5 Benefits of Using Field Force Automation For Agri-input Business

Struggling with low sales and poor field visibility? Discover how Field Force Automation boosts agri-input business efficiency and profits.

Agro-input companies need more high-value sales and loyal buyers to grow. But they struggle with poor visibility of their sales agents’ activities. Also, many times they misreport actual visits and timelines.

Field Force Automation software for Agri input solves these issues by automating workflows. By streamlining the agri sales process and the teams. Regardless of the fact that the company is new or experienced, FFA helps streamline field ops. Let’s see how it makes a big difference!

What’s Field Force Automation Software For Agri-input?

Field Force Automation software is a newfound technology to manage on-site sales teams. This helps track the live location & task of agro-input selling agents. Plus, it also records the total demos or sales with farmers or distributors.

It even helps track agents’ performance, and farmers/dealers’ custom database. It has an all-inclusive platform for team management, which includes:

• Geo-verified task allocation
• Digital sales order placement and tracking
• Location-verified attendance & leave management
• On-site expense reporting & management

The agro-input firms not reliant on the latest technologies suffer from the following challenges.

Challenges of Agri-input Businesses with Field Teams

👎 Difficulty in coordinating sales tasks and demo meetings with farmers.

👎 Poor visibility on sales agents’ actual task timeline and travel time.

👎 Slow schedules and task allocation due to less on-ground visibility.

👎 Inconsistent recording of meetings, demos, or sales order requests.

All these necessitate the need to have some automated platform in place. Let’s explore how field force automation software benefits agro-input selling businesses.

Importance of Field Force Automation for Agri-input Sellers

1. Ensures More On-Field Visibility

With the use of such automated software, your backend teams can monitor field sales agents’ live locations. All along with their travel time, and sales order status in real time. Precisely, they can check their:

• Current location, task status, and completion timeline.
• Positive demo sessions/sales with farmers/distributors.
• Timeline of on-site travels and activities (even for past dates).

Such clarity leads to better planning, fewer delays, and more efficient work.

2. Lets You Digitize Field Agents’ Job Schedule

This automated software aligns your on-site sales agents’ tasks and responsibilities so well. It helps you smartly curate job schedules and share daily to weekly tasks – all digitally.

It makes it convenient to assign urgent or routine tasks as per your agents’ availability, capacity, and expertise. Just to ensure your agents are assigned the right tasks and are working efficiently.

Moreover, the software lets you field managers:

• Either add all tasks in bulk or update in real time as the need arises
• Autorise the team on the field to edit the task data. Very suitable when they want to delegate to someone else or have achieved extra tasks as assigned.

3. Efficient Agro-input Sales Tracking & Management

The software comes with a smart agro-sales order management system that helps place, track, and manage agri-input sales. It makes it convenient for your sales agents to record sales order quantities with details like customers’ names, order IDs, amounts, refunds, and other crucial details.

All this data is easily accessible on your software’s dashboard. There you can review, approve, or reject orders as per stock. You can even change order quantities as per current stock level.

This helps streamline your sales processes and ensures your team is adding to your sales volume and margins.

4. Streamlines Teams’ Location-based Attendance & Payouts

The software has smart HRMS capabilities but with an edge. Everything is geo-verified. The software automates the marking of mark-ins and outs for agents from the task site itself.

Even if they are meeting distributors or farmers in remote or no networks, the automation software helps mark their in and out time. This helps ensure agents’ availability at the task site.

It even auto-compiles travelled distances and reports, accurate field expenses to help with better expense reporting. The field agents can easily attest their travel or food bills with proof. Your backend team gets categorised view of expenses and uses it to clearly evaluate it and push it to the accounts team for reimbursement.

5. Helps Gather Accurate Agri-input Data for Analysis

One of the biggest advantages of this automation software is that it helps collect crucial data from the fields. The software has smart and custom forms and fields. The field teams can use custom forms to:

• Collect farmers’ or distributors’ database
• Maintain sales info
• Use it for surveys or to manage any client information

Whereas the custom fields come in handy when managers want to add additional info or input that’s crucial for their business.

Moreover, the software also has a clear attachment feature across tasks and expense modules, that helps review any custom data so well.

This helps gather an intensive database that helps make smarter and more tactical decisions.

6. Fasttracks Communication Between Teams

The software ensures that the field workers and managers can stay connected at all times via:

• Real-time Updates – Quick task assignments with alerts are shared with agents.
• Live Tracking – Managers get live location and the task status of their remote teams.
• In-app Messaging & Attachments – In-app chats are there for direct communication with field teams. The task module has voice note attachments in case managers want to send important instructions.
• Automated Submission Reports – Submitted tasks status and forms are notified to managers.
• Geofencing Alerts – Managers get notifications for agents’ entry/exit across task/client locations.
• Custom Workflows – Quick approvals for expenses & leave keep everyone on track.

TrackoField ensures seamless team connectivity & efficiency from the get-go. 

7. Saves Your Admin Costs & Time

This smart software will eventually drop your admin hours and business costs.

It reduces errors, minimizes the need for manual checks, and improves efficiency, all of which lead to cost savings. Moreover, businesses can avoid paying for unnecessary overtime or wasting resources like fuel and time.

The above advantages of automation in agriculture are easy to experience from day one.

TrackoField’s Field Force Automation Acing Real-Life Cases

A leading agrochemical selling firm was struggling with poor visibility of field teams and activities. TrackoField offered them field force management software that increased their teams’ visibility, streamlined sales order management, and simplified farmers/dealers database management which resulted in growth in sales by 15%.

Final Thoughts!

Field Force Automation is transforming the agriculture industry, making it smarter and more efficient. It helps farmers and agriculture businesses improve productivity, save costs, and make better decisions using data. By using technology, they can work in a more organized way, reduce waste, and ensure that they are using resources wisely.

As technology continues to evolve, the role of Field Force Automation in agriculture will only grow. So, if you’re passionate about agriculture and technology, there’s a lot of exciting potential in this field!

Do you think Field Force Automation could help your family farm or any agriculture business you know? Let us know in the comments!

FAQs

• How does field force automation benefit agri-input businesses?

  Field Force Automation helps agri-input sellers streamline their operations. It helps them monitor their sales teams' field sales & activities. It even helps record sales & customer data. It improves productivity, reduces manual errors, and enhances decision-making with accurate data collection.

• Can Field Force Automation help reduce costs for agri-input businesses?

  Yes, Field Force Automation does help cut operational costs. It happens as it:
  - Minimises paper through digital tools.
  - Improves task overlapping for better resource allocation.
  - Provides team performance data to increase field teams' efficiency.
  All in all, it reduces waste of time, effort & costs. Helping sellers reach prospective buyers on time.