other and keep abreast with the latest updates. It helps improve team collaboration.
- Cloud App Integration
Connecting disparate systems is a major challenge for business firms. And, most of the businesses fail to attain the same. But making use of sales force automation software features helps overcome it through cloud app integration. It improves the flow of data across different systems.
- SFA Customization
Flexibility is a hallmark feature of SFA. In other words, you can use it on computers as well as mobile devices. Especially in today’s era when mobile phones have become a core part of our lives, you would always find people clinging to their cell phones.
Thus, companies can use mobile phones for easy-breezy sales force management. It means that you can also think about using a mobile sales force automation application alongside apps on computer devices.
What are the major challenges before brands operating in the textile and apparel industry?
Inventory management is one of the most important challenges before the textile and apparel industry. For any brand, it is essential to check the stock holdings of different distributors carrying business at varied geographical areas. The major reason behind this fact is that if there will be an overstock there will chance of damage and sales returns, which affect badly the profitability of any company. On the other hand in cases where there will be a shortage of inventory, it will give a competitive edge to other brands whose stock is available in the market. It will also increase the chance where your brand-loyal customers may switch to other brands due to the unavailability of your product.
Therefore, it can be judged excess or less supply of inventory both are the cause of loss. If the sales management of any brand has a technique to determine these differences in time and can move excess holdings to places where inventory is in shortage then it can reduce the chances of suffering losses. It will also minimize the chance where your brand loyal customer will switch to some other brand. For this a company has to make its sales team very efficient at evaluating the stock availability of different distributors and retailers carrying businesses in varied geographical areas.
How a brand can keep a close check on stock availability?
In the era of advanced technology, a brand may be new or a market leader can keep a close check on their stock availability in different markets. There are mobile applications available in the market, which are user-friendly and very efficient in determining stock availability. These mobile apps are made for the customized needs of the textile industry and by using them a distributor and salesperson can keep a close check on the stock availability of markets in geographical areas.
The employee tracking software is one of the mobile apps that can work very smartly for the textile and apparel industry. By using the apps a distributor can place his or her order from android phones. Further, it is also an easier task for a salesman to keep a close check on inventory holding of distributors and retailers.
Final Thoughts
From tracking business leads to team collaboration and smooth communication with customers, sales force automation software ease the workload on the employees of companies in many ways. By doing so, not only saves time for employees but also helps them boost their productivity. Depending on your budget, you could either opt for free sales force automation software or its paid version to reap the above benefits.